Chile - San Pedro de Atacama - 2018

Having driven through no-mans land from Bolivia in our transfer van, we sat waiting at the very large, modern Chilean immigration control point, waiting and waiting.

There was a queue of vehicles patiently trying to get through, but it took 45 minutes before we were allowed to drive inside the facility, unload all our bags to be searched mainly for food, plus get passports stamped.

After the delay and whilst people rummaged through our bags, I said to them, “We use dogs to sniff bags for food in Australia!” then said, “a lot quicker”.  It wasn’t really appreciated with the retort, “You in Chile” then, “you can go… welcome to Chile!”

At the border we were still at 4,500m altitude and after travelling for 40kms on a steeply declining road out of the Andes, we reached San Pedro de Atacama at 2,408m.

On the drive down there were an extremely large number of run-off emergency braking exits for runaway trucks returning to Chile, mainly from Argentina.

San Pedro de Atacama is located in part of the 1,000km long Atacama Desert, the driest in the world and near this town are salt flats like Bolivia, containing LOTS of lithium and have the largest actual operating lithium mines in the world.

Also close to San Pedro are multiple volcanoes, including Lascar, a brooding giant and the most active in the Andes as well as Licancabur, the volcano we saw first in Bolivia near the border with Chile.

Smouldering giant volcano near San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama was a fascinating and smallish town of 2,500 residents, but it was also full of backpackers, many doing 3-4 day tours to Uyuni in Bolivia and then back again.

San Pedro de Atacama was very active all day and night

We had visited Chile before in 2014 going to the capital Santiago and its surrounds, plus exploring way down in the south of Chile in Patagonia, so had planned to only spend 2 days in San Pedro de Atacama after such a long overall trip before returning home.

Tour routes around San Pedro de Atacama

During our 2 days we took 4 local tours, the first being to El Tatio Geysers which involved being picked up by bus at 4:30am, driving off into the desert whilst climbing back to 4,300+m where there was a stack of snow and temperature of -11c when we arrived.

The sun was just starting to rise behind the plumes of steam rising into the air from the geysers, which was quite a sight, as were the tourists swimming nearby at another location in warm thermal pools.  

Sun rise behind the El Tatio Geysers 

El Tatio geysers and volcano 

Aaah the bliss of warm water

Whilst on the way back to San Pedro, we stopped at the very small village of Machuca, surviving only by selling extremely popular barbequed lama on skewers and tasty empanadas to tourists.

The church of Machuca

Lama skewers enticing a queue of people in Machuca

Our 2nd tour involved going to 3 different locations to admire some Atacama Desert lagoons, all being very different from each other.  The weather was reasonably warm, so one of the lagoons was very popular be cause swimming was allowed.

People however learned vey quickly though that the water was really cold but was so incredibly salty, they couldn’t sink.  We didn’t go swimming and at the other lagoons, they were only for scenic viewing and behind every lagoon stood the Andes mountain range, disappearing way down south into the distance.

Large lagoon with the Andes stretching right across the horizon 

Us standing next to a sink hole lagoon

The 3rd tour was to Rainbow Valley and had 2 interesting components to the tour.  First we visited an area to look at many petroglyphs, or carvings into in this case, volcanic rock.  They had been created by the Atacameno peopled, dating back approximately 10,000 years.

Petroglyph of lamas

The Attacameno people were a non violent culture who reputedly over the years, interacted a lot with the people of Tiwinaku which we visited outside of La Paz.  

Locally called 'mother in-laws cactus'... very prickly

Again, the Attacameno people looked at the stars, high up in the Andes using pools of water making the sky flat.  They viewed the night sky by the dark spaces, which were shaped like animals, and key stars were their eyes etc.

Not far from the site of the petroglyphs was the multi coloured Rainbow Valley, achieving the colours due to the various minerals in the rock, which had been pushed to the surface over the years.  Very beautiful indeed!

Rainbow Valley

The final tour involved astronomy, and after driving out of town and finding ourselves standing in a local’s backyard, we found ourselves peering through large telescopes at the stars.

First were Venus and Mars but then everyone, including ourselves simply said “wow!” after seeing Saturn and its rings so clearly.  With no moon in the sky luckily, I was keen to have a go at trying to get some photos of the nights’ sky.

