2 SEPTEMBER

We had a fitful night sleep but in the end we woke up at 8am in a mad panic to get to breakfast and off to the airport to catch our flight to Calama. 

We need not have worried however as we mastered the metro and the bus system and got out to the airport in super quick time. The roads were clear as it was Saturday.

The two flight to Calama left the haze of Santiago after a while and as the skies cleared the scenery if you could call it that opened up. The landscape is completely, and i mean COMPLETELY barren, dotted with volcanoes and large areas of salt flats. Looking at the landscape it appears to be covered in small dry stream channels so it must rain at times here. 

We arrived in Calama which sits in this barren landscape and wonder why there would be a town of 180,000 people here. Nothing grows here but I understand that it is the centre of mining.  

Gaye just googled rain info in Calama. Google says that there has been no recorded rainfall here in the last 59 years.

We got a shuttle (1 hr) to San Pedro de Atacama and are settled into our very simple type of accomodation. See photos. 

San Pedro has mostly dirt roads and appear to be here just for the tourists who visit the Atacama area.

We have been shopping at the local stores. Very local with limited supplies but are all set for dinner with wraps, beans, tomatoes and courgettes.

Tomorrow is a rest day to help with the altitude.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - Thursday - 30 August Day 1 started well then all the wheels fell off. My sister got us to the airport on time but our scheduled flight to Auckland was cancelled due to fog in Auckland and the next flight they booked us on was cancelled due to technical problems. All flights after that were full. So it was off to Wellington by Air NZ bus to arrive too late for the flight to Auckland that hopefully was going to get us there to catch the flight to Santiago. We finally got to Auckland to see the Latam flight taxiing out as we taxied in. Bugger! So it was off to James’ for the night whilst the House of Travel agent got us a seat on todays flight (Friday 1 Sep). We had a lovely sunny day in Auckland and as I write this we are three ours into our 10.5 hr flight. Let’s hope that is the end of our troubles but who now’s what will show up in the next 90 days. Further update We have just had our showers in our hostel. Feels great.  The city is all go so it’s off now to explore a bit
Read more

Blogpost 17 - the Lake and Mountain series

Image
 Except for the first three, these were all taken on the drive from San Martin to Angostura today.  There was not a cloud in the sky today and it actually got quite hot. Changed my thick jersey for a tee shirt. The first time since we reached Patagonia. We cross back into Chile tomorrow. We are on countdown now. Not sure whether I’m happy or sad about this. We have had a great time but home is home and you can’t beat it. We passed through the view pull off area again today where we first met this friendly face and he was still there. We made morning tea in the back of the car and I’m sure he would have helped himself if we had not shut the door
Read more

Blog Post 6- Surce to La Paz

Image
Dances outside presidents house Sucre Sucre landmark La Paz Rural scene l  We settled in well to our 4 days in Sucre. We arrived just as the All Blacks lost to France, bugger. There were a couple of fun Kiwi Guys there that we got to know.  A short walk from the Hostel was the plaza 25 de Mayo which is a very important site for Boloivian independence. The independence document that established Bolivia as a separate country was signed there in 1825. Sucre is the historical and cultural Capital of Bolivia whereas La Baz is the business capital. The square was full of dancers and performers and bands for most of the weekend practicing for the big festival that starts on the 16th. They all had on very colourful costumes and played very loud music as the danced around the Square. Sucre was a bit lower that Potosí so felt a bit better but our bugs have lingered. Lots of toilet visits, nose blowing and coughing. God knows where we got all the bugs from. We went on a good walking tour...
Read more