La Serena

Saturday August 18.

Arrived around 8:30 in Santiago. The reciprocity fee for US citizens is now 160 dollars. It is good for the life of your passport.. I had paid the fee in 2006; my passport was still in use. I had paid 100 dollars.

Tried to get a micro sim card in the airport. No one had one. Movistar did not even sell sim cards.. But the man in the Movistar booth told us that they were available in any shopping mall, and probably cheaper than in the airport. They wanted 12000 pesos for a sim card.

We boarded our plane to La Serena. Before we left, I had purchased our domestic flight on Sky Airlines through their website. The total cost for the flight from Santiago to La Serena was $175 US.

We arrived in La Serena at 1 pm. Clear blue skies. Snow covered mountains easily visible. The taxi ride from the airport to the center of town was 5000 pesos. There was also a shuttle service available from the airport for 2000 pesos a person. The ride into town takes only about 15 minutes.



We had made a reservation at Hostal El Arbol. It had been opened less than a year. It is located on a quiet residential street, only a few blocks from the main square.


We reserved a private double room with shared bath. Our room was on the second floor. It was small but had a pleasant view of the Japense Gardens.

There were three private rooms and three rooms with bunk beds. There was a bath on each floor; a common room, kitchen and outdoor patio on the first floor.. The hostal is run by Margarita; her daughter Allie was also there helping her.

We spent most of the afternoon exploring the city on foot.

The Recova market has handicrafts and on its second floor many small restaurants. There is also a supermarket next door. We ate lunch - two generously sized hamburgers - at the colonial cafe. It cost about twenty dollars.



We visited the Japanese gardens but it was really not the right season - winter - to see the plants and trees at their peak.





In the evening we walked to the large mall and obtained sim cards for our phones from the helpful staff at the Paris department store. They were amazed by our micro sim cutter: it trims full sized sim cards to a size to fit our iPhones. We paid 3000 a piece for the cards and some minutes. Not sure yet how much credit we have on the phones.

Had a hard time finding a place that was open for dinner. The town seemed to close up early.

Vicuna - Mamalluca Observatory

Sunday August 19

Slept soundly after a night of no sleep on the plane. Breakfast was communal. There was a young British guy staying at the hostel. He had been working in Santiago for the past year. He said that the Chilenos rarely worked even though they put in long days. They come in late, go out for coffee, go out for extended lunches where they drink wine, are useless by the afternoon and then stay late but get little done.

We walked to the bus station from the hostel. Easy walk. We caught a bus to Vicuña. It cost 2000 pesos. It took about an hour. There were not many passengers on the bus. But happened to sit next to a young man from Bulgaria who was in college at Dartmouth. He was in Chile visiting is brother, who was working in Santiago, and took a side trip to some of is brothers friends in La Serena. He was taking a bus trip to the Elqui Valley for the day.

Walked from the bus station to the observatory office. There was one tour at 8:30 in the evening - depending on the weather. In the afternoon clouds had begun to roll into the town. But we were hopeful. The woman at the office said that they often dissipate by the evening. And they did.

We stayed at the Hostel Valle Hermoso. It is run by a very friendly woman - Lucianne. Our room was simple but ample and clean. It cost 24000 pesos a night. We had an adequate lunch nearby at the Social club restaurant. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town. The town has a marvelous setting among the mountains. But because it was Sunday many restaurants and shops were closed. There really wasn't much to see. But the town did have a good super mercado where we picked up some empanadas to go and some pastel de choclo (a round pastry filled with a savory mixture of ground meat and corn). We ate them in the main square. The square was odd because it had music blaring from the speakers all day and all night long.

We went the observatory office at 8:00 pm. It is just off the main square. We were taken up to the observatory in a minivan. We had selected the English language tour. There were only four of us in the tour. We began with the large telescope. We viewed six objects: Saturn, Mars, some nebula, and some distant stars. The tour guide was very thorough. She using an astounding laser device to point out constellations like the southern cross and some of the astrological signs that were visible at the this time of year in the southern hemisphere. The sky was dazzling and clear. TheMilky Way and other galaxies were easily apparent. At first we thought they were just clouds but there were clouds in the sky that night. Just stars and dark sky. Saturn and Mars were also visible in the early evening. After the telescope viewing and an outdoor viewing, there was a short power point presentation. Hen we were driven back to town. We arrived back at our hostel at 11:15.

