Blogs from Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America - page 47

Well i have now left the forests and rivers (and deteriorating weather) of the lake district behind and with it my time in patagonia. I have to say patagonia was fantastic and is a real highlight of south america. Now though, in the words of monty python, time for something completely different! Having taken an overnight bus from Valdivia to Santiago, then a 22 hour bus journey from Santiago to calama and finally a third bus i have arrived in San Pedro De Atacama in the Atacama dessert one of the driest places on earth. Surprisingly one of the first things i notice is that there aren't abundant forests and lakes and rivers as there have been for the past 2 months but instead there are vast expanses of flat brown, red and yellow dessert with ... read more

Towards the Andes, deeper in the vast dryness of the desert is San Pedro de Atacama. It is a small town of clay-brick houses and a white-painted church next to the plaza. The broad valley around San Pedro is formed by some salty erroded desert hills in the west and the rising Andes in the east which form a dramatic backdrop of a chain of snowcapped volcanos at the border between Chile and Bolivia. Most remarkable on one end the high peak of Licancabur towers over it all. San Pedro's townsfolk, their thin belt of green fields around town, and of course the lavish tourists all depend on the sparse waters of a small river running down the valley and nearly drying up afterwards. During daytime you better get into the shade here. The sun is ... read more

The planed visit to the ESO Telescope in norther Chile was waiting, so I didn't waste any time in Santiago but put myself into the next Bus to Antofagasta. When I woke up in the Bus the next morning and looked out of the window we had reached the first parts of the Atacama Desert already. The Panamericana was winding its way over dusty ocher hills with occational small villages in between. The further we got, the more abandoned it got, the villages gave way to a few smoking factories that looked much like mining, concrete, smelting and gravel industry. Finally the Bus turns left to follow a valley down to the coast. At the valleys opening towards the sea, clutched to the hills that reach still with allmost no tace of green- into the sea ... read more

San Pedro de Atacama, in the desert of the same name . A small town with a reputation for being a touristy place where they quickly separate tourists and travellers from their cash. This was to be our last stop before heading home and the main reasons for going were that it was on the way back towards Lima for the dreaded flight to London, it was a region of Chile we had not seen before, it supposedly had lots of interesting sites/sights to see, and most of all (for me at least) it is the start gazing capital of the world. Up here in the clear thin air of the Atacama, observatories are dotted about all over the place, and Patrick Moore regularly comes here for his holidays. (well that might not actually be true). ... read more

First off, Hola from Antofagasta!! A sincere apology to all of you who thought I had died, I am actually quite well (at times) and still breathing down here in Chile. Today marks the half-way point of my first month down here, and I think Im finally at the point where I can begin to see the necessity for the dreaded blog. Though I havent had much to do in the past week and a half other than sit in my office and IM/e-mail folks, things are now starting (kind of) to pick up with classes starting, etc. and some consolidation/mass proliferation of my stories and near death experiences sounds like the way to go. Enter the BLOGGGGG. So I feel like Im goign to have to just lay out the bare facts along with some ... read more