Lasers were used to point towards various objects in the Milky Way

This area of Chile is famous across the world for astronomers and stargazers because it has some of the best skies in the world for this activity.  The world’s largest radio telescope called ALMA is located nearby, high in the Andes in fact.

With our short but very enjoyable time in San Pedro at an end, we organised a transfer to the city of Calama before catching a flight to Santiago where we simply overnighted and then caught a flight back to Australia and home!

With that, our 3 month and 1 week sojourn through South America had come to an end.  It had been a rewarding and really enjoyable trip despite the length in time involved.

South America Trip Summary, Tips & Learning’s

We thought it might be useful to share a few facts, learnings and maybe a few tips used as a result of both planning and undertaking our South American trip.

Below are some headings in no particular order to share this and hope it is both interesting and possibly useful.

First off however is a map of ALL the actual flights, boat & road trips, hikes etc we made during our time in South America.  You will quickly see that the flights (Cyan colour) dominate the map because South America is a very large continent, about double the size of Australia.

All actual travels throughout South America 2018

Flights

During our 3+ months of travel within South America we took 21 flights eg. Quito to Cartagena consisted of 2 legs, Quito -> Bogota -> Cartagena = 2 flights.  This is because of the size of South America. We booked all of them via the internet.

To book flights, we used Skyscanner as a starting point, simply to understand which airlines fly from where, when, plus to gain some insights to costs.  It also tells you which 3rd party you would be booking a flight through eg. Expedia or GoToGate purely as examples.

Be warned though, not all flights shown on Skyscanner actually exist, but you learn this when trying to book a flight.

Early on we booked a few flights using Skyscanner, say via Expedia but not very long into our planning, we used Skyscanner to get the broad info and then went to the actual airline's websites to see what their prices were compared to the 3rd party.

Usually it was only a few $’s higher, so we started booking directly with the airline(s).  So why do this?

In the event a flight is changed, which actually happened more than expected, we would get the advice of any changes directly from the airline versus relying on a 3rd party.  It was also easier to check 'My Bookings' detail of an airline directly whilst on the road.

A few general experiences:

• Most of the airlines boarded and departed early in South America.
• Departure gates got changed without any public announcements, so we had to keep an eye on the departure boards.
• There was a large range of check-in baggage allowance weights (15 to 30kgs), so we packed to a middle weight of around 20kgs and paid any penalty, which happened once.
• All the airlines were okay.
• All the checked baggage is scanned before being loaded onto planes for drugs, batteries etc.

Tours

Any tour greater than 1 day were individual not group tours because we wanted to tailor destinations, length of stay and start/end dates.

Group tours are usually cheaper, so to reduce the price, we researched by reading lots of reviews and found reputable ‘in country’ tour operators.  For example, the longer Peru/Bolivia tour was booked with an operator located in Peru.

The Galapagos operator was based in Ecuador but we did learn if you can find a boat you’re happy with (read lots of reviews) and its dates and route itinerary, quite often you can book directly with the boat.

Paying for tours with an operator based in say Peru etc meant completing international money transfers.  Most of these were done using our bank’s online tools without any issues and on one occasion, we used OFX, formerly known as OzForex.

In locations we had safety concerns about eg. Rio de Janerio, we used Viator to book small group day tours.

A tool we found very useful with tour operators was WhatsApp, used on smartphones (Apple or Google).  Many of them promoted a WhatsApp number and with free Wi-Fi in 98% of hotels, we could message them to confirm pick-up times and locations for day tours especially.

Safety

There were certain destinations we had large safety concerns about before leaving home eg. Rio. So this is what we did to reduce the safety risks generally:

• Did not wear any jewellery, I even left the wedding ring at home, just to reduce visible triggers for thieves.
• Did not carry large cameras in high-risk areas, only used the small compact camera.
• Did not carry wallets but did have some cash we were willing to lose or hand over if we were being robbed.
• Obtained local knowledge about where to walk and not walk and when.
• Did local day tours with mainly pick-up and drop-offs at our hotel.  We used taxis booked by hotel to get to remote pick-up locations.
• Organised airport transfer from/to each hotel to avoid being ripped off by taxis or taken somewhere by a ‘dud’ taxi to be robbed.
• When we travel we don’t dress to impress but simply fit in.
• We used an app called ‘Here We Go’ maps when travelling.  For example for this trip, we downloaded the maps for Sth America that can be used offline without having mobile data.  We then capture the location of each hotel as a 'Home' location, so we can always walk back to it or know where a taxi or pick-up is taking us.
• Used reviews, Tripadvisor and other sites to pick hotels located in safer districts when organising own destinations.

