Copiapo

Copiapo is a small town nestled in the midst of the barren Andean foothills in the south region of the Atacama desert. The town itself is quiet and sleepy, but very pleasant. It’s odd to wander down the tree-lined streets – as you glance up to the surrounding mountains all the greenery vanishes, replaced by rocky desert. Quite a contrast! But the perhaps it’s surprising that the town has trees and plants at all as apparently it only rains once a year!

Although Copiapo is nice enough in its own right, the main reason we decided to stay here for a few days was to visit the surrounding area. This is the best point to reach the south part of the Altiplano – the high-altitude plane formed by a divide along the centre of the Andes mountain range that reaches all the way north to Bolivia. The Altiplano may be incredibly dry and barren for the most part, but any waters trapped here between the volcanic peaks form colourful mineral-tinted lagoons or evaporate to create eerie salt flats. And of course as it’s in the middle of the Andes the Altiplano is seriously high – most parts are in excess of 4000m above sea level and the some of the surrounding mountains top 6000m!

We decided to visit the Parque National Nevado De Tres Cruces, a newly created national park only accessible by four wheel drive vehicles. This place is completely out in the middle of nowhere (close to the Argentinean border which of course is only on the far side of the Andes), has dirt tracks rather than roads, and reaches altitudes over 4400m (where you have to start watching out for altitude sickness). So, along with three Swedes on a short holiday in Chile, we hired a pleasant diver and a huge four wheel drive truck, and promptly whizzed up into the mountains! Copiapo is only 300m above sea level, so we had to ascend a very long way, passing barren hills, creepy abandoned mining towns, and even the occasional oasis where plants and trees would cluster thickly around a tiny water-source, surrounded by completely inhospitable desert mountains.

It took a while to get up to the Altiplano, but it was worth the wait. It’s an incredible place – we’ve never seen anything like it before. The mountains may be barren, but the high concentrations of minerals they contain give them multi-coloured hues. The slopes of each mountain ranged in colour from black and grey shades through purple-blues and greens, to red and yellow hues. And even at 4000m with virtually no water, freezing temperatures and a very low air oxygen level some plants still managed to grow! OK, only clumps of dry golden grass, but impressive none-the-less. But perhaps one of the most striking things about reaching the high altitude was the beautiful deep rich-blue colour of the sky.

While driving though the spectacular Altiplano we visited two lagoons. The first, Lagoona Santa Rosa, was the home to flocks of flamingos! They had a stunning home – the crystal blue lagoon lay next to a pure white salt flat, surrounded by red-brown hills and nestling under the snowy peaks of several volcanoes. We wandered around the waters edge (trying not to scare the flamingos away) before having lunch at a small hut on the side of a mountain, greedily watched by a mountain fox. Afterwards it was back into the truck to bump up and down hills along twisting dirt tracks towards the Argentinean border and the second lagoon. Lagoona Verde true to its name was a beautifully rich green-blue colour, again surrounded by spectacular mountains. The high salt concentration of the water gave the shore of the lagoon a white crust, which contrasted brilliantly with the deep hues of the water. But best of all, several volcanic hot-springs bubbled up near the waters edge, forming steaming pools before trickling down to feed the icy cold lagoon. A nice place for a quick foot bath while enjoying the scenery!

It was a shame to leave the Tres Cruces National Park – even if on the way back we saw some picunias (strange quadruped things related to llamas) and crossed a customs post designed for people coming from Argentina. Here our driver skipped the queue by tossing a bag of chocolates to an official he knew, and then opening a side track and driving the truck around the complex! And then it was back down, down, down to Copiapo. As I said, we were really very sad to leave, but at least our next stop will be in San Pedro De Atacama, a northern oasis village with easy access to further parts of the Altiplano! Apparently there is even a geyser field nearby!