When we rang the doorbell to be let in, the owner greeted us in her bathrobe. She also was kind enough to give us a small - but extremely effective - electric heater. It was colder in our room than it was outside. The hostel was built of all abode walls, nearly two feet thick. We needed additional warmth that night.

Elqui Valley - Pisco Elqui

Monday August 20

We were the only guests at breakfast a our hostel. The breakfast was typical for Chilean breakfasts: Nescafé powdered coffee, some tasteless rolls (no one int Latin America knows how to bake bread), assorted fresh fruits (we had a fruit called pepino - like a small eggplant - at this breakfast for the first time), some sliced ham and cheese and some fruit spreads for the bread.

We left that morning and rolled our suitcases the few blocks down to the bus station, just off the main square. Before getting on the bus we got some cash from an ATM machine near the station. The ATM fee charged by the Chilean bank was about 8 dollars!

The bus trip to Pisco Elqui only took about 45 minutes. Outside of Vicuña, the valley narrowed - squeezed in on both sides by steeply sloping mountains. Some were topped by a dusting of snow. To me, it looked like it could be a valley deep in the Himalayas except that there were grape vineyards straddling the width the the valley floor - and in some cases, sliding up the mountain sides. It was one of the most picturesque valley I had ever seen.

We arrived in Pisco Elqui shortly after noon. The bus dropped us with a block of the hostel - El Tesoro - where we wanted to stay. The hostel consists on several groups of attached cabins. All set on a mountainside overlooking another mountain side. There was a frigid pool and plenty of gardens on the property. Bordering the hostel was another group of buildings: El Jardin Secreto. It also consisted of several bungalows but also specialized in tarot reading, reiki, massage and meditation classes. We were in the heart of Chile's new age valley.

Pisco Elqui only has about 800 residents, four or five streets and dozens of roaming dogs. The town is home to a Pisco distillery which happened to be closed on Mondays, which was the day we arrived.




The manger of our hostel called another distillery - Los Niches - and found that they were open. She said it was 4 kilometers from Pisco Elqui and could be reached in an hour if we wanted to walk there.

So we ate lunch at Los Jugos restaurant just off the main square. We had only tiny pizza for about 10 dollars and two glasses of a thick fruit juice. The entire meal costs about 20 dollars. And we were still hungry. So we grabbed a couple of empanadas from a small store before we headed off to the distillery.




It did take about an hour to reach it but the walk through the valley was magnificent. The tour and meager tasting - they only gave you a thimble full of two of the piscos to taste - lasted about a half hour. Since the tour was only in Spanish, we understand about the percent and nodded knowingly the rest of the time.

When we came back to the hostel, I managed to pick a few oranges from the orange tree in the hostel's garden before settling in on our porch to watch the sunlight fade against the opposite mountain range. Then we ate at the restaurant - a simple meal of soup, veggie burger, a little of wine and a slice of cake - that was the best meal we had in the trip. The meal cost about 40 dollars.

We retuned to our cabana and turned in for the night. 

La Serena - Coquimbo

Tuesday August 21

Breakfast at the hostel El Tesoro. We checked out around 10:30. We paid 31500 pesos for the night. About 65 dollars.

We walked the a couple blocks to the square and caught a bus back to La Serena. I was about a two hour ride and cost 3000 per person.

The valley between La Serena and Vicuña contains many farms (fundos). Avocados and papayas are grown in this valley. In La Serena dried or candied papayas are widely available.

We had reserved a suite at Hostel El Punto. It was a beautiful room in a separate building on the second floor. It had a private covered porch. Spacious and attractive.

We had lunch at Daniella II - a menu of the day that we somehow screwed up. We ended p being served cazuela as well as some frijoles. Plus we ordered some empanadas. We still ended up spending about 20 dollars - our usual lunch amount for even the simplest of meals.

