Journey to the driest place on Earth

the curves leading down from the Chilean-Argentinian border
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This being day 60, this is the last of the blog updates for South America.  A number of you have pointed out that this update is now 2 days late.  I dont mean to keep my public waiting.  Real Travel has changed their website format and I am having trouble uploading photos... stay tuned on that front.

As an added bonus this time `round, in many of my photos you will note the presence of a dot.  Sanyo makes a fantastic camera, however, they failed to make the lens AIRTIGHT!!!  I have a tiny particle of something between 2 of the lenses, so there is a dot, big or small, in all of my recent pictures.  How aggravating!!  However, I have become quite good at taking pictures in such a manner as to hide or minimize the appearance of the dot.  Please feel free to play `find the dot`in all the attached pictures!  I feel like I am travelling with the Expedia gnome.

Changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace in Santiago
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This update will address my return to Chile.  As you may recall I flew into Santiago on January 22 and went immediately south.  Now, having crossed the heart of Argentina, I cross the Andes at their highest point and descend back to Santiago to close the circle before spending a week in the Atacama desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, 1500kms to the north, and then returning to Santiago.

The border crossing between Chile and Argentina on the road between Mendoza (Arg) and Santiago is spectacular.  You pass below Aconguaga, the highest peak in the Americas (climbed by one Larry Crozier), and then once over the border into Chile, descend precipitously towards Santiago.  In fact, the first dozen or so kilometers in Chile is on a road literally built on the side of a mountain.  As a result, you have to maneouvre through 23 tight hairpin turns all piled on top of one another, all the while passing trucks and buses crawling up the mountain at a torrid 3km/h.  The border crossing is not so easy as the Peace Bridge.  On average, it takes an hour to 2 hours to leave Chile, enter Argentina and have your bags inspected by drug dogs, and food and plant inspectors.  What takes a plane straight line 40mins, takes 7 hours by bus.  Consolations: the views are jaw-dropping and the best lomito (steak sandwich) I have had in South America is to be found in a blue shack on the Chilean side of the border.  I dont have an address, but she has a Canadian flag sticker behind the counter. Speaking of which, you would be amazed where we keep popping up. On locals`shirts, windows, doors, behind hotel and resto counters and on locals`backpacks.  I swear there are Canadian elves running around slapping our trademark all over the world.  Let alone those Cdns that slap the flag on their hats and bags.  Good kharma to carry, though - just ask the Canadian hostage released from Gaza.

Santiago Plaza
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Santiago is not as bad as I thought it would be.  It does not have a reputation as being a spectacular or inspiring city.  Rather, it is known as business-like and charmless, with barely breathable air.  I was, however, rather charmed by the place.  It has classic and well-kept national monuments and plazas, vibrant streets and some lovely parks.  First off, dad and I were there as Michelle Bachelet was inaguarated as the first female president in Chilean history.  Clearly, the street party was evidence of her popularity.  The flags were up, the streets tidy, police buckles shined and the capital buzzed.

View from the top of the largest park in Santiago (forgot name and book is packed...)
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Santiago has a couple of urban parks which reminded me greatly of Mont Royal in Montreal.  Two parks are actually hills or small mountains in the middle of the city (the city itself tucked between mountain ranges in the lower Andes).  Both command great views of the city and quiet green respites from the buzz of the streets, in particular the screaming yellow city buses.  Cerro Santa Lucia, the smaller and more downtown of the two, has a maze paths and stone stairwells that lead to innumberal lookouts (and, clearly, makeout spots).  This was pitstop no.2 in the Amazing Race season 5.

