Good-bye La Paz, Hello Altiplano

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Gasping for Air

Route: La Paz

Time: 10am - 4pm

Highlights: Today we take it easy. After breakfast at the hotel we descend into the city. At the beginning we are latched onto our photo bags. While the city is extremely busy, the atmosphere is relaxed (you would probably expect this at this altitude). La Paz is full of live nothing like Santiago de Chile. The only hectic part is the traffic, it is dense. Shared taxis cruise by shouting their destinations.

We make our way to San Francisco church, a heavy weight in South America. Then we walk through zillions of stalls selling from juices over jellies to sun glasses. We end up at the other side of the city at the bus terminal where we make the reservation for the trip back to Arica in two weeks. From there we head for Plaza Murillo with governmental buildings and the cathedral around it. The square is full of people and pigeons (close to the number you would expect to find in Venice). I hide under a tree for obvious reasons (by the way it is a common thief´s trick to spray something on you and then offer "help" to clean it).

Temperatures: Warm with a jacket on, cool in the shade, thus perfect for visiting a large city.

Tip of the day: Forget travellers cheques. They are hard to exchange and yield a lower exchange rate at that (same applies for Chile). Either bring cash or use your maestro card at one of many ATMs.
Banks and "casas de cambio" offer the same exchange rates.

Off to La Paz

Route: Arica - La Paz

Time: 9am - 7pm

Highlights: While we know the road to the border, the landscape changes almost instantly on Bolivian grounds. It is flatter (at around 3800m) with many great kinds of stone formations (or as a British lad puts it, lots of dust). The villages look more original (untouched). I can't wait to explore the country on our own and to take pictures. If Chile was nice, Bolivia promises to top that.
Then we get to El Alto (outskirt of La Paz). Chaos again: Thousands of collective white taxi vans. I turn white thinking that we need to drive through that mess to get out of La Paz. It's a bit scary... Half finished houses, tons of people ON the streets, but we get to the bus terminal and easily find a taxi. The taxi driver seems very honest and I relax again. He gets us to the Japanese-run Hotel Ichiban (at 40 USD a night, key feature: warm water). This is luxury for us, too. Very friendly reception and a nice room make us feel at "hogar" (home). Pizza dinner is all for today, Peter is on "Sparflamme" anyway.

Tip of the day: Chilebus (or Bolivian Bus) is a great means of transport. There is ample space and the ride is comfortable and affordable. The staff makes sure you get through customs quickly (although we were stuck for almost 2 hours on the Chilean side).

Intermezzo: Enter Bolivia and you learn what chaos is. At the border two solders (chubby and small) make you believe they are controlling traffic, but there about 5 lines of trucks parked in any direction. It's amazing that we get through, but we make it. Customs is simple, I think the guy can't even see you, he just takes the passport and the green slip, stamps it and hands the stuff back. Couldn't be easier. The Chilean officers are friendlier though and usually have a little joke ready (today I made him feel little).
Intermezzo 2: Order pizza. As the place is out of reach for free delivery, you get the pizza delivered by cab (1 USD). Great system.

Temperatures: Fresh at the border (again at 4600m), in La Paz cool but ok, in upper areas there a some patches of snow.

The last food note: At least for Chile. Ross at the Sunny Days' confirms that there are no special culinary highlights. Cazuelas are good (veggie and meat soup).

Scraped Mountains

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Birdwatching at 4500m

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Ice Age

It's increasingly difficult to keep tthe blog up-to-date as we explore more remote sites. So forgive me.

Route: Salar de Surire - Termas Chiriguella - Lago Chungará - Lagunas de Cotacotani - Putre

Time: 9am - 6pm

Highlights: The trip back over rocky roads is definitively fun and a challenge at times (see below). And as always plenty of Vicuñas and Lamas. The destination with lago Chungará is worth the rough ride. Supposedly the highest lake of the world at about 4600m we are surprised to see birds getting their nests ready for spring. The wind is chilly and it's hard to accept the picutre. The scenary once again great: a huge over 6000m high vulcano (Parinacota) "standing" in the lake. A few km farther we find beautiful lagoons full of birds again. We even spot some flamingos.