The afternoon had started overcast but soon sun and blue sky predominated. We took a twenty minute walk to the beach. The beach area was dominated by large white high rises. The barren, grey sand beach stretched for miles along the crescent-shaped bay. Not particularly attractive.

Wether caught a number 1 bus (500pesos per person) to the Barrio Ingles section of the nearby town of Coquimbo. The ride took about a half hour. Many stops. And it was a directo bus.

We spent about 15minutes walking around the English section. That was enough. Gritty is the adjective most often used to describe this town. There restored section was only a few blocks. Interesting but not enough to linger. We easily caught another bus back to La Serena.

A quick meal at a nearby comida rapida restaurant (ElReal) , a walk to the nearby supermarket (Jumbo - a higher class Walmart-type store) and then we returned to the hostel.

No heat in our room but plenty of blankets. The rooms get colder that the outside.

Calama - San Pedro de Atacama

Wednesday August 22

We left La Serena on an 11:00 Sky Airlines flight to Calama. We had purchased the tickets -via the internet - before we left. The one way flight for the two of us totaled about $325 US.

We arrived in Calama around 1:00 pm. They have shuttles to San Pedro from the airport that meet all arriving planes. They have a desk in the arrivals area of the Calama airport. It costs 12,000 per person to travel the one hour and fifteen minutes to San Pedro. There were only a couple of people in traveling in the van with us.

The van will drop you at any hotel in town. We randomly chose one hostel that was listed in the LP guidebook. In the first place (tahka tahka) they showed us a very basic room that cost over $110 US a night. We walked to two other nearby places. Both wanted 35,000a night but the rooms were even smaller and more basic. It was very discouraging.

 

I decided to leave Ross with the luggage at the main square (which had wifi) and took off on mine own in search of a room. I looked at three other places before settling on Hostal La Ruca. The room was light-filled and spacious but with a tiny bath. It costs 34,000 a night.

The town appeared oversupplied with places to stay and places to eat. It was strange. How could there be that many tourists to support such services? Yes, there. Were more gringos in this town than in any other in Chile but not enough to fill the over abundance of rooms available.

The town has about 5,000 inhabitants. But they town is clearly divided in two: the tourist town, with dirt streets and adobe-style buildings (a la Santa Fe) and the real town with paved streets but lined with one story homes, cobbled together with corrugated roofs and plywood walls.

We had a late afternoon main meal at one of the overpriced restaurants along the main street - Caracoles - and turned in early.

Anna Marie, the young manager of La Ruca, provided us with a portable heater for our stay. But it did not feel cold enough at night to use. Instead I used it to dry the socks and underwear I had washed in La Serena. Sophie, the bulldog mascot of the hostel, had her own doghouse in the courtyard common area. Anna Marie said Sophie was 17 years old. During the day she followed the sun as it moved around the courtyard, plopping herself down in the spot with the maximum rays. She would snort and bark occasionally but mostly she slept. 

San Pedro de Atacama - Valle de Muerte & Valle de la Luna

Thursday August 23

Breakfast was a desultory affair. A few items would appear - a handful of rolls, some bananas, etc. - but not be replenished when consumed. Luckily we rose earlier than many of the guests to secure our fill.

I could not eat another piece of their dry, crusty bread. I had purchased a loaf of Fuchs whole grain bread in a supermarket. I brought some slices to breakfast, toasted them and then spread on a layer of peanut butter - also purchased at the supermarket.

At breakfast we met a woman from Spain, Begonia, who was traveling around south America for several months. She worked for Proctor and Gamble in Madrid. She had just crossed over from Bolivia via Uyuni. The three night trip was torturous but one of the highlights of her trip. It piqued our interest. Could we survive an Uyuni trip?

Another young woman from Canada staying at the hostel was also planning to book a trip across Uyuni from San Pedro to Bolivia.

We booked a trip to Valle de la Luna for that evening and also reserved a spot in the Tatio geyser tour for the next morning. Both trips were booked through Anna Marie at the hostel.

We then set out to see if a Uyuni trip was possible. We sat down a very informative woman at Corillera Traveler. Her no nonsense description of the tour suffocated any hopes of us actually enduring the journey. Uyuni continues to elude us.

