Atacama Desert

At around 4:30 a.m. yesterday we were driven to the airport in Santiago by our taxi driver Fabrizio. At 7:01 a.m. our plane took off for Calama in the Atacama Desert. The flight was very pleasant and lasted less than 2 hours. We picked up our rental car at the airport. Europcar's aunt first had to explain to us how the car even started. She calmly explained all the details to us and, to top it all off, held a DIN A4 sheet of paper in front of our noses. It said that one person must always remain in the car in the parking lot in front of the supermarket. There would be a risk of theft. Aha! We looked at each other and had to smile a little.

The first thing we needed was a supermarket. We wanted to stock up on drinks. We drove into Calama and were a bit shocked - it's pretty ugly there. Okay, it was immediately clear to us why one person should always stay in the car. Daniela then hopped into a small supermarket and I waited politely in the car. With enough liquid on board, we headed for our first destination. The small mountain village of Chiu Chiu.

When we drove out of Calama, there was only a reddish brown area in front, behind, to the right and to the left of us, with the Andes mountains in the far distance. Daniela said, well, I'm curious to see what there is to see here. Maybe about the roads, there are a few that are asphalted and then gravel roads, but more on that later ;-)!

On the way to Chiu Chiu we saw a huge area of crosses on the side of the road. It was a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. We don't know what this is all about, but we suspect that miners who died in accidents are buried there (there were protective helmets hanging on several crosses).

A road sign showed us the way to the mountain village of Chui Chui. Shortly before the village the asphalt road ended and a gravel road followed. Unbelievable, but it was okay. This little mountain village is so cute. There are small Chilean-style bungalow buildings and a great old church. An older man was sitting in the small market square selling fruit. We decided on a large piece of melon - it was super juicy and delicious :-)!

The journey continued to Laguna Inka Coya. We were all alone on the street. You can also get to the Laguna via a gravel road and you have to pay a small entrance fee. The water of the Laguna was crystal clear and refreshing, unfortunately swimming was forbidden there. The Laguna Monster probably hadn't had breakfast yet ;-). There was a hill next to the Laguna, we walked up it and I asked Daniela, "What kind of animals are those back there"? Are they horses or cattle?" Daniela looked at me and said: "Just look at their long neck, they're alpacas!"

It was a complete herd resting there in the green grass and waterholes. It was crazy, especially since we only ever saw this brown, barren landscape from the road. Now these green areas, crazy. We walked down the hill and towards the animals. They weren't afraid at all, so we were able to take great close-up photos. Then it got very hot and we went back to the car.

Next we wanted to go to the geysers el Tatio. First of all: we didn't look at the altitude on the route on Google Maps... :-(

The drive was gigantic, but we were completely ALONE on the road in the middle of nowhere. What color variations we saw along the way and the different vegetation, just world. Sometimes there were larger areas with small green plants, then there were countless huge rocky areas. The big, long, thin cacti reminded us of the wild west. It continued to go uphill, up the Andes. There were more and more alpacas and vicunas on the right and left. Then there was a passage with scary hairpin bends and a left lane that was washed away. Larger puddles could often be seen and the sky was getting darker and darker. I asked myself, is there a risk of a storm here? Is that why we're the only people here? I was really fed up and said to Daniela “I’m fed up”. Daniela also found it spooky. Since we couldn't turn around there, we continued driving, higher and higher and there were lumps of rock everywhere on the road. What the f.....! I drove the car very slowly over the track and eventually things got better. The reward followed shortly. We had a fantastic view of the mountains and the areas around us. It glowed in a yellow, purple and green. Various grasses moved with the wind. It just looked overwhelming. Luckily there was no one else on the road, so I was able to drive in the middle and keep looking at the landscape. Suddenly there were a lot of donkeys standing and lying to the right of us. We had to laugh and said "what a great tour and what we've seen so far". We were thrilled.

Another really bad gravel road followed and I felt a slight headache. On the right a police station came out of nowhere and we were quite relieved. There Daniela asked whether we were actually in the right place. The police officer had explained to her that the geysers were only active in the morning (that's why no one was out and about here at the moment). But we could still look at other things up to San Pedro that would be on the way. Daniela took advantage of the opportunity and immediately made a “piss” to the nice police officers.

We continued through the beautiful mountain range and what can I say, my headache turned into a nightmare. I took a tablet and felt “slightly” better. We stopped in the 10-man village of Machuca to finally get something to eat - until then we had kept ourselves afloat with snacks and sweets. The food was super delicious: empanadas and grilled meat. I asked there how high we were and she said 4,300 meters. Oh dear... here we realized we hadn't taken the height into account. I then immediately ordered two coca infusions (coca tea) and drank them. We were totally dim too. The route should only go downhill from this point.

So the journey continued. A short time later we stopped at the Laguna with the flamingos. There were lots of flamingos frolicking in the water. Unfortunately, the main part of the laguna was dry.

At the next stop I felt sick and my circulation was terrible. I just wanted to go to the hotel and there I took a second tablet and lay down for a bit. Things got better quickly, so we were able to stroll through San Pedro in the evening. This place is very touristy. Most tours to all attractions in the area are offered from here. There are so many street dogs here, of course we immediately thought of our Littlefoot. Man Littlefoot, you have it sooooooooo good!!!!!!

Now it's morning and what can I write, I'm feeling really good again. My headache is completely gone. The appetite is there and we're going to do it really hard today :-).

Kind regards from both of us from San Pedro de Atacama :-)