Category: Travel

Chile: Atacama Desert, Day 6

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EXPLORING THE ATACAMA DESERT
Thanks to the expertise and knowledge of Jordan and Kayli and the entire team at Knowmad Adventures, we have ended up in a fantastic place, Tierra Atacama. It is beautiful and the sunsets are unbelievably gorgeous, what I’d call layered pastels.  Located just outside the town of San Pedro de Atacama, the property is elegantly designed and landscaped, the food is excellent, and the rooms are comfortable. Included in the room rate is the opportunity to select one or more excursions each day.

Dining Room

We are at the high end of the demographic here (older, that is), and while we are in reasonably good shape considering, we have opted to do just a couple excursions during our short stay. I am not overly fond of high altitudes, but so far haven’t had any issues here at about 9,300 feet. We did nix a 6-hour excursion leaving at 6 AM to travel to geysers at 13,000 feet some distance away.

Given all of that, we had a wonderful morning with our guide, Mauro at the nearby Valle de la Luna or Moon Valley. There were just four of us plus the guide.  We stopped at several places to look around and take pictures and then embarked on a 45-50 minute walk or hike (what you call it depends on your perspective; for me it was a hike) up to several lookout points.  

Our guide Mauro

One of the few plants seen lower down.

The sand is several different colors from light tan to dark tan to almost black to matte gray, and has been sculpted by the wind and the infrequent rain into ridges and waves and valleys. In the distance, you can see the mountains and several volcanos, one of which is currently active.

Walking in from the parking area, we slogged through loose sand (just as hard as walking on loose sand on an ocean beach) and then began climbing up harder packed surfaces, not really paths, but already well trodden. We saw no vegetation from this point on, and it was beautiful and almost eerie and utterly quiet. The only sound was the wind.  

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).  I wanted to include more photos, but some of them were too large for this site.

 

Chile: In Transit North, Day 5

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HALLOWEEN IN VALPO
Last evening we had dinner at a pizzeria cum pasta restaurant which was a delightful casual place. The chef won the award for the best margarita pizza in all of Chile and the chef jacket he wore for the competition is framed on the wall. The Chief Penguin had the gorgonzola and prosciutto pizza which was delicious (I got a taste!), and I ordered the penne rigate in a simple tomato sauce with basil, also very good.  

On the way back to our hotel, we encountered several groups of children out trick or treating and were touched by the sight of them, but also of an older couple, who were standing in their doorway, she holding a box of Halloween candy.

ONWARD TO THE DESERT
We left Valparaiso and headed back to Santiago for our flight north to the Atacama Desert. November 1st, Day of the Dead, is a big holiday and leads into a holiday weekend. The traffic in our direction was normal, but the airport check-in area was totally mobbed with couples and families with children, all heading out of town! It took 40 minutes in line to check in our bags and get paper boarding passes. Then it was another fifteen minutes or so to get through security. The sign said, “No liquids allowed,” but our driver had said bottles of water were fine. So we asked the airport staff member and yes, water was allowed.

Boarding was in groups by those needing special assistance,  then priority (both customary), but the next line was for those carrying only a personal item, and the last line (the one we were in) was anyone with carry-on luggage. Interesting approach. I don’t think it was any faster, but we did have overhead bin space for our items.

Calama was our initial flight destination. It’s the home of the world’s largest copper mine and leaving the airport, you first see rows of small stucco homes for the workers and all around tan desert and then a series of wind farms. We rode for about an hour and half and there was almost no vegetation except for some tufty tan grass and what looked to me like tumbleweeds as seen in the header photo.

The desert landscape was shades of tan, pinky tan, and brown with off in the distance soft lavender to mauve mountains. The sky was a pale blue with some bands of cirrus clouds making a layered palette of pastels.  Alas, I was on the wrong side of the van to  capture the mountains.

Only when we got to San Pedro was their greenery and plants. It’s a small town with rustic stucco and wood houses, a gas station, a few restaurants, and other services. It’s an oasis of civilization and probably, a real oasis since there was so much growing. Our hotel is located a short distance out of town and is a very attractive wood and stone complex with a garden (giant hollyhocks, lavender and rosemary abound) and marvelous views of the desert and the mountains.  

