Valleys, hills and forts

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Yesterday when we arrived, we went and had a chat with a bloke at a tour agency that we’d booked a half day tour with for Friday. Knowing we had a car, he gave us some tips on what to see, and mentioned a trip down to Rio Grande, that doesn’t list on most agencies agendas. So off we went after picking up some sangers for lunch. It was just lovely, two tiny towns (Matancilla and Rio Grande) down a couple of picturesque valleys, with brilliant scenery in between.

We got most of the way down the first valley when the road was blocked by a tourist minibus buried to the axles. We stopped and walked after offering help. I must say walking at 3000 metres is a bit of a difference from sea level. Having lunch under what I guess were old mud volcano plugs (geos feel free to correct me – these things are damn near vertical, have scour marks on the outside, are mud and have lumps of native rock throughout them. They don’t align with the native stratigraphy). Whatever they were, they were spectacular. There is a bit of copper in the hills too.

Both valleys were lush oasis with rivers running through them contrasting against the stark arid desert (there is some vegetation up here, but only above about 3000m, where I think clouds add some water. They also had rain here a few weeks ago in a rare event with the “Bolivian winter” being much stronger and lasting a lot later than usual.

Back into town we went to visit an old 12th century native fort (Pukara de Quitor) that was one of the last strongholds against the Spanish. They fought them off a few times before the inevitable defeat, including the mass beheadings.

Golly, we just had a few spits of rain. That’s exciting.

At 18:00 we roused or mighty chariot again and went out to Valle de la Luna, which is just outside of town. We went in the far entrance only to find a locked gate, so we had to return and go in another. Unortunately that meant I was getting quite ate (the goal is to be on top of a sand dune at sunset). By the time we got in there wasn’t much time for looking around, so we just did the walk to the top and the specy views. We’ll come back and do the rest, it is very close by. Sunset was very pretty.

Dakar rent-a -car

Tuesday 27 March 2012

An early start for us as we had a 09.15am bus to catch. Caught a cab to the bus station, which was much further than we thought, good thing we didn’t try to walk.

However, we missed our bus despite being at the bus station 45 minutes early. We kept an eye out for bus that said ‘Calama 09.15’, but it never turned up. Then asking at the bus ticket office, they informed me that it has already left, I tried to explain that we never saw it. So we had to buy new tickets and got on the 10.00am bus.

Got to Calama and found the car rental place, shortly after we were on our way. We thought we would head to Chuquicamata mine before going to San Pedro de Atacama. This is one of world the largest open cut copper mines, but it is also the mine that Che Guevara went past in his ‘motorcycle diaries’ trip. It is here that he saw the poverty and exploitation of the indigenous people at its worst and met a communist couple, which marks the turning point in his life from youthful medical student to the path of becoming a revolutionary. We found the mine, it is hard to miss it.

However couldn’t find where you get in to sign up for a tour. We suspect that you have to book through an agency in Calama. Will sort that out whilst in San Pedro de Atacama and do the tour on our way back through Calama.

The car we’ve got is a Toyota Urban Cruise, it is a 1.3L and is a gutless piece of …. We had a tail wind and couldn’t get to 100km/hr unless we were going downhill. Good thing there wasn’t much on the road.

The drive was astonishing. The views and scenery bring tears to the eye they are so amazing.

We stopped at Cordillera del la Sal (Mountains of Salt) which was stunning.

Got into San Pedro de Atacama and found the hotel with no problems, the town is tiny. Went for a stroll around town to see what was here, found ourselves slightly breathless. We are around 2,500m up here and at one spot on the drive here we got to 3,500m.

Thoroughly enjoying ourselves at the moment, sitting in the square with a glass of wine and free wifi. Also a couple of the dogs have decided they would like to sit beside us.

Smashing!

Dirt Ahoy, I think it maybe the Atacama

Monday 26 March 2012

Alright blog fans, today we’re off our bums and actually started moving again. A quick one hour flight to go 800km north from La Serena to Antofagasta on the Tropic of Capricorn (16 hours by bus), yay cheap flights . Antofagasta is Chile’s second biggest city, but it doesn’t look it. It is, however, astonishing to come into by air. It is absolutely barren around here. There is no vegetation, and I mean no vegetation, not like desert in Australia which might have some spindly dead grass. It is in a word astonishing.

Now there isn’t anything to do here as a tourist, we’re just passing through. But we went for a walk around town and took some happy snaps.

Replica Big Ben

Damn, missed it!

