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Traveldiary chapter 31 [November 2017 - December 2017] as PDF (Chile: a modern bustling country with a multifaceted desert) |
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Chile: a modern bustling country with a multifaceted desert
So far, South-America had been a blank spot on our travel-map. Thanks to
our South-Pacific trip, we came close to the Latin American coast and our
airline ticket to Tahiti and the Easter-Island offered us the unexpected
possibility to include a side-trip to Santiago de Chile for free. Sure enough,
we couldn’t resist to get at least a taste of how Chile “proper” looks like.
Geographically, the Easter Island, we’ve visited before, belongs to Polynesia, and
only politically to Chile, so it had offered only a foretaste of South America.
Chile consists of a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the
east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The country includes also the Pacific
Islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Isla de Pascua or Easter
Island respectively (which we’ve described in our South-Pacific story).
Furthermore, Chile claims 1,250,000 km2 of Antarctica.
Chile’s ~18 million inhabitants spread over a landmass of 756,096 km2.
Spain conquered and colonialized most of Chile in the mid of the 16th
century. The country declared independence in 1818, and emerged soon thereafter
as a relatively stable authoritarian republic. A period of war followed (war of
the Pacific) with land gains from Peru and Bolivia. Thereafter, there were
decades of left-right polarization and turmoil. This cumulated in a coup d'état,
installing a right-wing dictatorship lead by Augusto Pinochet. After 16 years it
ended 1990, after a lost referendum, to be succeeded by a centre left coalition.
Nowadays, Chile is one of South-Americas most stable and prosperous countries.
It leads Latin-America in many aspects, like income per capita, state of peace,
economic freedom and low perception of corruption.
Santiago de Chile: a pleasant and diverse capital
Coming from the Easter Island, we landed in Santiago de Chile late on
November 30th 2017. We didn’t expect much from the capital, but it
prove to be a pleasant surprise. Despite Chile being independent for 200 years,
Santiago felt almost Mediterranean to us, as many things reminded us of Spain. Apart
from many nice buildings and other sights, it was the Latin American vibe that
opened our hearts to this city. We liked the wide roads and pretty parks with
musicians performing and attractions for children. Only
minutes away, there are bustling pedestrian areas, lined with simple shops and
sophisticated shopping centres. Of course, there are lots of restaurants,
and uncountable cafés and “pastelerías” (cake shops) selling Tortas and Kuchen,
a legacy of the many German immigrants.
After our long time in the South Pacific, where the choice of drinks was
often restricted to water, sprite and coke, we enjoyed it even more that fresh
fruit and freshly squeezed fruit juices and smoothies abound. Furthermore, we
felt that things got a fair bit cheaper – in contrast to tourists arriving from
other South American destinations. Chile figures, together with Argentina and Brazil,
among South America’s most expensive countries.
Also food was a big surprise. Budget meals are simple, cheap and filling, but
if you pay just a little bit more, plates get creative and refined. We were
pleased (Heinz even extremely pleased…) that our Pacific favourite, raw-fish-salad,
was still on the menu. Here it’s called “ceviche”, enhanced with cilantro
(coriander) and considered a Peruvian speciality. We soon discovered that
Peruvian cuisine seems to have a good reputation here, probably thanks to the
many immigrants. However, in this city of more than 7 million inhabitants, it
is easy to find food from all over the world. Going for dinner at 9 PM, we thought,
we adapted to the Latin American rhythm. At this time, even at the most popular
places, we always found a table. After 10:30 PM, the locals flocked in in
masses, and when we left at 11:30 PM, the restaurants were full to the rim –
even al fresco dining areas on chilly evenings. In Chile, life doesn’t come to
a halt until the early morning hours, not even on children’s playgrounds.
On Saturday, after 3 PM and on Sundays, Santiago’s city centre is almost
deserted. Then, people head for leisure activities or shopping to the big malls
on the outskirts, like Centro Costanera. We used the weekend to explore the
modern north-eastern part of the city where everything was open and bustling.
This area boosts many architectural marvels with glass façades. All are
dominated by South America’s tallest building that was completed only in 2015;
the 300m high Gran Torre Santiago, towering above the Centro Costanera complex.