Language

We do not speak Spanish but did learn many words during such this extended trip.  Most of our travelling did involve having English-speaking guides with us.

When they weren’t around, we were mainly in tourist-orientated areas where people spoke some English or we would use Google translate to ask for things.

People

Everywhere we travelled we found the people of South America to be very welcoming and friendly, especially if we tried using more of the Spanish words we were learning.  They were always willing to help us and were very polite, even in the more safety risk areas.

Altitude

You would have noticed we kept providing the altitude of each location.  From about 2,000m altitude up, walking up stairs or slopes starts getting harder.

Everyone is different and it doesn’t matter how fit you are, but getting altitude sickness is a real risk, especially when you get into the 3,000+ metre range.  

We met people who had to go to hospital due to this, because they had flown into somewhere and then went straight to a high altitude destination, for example like Cusco which is over 3,000m altitude.

The common advice is drink LOTS of water and coca tea. Avoid eating too much meat and another was to drink Coca Cola or other sugary drinks and take chocolate with us. We took this advice.

Your body needs time to acclimatise to altitude so we planned accordingly.  Additionally we had altitude sickness tablets with us just in case, but didn’t have to use them.  The tablets do make our fingers tingle after using them in Tibet.

General

We should have spent more time in Colombia because it was delightful, especially the people.

In South America they have old, narrow pipes for the septic system, so if you’re considering going there, just be ready to put all your toilet paper in a bin and not the toilet.

We create a spreadsheet for each trip to track costs, record flights, e-ticket numbers & details, tours, times, hotel names, booking numbers & addresses etc etc and then use an extract of this (no costs etc) to produce a PDF itinerary for sharing within the family, part example below.

The colours are used to highlight Flights, Accomodation etc

We also loaded a copy of the PDF itinerary onto the phone/tablet to have quick access to any crucial detail.

To book hotels we first used Trivago to find the names of possible hotels which met specific criteria (price range, no. of stars, distance from city centre, Wi-Fi  access, airport transfers etc etc) then checked on the likes of Booking.com to check prices and also if additional hotels nearby.

We prefer to book with sites not requiring a deposit up-front and able to be cancelled without penalty because sometimes we will check most expensive prices again later, and if they have dropped compared to our existing booking, book again at same location then cancel the original booking.

We have stored a scanned copy of passports, any visas and other critical documents on both the tablet, and as attachments in email, in case we were robbed or lost these.

We have been asked frequently since returning, did we get sick of travelling over such a long time.  There were a few times in the last few weeks when we did start to long for home, BUT then we would still have what we called WOW moments.  

Pretty well each day something would happen or be seen where we would go… 'WOW!'  These moments weren't always some sort of spectacular scenery or historical site for example, it could have been anything and our bigger point is... South America is full of them. This kept us going right to the end.

We learned it was nigh on impossible to get a SIM for the phone once in South America to cover every country we were visiting, so we got one called Go-Sim which we ended up only having to use a few times to check something with a tour operator.  It was nice to have in case of an emergency.  You need an unlocked phone to use this or any local SIMs.

Well that's it, South America 2018... THE END, so for now and until next time, go well.

Bolivia Part 3. – Uyuni to Chilea - 2018

Well… what follows are descriptions of the final 3 days of travelling through Bolivia and we hopefully have left the best for last, considering we rate these 3 days amongst the list of main highlights of our entire trip within South America.

During these 3 days we also took the largest number of hand held panorama photos ever taken on any trip anywhere in the world, one for example involving 17 individual photos which were then stitched together.

So apologies for possibly too many larger landscape photos in this post.

So lets try to explain what these 3 days consisted of after leaving Uyuni and heading mainly south towards the border with Chile.