After our meeting with the tour agent, we had time that morning for the English language tour at the San Pedro museum. Our guide was Leah. She gave us an incredibly detailed tour of the museum in just end hour. She was able to summarize the history of the local indigenous people using the artifacts in display. Unfortunately, Miss Chile - an unearthed mummy - is n longer on display. She was taken out of public display at the request of repose natives of the local indigenous people.

We ate lunch at a vegetarian cafe Estrella Negra on Caracoles 362. They offered a three course set lunch for less than 4000 pesos.

We leave at 3:00 pm for the tour to Valle de Muerte and a sunset trip to Valle de la Luna. The tour was through Layana Tours but booked through our hostel. The tour cost 7000 per person.




 These two sites are only about 15 minute drive outside the town.

 The lunar landscape reveals its broadest spectrum of colors as the sun sets. We hike up to the largest dune in Valle de la Luna to witness

San Pedro de Atacama - Tatio Geysers

Friday August 24

The alarm went off at 3:30 in the morning. We had to be outside our hostel by 4:00 am to wait for the tour van. We had booked an early morning tour to El Tatio geysers. Again, the reservation was made by our hostel through Layana Tours. It cost 16000 pesos a person. It includes breakfast. The 5,000 entrance fee is separate.

The geysers are located about 90 kilometers north of San Pedro. We are dressed in long underwear, long pants, sweaters, jackets, gloves and scarves. It is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It is still. The sky is clear and star-filled. The moon set long ago. We can see Orion which was not visible in the early evening.

The van picks us up around 4:15. Our enthusiastic guide is Ozzie. We take off in the dark on the one and a half hour journey. We arrive at the park 's Refugio at about 6:00 am. It is till dark and cold. The park is at about 4400 meters above sea level. We duck into the Refugio for breakfast. There is coffee - Nescafe, of course - and crappy bread. Ross and I start laughing about the bread. The two German young women on the tour also understand. The start laughing about it. Ozzie prepares a large pan of scrambled eggs. We use the crappy bread to scoop up the eggs from the communal pan.

It is growing lighter. We leave the Refugio, hop in the van and travel the few minute drive to the geyser area.

There are many your groups already there. Ozzie tells us to stay in the paths because the earth is very unstable. Some listen to him, others don't. The sky grows lighter. The mist from the geysers is everywhere. The morning air immediately grows warmer within minutes of the sunrise. The smoke for the geysers, the sky and the landscape all grow more vivid in the early morning light. Bubbling water erupts all around you. An amazing sight.

We spend about an hour at the site. On our way back we stop at a tiny town with an old Jesuit church. Blue door, white stucco walls and a blue cross in its front yard. All typical attributes of these rustic colonial churches. We buy some freshly made goat cheese empanadas. Then head back to town.

In the late afternoon we take a walking trip out of town to a pukara - an old fortress. It is about a 3 kilometer walk. It is hot and dusty. When we get to the site we don't climb to the top. Too little energy. Besides, how much more beautiful can the view be than the views that we have already seen. We walk back to town.

San Pedro de Atacama

Saturday August 25

Ross is not feeling well. His nose is clogged and he is having difficulty breathing. We don 't know if it is allergies or a cold or something else. We go to the local clinic near the museum.

The doctor examines Ross. He says that many visitors are not used to the dry and dusty climate of San Pedro. He gives him a prescription for a spray to open up his nasal passages. We take it to the botanica (pharmacy) down the street. He also gives him several masks to wear to cut down on the amount of dust he is inhaling as we walk along the dirt streets of San Pedro.


We walk over to the other side of town: where the non-tourists live. There is a artesania market there. One man is creating signs using a magnifying glass to etch the letters into the wood.

The rest of the afternoon we jhang out around the hostel. They are letting us stay even though we have checked out of our room.

Our overnight bus leaves at about 8:30 in the evening. Only Tur-Bus runs a bus from San Pedro to Arica. It is scheduled to arrive in Arica at about 6:00 in the morning. It costs 13,700 pesos a person.

The bus station is only a few blocks from our hostel. We walk over and board the bus for our 10 hour journey. We have booked semi-cama seats: they recline but not fully. Those seats are called cama-camas. There were none available.