For the way back to our lodging, we chose the scenic walking paths
through “Parque Metropolitano de Santiago”. Despite various cable cars
commuting between the park’s several hills and the town below, the roads in the
hills were well used by locals hiking and cycling. Along the way, we enjoyed
great views down to the widespread city, and also to the nearby Andes. Snow had
already melted on the peaks, but during winter, the people of Santiago can
reach several ski fields within one hour.
As many South American cities, Santiago has a giant statue of Virgin
Mary. Here, she towers atop Cerro San Cristobal. However, the souvenir stalls,
snack-bars and restaurants below, received more visitors.
Though, we’ve felt safe during our stage in Chile, we observed that almost all
houses, apartment-blocs and business yards in Santiago, are secured with barbed
wires or fences with spiky ends. The gap between poor and rich was also obvious,
seeing how many people try making ends meet by offering windscreen-wash,
selling drinks or performing feats on traffic lights.
San Pedro de Atacama: a
dusty tourist hub
A Latam flight on December 5th 2017, brought us in two hours to
Calama, from where an airport shuttle whistled us in 1½ hours to San Pedro de
Atacama. This small desert village consists of only low adobe houses, which
often also have their back-yard enclosed with such a mud-brick wall. In the
last decades, San Pedro mutated from a farming settlement to a tourist base,
attracting visitors who arrive in ever greater numbers to see the marvels of
the surrounding Atacama Desert. As its neighbouring villages, San Pedro de
Atacama developed within a small stream fed oasis. The village is situated in
the very north of Chile on more than 2,400m altitude. It enjoys an extremely
dry and sunny climate with summer days up to 40°C, and some cold winter nights
well below frozen (till -15°C). Be it summer or winter, there’s always a big
difference in temperature between day and night.
At San Pedro de Atacama, you don’t have to go far to see the desert; you
find it right in the town centre. To preserve the desert character, the
municipality decided to leave the main tourist road unsealed. It consists only
of compressed sand and dirt. If the cars and tourist buses pass, or the wind
blows hard, pedestrians, souvenir shops and eateries get totally covered in
dust. We’re not sure whether most tourists love sand-crumbed ice cream, dusty
dining tables and dusty souvenirs. However, the local councillors think, a
sandstorm in the main shopping road enhances the desert experience of visitors!
The dusty main-tourist roads of San Pedro de Atacama are flanked with more
than 50 tour-agencies, countless restaurants, souvenir-shops, corner shops, bike-rentals,
cafés, “pastelerías” and ice-cream parlours. Meal prices in restaurants are
rather high for Chile, but so is the quality in many eateries. Cheap meals are
cheap, but those willing to pay a bit more, can eat quite well. At most places,
a sandwich or burger costs more than a proper three-course meal. Again, freshly
made fruit juices prove very popular. We observed that most Chileans have one
with every meal.
At certain times of the day, the roads of San Pedro are packed with
tourists looking for restaurants. On long week-ends, there is such a pilgrimage
of additional visitors, it’s almost impossible to tumble over. As most come
from Chile and other South American countries, we really felt that we’re in
Latin America and not in a tourist ghetto for oversea tourists.
Many guests come for only 3 – 6 days and have already pre-booked 1 – 2
tours for every day. They hardly consider that the high altitude could have a
bad impact on their bodies, as some of the top highlights are located more than
4,500m above sea level. However, it’s easy to arrange tours locally. With so
many agencies competing, we often got a very good discount. Many tour operators
have modern mini-buses, so you travel in comfort to the scenic sites that may
be hours away from San Pedro. On most excursions we booked, we were only 3 to
10 people, on a shorter one 26. Even if you get to a place in a small group, it
doesn’t mean you’ll be almost by yourselves. To us it is a mystery, why all buses
leave at exactly the same time, to exactly the same places. Upon returning from
a nearby attraction, which had very few visitors during our do-it-yourself
bicycle tour, we counted 36 buses on the 5km stretch from the entrance to the
village; all heading here for sunset.
In fact, there are a few sights near San Pedro that can be visited afoot
or by bicycle. But we admit, we have underestimated the impact of the high
altitude in combination with the thin air. It doesn’t need lots of exercise and
you’ll be panting and gasping for breath.