One of dozens of views from Parque Santa Lucia in downtown Santiago
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Santiago is a place that demands time to fully know and appreciate.  I had only a few days and with the help and advice of some friends from the Navimag (the boat that broke) who live there, I did get to see some of its more subtle charms and trendy neighbourhoods.  Santiago was also the beginning of the end for my appetite for all things South American.  For the first time in over 7 weeks, I dined on non-South American food.  I had a fantastic Indian dinner.  The following morning, I contributed to the tidal wave of globalism by buying a grande Tazo Chai Latte at a Starbucks and strolled merrily among the suits and blackberries, clearly relaxed, yet still the only person in sight frantic enough to actually walk and drink.  Loco.  I have still not set foot in McDonald`s.  Give it time.

yellow buses of Santiago
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After Santiago, dad and I headed to the Atacama in the north end of Chile.  4000km north of Torres del Paine, but in the same country.  Atacama is the driest desert in the world.  Some metereological stations on the coast have never registered rain.  It is a swath of nothing of rock, sand and bare mountains that is no wider than the 250kms between the Pacific and the Andes, while stretching from southern Peru and Bolovia in the north, well into northern Chile.

San Pedro de Atacama (SPDA) is the main gringo access point to the Atacama, nestled in an oasis below a row of 20,000 ft plus volcanoes marking the Argentinian and Bolivian borders - also the most active volcanic range in the world.  The landscape is otherwordly and the sky is enormous.

getting ready for the inaguaration
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There are a whole range of activities to do in SPDA.  As a result, gringos appear to outnumber locals in the streets, and hotels and restos are everywhere in town.  You are not really off the beaten track here...Oh, and bring your cash, as there is no bank machine and everything is really expensive, even by Chilean standards!

Popular excursions include getting up at the insane hour of 3:30am to drive 2 hours on a rough road up to 15,000 ft to see the Tatio geysers at the break of dawn.  You do this in an uncomfortable collectivo bus in caravan with a dozen other buses.  And, it is, on average, minus 5 celsius in the summer when you arrive.  However, it is worth it to see the geysers as the sun rises above the volcanoes.  Looking back at the sun through the steam of the geysers is an incredible sight.  You wont be alone, but it is awe-inspiring.  Notably, the company that owns the nearby copper mine, the world´s largest, owns the land in which the geysers are located and is considering ending access in order to develop them for geothermal electrical generation for the copper mine.  Chile has a terrible environmental record (not that too many countries have a great record) when it comes to exploiting resources for energy or mineral resources. And, in Chile, copper is king, accounting for up to 15% of its exports.  I heard unconfirmed stories that the government is considering removing or eliminating a glacier because there might be gold below.  Would not surprise.  You get the feeling a country so well endowed with natural areas and so dependent on resources takes these decisions in far too short term a manner. To be fair, not unlike us not so long ago.

streets of San Pedro de Atacama
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Other activites include visting a vast salt lake (not smooth like Utah or Bolivia due to the high concentration of minerals) filled with flamingos and laced with arsenic (naturally occurring), which was only made known to me when I went to taste the salinity - the problems of puttig your mortality in the hands of a guide that knows no english.  You can also visit antiplano lakes at 15,000 feet surrounded by yellow grass covered slopes which contrast spectacularly with the deep blue sky at that altitude.  There is also Valle de la Luna, a rocky moonscape valley which shimmers in the low light of day and is available for trekking, mountain biking and sandboarding.

twilight in the Valle de la Luna. The white is salt leached to the surface by recent rainfall.
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The Atacama is the driest desert on Earth, yet, you guessed it, it rained when I was there.  After dropping dad at the airport for his return to Canada, I returned to the muddy streets of SPDA.  I was not there to witness it, but some clouds slipped over the mountains from  Bolivia (where it is the rainy season) and it rained in SPDA for 10mins.  They call such events the ´ántiplano winter´.  Unicorn spottings do, in fact, happen.

So dad left after 13 days in South America.  Culture shock, agressive itineraries (the most aggressive segment of my South American travels), gasoil in the car and falling in a creek were balanced with the best steak in the world, cheap wine, endless views, getting outdoors and pushing the envelope of life´s experiences.  All told he did us proud and was more than up for the challenge.  Now if we could just work the airlines to not lose his baggage and provide him connections that dont require him to run through the terminal, we are off the races for Marcfest no.2.

sand dune in the Valle at sunset
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My last week has taken me back to the heart of Argentina and, ultimately, Buenos Aires and environs.  Love BA.  Off to the theatre for the opera on my last night.  See you all soon (arriving TO on March 24).

M