Tip of the day: Take a dive in the all-natural thermal bath at Chiriguella. Picture this: dirt road on the left, on the right a natural pool of hot water and a little cabin to change. And probably no one in the range of 100km. Even though it's windy we're fine. And the humidity of the air is so low that you almost dry on the way from the pool to the cabin.

Intermezzo: If looking out of the driver's side window you see dirt, something's got to be wrong. More on the audio line later on (but those who saw TopGears' test of a Toyota Hilux can take a guess). We live and learn.

Temperatures: At night -3ºC. This is the record so far and just a peek at Bolivia's temperatures. Our sleeping bags were supposed to handle down to -12ºC but we were cold already and ended up piling blankets on the sleeping bag. Maybe I should mention that we slept in a container (Big Brother style - just no cameras). In the morning the windows were frozen... Out in the desert it's rather warm again and the sun is strong at more than 4000m.

Keep Climbing

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From 0 to 3500 Meters

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Northbound

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Have We Seen that Before?

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Trip to the Unknown

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Touching the Skies

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Enchanted Oasis

It's time to structure, as time is limited and views are plenty.

Route: San Pedro - Aduana (customs) - Reserva National Los Flamencos (sector Soncor, laguna de Chaxa) - Socaire - Toconao - Quebrada de Jere - San Pedro

Time: 9.30am - 7pm

Highlights: We spent hours at the lagoon. Lakes reflect the deep blue skies and vulcanos surrounding the spot. James' flamincos feed and fly over our heads. We walk in table salt. Salt cristals create the most bizarre forms. Although the pictures are probably good, the feeling of the wide open space is hard to describe and only reflected in the time it took us to do the half-hour stroll.
Then we strive for higher grounds. Destination Socaire and further. We don't make it further as it is already 4 o'clock when we arrive. It's a remote "Alp" viallage close to the vulcanos we would want to climb if we had the time. By now I have switched from RAW to JPEG format with my Nikon SLR. I haven't counted the pictures yet.
On the way down we go for a little off-road trip into a dead end (luckily or we may have killed us on the road). In Tocona we stop to see the church tower (torre campanario). And the church it self has a beautiful roof, straw on the outside and beams made of cactus wood.
Just before sunset we reach Jere, an oasis in a deeply carved red valley. White figue trees without leaves (it's winter here) give it a spooky aura. The smokes from buring fires add to that. I need to duck through a narrow path covered with branches and small walls of rocks.

Tip of the day: Visit Quebrada de Jere about one hour before sunset.

Intermezzo: Customs is an experience here. Extremely friendly. Only relevant when travelling from here to Bolivia or Argentina, but never the less the officers are completely relaxed. In the evening the guy even accomponies me out of the building with a tap on the shoulder.

Temperatures: Throughout the day comfy (T-shirt). Sun is quite intense. In the evening it cools off quickly and a pair of thin gloves are just ideal.

Another food note: Chilean eople just don't like any of their neighbors - unfortunately for me as I am still hoping to get an Argentinian steak. Argentina is so close though...

Road to the Moon

Today was a highlight - again. We didn't reach the moon but saw how it might look up there.
Ok, the day started after a night of little sleep - either Peter snoring or guests coming in or
leaving or just plain cold. It can be cold at night even inside a house. Oh well, after a hearty
empanada we drive off. About 100 km to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama (!) desert. The stretch is done with many stops - I am getting the feeling that it is going to be better than yesterday. First stop is a memorial for some of Pinochet's victims (killed and burried in the desert). Then back to nature, we run over the first vicuñas (a kind of elegant lama). We hit some 3200 m altitude (isn't it good to have all those gadgets?) and as close to the moon as it gets ... for today. Then back down a bit: Cordillera de Sal sticks out of the middle of a flat, it's rugged and locks as if the ground had been plowed, just of course bigger, hundreds of meters high so
to speak. Then in that rough mountain some soft dunes of dark sand. Trigger happy I fill the
first 1 GB card - still some 8'200 pictures to go though.