The Atacama Desert: a varied, awe inspiring landscape
The main attraction of San Pedro is its location in the middle of the amazing
Atacama Desert. But the actual size of this wilderness is much bigger and even
more varied still, than “only” in the Andean surroundings of this nice little
village.
The Atacama Desert is regarded as coastal desert because (and despite)
its location from the sea to the volcano Ojos del Salado on 6’893m. It stretches
over ~1,200km along South Americas central west coast, from the north of Chile
to the south of Peru. From west to east, three zones are identified; the Chilean
Coastal Range (cordillera de la costa), the Middle
Valley and the Andes. Acting as “two-sided rain shadow”, the two ranges prevent
moisture from coming to the interior. The areas we’ve visited, were just as the
biggest part of this desert, above 2,400m of altitude. San Pedro de Atacama
lies 200km inland and is, apart from the polar regions, the world’s driest regions.
During our fortnight, humidity reached normally only 4% during daytime, and around
20% during the night. Therefore, our skin, lips, nose and eyes got quickly dry.
On the other hand, the risk of bad weather is virtually nil.
Most of the Atacama Desert is composed of stony terrain, volcanoes, salt lakes
(salares), sand (+dunes), and felsic lava. It was Brigitte’s dream to see this
region for herself and it was still way more impressive than imagined.
A little south of San Pedro, lies the 3,000km2 big,
fascinating salt lake Salar de Atacama, of which we visited several sections on
several tours. This giant saltpan isn’t all white, as the wide fringe is mixed
with earth and desert dust. Never the less, it is an impressive sight though
even in clear weather, you won’t get its entire size from any one point on the
ground. Our first bus excursion lead to the “Lagos escondidas de Baltinache”, a
series of pretty open water holes on the salt flat. There are 7 ponds with
water colours from pastel blue to turquoise green. Around them, the surrounding
salt appears totally white. You see quite clearly into the ponds, of which the
ground disappears in the depth of a tunnel-system linking all water holes and
ponds in the lower part of the mineral rich composition.
To make tourists even happier, two of these ponds are open for bathing. With
33% salinity, you float just as in the Dead Sea. The funniest part of this was
the following shower at the building, where the entrance fee was due. There,
people can wash off their white crust after bathing. We witnessed a long queue
and heard that “water is coming soon”… To our big surprise, a lorry with a
water-tank was really arriving 5 minutes later. Now it only took a good while
until the water was pumped up to the tank on the roof.
In the mountain ranges near San Pedro, you often see salt crystals that
have made their way up to the surface. Hence, especially the “Cordillera de la
sal” (Salt Range) looks as if a little snow would overly the top. We explored this
range, as well as the “Valle de la muerte” or Valley of death, ourselves by hiking,
and marvelled at the reddish rock-formations and -strata that had all kinds of shapes.
Sometimes, the terrain consists more of earth than rock and unexpectedly to us,
there were sometimes sand dunes between the mountains. Tour operators make good
money by selling sand-boarding excursions.
Another impressive landscape we visited by ourselves, was the “Valle de la Luna” (Valley of the moon), where we went by bicycle. This
is another area with a multitude of beautiful rock-formations and dunes. The
view from the highest sand dune was awesome, as were the rock caverns, and
narrow foot paths between two serpentine rock faces. Some were almost entirely
covered in salt crystals, resembling the bizarre shapes you see during winter
on ice-covered rocks. Just the sizzling hot temperatures told a different
story. At the Atacama Desert’s most scenic sections, an entrance fee is due,
but in return, good tracks, toilets and a few shade-shelters are provided.
Vicuñas, cacti and salt-lakes: it’s all in the desert
By asking a bit around, we heard that this region has a few areas where
big cacti are growing. Finally, we found an agency that provided a tour to see
them. Together with only a guide and a French lady, we were hiking along a tiny
rivulet of which both shores abounded with Giant Cardon cactuses (Echinopsis
atacamensis). The oldest specimens are many decades, often centuries old. At
first, only a pillar grows, but after a while some 5 - 10 arms may sprout. The
plant can reach 8m in height. But there are also other cactus species growing,
like e.g. the small "Cojín de la Suegra"
that translates to pillow of the mother in law… Every now and then, we would
see a flower on top of those spiky columns, enhancing the appearance of those
wonderful cactuses even more.
