It's hard to believe just how long this country is. On our morning approach to Arica (which is pretty much as far north as you can go in Chile) we passed kilometer 2050 on the Ruta 5, which is the stretch of the PanAmerican highway that goes through Chile. Amazingly, this is measured from Santiago and there is another 2500km if you travel into the other direction. More amazingly, on the 500km or so from San Pedro we had actually covered nothing but rocks, sand and the many mines that dot the Atacama desert. This also became very evident as we left Arica in our new, temporary mode of transport - a well-used but trusty Nissan Terrano 4x4 pick-up truck. Our goal was the Chilean Altiplano, for which we first had to double-back on our bus trip for a good 250km. On the way the landscape became even more impressive and desert-like as we crossed huge valleys and got a view on the inhospitable nature of the far Chilean north.
After a lunch-and-fuel stop (which were 40km apart), we made for the Chilean altiplano, our real goal of the day. Our goal was to drive to three national parks: Isluga, Vicuñas and Lauca, getting a full experience of what the altiplano is like. 100km later we had climbed to a whopping 3500m in altitude and the landscape had changed. Instead of looking up to the mountains on the side of the road, we now were right in the middle of them. About 2 minutes after leaving the only paved road around we saw our first Llamas (or Alpacas, it's hard to keep them apart). The flamingo feeling of wild animals came back immediately and we went a bit picture crazy. A few hours later we realized that camelids were going to be a very (very!) common occurence for the next few days - which didn't diminish our fascination but slowed down our picture rate. After about 50km of gravel road we concluded the day with fording a little river (which saw the first activation of the 4x4 drive) on the way to a CONAF refugio in the Aymara village of Enquelga (population 20). We met two volunteers who were staying there as well. They are working with the villagers on how to negotiate with the government and make the best out of the national park's opportunities. It was really interesting to talk to them, just with a candle to lit the dark night, and see what issues they discussed, it's quite different from the everyday problems us city-people have...
We woke up the next morning with remarkably little signs of altitude issues. A little bit of a headache, but for sleeping at 4000m we felt pretty good. Maybe it had been our sunset walk the evening before or the amazing sky full of stars that we looked at as long as we dared to in the freezing cold, but we felt fine. Which was good, since we had a long day of driving and staring at breathtaking scenery in front of us. First off, we headed out to the Bolvian border post just to check it out. On our way back, we had the altiplano version of a bath, at a beautiful little thermal pool, with views to the volcanoes, all just outside of Enquelga. We swam for a while and dusted off the travel dirt, before we went for the major part of the route for the day. There is only gravel in this part of the world and Geraldine took it upon her to cover the first 100 or so kilometers, which turned out to be the toughest to drive of the whole day.
We more or less drove the rest of the day through a scenery that can only be described as majestic. The road swerved between mountains and volcanoes over altiplano plains, skimmed the Chilean-Bolivian border a few times, led us by inhabited and abandoned villages and gave us more astonishing viewpoints than we could count. One of the highlights was certainly the Salar de Surire, which is a lot whiter than the one in Atacama and also has decidedly less people around it. Speaking of people - excluding the two volunteers and a number of mining trucks, the only other people we met were the 5 cyclists we met on the road. Instead, we met about a thousand Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas on the way, roaming freely around the area. We took literally hundreds of pictures, but they unfortunately do not do the actual experience any justice. Navigation-wise, we were perfectly equipped using a guide book for general orientation and our phones as an improvised GPS device with pre-loaded Google Maps. The only thing it didn't show us as we climbed to the highest point of the day was altitude, but MyTracks came to the rescue and clocked us in at 4752m above sea level. From there is was "downhill" to Lago Chungara at 4500m, where we checked into a refugio again. A short walk by the lake just before sunset rounded out an amazing day, which had been certainly one and maybe the highlight of the whole trip so far.