I immediately change my seat to a more spacious unoccupied seat. The ticket taker is not pleased. There is a couple that reek of garlic. They are seated behind us. I find it unbearable. I also cannot see out the front window from my originals eat.

At the stop in Calama, I change my seat again. This time I take one of the unoccupied eats in the front row. The ticket taker scowls at me. I don't care. I need to see the road or else I will get sick. The ticket taker ignores me for the rest of the ride. I take a Valium and eventually fall asleep. 

Arica

Sunday August 26

We arrive in Arica at around 6:00 am. It is still dark. I had made a reservation at the hostel El Jardin del Sol. We take a taxi from the bus station to the hostel. It cost 2,000 pesos.

When we arrive at the hostel, we wake up the night manager. He shows us to our room. It is tiny. Hey, it is only 22,000 pesos a night. There is a matrimonial-sized bed and almost nothing else. There is not room for anything else. There is a closet-sized bath off the side the room. We don't care. We collapse on the bed and immediately fall asleep.

We awake after the breakfast hours. It is nearly 11:00. We speak to the day manager about possibly changing our room to alarmed one. She said we could do right away. We move a few doors down to a room with two single beds. It is considerably more spacious than our previous room.

We leave the hostel in search of food. We walk down the main pedestrian street in town. Nothing much appears to be open on Sunday. We end up at MacDonalds. It have not eaten at a MacDonalds in many years. We have burgers and coffee. At least their coffee is not Nescafé.

We wander back tot he hostel. The common rooms - some inside, some located in covered outdoor spaces - have piles of books, brochures and maps about the area. There is a wealth of information available. We are still deciding how to spend the next few days. How should we get to Putre and Lauca park? There is only one public bus a day. It leaves at 7:00 in the morning and then returns at around 2:00 in the afternoon. None of the tour companies are open today. We decide to postpone any travel decisions until Monday.

In the late afternoon we walk around downtown Arica. The church and customs office were designed by Eiffel before he built his eponymous tower. There is also a train station of the Arica-La Paz route. Unfortunately, it stopped running several years ago. We hear that there is possibility off reviving the route. But now, the train station sits abandoned and neglected.

We briefly visit the Museo el Sitio - site of the mummies which were found when they were excavating for a renovation to a house. The mummies are viewed through the floor glass. They have not been removed from the ground.

The museum is very close to the walking path up to El Morro - the huge rock outcropping that overlooks the harbor. We make our way up the hill.

At the top of the hill, there is flagpole waving a building-sized Chilean flag, an outstretched, multi-storied Christ sculpture and a museum commemorating the 1880 War of the Pacific. Chile acquired Arica and its northern territory from Bolivia and Peru during this war. Their neighbors never have forgotten Chile's 19th century land grab.

As we head back to the hostel, we search again for another restaurant. Not much is open. We enjoy terrible pizzas along with a decent Chilean wine at one of the restaurants along 21 de Mayo- the pedestrian-only street.

We return to the hostel and hang out in one of the common areas.  

Arica - Lluta Valley - Putre

Monday August 27

We awake much earlier the morning than yesterday. Breakfast is typical and meager. I speak with the day manager, Sandra, to see if she can offer any help with planning our excursion to Putre. She speaks some enlist but seems to prefer if I speak Spanish. Reluctantly, I do.

She says that we really have three options for getting to and traveling around Putre: first, we take a public bus but that limits our time and flexibility; second, we can go with a tour operator but that is very expensive - about $400 US per person for two days and one night; or third, we can rent a car. She says that Putre and Lauca are very easy to reach by car. Plus she knows a car rental agency that offers very reasonable rates - about $40 US a day, including tax and insurance. I ask her to make a call. They agency has a car available. I ask her to reserve it for us.n I also ask her to call the lodge in Putre to make sure they have a room for us for two nights. They do.

Before picking up the car, we go to the SkyAirlines office on the pedestrian street and purchase tickets for our return flight on Thursday to Santiago. We then check out of the hostel (where we made a reservation for Wednesday night when we come back to Arica) and take a taxi to the car rental office.

