Today we want to go really high. San Pedro and the
Atacama Desert are 'only' at 2500 m,
the Tatio Geysers are at 4300m.
first we drive to the hot springs of Puritama:
8 small basins,
it's wonderful !!!!!!! 34 degrees water temperature, and such a beautiful facility!
One is resting...
no, two are resting...
Greetings from Urmel.
On the drive, the first gigantic candelabra cacti appear on the slopes.
And still in the background the Licancabur
we drive above 4000 m :
at this height, lagoons appear in constant alternation,
desert again
or green meadows.
If you look closely, you can see yellow sulfur discolorations in the lumen of the volcano.
In the late afternoon, you can't see much from the geysers
After a night with minus 11 degrees, the sun rises
Dear Ulrike, unfortunately we didn't have internet here, so we send you belated birthday greetings this way!
First, let me think....
I have to go in there too.
The green-yellow fields look like summer-dry meadows at home,
but we are still at 4000 m high.
We slowly go down again
to 2500 m mining region:
Desert town Calama,
here we have to have our new sensor installed.
We visited Valle de la Luna again for a second time, for those who are interested, here are some impressions:
After two full days in the modern entrance hall and one night in the yard of Iveco-Calama, the final handshake on our car is finally done. Senor Bartsch, grandson of a German immigrant 80 years ago, had the saving idea: he simply exchanged this and that part from a customer vehicle that was exactly the same as ours, until both cars were driving. Actually, everyone was satisfied now,... well, the Chilean owner of the donor vehicle didn't know anything about the deal, of course. Then the boss found out about it and insisted on ordering a new part, which should be sent from Santiago. Then everything would be in order. That meant for us that we would come back to Calama two days later (by the way, a city that I would describe as only moderately beautiful)
The days until the parts were delivered we used for an extensive test drive to heights of over 4,500m. At night we slept at 4,300m. To be precise, we slept until 4 o'clock, when I remembered that it could be cold up there. The measurement then promptly showed minus 8 degrees. Do they even have winter diesel? I spent the rest of the night watching the thermometer and running the engine for some warm-up phases, which unfortunately affected our sleeping comfort. At 8 am it started at minus 11 degrees and still started. With this clever preparation, we not only ensured the functionality of the car, but also didn't miss the absolutely spectacular sunrise at the geysers.
The installation of the new part the next afternoon at Iveco was just a formality. Since then it has been running well. Phew!
This post takes up a lot of space with the workshop affair, but it also kept us quite busy. If the problem hadn't been solved, we would have had to drive at least 2500 km back to the south to choose a relatively low Andean crossing. That would have completely ruined our schedule and would have consisted of thousands of kilometers of boring highway stages.
We'll try to post again tomorrow. Then it will be more about the peculiarities of this special journey. Promised!