Antofagasta, I’ve been to worse places

Earthquake in Chile, we are fine!

Sunday 25 March 2012

We just heard from a friend in Perth that there has been an earthquake in Chile. Thanks Al.

From what I can find on the web, the earthquake was right near Talca at about 7.30pm local time yesterday, which is about 400km south of Santiago. We are currently about 400km north of Santiago and didn’t feel a thing, we are fine.

We were in Talca on 6-8 March. The town is still rebuilding after the 9.0 quake of February 2010. Poor buggers.

Sandy catholic dinosaurs

Sunday 25 March 2012

After collecting the laundry and having a coffee, we cycled around the city centre of La Serena. We chose to do this on Sunday when most shops are closed and it is empty of people and cars, makes for easier cycling.

La Serena is noted for the number of churches it has, so we decided to go see a few.

 
A very pleasant morning.

The afternoon was spent booking and researching the last few things for the next bit of our trip.

At five o’clock we jumped (read, climbed gingerly) onto our bikes and headed to the beach to see dinosaurs. Dinosaurs aren’t extinct, they’re just hiding and we found them at the beach! The dinosaurs are on tour for the summer from Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, San Juan Province, Argentina. Good thing we didn’t head out there when we were in San Juan as their dinosaurs are here.

Frosty Goooools

Saturday 24 March 2012

After a morning of chores and shopping, we thought we’d head into Coquimbo which is the sister city of La Serena (it’s just 15km down the coast) for the afternoon and then go to the footy that evening. The local team was playing Nublense, a team from Chillan (400km south of Santiago). The brave boys from Nublense were staying at our hotel, so we thought we’d barrack for them.

Anyway, we arrived in town which is quite pretty, but with not much to do, so we had a lazy second lunch down on the docks watching some blokes fix boats whilst sea lions splashed around in the water below.

Super cheap and rather relaxing. After a walk up the hill …

… and a wander around the markets we thought we’d wander towards the stadium. We knew we were way early but thought we could get tickets and watch the reserves run around. Nope, no warm up match like in Mendoza. Oh well we sat around for an hour before the gates opened.

The match was a B division one, so the crowds weren’t as insane as the ones in Mendoza. I felt sorry for the away side as they had about 10 supporters.

It was a good game and you could sit anywhere, so had great seats on the wing looking over the goal area where all the goals were scored. Unfortunately this was by far the coolest night we’ve had here, so we both froze. We made it to halfway through the second half, before chattering teeth drove us home. A warm shower, a steak and a glass of red sorted us out.

By the way, the noble boys in red did us proud by coming back from 2 nil down at half time (1 was a dodgy penalty) to tie the game in the 88th minute (we missed the last goal unfortunately).

Pisco’ed in Valle de Elqui

Friday 23 March 2012

We had to set the alarm this morning as we wanted to be out of the hotel by 9.30am to pick the car at 10am. All went to plan.

So shortly after 10.20am we were heading east in our bright green Chevrolet Spark (1.2ltr). Brand new with only 600km on the odo and a rubber band under the bonnet. The tank was full, a relief and the first time in Chile, and there appeared to be nothing wrong with it.

Our first stop, a dam big wall.

Yep, a dam, it was big wall keeping the water back.

Next stop Vicuna. It is a very pretty, neat and tidy town about 55km east of La Serena. We stopped for a walk around Plaza de Armas and to find coffee (and a bano). Found them both and some really good empanadas. So an espresso and meat empanada each later we head out of Vicuna and onwards.

Our drive was taking us east towards to border with Argentina and through the foothills and big hills of the Andes. The views are awesome.

We took a right and headed towards Valle de Elqui (Elqui Valley). This valley is the home of Chilean pisco production. Pisco, Chile’s national drink, is distilled wine and mightily delicious when combined with a sour mix (for example lemon juice) to become Pisco Sour. The road to Pisco Elqui was windy and along the valley and stunningly beautiful.

They grow the Pisco on some seriously step hills!

At Pisco Elqui we did a tour of the Mistral Distillery which included a tour in Spanish, tastings of two of their piscos (one which is their premium line) and a free pisco drink.

So after lunch and the tour, we headed down a dirt road to Cochiguaz. Chochiquaz had a telescope, not a very big one, and apparently is known for its magical healing powers, hippies and UFO sightings. How could we not go for a visit? We believe!

A leisurely drive back to La Serena at 90km max (that’s as far as the rubber band would stretch) with no car problems! Yah!

Pick up some groceries for dinner for the next few nights and back to our apartment.