Blogs from Lauca National Park, Arica & Parinacota, Chile, South America - page 2

Another sleepless night, I am tired and irritable, Breakfast, then I inspected my feet from Sunday when they blistered badly, still a little raw so I cleaned them put Sangre de Drago on the wounds and covered them with second skin and tape, boots on and off we went. We started at the hot springs with the intention of climbing colorful mountain about a 6-8 hour climb. It was arduous from the beginning and I was feeling the altitude immediately, when we reached the top of the first mount the views were gorgeous, We climbed across the range which was difficult and put a lot of pressure on the knees, I was breathing hard, John was ascending like a mountain goat, I on the other hand resembled a lame baby elephant. We had been on the ... read more

We caught a bus to Putre a wee village 3 hours away from the coast, The journey was cold and after being used to the heat it really chilled me, Its a gradual climb up to 3500 metros and my ears were popping like hells bells. We hit bad fog and could only see a few feet ahead but we kept climbing and eventually emerged above the fog, The valley walls were visible high up but with a blanket of fog in between like marshmallows or cotton wool even though we were experiencing clear blue skies above. In Putre we acclimatized, The hostel or in this case Lodge is Chakana, run by avery friendly welcoming couple who are German/Chilean, the place is pretty, rural and very homely. Its hot as hell during the day when the ... read more

The chill on the overnight trip across the Altiplano from Uyuni had been intense. Wearing all my clothing and wrapped inside a sleeping bag I still found myself shivering. The gods must have decided I had done something wrong and were punishing me. Could I not just say three Hail Marys and be done with it? We arrived in Oruro at 3 o'clock in the morning. I fielded a couple of questions to the people in the bus station and I resigned myself to braving the ferocious cold of the unheated building and boarding the first bus towards the boarder to explore Bolivia's Sajama and Chile's Lauca national parks. Steve, whom I had met in the Amazon months earlier, dispelled my initial belief that they were over hyped and overpriced. Sitting in the unheated building, waiting ... read more

BREATHLESS Since we last wrote we have flown from Cuzco to Arequipa, spent a night there, flown from Arequipa to Tacna, spent about 5 minutes there and caught a taxi to Arica in northern Chile. $40 US for a 50 km taxi ride and the driver handled all the cross border paperwork for us. Arica is a coastal town and fishing its main industry. Birds love fish, and there were thousands of pelicans and cormorants chasing the fish and the fishing boats. We spent a couple of days wandering the black sand beaches, hiring some bicycles one day to have a look further down the coast....In all the years of technological development in bicycle design, the seats are still unbelievable uncomfortable ;-) Got the bus up to Putre last Tuesday. A town of a few ... read more

WIKI INFO: "Arica is known as one of the driest inhabited places on Earth, at least as measured by rainfall: average annual precipitation is 0.76 mm (0.03 inches), as measured at the airport meteorological station." "Lake Chungará , situated in northern Chile, in Tarapacá Region is one of the highest lakes in the world. It is near the Volcanos Parinacota (20,827 feet or 6,348 meters) and Pomerape (20,413 feet or 6,222 meters). It was formed 8000 years ago, when a major collapse of the edifice of Parinacota produced an avalanche of 6km³ of debris which blocked drainage pattern, thus creating the lake." Surface elevation : 4517 m 10 hours overnite bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama, arriving just past 6am in Arica, as I was waiting for my luggage out of the bus,Orlando from Parinacota ... read more