High and dry

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Watching the volcanoes that lined the East side of our flight from Puerto Montt up to Santiago I decided that what had seemed like a madcap idea was already worth it. I was less convinced while sitting in Santiago airport waiting for the connection but after another 2 hour flight and 1.5 hours van ride in the dark across the plains of the Atacama desert we arrived at Renta House in San Pedro de Atacama (SPA) where we had booked a cottage for a few days. Sandra, the owner, gave us a warm welcome, showed us around, briefly talked about some of the things we might do over the next few days but recognised we were tired and arranged to meet us the next morning to talk again.

The houses are all adobe with thick walls to keep out the heat during the day and keep it in at night. SPA is at 2,400m which can cause problems sleeping but we were both fine. We discussed various trip options with Sandra the next morning and she told us lots about the area and what it's like to live in a small town in the desert with all the limitations that poses. Late afternoon we took a trip out to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) which is part of the Flamingo National Reserve (though no flamingos in this part). When this was first seen by Padre Gustave Le Paige who was one of the first to explore the area, he felt it looked like being on the moon, hence the name. It's an incredible range of red cliffs, folded and moved over time, with huge sand dunes and salt surface across large areas. In still very strong sun at around 4.30pm we climbed up to the top of a cliff for amazing 360 deg views to the Andes in the east and the Cordillero de Domeyko in the west. From there we saw the 3 Marys - a formation in the rocks that is now in fact only 2 Marys because the third fell down after tourists climbed all over the rocks! And then to some caves encrusted with salt (only H - I'm too claustrophobic for caves!). The end of the trip was up on the plains watching the sun go down making the colours of the Andes change to deep red - Volcan Licancabur looked spectacular.

Unfortunately the altitude appeared to take its toll that night and I barely slept at all and felt so lousy the next day that I decided to miss the trip to the Piedras Rojas (Red Rocks) so H will have to tell you about that!

From H:

The Piedras Rojas trip had a pretty shambolic start - we were booked through Sandra with a particular agency to leave for Piedras at 6:30 in the morning. We'd been with them the day before and were happy with having a comfortable bus with a driver and a guide. The night before our trip we were told we were going with a different agency and would leave between 7 and 7:30. As Sarah has said, she wasn't well enough to go on this trip so I was standing outside on my own, watching tour buses turn off before they reached our accommodation.To cut a long story short after calling to chase up, I was the first person to be picked up at 7:55 and we didn't leave San Pedro until 8:30. Despite prompting from me, the guide wasn't very forthcoming about what we were going to see - I eventually got confirmation that we were going to Piedras Rojas, but 2 girls on the trip only realized at about 11 that they weren't on the trip they had booked!

The tour itself was great. When he wasn't driving the guide was good (even though he later admitted to me that he was a mountain guide who specialised in volcanoes and didn't normally do this kind of trip). We visited a couple of lakes in the high altiplano, followed by the spectacular area of Piedras Rojas, and then on to another salt plain where we finally got to see some flamingoes - easier to show in photos than describe.

Back to S:

We had already decided on a rest day the following day so we spent some time hanging out in the town - the most backpackery place we have been so far with the centre consisting largely of tour operators, cafes and artesania shops. The first time we'd really heard much English (and other languages) being spoken too.

We made up for the day of leisure the following day with a 4am alarm clock for a trip to El Tatio geysers up on the high plains towards Bolivia. The early start is because the geysers are most active first thing in the morning - it's to do with the hot water meeting cold air. It was a couple of hours drive up to 4,300m and I certainly felt slightly light-headed as we got out of the bus. And also absolutely freezing! Our guide, Alejandro, explained how the geysers first formed and what happened to them as they aged so we looked at young and old ones. They contain a combination of minerals known as (appropriately!) geyserite which leaves different coloured deposits as the water evaporates. After breakfast to warm up we moved to another area where the most active ones appeared to be. To my horror, I had to stop a young guy from trying to put his hand into one 'to see how hot it is'. The water is quite obviously boiling and when I stopped him he was actually aware that it was not long since a tourist had fallen into one of the geysers and died.....the stupidity of some people is just staggering.

We had noticed some abandoned housing as we drove in and also some rusting equipment near the geysers and Alejandro told us they were the remains of attempts to use the thermal energy in the 1970s. The technology at the time did not work but there are now working geothermal projects in other nearby areas.

We headed back towards San Pedro as the sun started to warm us up and stopped off at various points to see a range of different birds and a canyon where the cardon cactus is so endangered that each one has a tag with a number and cutting one down would result in a prison sentence. We were there at just the right time for some of the cactuses to be in flower.

And finally, back to San Pedro, lunch and home for a siesta.

After dinner we dressed ourselves up in our warmest clothes for a late night under the stars. We'd read about this tour online - it was not one available through tour operators in the town but just a local amateur astronomer. Jorge had some trouble finding us so things were running a little late when he finally picked us up at about 9.15. To make up for this he announced he was going to give us a special treat.....

Jorge has a place outside San Pedro with a garden full of telescopes and he first sat the 7 of us down in the dark to tell us something about astronomy, local culture and history and all sorts of other things he could think of. By the end of his talk I was fascinated but struggling to keep up with his stream of consciousness about life the universe and everything! I was also absolutely frozen so the hot drinks/sandwiches and biscuits were very welcome. And then he started setting up the telescopes to see various things - particular stars that were yellow, blue, orange, red; nebulae and galaxies. In the dark it was hard to see everyone and all the equipment so there were times I was convinced I was going to trip over a telescope and send it flying or fall into one while trying to find the eyepiece! Somehow we all managed to leave everything in one piece but it must happen....

The things we saw through the scopes were beautiful and the technology amazing but as time passed we began to think that we were going to make a 24 hour day as Jorge just kept enthusiastically refocusing from one thing to another until we thought he was going to use up the whole universe! The gift he had decided to give us was a sighting of the southern cross as it came above the horizon. I have to say that by this stage it was a relief and I was very glad to crawl into my bed at 1.30am!

The next morning we said goodbye to Sandra - it had been lovely to meet her and get to know something about her life in the desert. The bus to us back to the airport in Calama for our return flights to Puerto Montt.

Know that you've had very unpleasant weather the last few days so hope all of you are dry and ok.

Sarah + Hugh xx

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