0168 San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, to Purmamarca Argentina
8th
Dec
Today we have driven on the moon, and got back in time to
have a delicious Chilean Carmenere red wine and a steak cooked to perfection
for supper. We have seen flamingos at
almost 5000 metres, and have seen so many yamas and vicunas that we don’t
really notice them any more. We have walked on salt flats that stretch to the
horizon, driven up and down gorges with more switch back roads than I ever knew
existed before, and have seen sights that I never
realised could be so
spectacular, over the brow of every hill or mountain we held our breath knowing
we were going to see something spectacular.
We have met lovely people, and the border crossing into Argentina was
probably the best yet, despite a few laughs.
And at one point on the road, I was in tears because the whole thing was
just so overpowering. Yes, today was a 6
WOW day – I think the first one for a long time. And at the end of it we dropped down an
amazing pass into the most delightful little rural village, Pumamarca, and
after asking around we found a delightful little campsite right in the middle
of town. It would take something very
special to top today.
We woke up late in San Pedro – We still haven’t quite got
used to the two hour change from Peru !
Anyway, it was 10 am before we got moving, and first stop was Adouane in
town – We had been told that the road we intended to take might not have
vehicle processing facilities at the remote border and we may need to clear
Chilean customs here in town, 150 kms short of the border. We walked through town, enjoying the much
quieter atmosphere from yesterday’s heaving masses, and it was lovely to see
the square in its proper perspective now all the tents and marquees from
yesterday’s marathon had been removed. I
know I was not very nice about San Pedro in yesterday’s blog, so I accept that
this morning it redeemed itself somewhat in my eyes. Even so, I still see no reason for San Pedro
– It is just tourist shops, restaurants, and sometimes shonky travel agents,
and I still feel the town is just a self-created, over priced tourist mecca
compared to many of the other places we have been privileged to visit on our
trip. Is it “pretty”, with its adobe
walls with brush toppings, but once you get away from the 3 or 4 main streets, I personally find
it is all pretty sad and tacky. But enough of my moans…….
Once we got to the Adouane on the outskirts of town, they
assured us that the border crossing was both open (despite a public holiday)
and able to process vehicle documentation, so we set off eastwards towards the
Andes. In our campsite last night we had
met a delightful young Frenchman, Thomas, and his friend Frank from Paraguay,
who have been on the road for a few years and are riding motorbikes. We have
been puzzling over which roads to
take south to Santiago – We knew we were fed up with the Atacama (as are most
overlanders after they have spent a couple of days in it !), but we couldn’t
work out which route to take down through Argentina. Thomas settled that for us by telling us that
the BEST roads are those that cross the Andes, while all the north –south roads
leave something to be desired. He also
told us that the roads down through Jujuy, Salta, and La Rioja were interesting,
especially in the north, and then the run (for us) into Santiago was best
through the Andes. So that is what we
have decided to do – Unless someone along the way advises differently.
For the first part of the road we were climbing slowly
from the 2400 metres of San Pedro, and it was through the Atacama-like desert
that we have seen lots of before. But
now we had the majestic and amazingly symmetrical peak of the 5916 m Volcan
Licancabur beside us, along with a string of other mountains and volcanos that
line the border with Bolivia. Only 30
minutes after we left San Pedro we went up into a pass and left the Atacama
stretching
out into the distance behind us. And as we climbed, we got closer
and closer to the Bolivian border – At one stage it was running just a few
hundred metres off to our left. There
was then a turning for the dirt road into southern Bolivia, while we continued
up the pass to over 4800 metres, passing llamas and vicunas along the way,
although god knows what they find to eat out here !! We then just kept alternatively climbing and
dropping, but never below about 4500 m, until suddenly we came over the brow of
a hill and there was a lake with flamingos in it !! These creatures seem to love the high
altitudes, and we spent 15 minutes or so just watching them and trying to
photograph them from afar.