San Pedro is a big surprise. Despite the tourists it has maintained its village character. At the plaza we enjoy a typical lunch (salmon from Calama). At around 3 o'clock we take off to the desert heading to the Valle de la luna (valley of the moon). Its name is from the lunar shapes it takes. The plan is the watch the sun set and the colors on the mountains around it. As some English blokes say: It's a bit of a key feature of mountains turning red when the sun sets. What makes this amazing is the variety of looks it's offering.

Key features of the day:
I will have to add some pictures later on because it's just mind blowing. Among others there are salt structures crackling under your shoes then there are some mountains that look as if covered with adobe "mud" and remind me of ice cream toppings.

In the evening something funny happens: A 12-year girl steps in front of me on the parking space of the Valle. In Iquique when taking some pictures two days earlier the same girl came asking for a tool her father needed for the car. Obviously they fixed the car without our help and made it on the same route to San Pedro. And they were also to climb the dune. We took different paths though. Back at our hotel we run into her family again. The girl and her brother earned some Swiss chocolates.

Foot note: Saying "good" today doesn't mean the same "good" as yesterday, it's better but I will run out of adjectives if I don't stick to the basics and the sceneries keep improving as they do.

Nitrified Ghost Towns

After a light breakfast we head out - too little time! Always in a rush. Not really it's just that there are other things waiting. Iquique definitively would be interesting, there are some great houses, even a street with boardwalks, a port (fishing, navy), but also some very industrial areas, where there are piles of car-casses. It just amazes me, the contrasts of beautiful nature and brute human structures. Care for nature and environment is ultimatly only possible once you have reached a certain level of economic wealth. It's a pitty.
Climbing the steep road we get a full view of the town just at the foot of a mountain.
First stops of the day are just about 50 km out: The offices (oficinas) must be mines, as we say when we go to work, we work in a mine. In my case in a gold mine of course... Now these nitre (saltpeter) mines are some colossuses of wood and steel. Whole towns were built around the machinery. One of them was made an UNESCO world heritage, abandonded probably in the 50's. Humberstone by name. Unfortunately there is very little information given. It's just exploring houses, etc. In general the indication of any historic or intersting sight is very limited: you basically need to know that there is "something".
Back on the road the temperature climbs to probably around 30ºC. My boots are killing me in the heat and the sneakers are burried deep down in the backpack. In the morning I commented to Peter that I could have left the sneakers at home, with good boots it's all you need - not quite.
The scenary is breathtaking, not beautiful per se as there is virtually no vegetation it's so dry. But the landscape constantly changes from grey sand to harsh lava-looking fields to salt deserts with rocks in the oddest shapes to some trees (including a cow warning sign along the road - must be a runaway cow though) to potsherd surfaces. In the far distance always a mountain range, then all of a sudden a deep valley. And as yesterday montains that look like a regular (Swiss) mountain was covered with elefant skin or like they have been powdered with flower - just soft lines.
On the way we see some remote cemeteries. We stop at one that was "in use" from around 1903 to 1952. Probably there was a mine somewhere "close" during that time. Many children from 2 days old to two years. Then some German graves, too. Stories to be told here. The wind rattles the iron flowers that decorate the simple wooden crosses. This is a bit ghosty.
Then towards the evening the road starts climing from 1000 to almost 3000m. We are getting close to Calama, THE copper town. Chile produces (mines!) about 40% of world copper and here one of the deepest mines can befound (some 850m deep). As the sun sets we get a first impression what is going to come later this week: pale pink colors cover the mountains.
Again we just find a hotel (from Lonely Planet): El Loa, clean and simple at 14'000 pesos.
It's 7pm and it's been a lot of driving for Peter today. The map is 1:1,100,000 and we regularly misjudge the distances (we think in one order of magnitude less). And we go hunting for a restaurant, according to the lady of the hotel there should be plenty. We end up having a hotdog and a burger with some delicious fruit juices.
(Peter and I agreed we might drop Titicaca lake in order to have more time in Chile.)

While people have been friendly but reserved so far, Calama has a complete different atmosphere. There is finally life in the streets. There are shops, hair dressers. It is quite tidy. Nothing historic but a modern Southern town that is fun to leasurly explore around dinner time. And did I mention there are many hair dressers? But where can I go with my 9.2mm hair cut? Oh, and besides hair dressers there are many dentists. Unfortunatelz my appointment is as already made for the first Tuesday after my return...

