San Pedro De Atacama

As you travel northwards Chile you really start to appreciate the vast extent of the Atacama desert. OK, there are no rolling sand dunes like you would see in the Sahara, just miles and miles of barren, rocky mountains rising up from the sea to the high Altiplano of the Andean mountain range. It's pretty remarkable to think that although Chile is only 180km wide at most, in this distance the country rises from sea-level on the west coast to the 4000 odd meter Altiplano on the east boarder, with several volcanic Andean peaks exceeding 6000m! No wonder altitude sickness is something to be very aware of in Chile - ascending 4000m this quickly can cause real problems.

But fortunately neither of us had any trouble with altitude! OK, we did feel very unfit when we first ascended to the Altiplano - just walking briskly for 30 seconds left us quite out of breath! And climbing 5 stairs left us panting! It's a pretty weird feeling coping with the low levels of oxygen up there. Although the first time we ascended to the Altiplano was to see the wonderful Tres Cruces National Park from Copiapo, our main base for exploring this vast high plane was San Pedro De Atacama. San Pedro is a effectively a large oasis village situated in the middle of some of the most fascinating natural wonders in Chile. Consequently it has become something of a tourist haven... seeing loads of western visitors wandering around the dusty streets was a bit of a culture shock after visiting typical Chilean towns like Copiapo and La Serena. A little like when we visited Chang Mai in Thailand after spending months in China and Japan! But although San Pedro may have oodles of craft stalls, restaurants and hotels to cater for the tourists, it actually manages to retain it's own personality - it's full of adobe-walled thatched-roof buildings, cobbled streets, and a lot of life! Perhaps best of all, each small street offers tantalising glimpses of the surrounding desert and volcanoes, tempting you to explore this incredible region.

Which brings us to a slight problem. If you've read this blog for a while you'll probably realise that Gary and I enjoy travelling independently. We want to make our own way around the countries we visit, to get a better feel for the places. We avoid tours like the plague - we'll even happily walk several kilometres laden with all our luggage to avoid having to take a taxi! So up until now we've managed to get to all the wonderful things we've visited by walking, local transport, or hiring a car or bike. Unfortunately this wasn't really an option here. Chile may be well developed by South American standards, but up in the Altiplano the roads are barely tracks for 4x4 wheel drive vehicles, the distances are vast, and there are no signposts or reasonable maps! So the only way to explore the place is to go with a group... groan.

Although we really wanted to see the area, we dreaded lectures by guides, being forced to walk around in a group, shepherded from place to place - that would ruin everything. Fortunately we very quickly worked out ingenious ways to avoid all this - and saw all the amazing things around San Pedro using the tour for transport from place to place. It was easy - all we had to do was briefly say to the guide '...we've seen several salt flats / geysers / lagoons / etc before and just want to wander around' to be polite, and then we'd just walk off while everyone else in the group got a lecture! It was wonderful - we saw far more of the stunning region, avoided being shepherded around, and even corrupted some of the other travellers (they started to follow us on our walks at some points rather than being bussed around from point to point!).

Anyway, one day we wandered around part of the wonderful Atacama Salt flat, where salt with a high lithium content has precipitated to form beige/brown coral-like structures around a series of beautiful flamingo-filled lagoons. After this we visited two stunning blue-green lagoons high in the Andes, home to flocks of flamingos and herds of vicunas (wild llama-like creatures). The next morning we had a painfully early start to see the Taito Geysers. This was perhaps the highlight of our stay in San Pedro - the highest geyser field in the world contains over 200 holes that spurt water in to the air spectacularly... but only at dawn! Soooooo, to see them you have to leave San Pedro at 4am and travel for over 2 hours up into the mountains to the Geyser field - a slightly surreal experience of waiting outside your hotel in the pitch dark with a crowd of other sleepy travellers watching fleets of jeeps and minibuses drive around town picking people up!

Once we got to the geysers it was worth the effort, despite the sub-zero temperatures and the early start. We immediately dashed away from the rest of the group and our minibus to explore. I don't think any of the others in our group moved more than 10m from the bus and guide, which was such a waste as it was a wonderful geothermal field. Although the geysers themselves were not as spectacular as those we saw in New Zealand, they were far more numerous, and the lack of health and safety regulations here meant that we could wander ANYWHERE - right between spurting geysers and hotpools! Wonderful sense of freedom, so much so that we didn't know where to look first! We dashed about gaping at the geysers, taking loads of snaps and trying to keep warm as the sky changed colour with the approaching dawn. And when the sun actually emerged over the mountain side the transformation was spectacular: the clouds of steam created by the geysers and fumaroles were lit up, and the valley floor became a mosaic of different colours of silica deposits. Stunning! And to finish off our visit we stripped down to our swimwear (quickly as it was still freezing even after the sun had emerged) to bathe in a geothermally heated pool in the midst of the geysers. The warm water was great to play in... but getting out back into the subzero air wasn't so much fun!

Our last trip to the area around San Pedro was to the 'Valle De La Luna' - the Lunar Valley. This is a wonderful region where the red-golden rock has been sculpted by wind and water erosion over the eons to create a landscape like the surface of the moon. Wandering along the valleys was incredible - the weird, twisted, colourful rock structures and total desolation of the place were stunning. This was especially true at sunset, when we first climbed a rocky spur to get a great view over the valley, and then ran and slid our way down the back of a giant sand-dune formed down the back of the rocky outcrop! Great fun!

Anyway, now we will be leaving Chile for a few days to go to Bolivia. We've decided to visit the lagoons and Salt flats on the Bolivian side of the Altiplano, which are allegedly even more stunning than the things we've seen here. The only way to get there is by 4x4 jeeps, so we've signed up for one - and some very basic accommodation at high altitude in the middle of nowhere... it will probably be a sensationally cold, uncomfortable and beautiful trip! Can't wait!