January 15-19, 2018
Calama Refueling
Adina, Darcy and I arrived into the mining hub of Calama around 7am and our first priority was groceries. We knew that the little town that we’d be heading, San Pedro de Atacama, would be low on groceries and high on prices. We located a Jumbo supermarket, a Chilean-owned megastore with a similar vibe to Walmart and made the trek there from the bus station. Always handy is having my little best friend, the blue location beacon on Google Maps (I call her “Dot”), but it was still longer than we expected, and with dragging all of our bags, we were glad it was still early in the morning and the sun wasn’t too powerful yet. The store wasn’t open yet, so Darcy and I spent that time making a shopping list for the next few days while we would be together before she flew on to Belize. Adina was going to be doing a work exchange at a hostel in Atacama, and so wouldn’t be sharing in the food this time. Once the store opened, we realized we’d have to split into shifts so that someone could watch the bags outside while playing with the ever-present and adorable kiltros (stray dogs).
Walking into the XXX was a crazy feeling – it was the biggest supermarket I’d been in since leaving the US, and had the variety of one as well, with seemingly endless aisles of selection at decent prices. I was so enthralled, that I even bought a big jar of peanut butter to hold me over for the next few weeks in Chile and Bolivia. We took advantage of the vast selection and got a real assortment of food to cook and prepare over the next four days together – salad, vegetables, rice, beans, eggs, toast, tuna, and of course, a few types of cookies. We dropped nearly $80 together on this, but it should cover the two of us for 10+ meals, so quite good value.
After Adina did her shop, we had to figure out how to get back to the bus station for our short onward journey from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama (SPdA). We thought there might be a bus, or a hitchhiking opportunity, but we found at last a taxi that would be willing to take the three of us plus all our bags and groceries. It was not the time for a long walk. The bus to SPdA was uneventful, but scenic, and we arrived to town in the late morning after all.
Immediately upon getting off the bus, you could feel the dryness of the desert, and the altitude we had climbed to. The town has about 5,000 inhabitants and sits at about 2,400m (~7,900ft) and is super dry. I just learned that it was originally Bolivian territory, but was annexed by Chile after the War of the Pacific in 1884. The air was definitely thinner, and the sun was VERY strong, so I got to make good use of my floppy white-guy hat, complete with neck shield. The walk up the semi-paved roads to the main street was again longer than we expected, and with the heat, we were pretty exasperated by the time we arrived in town. Hunger struck quickly too, so our first stop was a cafeteria-style lunch place on the main strip in town, while I tried to find us a tour agency that would take us to one of the attractions this afternoon.
San Pedro Planning
For whatever reason, none of the spots we had looked up in advance either existed or were running the tour we wanted to do that day. I returned empty-handed, but enjoyed our basic lunch, before we moved over to an adorable vegan cafe with wifi called Bumkaldi where we plopped our stuff and got some tasty treats and drinks while we sorted out our plans.
As it turned out, there was an agency right next door, and one of the guys there came over and went through our whole plan with us for the next few days. Although we wouldn’t be able to do the afternoon tour today, we would still be able to see the three main things we had wanted to within the three days we had. Darcy would leave in the afternoon of the 18th, I would take an overnight bus from there to Bolivia, and Adina would stick around for a few more days working at the hostel before heading back to Santiago, and further south to meet up with her parents down in Patagonia.
After we organized and paid (~$150 USD for all three tours), we split up. Adina walked the 15 minutes to her hostel, and Darcy and I went to the corner of the main street to wait for the shuttle to our hostel – Llama Loka – which was about a 10-minute drive from town. Unfortunately, the shuttle only made a few runs each day, so we would have to take a taxi early in the morning to a specified corner for the first tour. There was some frustration and confusion about the hostel shuttle pick-up, as they were a bit unresponsive at the time they had agreed to pick us up, but eventually we made it back there, albeit a little cranky.
The hostel was really out in the middle of nowhere, but quite large, and the rooms were comfortably big. There was even a massive geodesic dome where they held parties and karaoke late into the night. We’d read this was a party hostel, so we weren’t too surprised, but just hoped it wouldn’t be a big issue. We cooked up a tasty dinner in the crowded kitchen and prepared our breakfast and lunch for the next day. It was definitely a bit of a weird vibe to the place, but we laughed it off, and enjoyed some fresh salad and rice with veggies. Not to mention, the stars out here were absolutely sublime.
We went to bed very early, as we needed to be back in town by 4am, meaning a 3:30am taxi, which we had arranged with the hostel. The taxi arrived on-time and we made it into town with time to spare, however, without any wifi or knowledge of who was picking us up, we were waiting on a random corner for half an hour in the dark before a van stopped next to us and checked our names. Meanwhile, until then, we would get hopeful at the sight of the many other vans making their pickups every time they turned the corner and their headlights shined on us. This was definitely a lesson in patience and calmness, but at that hour and standing out in the cold (I definitely under-dressed for this one – see photos), we were pretty annoyed. Thankfully, when the van did arrive, the driver / guide was super genial and warm, and spoke great English.