During the next night and morning the altitude showed its impact, with both of us sleeping badly and waking up with some discomfort. We didn't waste much time and started our descent to lower altitudes. A planned stop at another termas didn't turn out to be possible, so we made straight for Putre, a town at the entrance of the national park, situated on 3500m. This was low enough for symptoms to disappear, so we camped out in a lovely cafe and recharged ourselves and most of our equipment. From Putre it was then an easy drive back down to Arica, although covering 3500m in altitude within less than 150km still boggles my mind. After returning our car to Osvaldo from Cactusrent, we packed our bags and hopped on a collectivo to the Chilean-Peruvian border.
After a lunch-and-fuel stop (which were 40km apart), we made for the Chilean altiplano, our real goal of the day. Our goal was to drive to three national parks: Isluga, Vicuñas and Lauca, getting a full experience of what the altiplano is like. 100km later we had climbed to a whopping 3500m in altitude and the landscape had changed. Instead of looking up to the mountains on the side of the road, we now were right in the middle of them. About 2 minutes after leaving the only paved road around we saw our first Llamas (or Alpacas, it's hard to keep them apart). The flamingo feeling of wild animals came back immediately and we went a bit picture crazy. A few hours later we realized that camelids were going to be a very (very!) common occurence for the next few days - which didn't diminish our fascination but slowed down our picture rate. After about 50km of gravel road we concluded the day with fording a little river (which saw the first activation of the 4x4 drive) on the way to a CONAF refugio in the Aymara village of Enquelga (population 20). We met two volunteers who were staying there as well. They are working with the villagers on how to negotiate with the government and make the best out of the national park's opportunities. It was really interesting to talk to them, just with a candle to lit the dark night, and see what issues they discussed, it's quite different from the everyday problems us city-people have...
We woke up the next morning with remarkably little signs of altitude issues. A little bit of a headache, but for sleeping at 4000m we felt pretty good. Maybe it had been our sunset walk the evening before or the amazing sky full of stars that we looked at as long as we dared to in the freezing cold, but we felt fine. Which was good, since we had a long day of driving and staring at breathtaking scenery in front of us. First off, we headed out to the Bolvian border post just to check it out. On our way back, we had the altiplano version of a bath, at a beautiful little thermal pool, with views to the volcanoes, all just outside of Enquelga. We swam for a while and dusted off the travel dirt, before we went for the major part of the route for the day. There is only gravel in this part of the world and Geraldine took it upon her to cover the first 100 or so kilometers, which turned out to be the toughest to drive of the whole day.
We more or less drove the rest of the day through a scenery that can only be described as majestic. The road swerved between mountains and volcanoes over altiplano plains, skimmed the Chilean-Bolivian border a few times, led us by inhabited and abandoned villages and gave us more astonishing viewpoints than we could count. One of the highlights was certainly the Salar de Surire, which is a lot whiter than the one in Atacama and also has decidedly less people around it. Speaking of people - excluding the two volunteers and a number of mining trucks, the only other people we met were the 5 cyclists we met on the road. Instead, we met about a thousand Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas on the way, roaming freely around the area. We took literally hundreds of pictures, but they unfortunately do not do the actual experience any justice. Navigation-wise, we were perfectly equipped using a guide book for general orientation and our phones as an improvised GPS device with pre-loaded Google Maps. The only thing it didn't show us as we climbed to the highest point of the day was altitude, but MyTracks came to the rescue and clocked us in at 4752m above sea level. From there is was "downhill" to Lago Chungara at 4500m, where we checked into a refugio again. A short walk by the lake just before sunset rounded out an amazing day, which had been certainly one and maybe the highlight of the whole trip so far.
During the next night and morning the altitude showed its impact, with both of us sleeping badly and waking up with some discomfort. We didn't waste much time and started our descent to lower altitudes. A planned stop at another termas didn't turn out to be possible, so we made straight for Putre, a town at the entrance of the national park, situated on 3500m. This was low enough for symptoms to disappear, so we camped out in a lovely cafe and recharged ourselves and most of our equipment. From Putre it was then an easy drive back down to Arica, although covering 3500m in altitude within less than 150km still boggles my mind. After returning our car to Osvaldo from Cactusrent, we packed our bags and hopped on a collectivo to the Chilean-Peruvian border.
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