Then it was on across this amazing moon scape – Where do
these enormous rocks come from that are in the middle of all the sand ? Why is the sky so blue up here, just as if we
were up in outer space ? Wonder makes you ask a lot of questions !! Shortly
afterwards we came to another much larger lake (Laguna Vilama, I think it was)
– No flamingos this time, but amazing greens and blues that reflected the
clouds above – Just stunning because it is so stark and arid everywhere else
you look. Driving on through the
occasional gorge, damage to the Armco guard rail was often severe, and never
seemingly repaired – And of course usually accompanied by memorials beside the
road. And the guard rail damage was
always on corners after a long straight – Easy to deduce what had
happened. We then climbed up to our
highest point all day – some 4835 m, before dropping through a gorge into a
wide flat bottomed valley, and more salt water lakes. And after that we came over a hill and there
was the Chile - Argentine border.
Now this was going to be interesting for us, because
Argentina and a couple of other S American countries want to charge Aussies,
Yanks, and Canadians over $100 for an entry, and you have to apply in advance
on line and find a way to print out a receipt before crossing the border. However, Brits can go through without “let or
hindrance”, so the plan was to exit Chile on our Aussie passports and then
enter Argentine on our UK ones. The
trouble is, however legal it may be to hold dual citizenship, you never know
how some of the countries feel about you having two different passports,
especially out on these remote borders in the idle of no where in the Andes ! So the plan was to make sure we kept the two
very separate – A great plan until we realised that in this small border post,
there are 4 or 5 windows for paperwork processing, all next to each other, and
they are alternatively Chilean, Argentinian, Chilean, Argentinian !! So at the first window, we were dealing with
a Chilean official, to “leave” Chile, so he has our Aussie passports. But the Argentinian at the next window has nothing
to do, so he is leaning over watching the Chilean guy processing our passports
!! Uh Oh !! 2 minutes later, we move 2 feet to our right,
I stuff the Aussie passports in my back pocket and surreptitiously bring out
our Brit passports, which I might add are BRAND new, not a bend in them, and not a
stamp anywhere in them either. The
Argentinian customs guy did not bat an eyelid – Just processed them, stamped
them, and moved us to the next window, where we had to produce the Aussie
passports again to prove the car was now leaving Chile !! Still no eyelids batted, so we were starting
to feel confident – And 5 minutes later we were out on the street and heading
off down the road – Everything completed in less than an hour, with everyone
being really friendly and helpful – Big sigh of relief. We can now use our UK passports for the
remainder of the trip, saving us a considerable amount of money in the
process. And I have to say that these S
American border crossings are just SO easy and quick compared to the nightmares
and hassles and considerable costs that we incurred at almost every Central
American border crossing. Makes life so
much more pleasant.
We stopped for lunch about half an hour after the border,
and then it was on over more great scenery and passes until we came to the Salina
de Couchari – A large salt lake that the road actually crosses, where they
harvest the salt, have tourist booths set up to sell all sorts of salt- related
knick knacks (?!), and you can get out and walk on the salt. Amazing to see. After that, we climbed up again to about
4200 m, where suddenly the clouds came towards us in the most
amazing shapes,
and within about 5 minutes we had gone from almost clear skies to being
enveloped in thick cloud. And then we
started to descend – And for over 30 minutes we went down through the most
incredible valley and scenery that you can ever imagine. It was a massive switch back road, and that
was interesting enough, but additionally we were passing through the most
formations, cliffs scoured into amazing shapes by wind and rain, multi-hued
cliffs and rocks, and eventually a wide river valley, and then, shortly after
we passed a
delightful little adobe church beside the road, we were in the
little township of Purmamarca. And as
soon as we drove into it, we were commenting on what a delightful little place
it was. Adobe walls, little restaurants
and hospedajes, but all targeting as much the local people as tourists. In the tiny little central square it was
fairly touristy, but it seemed that they had had a market here today (being a
holiday), so it was a bit busy. Asking
a
round we found a lovely little place to camp in the garden of a hostel, and
once we had found a shop that was also a cambio so we could get some local
money and pay for our accommodation, we were set !! Janet cooked a great steak dinner, and we
opened a nice bottle of Chilean Carminere to celebrate what had truly been an
amazing day’s drive. It really has been
one of the highlight’s of our trip so far.
And Argentina seems great so far as well – As usual, everyone along the
way and in the villages extremely friendly and always ready with a wave and an
“Hola” as we pass.
Your day has been so special. Fantastic! Safe travels. J&S
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