Northern Chile

NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2016

Our first 24 hours was spent travelling from London to Santiago de Chile, via Buenos Aires, Argentina, a distance of 12,225klm. Much of the next day was spent recovering from the journey, which wasn’t too bad to be fair, in a comfortable apartment in the centre of Santiago. The following three days were spent exploring the city.

Arriving in to Santiago de Chile over the Andian Mountains

Santiago de Chile Old Town

Santiago de Chile old and new

Santiago de Chile Fish Market

Santiago de Chile - central park

Santiago de Chile skyline

Our next destination was Vicuna, about 400km north of Santiago. We choose to fly and then hire a car to explore the Copiapo Region. This we did, and spent the first few nights at Vicuna in the Elqui Valley. Fantastic accommodation and great hosts, it was hard to leave. The Elqui Valley was beautiful, an oasis in an otherwise barren landscape, where the river runs down from the mountains to the sea. The valley is cultivated mostly for vines and the production of Pisco, the local spirit. In addition to the valley scenery, we had an amazing evening gazing at the stars and planets through massive telescopes at one of the local observatories.

Accommodation in Vicuna, Elque Valley

Elqui Valley

Moon, from Elqui Valley Observatory

Valley transport

From Vicuna we headed north to explore more of the Copiapo Region. Vallenar was our first stop, which allowed us to explore the attractive valleys of El Transito & Carman. It was then 60klm west to the coastal town of Huasco, and the beautiful Parque Nacional Llanos de Challe, with its resident Vicunas. From Huasco we travelled much further north, into the Atacama Desert and to the town of Chanaral. Chaneral was our base to visit another beautiful park, Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar, with its stunning geology and many varieties of Cactus.

Huasco

American Brown Pelican in Huasco Harbour

Parque Nacional Llanos de Chile

Vicuna

Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

Cactus in Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

Flora of Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar

We then started our journey back south with three relaxing days at Bahia Inglesa. A little beach resort in a secluded bay, where we did very little except, eat delicious seafood and chill out. It was then onwards south to La Serena, the principal city of the region, before flying back to Santiago de Chile and the start of the second northern phase.

Cadera

Bahia Inglesa

Our next Chile adventure took us much further north, deep into the Atacama Desert. We flew to Calama and stayed a few nights in the city. The reason for the stop over, was to visit the largest open cast copper mine in the world, at Chuquicamata. And, what an impressive visit it was. You can’t believe the scale of the operation until you get up close. The whole in the ground was over 14klm long and several kilometres wide, and they plan to make it bigger. The trucks were enormous with a ladder needed for the driver to get to his cabin; everything was on a massive scale. They have even relocated a whole town, so as the operation could expand even further.

Chuquicamata - Worlds largest open cast copper mine

Mega truck at Chuquicamata

Mining at Chuquicamata

Loaded truck at Chuquicamata mine

Chuquicamata

Chuquicamata truck convoy

Chuquicamata mining

From Calama we moved deeper into the desert, and to the town of San Pedro de Atacama. An oasis of adobe style houses, with Andean volcanoes looming in the background. We hired a three-bedroom house and spent 10 days in San Pedro, thoroughly exploring this unique region. As well as the towering volcanoes, which are always in view, the landscape has a barren beauty. There are vast salt lakes with flocks of Flamingos, sparse grassland where Vicuna graze, canyons with moon like features but no water and green patches in the desert where mountain rivers cut through. It was also hot, a powerful sun in mostly clear blue skies made you seek shelter whenever it presented itself. Cooling down only at night. The other feature of the area was the altitude, San Pedro was at 2400meters, but most of our exploration was higher than this, 4800meters being our highest point ventured. Heat plus altitude made each activity extra tiring, but definitely worth it. We also did some more stargazing.

Pukura de Quitor

Volcano Licancabur

Vicuna

Salar de Taras

Flamingoes on Laguna de Tara

Flamingoes on Laguna de Tara

Atacama Desert rock

Valle de la Luna

Valle de la Luna sand dune decent

Valle de la Luna

Valle de la Luna sunset

Laguna de Chaxa

Flamingo flight path

Valle de la Luna

Laguna Minques

San Pedro de Atacama high street

Llama's

From San Pedro de Atacama it was back to Calama, a flight to Santiago de Chile and the start of our Southern adventure.

Personal Observations and interesting facts

Earthquakes
The Chilean people treat earthquakes as part of everyday life but for us tourists it can be a bit disconcerting. The first we experienced, in Santiago de Chile, almost shook the mirror off the wall, and the second, in La Serena, was further from the epicentre so the movement was less.

Hitchhiking
In rural parts of Chile, public transport is infrequent, making hitchhiking commonplace. In the short time we were there, we have picked up three locals. The first two were vineyard workers, who offered us freshly cut grapes as a thank you. And the other one was a lady who lived in the desert and wanted a lift to town. All are very grateful for the lift.

Roadside Shrines
In England, death through a road accident, warrants, at most, a cross and a few flowers. However, in Chile, this would be the minimum, more usually it would be a concrete shrine filled with biblical characters. Not only that these shrines can be big, some are the size of a small chapel. And the unusual doesn’t stop there. We have seen a whole car included in the structure, as well as safety hats and road cones, even a large photo of the deceased (election campaign size).

Memorial to a road fatality

Road Side Memorial