- Santiago, Chile and environs
- Coyhaique, Patagonia
- Easter Island
- Flooded in San Pedro de Atacama!
After leaving Rapa Nui, we spent a very short night at the Santiago Airport before flying off to Calama in Northern Chile — the nearest airport to San Pedro de Atacama. We had heard that they were getting some rain, which is not unusual for the January/February timeframe. What we weren’t ready for was a year’s worth of rain in a couple of days, shortly before we arrived. Here is a good YouTube video showing what happened:
When we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, the streets were flooded and all the roads leading out to the many attractions in the area were covered by mud or destroyed. Needless to say, all of the attractions were closed. Initially it was tough to get around in our hotel complex (they had to build a gravel dam to get to the restaurant), much less walking around town. Group of tourists (mostly Millennials) were wondering about aimlessly after being told everything was closed. Many of the storefronts had to sandbag to minimize the damage. The Army was called in to help people who had lost everything and the President of Chile even flew in by helicopter to survey the damage. We would have seen this, but we decided to make the best of things and got massages at the spa.
After two days, the sun came out but, at least initially, all the attractions remained closed. Consequently, we took a food tour with “A Bite of Atacama.” Our guide, Fran, had lived in San Pedro for about a year and had gained some interesting insights. She also was a lot of fun. We sampled a lot of the local products including a coca leaf infusion tea (good for altitude sickness) with rica rica (a local herb that grows in the desert with a strong citrusy flavor that is good for a variety of stomach, heart, and kidney ailments). By the way, they also put rica rica in ice cream and Pisco Sours (both of which we can recommend). We also tried a number of local honeys and marmalades on some amazing French baked goods. It turns out that the baker came to town with no money and was living on the streets. He started to bake for himself and friends encouraged him to sell his bread and pastries. Today he runs a large bakery in town that supplies pretty much all the restaurants as well as a storefront. Anyway, as the tour wore on, we sampled so many things, we were absolutely stuffed.
That afternoon we got a sudden notification that some of the attractions were opening and the nearest one to us was the Valley of the Moon. This reserve is located in the Salt Mountains and is part of the Chilean National Park System. It is a very diverse area with a combination of stone and sand formations that have been carved over the millennia by wind and water. There are also great salt flats that leech out anything from common table salt (NaCl) to the most profitable mineral — lithium (only extracted outside the park). It is said that the park resembles a lunar surface — hence the name. One of side benefits of all the rain was that as the water evaporated, it leeched out the salts which covered the hills and flat areas and resembled snow. We then crossed over to an overlook to watch the sunset. It rained for a bit, but then a beautiful rainbow graced us with its presence. Despite a lot of wind, we ended up having a “sundowner” in the back of the van, toasting the day.
The next morning we left San Pedro de Atacama at 5:30 am in order to get up to the El Tatio geysers before sunrise. It took us about 1.5 hours going up bumpy dirt roads (only opened yesterday after the flood). El Tatio (it translates to “grandfather”) is the highest set of geysers in the world at just over 14,000 feet and it was pretty chilly (about 38 degrees). Once again, the rain actually did us a favor. All the surrounding volcanoes (15 of them) were snow covered. After hiking around and enjoying an al fresco breakfast, we started back to see the beauty we missed in the dark on the way up. Lots of wildlife — llamas, vicunas (they look like mini llamas, but are actually related to camels), flamingos and several other types of birds, and golden fox. Tomorrow, we go in hunt of petroglyphs and then its off to the airport to fly to Santiago to catch our flight back to Mexico.
As planned, we stopped at the Yerbas Buenas petroglyph site on the way to the airport in Calama. Getting there involved riding over storm-damaged roads and frequent llama crossing stops. The site sits near the confluence of two rivers. People have transited this area for over 10,000 years. It’s estimated that these petroglyphs are 3000-5000 years old. We saw lots of unusual figures (e.g., shamans, two-headed dragons) as well as the familiar (e.g., llamas, flamingoes, foxes, and even a dog and a monkey). Anyway, it was pretty amazing.
So that wraps up our Chilean adventure. We are really glad we took the time to really see the country and its widely varying landscapes, temperature ranges and, most importantly, people and cultures. Of course, as we have seen in other parts of the world, indigenous groups (which make up about 10% of Chile’s overall population) around the different parts of the country are trying to reassert themselves, whether to preserve culture and language, or to regain property rights over lands that have been taken from them. In some respects, the government is trying to empower the indigenous peoples more (e.g., they are increasingly taking over the administration of the national parks), but there is still a lot of resentment, especially over land rights and exploitation of natural resources. In some cases, this has turned to violence, especially in Patagonia where the Mapuche people have done protests, committed arson, and taken over properties by force. With a right-leaning conservative government in place right now, it’s not clear what will happen next. I don’t want to give you the impression that things are at a boiling point all over the country. In some respects, the melting pot effect (intermarriage, etc.) is bringing people closer together, but some long-standing issues still need to be resolved.
We have now headed back to Puerto Vallarta for a few months before heading back to San Juan Island and getting ready for our next adventure!
This entry was posted in Chile, South America, Travel
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