The rental office (Ghama) is located in the basement ("subteraneo" as Sandra termed it) of a rundown shopping mall (shopping center Pacifico) next to the bus station. The woman in the office speaks no English. She speaks Chilean spanish at a rate that is often impenetrable. She hustles us out of the office and shows us several cars. As we soon realize, each car has something wrong with it. But it is up to us to find out what that "something" is.  One has a flat spare tire, another a filthy interior with a dented exterior. We finally settle on one of the least damaged cars. I sign the rental agreement. It is in Spanish. Frankly, I have no idea what I am signing. I confirm with her that the rate is about $40 a day and includes tax and insurance. Again, I have no idea what the terms of the insurance are.

Our car, as well as all the other rental cars we looked at, has no gasoline. The gas indicator is on 'E'. There is a gas station about a block from the mall. We fill up the tank. It costs over $60 dollars. We are on our way.

After leaving Arica, there are very few vehicles on the road. We briefly head north and then turn east. We are only a few miles from the Peruvian border.

The road follows a valley - the Lluta Valley - for the first hour.



The valley floor is green, carpeted with farms and vineyards, and framed by steep, dune-like hills. Nothing grows on these hills.

A few ancient geoglyphs punctuate the grey mountains.


We stop in the valley town of Poconchile for lunch. (We had tried to stop at Eco-Truly, a Hari Krishna farm, for vegetarian lunch but no one was around. The only sign of life: dozens of cats.)

After Poconchile the road begins to climb. Except for some candelabra cacti there is no vegetation. Everything is a shade of grey.

Once we reached a certain high altitude, the road straightens out. The land is still mainly an austere grey brown but now we are traveling on a plateau. We stop at a pukara - an ancient fortress - along the road.

There are several areas along the road where they are working on the fallen rock areas. These delays are brief. Mostly we wait with trucks, no cars, before they wave us onward.

We reach Putre at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Putre is a 3,500 meter high mountain town of about 2,000 inhabitants.

We are staying at a six-room inn, the Terrace Lodge, run by an Italian couple, Flavio and his wife Patrizia The inn has only been open a few years. Our room is spacious and has its own bath. The rate is 31,000 pesos a night - about $65 US.

Patrizia assures us that Parque Lauca is an easy drive from Putre. Flavio gives us plenty of useful tips. We'll spend tomorrow touring the park. Her husband as created a detailed map of the park and the surrounding area. We purchase a copy for 4500 pesos.

I go into town while Ross rests up. His head cold(?), sinuses (?) and/or allergies (?) are still bothering him. He can barely breathe through his nose. The center of town is only a few blocks walk from the lodge. I go to the tourist information office right on the main square. I ask about Parque Lauca. They also assure me that it is easily accessible. There are no local guides that speak English (except Flavio, and he is busy the next day). They give me a map of the area.

In the main square, kids have set up air hockey tables. There is a white stucco church right off the square. A few snow-covered mountain peaks stand out amidst the range surrounding the valley town. As I walk back the lodge, an Aymara woman is shepherding a herd of llama through the town. I attempt to take a picture of the llamas but she signals 'no'. I put down my camera. I think she thinks I want to take a picture of her. Never mind.

Both of us return to the town square at sunset. The air hockey tables have been dismantled. We are hoping for a sunset color show. But as the sun tucks itself in among the peak, no spectacular display emerges. Disappointed, we head to dinner.

There are only three restaurants in town. Tonight we go to Kuchu Marka. When we enter, most of the tables have small 'reserved' signs. We wonder why? But they find a small table in one of the two front rooms. Behind the front rooms is a bar room followed by a large, open room. I have to watch my head as I move about the restaurant. All the ceilings are low. The restaurant also smells of kerosene.

Shortly after we sit down, highway workers start to saunter into the bar and into the back room. Soon, more and more workers enter. The bar and back room are filled with road workers. Maybe 50? The flow of workers continues.

Then, a German tour group fill up the rest of the tables in the front rooms. Maybe 50 of them. We are stunned. There didn't appear to be that many tourists in the town. Where are they coming from?