Tatia Geysers
We drove a couple of hours to get to our first sight, and the major attraction for the morning, the Tatia Geysers, which contain the largest number of geysers in the world (80), and one of the biggest as well (no competition to Ol’ Faithful in Yellowstone though). We arrived while it was still dark, which was good news, as we had hoped for a great sunrise. That said, it was absolutely freezing, and I graciously accepted an extra puffer jacket that the guide had, but still, I was in shorts and looking like a moron.
The sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as I’d imagined, but it was still quite amazing to be standing on this field of so many geysers, walking around and hearing the bubbling, seeing the eggs that had been placed in to boil. It was quite crowded, with hundreds of people there, but this was about as crowded as it would get for the day. After we’d had our fill of walking around and taking sweet photos, our guide made a hearty breakfast of eggs and rolls with cheese / meat / jam, and some breakfast pastries. I definitely took my fair share and was pretty happy considering that some of the tours had reviews about the lack of food quality and quantity. Crisis averted.
We all piled back into the van and cranked up the heat while we drove to our next stop of the morning at a nearby hot springs. Granted, it was still absolutely freezing, so Darcy and I had a moment of reckoning as to whether we’d go in. We expected the getting out part to be pretty awful. This was a crowd favorite for the many Asian tourists, as hot pools are a big part of their culture (knowing from my previous experience at Korean spas in the US). The getting in part was certainly tough, as the wind combined with the temperature made for a very chilly few seconds going from the changing rooms to the pools. Mostly, the stone-paved ground was keeping the cold from the night all too well. It certainly made the time in the springs that much more enjoyable though, as there’s nothing quite like being in a hot spring, surrounded by volcanoes while it’s also freezing outside. Getting out wasn’t as bad as expected since our bodies retained the heat pretty well.
The next stop was a quick one to see Volcan Putana, which stands at 5,890m tall. This makes it the 39th tallest in the world, and the 22nd in Chile. All but one of the 50 tallest are in South America – yeah, I was also surprised to read this. Before coming to Central and South America, I had no idea how many volcanoes were here, and they’re massive! We even got to see some wild vicuña (ancestor of alpaca)! The colors of the land, the small amount of greenery, and the reflective water was incredible. It’s truly a part of the world like none other I’d seen. And at the altitude, the air is clearer and the colors just seem to pop a whole lot more. After seeing the volcano, we went for a quick pit stop at the Machuca village, which is nearly deserted, and just has some stalls for snacks, as well as a church, which is always strange to see in a heavily indigenous-populated area.
As we got in the van the final time, we were expecting to head back to San Pedro, but the guide told us we had made good enough time to do one final stop, a surprise, at one of his favorite spots. We arrived, completely alone, on the top of a fabulous viewpoint over a canyon and looking at the volcano from earlier. We were all pretty stunned, the beauty, the colors, just the feeling of being alone out there, was tremendous. It really felt like we had arrived on a different planet. It put the end of the tour on a total high note, and we were pretty stoked about it even on the ride back.
We got ourselves dropped off at Adina’s hostel, El Rey Lagarto (The Lizard King) and hung out while she finished her shift and then had lunch together. We walked into town to the agency, but got ourselves an ice cream beforehand at a place called Babalu. I ordered a delicious local flavor called ayrampo, which comes from the fruit of a plant in the cactus family. According to their info panel (pictured in the photos), it’s used in the Andes regions as a way to treat fever, make drinks and ice cream, and also as pigments for paints. It had a berry-ish flavor, but with little bits of quinoa in it for a really delicious flavor and texture.
Valle de la Luna
We waited a bit at the agency for the driver to show up and, lo and behold, it was the same guy as this morning! We were stoked because he was so awesome and piled back in the van with a few others. We arrived shortly at the Valle de la Luna, which is only a few kilometers outside of town. It’s a popular activity to actually rent a bike and make a day of it. But, with the heat, and the fact that we wanted to go in the afternoon to see the sunset, we decided it wasn’t going to be worth it to bike home in the dark from there, especially after such a long day already.
Our guide, again a total star, took us on a route that allowed us to be the first group at each of the places we stopped. We’d get out, do a little hike around the area and then pile back in for the next stop. The landscape here is beautiful, strange, incredible, and bizarre. I really felt like I had been transplanted to Mars. With all of the red soil, the strange formations, the salt all over the ground, the flatness of it all and the subsequent wind, it was a surreal place. Every corner we turned, I was just flat-out amazed again and again. This is evidenced by the fact that so many of my photos looked identical when I reviewed them months later, which is always a sign that I was seeing such incredible things that you really “had to be there” to appreciate. At one of the stops, called the Tres Marias, I took a shot from the road looking directly at the volcano in the distance (the cover photo of this post), and looking at it afterwards still gives me chills. Just such an incredible landscape, which made me grateful to be where I was at that moment.
