San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro is a small tourist town located in the heart of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. We stayed here for four days to visit this amazing landscape. The Atacama desert lies between the Pacific Coast and the Andes Mountains and is 1,000-km (600 miles) long. It is the oldest and driest desert in the world. Some parts of the Atacama have never recorded rain. In fact parts of it are so dry that no plant or animal life can survive. But in many parts of the desert fog from the ocean or snow melt provide enough moisture for some plants and animals to live here. In Chile many parts of the desert are protected as part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve. This is co-managed by CONAF (The National Forest Corporation) and the local indigenous population who live in villages scattered around the Atacama..

There is also mining in the Atacama. Copper mining is a key export and in the Atacama the Chuquicamata mine is the largest open pit copper mine in the world. On the Solar de Atacama (salt flats) there are Lithium mines which we saw from a distance. Lithium is used in smartphones, hybrid cars and computers so is also an important export. However there has also been debate in Chile over the impact of the lithium mines as they use a lot of water in the extraction process which is impacting on the flamingo population and other wildlife. We were told that there are plans to possibly pipe sea water from the ocean to the mines to try and solve this problem.

San Pedro de Atacama

Los Ojos Del Salar (The Salt Lake's Eyes)
There are two of these perfectly round fresh water ponds side by side. Nearby to these ponds is Laguna Cejar, where the water has a higher salt concentration than the Dead Sea. I had a swim in this lagoon whereby you float rather than swim because of the salt.

Sunset at Laguna Tebenquiche

Geyser del Tatio. 
At 4200m these are the highest geysers in the world and the third largest in the world with over 80 active geysers.

VicuñaThese animals are related to llamas and roam wild in the Atacama desert.

Just in case you thought we were alone in the desert. We joined the others in the daily tours to visit the sights of the Atacama desert.

Church in Peublo de Machuca. Four people still live in this village which now survives on tourism but in the past  the villagers worked mining sulphur. 

Soca Cornuda birds in the Atacama

Sue at our dining table at the Hostal Edén Atacameño in San Pedro.

Our hostal was pretty basic but did have hot showers in the morning and late at night. Something not to be taken for granted here. Water is a scarce resource and you cannot drink from the tap because it has such a high concentration of minerals.

Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley)

So called because when it rains it is impossible to get out of the valley as the mud becomes so deep. A guide said that people and animals have died in the valley because of this.

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)

Formed from stone and sand which have been eroded by wind and water. It looks somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. The white colour is from the salt crystals.

Lake Chaxa. There are three types of Flamingos that live here all year round.

Sue and me at Laguna Miscanti, 4000 metres above sea level. 

Our biggest challenge during our visit to the Atacama was dealing with the high altitude. It is hard work breathing at these elevations. We had mild altitude sickness which also upsets your stomach and affects your appetite. i think I have lost more weight here than in the whole nine weeks doing the bike ride. I have chewed and drunk a lot of cocoa leaves to help relieve the symptoms. The leaves don´t taste very nice but they are not too bad soaked in a hot cup of tea. 

Arriving in South America

I have finally arrived in South America. I flew to Santiago from Los Angelos arriving at 5am in the morning. At first I could not understand why everything was closed in Santiago as I had forgotten that it was September 18 is Independence day and is cause for big celebrations and holidays in Chile.

Santiago

 

Luckily the bus station was open and I was able to catch an overnight bus to go to Osorno and then on to Bariloche in Argentina to go and visit my friends Carina and Mark. This was quite a mission as I had my bicycle and my backpack both of which weighed 23kg each. I am not sure if the bike has survived the plane, bus trip and immigration from Silver City, New Mexico to Bariloche as I have not unpacked it yet but by the end I had things falling out of the box as it started to come apart.

As my bus did not leave until 6pm I had a day to explore Santiago. The city is surrounded by mountains and is a mixture of old and new. There are lots of nice murals in the city but also an awful lot of graffiti.

Santiago

On  the bus to Osorno I sat next to Maria Cecilia who was very kind and talked to me even though my Spanish is embarrassingly bad. She did not speak English so it was the only way we could communicate. When we got to Osorno at 5 am in the morning I had a 5 hour wait for my next bus. So she took me home to her parents house where she was visiting, gave me breakfast and let me sleep which was extremely kind considering I was complete stranger.

The trip to Bariloche is over the mountains. Unfortunately it was raining so I did not get any view except to see lots of snow on the ground. However once we arrived on the Argentine side the sun came out and the view over the lake to Bariloche, which is surrounded by mountains, is amazing. Carina and Mark and their two children Emily and Mateo live about 20km outside Bariloche. I have not seen them for over two years when they moved back to Argentina so it was fantastic to be able to visit at last and thanks for looking after me so well.

Bariloche

On my first night it snowed which was a bit of a shock after coming from a North American summer. During my stay I visited the town of Bariloche which is famous for chocolate and ice-cream - so of course I had to sample both. The town is touristy and quite run down but most people just visit the more glitzy main street. Mateo who is only 11 years old made an excellent guide, translator and Spanish teacher during my visit to the town.

After only three days in Bariloche (I will be returning again in December) I again returned to Santiago by bus to meet my Mother, Sue, who flew from New Zealand to join me for two months. In Santiago we stayed with my friends Paulina and Lucho. Like Carina I met Paulina while working in a clothing factory in Christchurch some years ago. They now have an eighteen month old daughter Amanda and have a very nice apartment near to the city center. As we only had two days in Santiago it was a whirlwind tour. Paulina and Lucho took us to visit the port town of Valipraisso which is a two hour drive away. This used to be a very important port in South America until the opening of the Panama Canal. The town is built on steep hillsides, and in fact they have very ancient cable cars dotted around the city to get up and down. Lucho did make the  comment that the people who live there ¨have very good legs.¨ The buildings were very colourful and the streets are like a labyrinth so we were glad to have our guides. We also visited Vina del Mar next door to Valipaisso which has a very nice golden sand beach and is a very popular holiday spot.

Lucho, Paulina and Sue

Valipraisso

The highlight of our visit to Santiago was the walk up Cerro an Cristobal. Well Sue cheated and caught the cable car. There are great views of the city and the mountains from here. Also a big thanks to Paulina and Lucho for being such fantastic hosts.

The next morning we flew to Calama in the north of Chile and caught a shuttle to San Pedro de Atacama. We are now in the desert and it is so different here - in fact it is a bit surreal. We have visited lagoons, geysers and hot pools. The geysers here are the highest in the world at 4300metres and the third largest. Many years ago the government had started a project to build a geothermal plant at the site but luckily this did not go ahead as it would have destroyed the area. To go and see the geysers we left at 5am in the morning. The temperature at that altitude did not get much above 0 degrees celsius. I bravely went for a swim in the hot pool which we were told were 32 degrees Celsius. In fact they were luke warm so it was a very short dip and absolutely bone chilling getting out.

As a result of our trip to such a high altitude we are now feeling the effects of some minor altitude sickness. We have another couple of days to acclimatise before we head off to explore the Salar de Unuyi in Bolivia for three days and where we will be going as high as 5000 metres.

Atacama desert

Laguna Solar de Tebenquiche. The white in the picture is from the salt that covers much of the desert.

The Atacama desert (pampa) is surrounded by volcanoes some of which are active

Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon) so called because that is what the landscape resembles. Biked 6 hours that day to visit this valley and the Valle de Meurte (valley of the dead)

Laguna de Chaxa