For a start we travelled the entire time in a 4WD with our Bolivian driver Luis, who spoke only a little English.  We travelled ~548 kms with roughly 95% of it off road and at altitudes ranging between ~3,600m to 5,000m through the Bolivian Andes mountains.

The map below shows our actual route after leaving Uyuni and wandering into the wilderness.

Day 1. – Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats)

After meeting Luis and loading our gear into the 4WD, first stop on the outskirts of Uyuni was a train graveyard full of rusting steam engines

Old trains... trains everywhere

In bygone years, after the railway was built in the late 19^thcentury, these trains were used to transport silver nitrate mined in Potosi to the coast, but alas when prices tanked in 1940, everything declined and hence the train graveyard.

Before reaching the salar (salt flat) proper, we made a brief stop at the salt museum, detailing the mining of salt over many years and then reached the edge of the salt flat, where we were stopped by a 4WD that had already got into trouble.

How they still mine salt on the salar (Photo courtesy of Luca Galuzzi)

How it ended up there... no idea!

This salar is the largest on the planet at roughly 10,500 square kilometres in area and used periodically for some of the famous Dakar off-road races. To put this into perspective, the famous Bonnevile Salt Flats are a mere 104 square kilometres.

Recognition in salt to the Dakar event

As we started driving out onto its vast expanse, there were small dark shapes on the horizon and the constant visible company of the distant volcano Tunupa.

The salar is simply massive 

The Uyuni salar is part of the Bolivian Altiplano, or high plateau, formed during a major uplift in the Andes Mountains, hence its vast flatness was formed as a result of some massive prehistoric lakes drying up over 40,000 years ago.

Some of the dark shapes in the distance were other 4WDs also travelling west, or coming towards us, but other dark shapes were either mountains or islands located on the salar itself.

Remember all the snow that had fallen in Potosi?  Well it had also fallen for many days longer over the salt flat and had now melted, leaving a lot of water we began driving through and something Luis kept muttering, “not normal, not normal”.

Slowly but surely, as we progressed across the flat, we started driving through water lying on its surface, at first a few puddles but eventually consistently about 6-7cms deep across the entire surface in any direction we looked.

The water on the surface of the salar starting to increase
with Tunupa volcano in the background

Luis reduced speed considerably to try and reduce the amount of now very salty water being splashed up under the car in an effort to minimise its corrosion effect.

We were a little lucky to be driven by Luis after noticing something on his arm and asking, “tattoo” to which he responded, “me Bolivian navy… Lake Titicaca”, so he was at least used to being on water.  It was quite a surreal experience because it felt like we were sailing on a massive lake but in a 4WD.  

After a few hours of progress Luis stopped on a small circular ‘island’ of salt about 10m in diameter and 3-4 cms above the water level and exclaimed simply, “lunch”.

With that Luis started setting up a small table with tablecloth, some chairs retrieved from the car’s roof, china plates, cooked lama, chorizo sausage, potatoes, quinoa, avocado, tomato and drinks.  

Luis setting up for lunch on a small salt island on a salt flat... no lake... no salt flat...

...and enjoying it!

We, in the meantime surveyed the scene around us, the glistening water disappearing into the distance in any direction, Tunupa volcano now reflecting in the mirror effect of the water.  

There we sat on our tiny salt island, clear blue sky, an occasional 4WD passing by on the horizon, an eerie silence returning whilst having a lovely lunch.  Unbelievable!

Another car 'sailing' by during lunch

On our little dry salty island there were holes filled with dark water that seemed to descend into the depths… and they did Luis again told us with, “salt 8 to10m deep, agua 80m below salt”.

We also learned after reaching Chile, salar Uyuni also contains 50-70% of the world’s lithium in the brine water below the salt surface, a massive opportunity for Bolivia if they can both extract and export it.

Lunch completed, on we drove and it was getting warmer in the car and Luis seemingly started nodding off briefly to sleep.  I was in the front seat with him but didn’t do anything when it happened because we were going slowly and there was nothing for us to hit anyway!  He always woke up and corrected course a little, then started chewing coca leaves to give him extra energy.

We had been heading towards one of those dark shapes on the horizon for hours, Luis telling us, “Isla de Pescado” (Fish Island) which finally we reached and drove round to the back of it… OMG!  There were lots of 4WDs parked, a restaurant, shops and toilets.

