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).