Chile

We said "goodbye" to Iquique this morning. The room with all it's conveniences had been a pleasure to stay in. We won't find many views better than the one from that balcony. Packing the car with all our supplies and luggage is getting tighter with every move. Today we drove to Calama which was supposed to be a 7 hour drive. Happily we made it in 5 hours.

There's not much in the way of attractions on Ruta 5. We saw many abandoned nitrate towns. Nothing is as intact as Humberstone. Another interesting sight was the Cerro Pintados geoglyphs. They are huge abstract drawings on the mountain side. This location houses more than 400 individual images. The one thing that does strike you on the drive are the power lines. The road is shadowed by 3 sets of big transmission lines.

Just before Calama is Chuquecamata, the big copper mine and company town. We found that the mine doesn't do tours on Saturday so there's no reason to stay the night. Calama is surprisingly big. We found a nice hotel to come back to after San Pedro. With reservations made, we headed to San Pedro a day early. There was nothing but sand and rock for the two hour drive. We climbed gradually until reaching 2500 meter and San Pedro de Atacama.

There are some beautiful rock formations along the drive as you approach San Pedro. The town is an oasis of green in the desert. The one kind of tree that grows in this arid environment is the Tamarugo and is very similar to the Acacia trees in Africa. These bush-like trees adapt to the saline soils and have roots long enough to tap underground water supplies. San Pedro is built with low rise adobe houses surrounded by adobe brick walls. The streets are dirt and very dusty.

Everything is covered with the red film. We found it very disappointing. Colca Canyon had been dusty enough for the whole trip.

The Hostal Inti Komac was also a big surprise and disappointment. Our room has a bunk and single bed in a space smaller than our sunroom at home. At least it was clean and had on demand hot water. You went outside and ask the owner to light the pilot. We had been ripped off for cost which really made me mad. I wrote Pedro Chance an email immediately and we looked for another room when we walked around. The more we saw of San Pedro, the more we knew that "it was only for 3 nights. Live with it". The worst thing about hostal is the lack of places to sit and relax.

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Calama, Chile

Oct. 24th - Drive to Calama and San Pedro

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