Other 4WDs parked at the island in the salar

There are also a huge number of cactuses covering the island which we learned grow at the rate of about 1cm per annum, which makes some of them higher than 10m, very old indeed.

Rob standing next to a tall cactus

This island was originally a reef as could be seen and felt as we climbed the rocks and path to the top of the island to enjoy the stunning views, including other 4WDs driving over the salar and the now larger reflections of Tunupa volcano.

View from the island, 4WD driving on the salar and Tunupa volcano in the distance

It was hard to tire of this view

Departing the island, we now headed south on our own across salar, infrequent small piles of rocks standing in the water, the only ‘signposts’ to guide us.  

Other tourists enjoying themselves on the watery surface of the salar

We stopped briefly for Luis to pump up a tyre before continuing, finally reaching the edge of the salar and bouncing onto a rough and often corrugated dirt track.

Luis pumping up a tyre before we leave the water and salt

Following the track, and with the sun beginning to set, we skirted the boggy tip of the salar then headed into the wide-open spaces, passing a pre-Incan cemetery, probably of travellers who had got lost eons ago, the darkness also descending on us.

On we drove until in the distance we saw a few lights from the indigenous village of 500 people where we would be staying in overnight.  The hotel was comfortable, the locals very friendly, including putting on a very nice dinner.  What a truly surreal day 1.

Tunupa volcano and its reflection... the small black dot in the middle of the photo is a 4WD

Day 2. - Into The Desert

After leaving the hotel we ventured on, detouring briefly to have a look at a very small ghost village used by the Bolivians to hide in during the last big war with Chile.  They lived there for 20 yrs without ever being found and returned eventually to the village we had stayed in the previous night.

Deserted village which saved hundreds of Bolivians during the war with Chile

On and on we drove, the expansive vistas constantly beckoning us to take yet another photo, on one occasion finding ourselves standing in a desert with 5-6 snow capped volcanoes breaking the horizon in front of us.

We drive out across the Chiguana salt flat

In the distance stand multiple volcanos

Whilst crossing the Chiguana salt flat, we came across the Uyuni to Calama (Chile) rail line, so stopped and climbed onto the raised tracks to view the line disappearing off into the distance.

Railway to seemingly nowhere

From here Luis changed direction going overland, at times making our own track as we climbed amongst the mountains until we spotted our first sight of the active Ollague volcano, eventually reaching a viewpoint used by everyone.

Going overland looking for a volcano

Ollague volcano smoking in the distance

Finally reaching our first lake perched amongst even more snow capped and very beautiful peaks, Luis muttered, “lunch here okay”, so we parked next to the lake with other 4WDs and set up all the bits and pieces. Lunch this time had been cooked by Luis’s Mum who lives near the village we stayed in the night before.

Lunch by the lake

We were not alone and this doesn’t mean the other tourists of whom there were quite a few, our guests for lunch were many flamingos feeding in or flying around the lake.  So you can surely guess by now…  LOTS of flamingo photos, many with them complimenting the surrounding landscape.

Flamingos with their stunning backdrop

Graceful flamingo on the wing

Progressively we moved onto multiple other lakes, each quite different and one also with even more flamingos, a group of them doing the dance they are famous for, so yep… more photos.  Until now all the lagoons were fresh water then oddly, we came upon a very picturesque salt-water lagoon.

Different lake with even more flamingos

Group of flamingos start their dance

Massive salt lake

To progress further, we found ourselves driving through an area called Inca Gorge, because of how thousands of large rocks are stacked atop each other to form the gorge wall itself.  Within the gorge lives the mountain viscacha, a rodent closely related to chinchilla with a long tail looking a little like a rabbit kangaroo to us.

Inca Gorge

A mountain viscacha sunning itself

We emerged out of the gorge and started our drive across part of the Siloli Desert where we also came upon an Andean fox gorging itself on something, unbothered by our presence, food being its priority in this tree and grassless environment.

Andean fox enjoying a feed

Now at over 4,800m altitude, in the distance we saw, then finally reached our accommodation for the night, the very remote Tayka del Desierto Hotel.  During check-in, we were told we had to have showers that night because there would be any hot water next morning or heaters, which also were only used from 5:30-10:00pm each day!

