Sunday, October 27, 2013

Camping in Pisco Elqui - Valle del Elqui

We left Vicuña in the later afternoon, and jumped on another bus north east to Pisco Elqui, where we had heard that there was a ton of campgrounds, and a good place to spend a week.

Pisco, the grape liquor that originated in Peru, is also heavily produced in Chile, especially in this region.  Infact, most of the grapes you see growing here won't be used for wine...In Bolivia, (in the Tarija region), they also produce grape liquor, but under the name "Singani."  

Only an hour by bus, we were dropped off in "Downtown" Pisco Elqui, which was tiny.  A beautiful cathedral jetted up in the square, and several little shops scattered the small street.  Our Lonely Planet book (3 years old) listed a spot called "Camping Rinconada," that was about $4 per person to camp.  Sure enough, it had been sold, and was closed down...A guy in the square recommended going to "Solar de Barbosa" to camp, which was a 10 minute walk with all of our stuff.

We walked down the dirt path to the campground and were greeted at the gat by a strange guy from Viña del Mar, who told us to come sit down in the shade, and we'd talk about price...This was confusing, because the listed price on the gate was 5,000 Pesos/person, which is $10.  Very expensive to camp, in my opinion, especially if we're on foot, with only a tent, and no car.  I thought he would give us a deal, but it turned out he just wanted to chat for about a half hour about our trip, then he introduced us to the owner, who was firm on his price.  At this point, we were starving, and decided to stay for one night, then maybe find a cheaper spot.  The place was really nice, right on the creek, and we found a shaded spot for the night.


Next morning, I ventured out to find a better, and cheaper spot, and was successful just down the road.  We packed up, and trekked it out of the shade, and into the hot sun, down the road to "Refugio de Angel."

The owner met me at the gate, and gave us a good deal, as I told her we would stay for 4 nights.

The camp was also on the creek, but this one had a nice water hole, and a ton more shade.  We were 2 of maybe 5 total in the whole campsite for the first two nights, and really enjoyed it.  Collected some wood and had a great fire for cooking on, while enjoying some local Pisco from the valley, which was great.

our campsite
 

bridge over the river
Also the second day, we ran into a couple that had been staying at Maria's hostel in La Serena, Michael and Chiara, from England and Austria.  We spent an evening hanging out with them, and enjoying the campfire, along with some local beers and Pisco.

The campsite was home to 3 massive German Shepherds as well as several massive cats.  One big white cat befriended us (especially Danica), and wouldn't leave our camp.  The tuna remnants probably didn't keep him away either, and she named him Rey.

We stayed through Halloween, and the campsite filled up super quickly with Chileans, getting away for their long weekend.





Some good cooking on the fire, including pork chops one night, some lentil stew, pastas, and whatever else we could muster up, proved to be a great time camping.  Only let down was we realized we needed some equipment upgrades, especially if we were planning on heading into Patagonia to do some real camping.  The zipper on our tent broke the first night, and now doesn't close, and my inflatable air mattress pad has a gash in it, and wont hold air.  Other than those things, we survived a week of camping, and can hopefully do some minor repairs.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Vicuña - Valle del Elqui

We took a bus at mid-day, about an hour ride to Vicuña, the bigger town in the heart of the Elqui Valley, a Pisco and wine producing region behind La Serena.

The nice folks at Hostal Maria recommended a hostel that would let us camp there in Vicuña for the night.  The place was called "La Elquina," and was just about 4 blocks from the bus station where we were dropped off...

An older gentleman answered the door, and showed us to the back garden of the hostel, where we could set up camp for the night.  There was kitchen access, a really nice garden, and a comfortable, grassy bed which we would be sleeping on top of that night...

A walk through the relatively small town of Vicuña, and some lunch, would bring us back to the camp for the night, to cook dinner, and hang out.

We had about a week to kill, hopefully camping in the area, to save money, before we needed to head to Santiago, to meet the family!  It was coming up quickly, as my family purchased tickets to come visit us, the second week of November in Santiago.


Friday, October 25, 2013

La Serena, back on the Pacific

Our overnight bus slowly pulled into the La Serena Terminal at about 11:30 AM, and we were greeting by a slight Pacific breeze...