We order chicken with a quinoa coating. It is presented on large platters of small chicken pieces. They restaurant is noisy. Our waitress loses sight of us. We finally get our check.

As we walk back to the lodge, the stars seem to light the way. They're luminous in the dark mountain sky.

Luckily, our room has a portable heater. Unfortunately, we did not turn it on before we left. The room is cold.

Putre - Parque Lauca - Parinacota

Tuesday August 28

Ross had a miserable night of no sleep. His nose was clogged. He could not breathe. We also woke up to no water in the bathroom. Neither hot or cold. None.

We go to the breakfast room. Yes, the water is off throughout the village. A pipe broke? There are four other men staying at the lodge. Very friendly. A father and son, the father's brother and younger man who works for one of them. They are Chilean and on a motorbike trip. They are leaving Putre this morning to head south to Las Vicuñas park and Salar de Surire. They are only accessible via gravel or dirt roads. They plan on traveling over 200 miles in one day across these types of roads. Not an easy journey. There is also a Swiss couple staying at the lodge who left early this morning, in a 4 x 4, for the Vicuñas park. The Chileans were getting a late start.

We head out around 9:30. We take our time as we ascend to the park. There are several work zones where we are detained because the road is only a single lane. But there are very few vehicles on the road. Again, mainly trucks.

We arrive at Lago Chungara within an hour of when we left. It is unquestionably the most beautiful lake in the park.

Its backdrop is one of the tallest (6,350 meters) snow-covered mountains in the park - Volcan Parinacota. We are only a mile or so from the Bolivian border. And at an altitude of 4,500 meters. The air is noticeably thinner.

We stop at the Refugio. A man comes out to ask us a couple of questions in Spanish. He writes the answers (where we are from, etc.) with Allen in the palm of his hand. I ask if he has a map of the park. He does not. There appears to be no other visitors at the Refugio or the park. We are alone except fora few stray Vicuñas, a half a doze flamingos and a flock of coots.

We make our way slowly back to Putre. We stop at several scenic overlooks and detour into the tiny Aymara town of Parinacota.

The town's main attraction is a starkly beautiful white stucco church.

We stop and Ross has a cup of coca tea at a simple stand off the small town square. The owner of the stand wants to now where we are from. He guesses first Germany, France, etc. I tell him the United States. He says that he sees very few visitors from the U.S. He then welcomes us to Chile ("Bienvenidos a Chile"). Flavio later tells us that he repeats this phrase to all tourists.

We take our time wandering back to Putre. We stop at the thermal baths that are located just outside Putre. They do not appear to be very extensive or well maintained. We decide not to indulge.

Tonight we eat at Cantaverde restaurant located on the main square of Putre. It has two small rooms. We seat ourselves at a table close to the fireplace. (It is cold inside the restaurant.). The waiter obligingly lights the fireplace. I have a dish of alpaca steak with a quinoa risotto. The risotto is salty but deliciously creamy. We make a note to try to replicate this dish when we get back to the States.

The lodge is quiet tonight. The only other people at the lodge are a Swiss couple. He is a doctor. From Chile he is heading to La Paz. He participating in altitude research. 

Putre - Azapa Valley - Arica

Wednesday August 29

Ross had another rough night. His nasal problems continue. It seems bizarre that in this dry climate (the driest climate we have ever experienced) he is suffering from either a cold, sinus problem or allergies. There is hardly any plant life here.

We have breakfast. We say our goodbyes to Flavio and Patrizia. They have been wonderful hosts. And head back down to the coast.

We have used just a little over a half a tank of gas so far. The remaining gasoline should easily get us back.

We take a different route back to Arica. At Poconchile we take the road over the dune mountain to connect with the road through the Azapa Valley and back to Arica.


We meet no cars or trucks on this connector road.


The scenery is austere as we climb the mountain.

No vegetation. No color exact grey.

 And then, once we reach the ridge, another green-floored valley comes into view. It is almost identical in appearance to the Lluta Valley. Except in the Azapa Valley they grow olives. Olive trees everywhere.

We take a detour to view a distant geoglyph.

