DAY 130
With all that free time we had, we were able to find a flight to Calama cheaper than the bus, avoiding 10+ hours in a bus. Chilean buses are great but if we can skip them, even better. We are literally seated on the right side of the plane and are treated with gorgeous views of the Andes. It's clearly a desert with what looks like a salar at some point. Calama is super dry. The air is so dry after the very humid one of la Serena. A few minutes away from the airport there's nothing anymore but a few mines in the distance and wind turbine fields. Rocks and dust as far as the eye can see. We cross the "cordillera del sal" and arrive in the oasis of San Pedro. It's super jagged and very impressive. It's overcast on top of that and the clouds are beautiful in the desert. The town has something mystical maybe because of the way everything is build. The walls all have the same color. It feels like an old village but not abandoned. The light at the end of the day probably helps with the mysterious feeling.
We drop our stuff at the hostel and rush to the bus station. We need to figure out when we can go to Uyuni since they don't have buses everyday. The sun is setting while we're walking towards the bus station and it paints the volcano Licancabur red starting from the bottom. Incredible. On the way back from the bus station, it's the clouds that are putting on a show. The red from above looks like lava flowing through cracks... Desert light show!!!
To make sure we realize we entered the Andes, musicians come and play Andean music in the restaurant.
DAY 131
San Pedro de Atacama is very organized. There's way too many agencies but tours for everything leave everyday. Our first tour is to Valle de la Luna. The mountains here have salt posing as snow. It's very cloudy again, not cool for the astronomy tour but the desert looks so much more dramatic like that. The first stop of the day is a canyon and a cave sculpted by water. We walk, crawl and climb our way through it while getting a close look at the structures created by water and erosion. It's really something.
hen they bring us to the 3 Marias and the T-Rex. Once again, the work of erosion but you need so imagination to see anything else than rocks.
Fun fact: The touristic development of the region started thanks to a Belgian priest, Father Gustavo Le Paige.
Next is the amphitheater, which turns out to be a 15 min walk along the road... useless especially since we skip a magnificent sand dune next to it. To end the day, we're brought, like the Other 200-300 tourists at la punta del coyote. Surprisingly there is space for everyone. We give up on the sunset because of the clouds but we have a slice without clouds and it turns into an incredible red eventually. Patience pays off ;)
DAY 132
Early birds today as we leave at 5am to for the the geysers del Tation. The plan is to get there by sun rise. We're all half asleep in the minibus and it feels like we get there in the blink of an eye. The site has 70 active geysers ranging from small burbling pools to huge pools with impressive plumes of vapor.
While we were hoping from one geyser to the next, they were preparing breakfast for us. We are at 4300m and it's in the chilly side so the hot coffee, eggs and bread are very welcome. We just have to fend off the Andean seagul during the whole breakfast. They are clearly used to having tourists here ;) After break fast we stop by the hot pool. The hot water only comes from one side So we all look like the Japanese monkeys huddled together near the spring. The tough part as always with hot spring is to get out a change!
It's already time to head back. We're fully awake this time and the sun is up. Vicuña are supposed to be shy animals but this one just looks at us from the side of the road even though we're stopped to take pictures of it. We see many others along the road as we drive. They were hunted to the brink of extinction for their fur and meat but now that they are protected they are multiplying again. At a stop by a pond, we watch lack ducks building their island nest. Strange. It then turns into a safari When we spot a viscacha (some kind of rabbit). Not shy either they actually follow the car, probably to see if we'll give them some food.
Fun fact: when a vicuña dies of natural death, the others from the group will defecate on its body to shield it from carrion feeders! And contrary to cattle they all defecate at the same spot.
The last stop before San Pedro is in a "village" to check out the little church with its wool cross (lama wool of course). The animal is quasi sacred here because it gives them wool, meat and it can carry up to 60kg. The village is nothing more than a tourist spot where tourists can by crafts and try out the lama skewer. We try the skewer but it's not very tasty (if it's indeed lama meat). In the distance we finally see some Flamingos and lamas but they are quite far.
We though we left it behind in Africa but tonight in the restaurant, the Titanic sound found us again. Not a CD but a live version of it with panpipes and guitar... Odd ;)
DAY 133
We were supposed to go to Salar de Tara today but learn that it's cancelled due to snow falls in the cordillera... It's 8 am. Like two poor souls we go to our new hostel. We have nothing else to do but wait. The guide will come back at 11am to give us an update on the situation. Sadly, when the time comes the road is still closed. We use the day to catch up with the blog and chill. We go out in the afternoon to check the status of the tour for tomorrow but it does not look any better sadly. On the way back to the hostel. we even get rain for 5 minutes... Followed by an impressive rainbow.
Unexpectedly, at the end of the evening some parts of the sky begin to clear. Maybe there's hope for the astronomy tour! When we check with the tour company we get a good and a bad news. The bad, there's no hope for Salar de Tara tomorrow. The good, an astronomy tour is leaving in 15min! We go get something to eat quickly but when we come back, they had to cancel it... :( so little luck with the weather in Chile.
DAY 134
We still have things to do here but since the weather is not letting us, we leave San Pedro earlier than planned. Back in Calama, we have more time to relax before the 6am departure to Uyuni, Bolivia tomorrow. We haven't had a long bus ride since Tanzania and are not looking forward to it...
DAY 135
The only perk that comes with leaving at 6:30 is to see the sun rising over the desert; such a gorgeous sight. There's nothing in this region but for the occasional animal and salars every now and again. We're in the altiplano at 3500-4000m. It's on the chilly side and of course the bus heating system is broken...
Fun fact: from Chile to Bolivia we travel East but Bolivia is 1h behind Chile! Bolivia does not have daylight saving time and Chile decided to stay in "summer" time all year round starting this year.
After 200km we pull up in Ollague. It's a very small village with a church, a big railway station, a big fuming volcano overlooking it and a pass to Bolivia at 3700m. Border control in Chile is seamless and in the no man's land, the Bolivian bus is on time. There's more space in the new bus but we have to open the windows first because it smells in there. Border control in Bolivia is as easy, none of the nonsense we had in some African countries. We have 225km more to go until Uyuni, it only took us 1h30 to go through both borders and change buses. Not bad! The road on the Bolivian side is bad but they have mirages to entertain us. Shockingly we arrive ahead of schedule... Love it! Welcome to Uyuni ;) it's at 3670m, it's ugly and has way too many tour agencies. We feel the altitude here. 2 flights of stairs makes you breathless for an embarrassingly long time ;)