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is a view of the Atacama Desert en route to San Pedro.

Chile: Valparaiso, Day 2

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VALPARAISO, DAY 2

Today was foggy and cloudy and in the 60’s with a few snatches of sunlight.  We had a half day walking tour of some of the neighborhoods in Valparaiso’s historic quarter. Named a World Heritage Site in 2003, Valparaiso has undertaken an ambitious effort to clean up and restore many older buildings as well as to repair crumbling streets and steps. It’s also notable for the number of firsts in this part of the world—first railroad line in Latin America, first telephone, first Spanish newspaper, and first cemetery among others.

Valparaiso was the most important port and first stop for travelers from Europe bound for San Francisco and the Gold Rush (before the birth of the Panama Canal). Thus, by the end of the 19th century, Valparaiso had sizable German (40,000), British (10,000) and Italian (5,000) populations. Many of these business people stayed and their influence is reflected in street and building names and in the cuisine.

In the main business district near the port, there are traffic lights (none up in the hills), lots of banks, historic hotels being remodeled into new hotels or restaurants and apartments, and facing the water, the pale blue French style headquarters of the navy, Armada de Chile.  It could be a sibling of Philadelphia’s equally ornate city hall.  

Our guide, Esteban Tacul, was simply marvelous. Extremely knowledgeable and personable, he gave us some of Chile’s history, talked about street artists by name, many of whom he’s met, told us about the first cemeteries (one for Catholics and one for Dissidents aka Protestants) and introduced us to some of the special staircases leading down to the port area.  His tourism company, Ecomapu (ecomapu.com), operates seven days a week and offers both private tours and a daily free tour.  We highly recommend him!

Our tour was three hours, on foot with lots of steps, except for one funicular trip on Queen Victoria, the shortest and steepest of the 16 remaining funiculars. To his credit, the route Esteban chose took advantage of flat streets whenever possible. One of the most interesting aspects of the buildings we saw on the hills was how many have corrugated iron facades; this iron originally was cast off from ships where it had been used to wrap foodstuffs to preserve them on the voyage.

After leaving Esteban, we had lunch downtown, looked at the all the boats, ships and containers in the port, and then rode the Peral ascensor (funicular) up to our hotel.  

I absolutely loved all the street art and took many photos of human faces, animals (there are a lot of sleeping dogs around plus a number of cats and they figure in the art), fish, and other creatures. So many bright colors, so much variety, such creativity! Here is just a further sampling.  

 

 

Art on corrugated wood!

 

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

 

Chile: Valparaiso, Day 1

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VALPARAISO:  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

We flew overnight from Houston to Santiago where we were met and then driven the roughly hour and a half to Valparaiso. We passed through a fruit growing region and then a valley around Casa Blanco, site of several vineyards producing white wine. We will visit a couple of these wineries next week.

Coming into the city, we went through an industrial section and were struck by the sheer volume of graffiti on almost every building. We were told that there is or about to be new legislation that will make it a fineable offense to engage in graffiti.  

This would be a very good move. As we got farther into the city and up one of the several hills to our hotel, we began to see street art in the from of colorful murals along with the graffiti (a bit less here). The stucco and stone buildings themselves are also painted in solid bright colors, everything from strong turquoise to blazing orange to yellows, deep blues and vibrant greens. It all makes for a lively and attractive landscape.  

Our hotel is an old house on a narrow dead end street in a neighborhood of art galleries, small shops, and little restaurants. After getting cleaned up, we got a recommendation for lunch and then walked a few blocks on the level, then up one street, and then down a long steep street with blocks of steps on the sidewalk. When we had almost reached the bay, we arrived at La Concepcion.  The waiter showed us to a lovely table on the terrace with a bay view. We proceeded to unwind and enjoy a delectable meal, a spicy shrimp curry and rice for the Chief Penguin and for me, grilled hake on quinoa with julienned zucchini, carrots and red pepper. Service was attentive, but not hovering, and it was a great way to refuel mentally and physically.

Before dinner, we took another shorter walk checking out a small park, viewing more art murals, and stopping to see the ascenseur, the small elevator that runs up and down one of the steep hills to the bay below.  I think we will ride it tomorrow.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).