We sat on a bench and tried to figure out a hostel situation for the night, and found the closest one we could to the terminal.

"Hostal Maria" was just up the road, about a 5 minute walk.  We were greeted by the nicest people upon entering into their 'home' turned-hostel.  It was a brother and sister duo in their 60's, respectively Maria, and Pancho.  They showed us our room for the night, and then sat us down, offered us coffee, and gave us the low-down on La Serena, and what there was to do there.

We walked all the way to the beach, which took about a half hour, and were a little disappointed in the result...It was a huge beachfront area, but was pretty littered with trash, and all the way down the beach was high rise apartments and hotels.  Not as attractive as we had hoped, but still a nice walk.  There was a huge lighthouse structure right on the beach, that a ton of tourists were posing in front of, and all the local kids went there to make out.


We walked around for a while, then back to grocery store, grabbed some things to make dinner, and hung out at the hostel for the night.  Next day, Maria and Pancho gave us directions and some tips on getting to the Valle del Elqui, where we wanted to do some camping...

The hostel was a very nice place.  Nice kitchen, beautiful yard and garden with fruit trees.  It was the perfect jump off point for us in the area, albeit it being super expensive...

Hostal Maria's backyard


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

San Pedro de Atacama - A whole new world

No, not the theme song from Alladin, but yes, a culture shock all in its own...San Pedro was a nice little desert town, extremely hot during the day, and some incredibly clear skies.  We spent a night at Hostal Corvatsch the first night, after our border crossing adventure into the 21st century.  It was Danica, Juan and I, and we got a dorm style room for very expensive.  Luckily the place had a kitchen, and luckily we finished cooking about 9, because they hurried us out and locked it all up.

streets of San Pedro de Atacama

The next day, we decided to look for camping, and obviously something cheaper...Juan didn't have a tent, and he set off to find a cheaper hostel.  Danica and I found "Camping Los Perrales" just down the road from the center, and while still expensive to set up a tent, it was cheaper than a hostel...

Camping "Los Perrales"
We camped one night, and had a lot of fun.  Cooked, then Juan came and hung out with us at the site til pretty late, and we said goodbye to him, as he was heading to Salta, Argentina in the morning, and us to La Serena, down the coast.
 


Next morning, we got up and found a bus company, "Tur Bus," doing an overnight journey to La Serena, which was about 16 hours away.  We spent the day roaming around, and spending way too long at a cafe on the net, before trudging through the town that evening, in the heat, to find the bus station.

We boarded at 7pm, and headed north-west towards Calama, and into the sunset.  The Valle de la Luna was to our Port-side, and what an incredible sight it was.  Even coming from the Bolivian Salar, the Valle was impressive, with its massive desert rocky cliffs and red rocks.  We would wake the next morning in La Serena...


Entering into Chile

Miguel, our Uyuni tour guide, stopped the Landcruiser at the Chilean/Bolivian border crossing.  Strange, because there was the Bolivian stamp-out office, but the Chilean entrance wasn't anywhere in sight...There was a sign though, welcoming us to Chile.  An easy stamp out, cost nothing, and we were on our way, Danica, Juan and I.  Juan's passport was stolen in Cochabamba, along with some other things, and he was a little stressed about crossing the border without it...Luckily he had his Colombian ID card, and they gave him no trouble at the crossing.


So, as the van full of tourists drove off, we were already inside Chile without 'legally' being there.  After about 5 minutes on the dirt road, we suddenly felt the major difference in Chile...The van pulled onto a brand new highway, with speed limit signs and margins in the road...Wow, we hadn't seen anything like that in a long time, perhaps since Ecuador.  We drove down the mountain, losing about 2000 meters in altitude behind us, and my body felt like it was decompressing, for we had spent the last 2 months at high altitude, from the mountains of Peru, to the height that is most of Bolivia.  We were heading to San Pedro de Atacama, our first Chilean stop, and where the actualy border office is.

As we pulled into the border office, I literally felt like I was back home for a second...There were border guards searching peoples bags, and an office with a conveyor belt and x-ray for everybody's luggage.  Not once on this entire trip have we seen that!  Despite the high security, everyone made it through without hassle, including our friend Juan, with only his Colombian ID card, and no passport...  Bienvenidos a Chile!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Salar de Uyuni!!!