 Then, stop at the Archeological Museum that houses many of the Chinchurro mummies. Some are estimated to be nearly 7000 years old. We eat at the cafe across the street from the museum.

We return the car to the shopping plaza. No one checks the car. They tear up my credit car receipt. We pay in cash. They only charge us for two days. Go figure. We grab a taxi and head back to the hostel.

For dinner, we eat at the Salon de Te 890, which is a block away from our hostel at 890 21 de Mayo. Pleasant cafe. Very popular. Great pastries. A charming place.

Arica - Santiago

Thursday August 30

Early morning flight on Sky Airlines back to Santiago. The flight left at 7:00 am.

From the Santiago airport we caught an airport bus, Buses Centropuerto, into town. Its final stop is the Los Heroes subway stop, only a couple of blocks from our hostel in the Barrio Brasil section. It took about a half a hour. And was far cheaper than a taxi. Only 1,600 pesos a person.

We were staying at the Happy House Hostel. ($64 US a night.) In the past couple of years it moved from its previous location to its present site. Apparently, the previous hostel suffered damage from the last earthquake. And it was too costly to be repaired.

The new hostel is housed in a cavernous old home. The interior rooms may need a lick of paint but the private rooms on the first floor ooze character. Tall ceilings, bright colors and spacious suites. Shabby chic? Part frat house, part Soho loft.

After settling in, we take the subway to the fish market for a fresh fish lunch. We opted for a simple restaurant on the second floor. It looked like the same restaurant we ate at when we first visited the market in 2006. But it wasn't. I checked the photos from our previous trip on our website.

From there we wandered around the city center. We looked for the free English language tour that supposedly left everyday from the main square but had no luck. We ducked into the main tourist office for information on possible tours to the Sewell mining site. The tours left Santiago every Saturday morning but returned too late for us to make our plane home. No luck.

From the square we walked over to Barrio Bellavista to ascend Cerro San Cristobal for sunset views. The sidewalks were surprisingly crowded for a Thursday mid-afternoon. Neither the men wearing business suits nor the women dressed in work suits seemed in a hurry to return to their offices. They hung out on the sidewalks smoking and talking. No work was happening this afternoon in this town.

When we reached Cerro SC we learned that neither the funicular or the tram were working. We could share a taxi - for 1,000 pesos a person - that would take us up the hill. We joined a mother and son for the taxi ride up. The taxi driver told me that the funicular should be repaired in two months - do me. As the taxi climbed up the paved hillside road, the driver hade to negotiate road space with the numerous bikers and runners making the ascent. The hill rises to a height of nearly 3,000 feet, so a run or a bike ride up is not to be attempted by the weekend athlete. Yet, many of those we passed did not look like the lean, athletic types.

At the parking area at the top the taxi passengers disembark. We climbed to the summit. A giant statue of the Virgen dons the Cerro's crest. We go back the parking area for the best sunset views.

Getting down from the Cerro is a little trickier. Not many taxis; too many passengers. We wait. When a taxi appears, a woman quickly jumps into the front seat leaving Ross and I in the back. But the taxi driver would not leave until we had four passengers. Many couples were ahead of our single woman front seat passenger. But she vaulted ahead. So we waited again. Finally a single male passenger appears. Turns out, he is a young German doctor. He is in Santiago for only a few days. Glad he hopped into our taxi, otherwise we would probably still be waiting for a ride down with our pushy Chilena.

Subway back to the hostel. Dinner at a small cafe on the Plaza Brasil. Nice atmosphere. Crappy pizzas. Why does no one I this country know how to make a pizza? Do they use crackers for crust? And why is there never any tomato sauce? Another food mystery. It joins our growing list of Chilean food-related imponderables. Do they really like their bread stale and tasteless? Does anyone brew coffee? Has Nescafé bought all the coffee makers in the country? Why do they only serve food with tiny cocktail napkins? Is no one as sloppy as we are? And why are fresh oranges readily served but orange juice is always a version of Tang?

We walk a few blocks to our hostel. Young people everywhere: restaurants sidewalks, bars. We begin to feel like aliens. We had better get back our room before we are reported for being too old to be on the streets this late. Luckily, we make it back in time.