A food note: Chile hasn't been a highlight yet, and I have learnt that there is no juicy steak (hey, this is not Argentina, close enough but not quite). Not that the steak was my primary reason to travel here but it would have been a good one.

Temparature: 30-35º during the trip on road 5. Now at 2300m it's quite fresh and my hands are getting a bit clumsy.

Highway No. 5 to Iquique

After a good night's sleep (dehydrated) we enjoy a good and healthy breakfast and fill our depleted liquids. In a timely manner we get our supplies (gas and water and some snacks) and off on routa 5 to the South.

(I have to be brief as Peter is eager to get up early as we have long drive tomorrow.)

As a newby to South America I am completly amazed at the dimensions. We are not high up yet, but just imagine there are valleys some 1300m deep and there is no rock visible - the sides seem as if they were sand-papered so smooth. And they are not just like dunes but much steeper (I would guess some have far more than a 45º angle). It's hard to explain and even harder to take pictures of. I am used to large scale landscapes from the USA but these seem even bigger. And then there on the altiplano, it is really flat. Down in the valleys there is vegetation. All the rest is like a desert: Rocks, pebbles, sand and then some petroglyphs.

The trip is more than 300km on mostly good roads. We stop often to enjoy the scenary, and we are not even at the highlights yet and we have to pass some spots (for the return trip as it is getting dark). Some eight hours after departure we get to Iquique.

Luckily we easily find a nice hotel (Cana Hotel with Internet access) that has a garage, too. The latter is important as we have 3 canisters of gas on the pickup. The infrastructure is really around the towns and then there's barely anything. Also traffic is low - lots of buses.

This first day has been amazing already. Of all things we "need" to see, we need to make sure, we do not stress down and up and over but take our time (despite the distances to be covered, note: Chile is about 6000 km long, it made us wonder how the Spanish managed to control these territories).

Half day in Santiago

We left Switzerland on a beautiful day with some amazing views - an omen for what we're going to see soon? But first we had to stay some long hours at the airport in Madrid. Our flight with Iberia was scheduled for 0.20am; a lovely time. To my surprise there was enough leg room for my long legs to be comfortable (as comfy as can be in economy, and definitively better than Air France).
We flew into the deep night and only escaped when approaching Santiago de Chile where we had some 6 or 7 hours to kill. So we got the first best taxi driver to get us into town, Ruben by name, took us around to a hill with Virgin Mary on top. Santiago has 6 million inhabitants - and you can tell. The city stretches to the surrounding Cordilleras. Actually there are no nice views. The same once in town. There is no Latin atmosphere as I would have expected. People just are, they sit around, they walk around but that's it. There is no cheerfulness visible. The ones we ask for direction are friendly, though.
We make it back in time to the airport. Another Ruben starts to tell us how good life was with Pinochet. The points he makes are probably true (as they are back in Switzerland: things where better in the past, cleaner, easier, etc.). Nevertheless, Santiago is not a perl among large metropoles.
So off to the North of Chile, Arica is the destination and we get there at around 7.30pm. The "old guy" from the Cactus rental place is already waiting for us - nice. He drives us to the hostel Sunny Days and promised to come back the next day with some papers.
We go to bed straight away, it's been a long journey and everything went smoothly.

Day of Departure

The backpack is now considerably fuller than I thought. I guess it's the chocolates and small give-aways. While packing my gadget watch broke. A bit of a mishap but also lucky because I would have been without a watch for the whole trip - might have been good, too, though. Anyway now I'll be without altimeter, compass and all the bells and whistles. Not quite of course, there is alway the GPS.
Flight leaves at 4.50 pm to Madrid, from there to Santiago de Chile and then to Arica (with one stop).

Second last night at home

Try something new - backpacking South-America is new, I have never been on the Southern hemisphere so far, well, I set foot on it while traveling Sumatra some 15 years ago. That was also my last backpacker trip.
Something else new - I'll try to keep a blog. We'll see if I'll have access at all.

I'll keep you blogged.
Martin