Incase you haven't heard of this place, it deserves a hell of an introduction...

The BIGGEST salt flat in the world, "Salar de Uyuni," lies in the south-west of Bolivia.  It was once a giant inland sea, and its elevation (just under 4000 meters), would have made it the highest sea as well.  Nowadays, it's a very popular spot for touring the dry salt desert, and seeing all that surrounds it, which is nothing less than spectacular.

The Salar de Uyuni has a ton of tour operators selling their tour, usually in the form of 1 or 2 or 3 days, and sometimes up to 5.  We were interested in 3 days, 2 nights, and found the perfect guide and group.

Every tour guide drives a mid 90's Toyota Landcruiser, which seats 7 besides the driver.  I've never seen such a perfect Toyota commercial unfold before my eyes, and am surprised I've never seen an actual ad on television coming from Bolivia...



Our guide was Miguel, with "World White Tours," and not only was he a great driver, but was full of information on the surrounding area, and served us some delicious food along our journey.

The passengers were Erika and Johanna, the Swedish girls, Sinia from Germany, Niels from Denmark, Juan from Colombia, and Danica and I.

We started at the train cemetery, which is a literal graveyard of old rusty locomotives out in the middle of the desert.  After spending a little while there, we heading south, into the endless salt.  Roads that never end.  We stopped at several spots to take photos and really take it all in.  As you can imagine, the white salt reflects the sun like crazy, so it's impossible to not wear glasses.






We spent about an hour at "Isla de Incahuasi," which at one point actually was an island in the sea, but now it's an island in the desert.  Rocks jet up, and out of them jet up giant cactus.  There were Llamas running around, and it was quite a sight to see...



 We headed on through the endless salt, and eventually stopped in the middle of nowhere, literally, to have lunch.  Miguel had pork chops, quinoa, fresh cucumber and tomato, and some sodas for us.


We wandered around a bit, took some photos, and then continued on, through the desert to our 'hotel' for the night, which was completely made of salt.




We got to the hotel about an hour before sundown, and we hiked up the hill behind it to try to get a better view of the desert.  That night was a full moon, and seeing it rise up and over the desert was spectacular...





The next morning, we headed away from the salt, and into the endless, mountainous desert that is southern Bolivia.  Miguel slowed down at one point, and sure enough we had a flat tire...He got out, put on his 'mechanic suit' and quickly changed it, out in the middle of nowhere...We were off in no time, to check out the view of the volcano...



Volcan Ollague in the distance
 

We passed several beautiful lagoons along the way, all of which were home to several types of flamingos.




We drove out into the desert sun, might I add, with Miguel playing a pretty epic (and random) soundtrack, and started seeing several large rock formations.  We finally parked at a place called Árbol de Piedra, or tree rock, which was a massive rock playground made of ancient lava formations.




Árbol de Piedra
 


We pulled into the Laguna Colorada right about 4 PM, as this is the best time of day to see it, with all its color.



 Last stop for the day, now it was to the next 'hotel' for the night.  Right near the lagoon, we could still see it in the foreground.  A large room with 7 beds was to be our shelter for the night.  Spaghetti dinner with some wine.


 

The next morning, we woke up early and put everything in the Landcruiser.  It was the third and final day of the trip, and we had some things to see before being dropped off at the Chilean border...

The geyser field
steaming earth



bubbling cauldron of mud...
Ice field

Mars-like landscape...
The trip was coming to an end, and we had to make the Chilean border on time in order to catch our continuing ride to San Pedro de Atacama...There was one more stop, at the hot springs, to have a dip.


And the final lagoon right before the border...Laguna Verde, got its greenish hue from the Copper and Arsenic in the water...Hence no wildlife here.



An unbelievable tour, in an incredible place.  I can't stress how much we highly recommend doing this!  Miguel was a great tour guide, our group was great and fun, and might I add it was dirt cheap!!!  It was 700 Bolivianos for the whole trip, that's about $100, with all food included, and the hotel rooms.  Only thing we had to pay extra for, was the entrance to the national park in the far south...150/each.  The price also included our bus to Chile, which was very nice.