Lots of open space and no real track on the Siloli desert

The hotel was full of tourists and the restaurant we all descended on, was actually very well run and provided excellent food, despite its remoteness.

The very remote and high Tayka del Desierto Hotel

We had experienced another amazing day absorbing non-stop vistas in some incredible countryside

Day 3. – More lakes and desert until Chile

The sun rose on our final day in Bolivia around 6:30am, and at the altitude we were at, it was a bit chilly inside the hotel as we enjoyed breakfast before leaving around 8:00am.

Why is this important… well when we departed and after 1.5hrs of sunshine, the outside temperature had reached -12c, yes minus12c as we drove off back into the Eduardo Avaroa National Park looking for the ‘Stone Tree’ which we found about 1 hr later.

There is a single massive rock, sort of shaped like a tree, standing with other very large rock formations in the middle of no-where, apart from of course, mountains in the distance.

The 'Stone Tree'

More of the stone structures in the Eduardo Avaroa National Park

These natural structures and surroundings, like much of the last few days, made us feel very insignificant indeed, next another 1 hr drive bouncing over a stoney plain before catching views of Laguna Colorada or ‘Red Lagoon’.  Yes it is sort of red caused by red sediments and algae pigmentation in the water.

The captivating Laguna Colorada

Standing overlooking this massive lagoon at 4,800+m was almost unbelievable, with warm thermal water rising at one of the lagoon where more flamingos were gathered, and snow capped mountains at the other end.

Steam rising from the 'Red Lagoon' and flamingos enjoying the warm water

We paid to formally enter the National Park at Laguna Colorada and from here, the next section of driving climbed even higher and much of the time was very bumpy with snow and ice all around us.  

Almost got bogged in snow and mud in one section as we nudged 5,000m before reaching the geysers, including bubbling mud and steam escaping from various orifices, along with that 'wonderful' smell of sulphur.

Geysers and hot bubbling mud at nearly 5,000m

Boliva also has thermal power generators established at this altitude as part of their creation of electricity and did make me wonder why we can’t do the same for base load power… hmmm!

On our way towards the border with Chile we briefly stopped at some thermal hot springs set next to yet another lagoon, tourists enjoying a relaxing bath in them.  We didn't stay however because we were on a tight schedule to meet a transfer at the border.

The drive just kept on being stunning as we constantly asked Luis to stop for yet another picture, in fact he got very good at reading the signs when either one of us started fidgeting with our cameras.

Yet another landscape to photograph as we near the border with Chile

This part of Bolivia has an abundance of volcanoes, but one called Licancabur was particularly impressive near the border with Chile. As we got closer to it, and after multiple stops to take photos of it, we passed the White Lagoon, given its name because its usually frozen, then soon after, came over a ridge and Licancabur stood there in front of us.

In front of Licancabur keeping it company was Laguna Verde or the Green Lagoon, which itself was surrounded by snow and ice mixed, with brown rocks and soil… yet again, breathtaking!

Licancabur volcano behind the 'Green 'Lagoon'

Even getting to the border with Chile was an adventure as we drove around the edge of the Green Lagoon before stopping for our final lunch with Luis, who had got us to the border safely and was good company... job well done.

Driving around the 'Green Lagoon' to reach the Chilean border

Finally we reached the Bolivian Immigration control located in a little wind blown, cold ramshackle rock hut, where after stamping our passports and holding onto them, the officer asked us for 30 Bolivianos to leave the country.  

Desolate lifestyle near the border

We didn’t have that much left in their currency, so it ended up being 20 Bolivianos with him saying, “20 okay” then, “goodbye!” and with that we were through.

We do not do this very often but at this point would really like to commend Paprika Tours based in Peru for organising a very smooth, enjoyable and tailored tour for us through both Peru and Boliva.  

Everything happened as planned and the minor issues which always happen, were very promptly resolved.  Impressive indeed Paprika Tours.

We had just finished 3 truly remarkable days to complete our journey within Bolivia when collected by the transport into Chile and after saying our final farewells to Luis, headed to the Chilean border and whatever would come next.

An Andean fox also bid us farewell after 3 fabulous days

CLICK HERE for more photos of Bolivia Part 3. - Uyuni to Chile border

As always… go well!