On day 8 we felt ready to be whistled to even higher altitudes and had booked
the “Piedras Rojas Tour”. It brought us up to 4,400m and turned out to be the
highlight of our stage in the Atacama Desert. It was a day trip with 8 other
visitors, predominantly from Latin America. The Minibus made a great number of
worthwhile stops, and we would have seen opportunities for many more… At first,
we were shown lagoon Chaxa, in the southern part of the saltpan Salar de
Atacama. Here, we were lucky to see quite a number of flamingos feeding on the
minuscule Brine shrimp, abounding in the salty water.
Later, we got to two blue lakes Miscanti and Miñiques that are
beautifully framed by volcanoes of 5,600m altitude. We observed different water
birds, but also some Vicuñas, a lama-like animal walking along the opposite
shore.
Driving another hour eastwards, we reached the most impressive area of this
tour; the Salar de Aguas Calientes 3 (No’s 1-4 are far apart). The thin layer
of water that covers part of this large salt lake, has a bright greenish
colour. The landscape framing it, cries out for attention in all directions. For
most parts, it is dominated by volcanic cones of different colours, contrasting
beautifully with the white and green salt plain. In another direction, the
framing hills form a brown and green backdrop. On a section of the shore, there
are some red sandstones, the socalled “Piedras Rojas” though a saltcrust had
coated them in white. Despite the rocks having given the tour the name, the
real highlight were not those rocks, but the landscape surrounding them. It was
the most incredible, most beautiful place to be, and even though we didn’t have
any problem with high-altitude sickness, it left us breathless!
We also visited the villages of Socaire and Toconao. Their small adobe-
and stone houses guard over irrigated, terraced fields below them. Before the
sun set, our lot of select, happy and content tourists were driven back.
Pictures of a colourful mountain that were certainly photo-shopped, motivated
us never the less, to book the “Arco Iris Tour” the day after. It was only a
morning-tour and led yet in another direction out of San Pedro de Atacama than
we had travelled before. The visited site, named Yerbas Buenas, was near the
(presently tiny) Rio Grande. Its wide stony riverbed was really green and even
trees were growing. Here, we saw lamas, as well as small herds of wild donkeys.
Our 3-people tourist group was led to the ticket-cottage and then around a
beautiful area of large eroded sandstones in curious shapes. The most talented
members of atavistic ancestors of our still not very highly developed mankind,
had passed their time rock-carving this soft stone. These petroglyphs depict
mostly recognizable animals and people, though a few figures remain mysterious.
Further on in the valley, we got to the area named Arco Iris, for its
rainbow colours in the rocks. Well, of course it’s not like a rainbow, but with
a succession of different minerals shining in totally varying shades of green,
browns, red, white and ochre, still very colourful. In front of this marvellous
range, a solitary group of brown spines composed of earth only, towered
beautifully in the morning light.
Seeing the varied colours of the Atacama Desert, be it on rock layers,
dry salt pans, volcanoes or the water surface of the salt lakes, was a real
highlight. We still remember what Teresa, our former flat mate, shouted out, after
joining us the first time to a nudist beach: “Now I have seen everything, now I
can die”. Brigitte said exactly that, after marvelling at the wonders of the
Atacama Desert.
Farewell from Chile: short insight – pleasant surprise
Our three weeks on Chile’s mainland, as well as our stage on Easter
Island (part of our South-Pacific story), were the culmination of this years’
travelling. With Chile, we’ve discovered a modern South American country, with
a very European appeal. After five months on remote, lonely Pacific Islands,
the bustling town of Santiago de Chile, and the no less bustling
tourist-village of San Pedro de Atacama, with their Latin-American vibe, were
just what we needed. Apart from taking a bath in the crowd, we were rewarded
with the Atacama Desert, one of the world’s most awe inspiring and unique
landscapes.
After two weeks among the marvels of the Atacama, we’ve returned for
another two days to Santiago, before boarding a plane that brought us in 13
hours to New Zealand…
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