The final stop for the tour was for sunset over the valley, and it was absolutely spectacular. It felt a bit like Bryce Canyon in Utah, where all of the red rock formations absolutely light up for the sunrise and sunset. There were lots of other tours there too, some of which had food laid out (we resisted), but even so, it was a magical experience and an incredible shared memory for the three of us.
Thankfully, this time around we were able to convince our guide (now friend) to drop us directly at Llama Loka instead of having to deal with the shuttle again, and we had confirmed with the agency in the afternoon that we’d be getting picked up from the hostel in the morning for our full-day tour.
El Salar & Lagos Altiplanicos
Talk is cheap though.
Darcy and I were out at the entrance to the hostel early as we were told we’d be the first ones picked up since the bus (a tall 20-seater van) was parked near our hostel. We even saw a tour bus pull out from a house near us and drive past. We gave it a sideways glance, but saw the name of the agency on the side was different from ours. We texted Adina and she hadn’t been picked up yet either, so we were getting more frustrated again with this guy who had booked our tours for us. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me. Right?
Eventually, Adina got picked up and told us that the agency hadn’t properly communicated with the driver and we were next to be picked up. When the bus pulled up, Darcy and I had a good laugh, as the flamingo logo on the outside was the same as the one that had passed us 30+ minutes prior.
Our first stop was to see the flamingos on the Salar de Atacama, the third-largest salt flat in the world, covering 1,200 sq mi. The other larger ones are the Salinas Grandes in Argentina (2,300 sq mi) and the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia (4,086 sq mi). We arrived along with a bunch of other tour buses, but our guide told us to hold back if we wanted to hear the information about the area. Of course we did, and she assured us that the flamingos weren’t going anywhere and we’d have plenty of opportunity for photos.
This species of flamingo, called the Andean flamingo, is native to this area, and feeds off the tiny shrimp / algae / plankton in the lakes here. Apparently, they get their color as they age (they are born gray). The lake itself is very shallow, which permits the beautiful glassy reflection since the wind doesn’t whip it up much. Flamingos are amazing to look at, but their life is also fascinating. They’re one of few birds that have a nuclear family, so a child might be cared for by its grandparents, and the parents are mated for life – quite unusual. Both parents take turns incubating the egg, and both can feed their young. They also eat pretty much all day, something like 12+ hours per day! Despite all the eating, they weigh basically nothing, which allows them to balance on those tiny legs and fly quite majestically. We spent probably 30 minutes just staring at them and taking photos. Also, we were asked to be quiet, so it was actually quite pleasant despite how many people were there. It was really something to behold.
The next stop on our tour was to see petroglyphs left by the Atacama indigenous people, called atacameños, somewhere between 5,000 and 2,000 years ago. It was down in a canyon, which was a fun little hike down, and reminiscent of what Darcy and I had seen the day before from above. Considering that human population developed later in the Americas than in Europe and Asia, this is some of the oldest stuff on the continent, and depicts their nomadic way of life, as well as the wild herds of llamas. We made a quick pit stop at a little town that had a llama petting area, which we fully availed ourselves of. They are quite adorable and soft, and like giving kisses. Then we got back on the bus for the journey into the higher elevation lagos altiplanicos (high-plain lakes). These two lakes, Lago Miscanti and Lago Miñiques, were at 4,000m, so we couldn’t really even walk around too much without feeling completely exhausted. The recommendation is to acclimatize for a week for every 1,000m above 2,000m that you go, so clearly we were not prepared for that, nor did we expect to do much more than walk around parts of the lake. Again, the altitude makes for some spectacular colors and to just see that these lakes exist at such a high altitude and IN A DESERT MIND YOU, was remarkable.
Winding Down
We had a chill evening and morning back at the Llama Loka before we met Adina in town for Darcy to catch her bus to the airport. My bus to Bolivia wasn’t until late that night (early 19th), so Adina and I figured we would hang in town and then cook dinner back at Llama Loka before returning to town with plenty of time to spare before my bus at 3am.
Darcy and I enjoyed a lazy morning / afternoon at the hostel and then took the shuttle in to meet Adina at the agreed upon time. We had decided to meet at the ice cream store from the day before called Babalu. We arrived a bit early, ordered another round of ayrampo ice cream, but even by the time we had finished, Adina hadn’t shown up. We were a bit concerned. Since there was no wifi at the ice cream store, we decided to go to our favorite cafe, Bumkaldi, and message her. She was equally confused, and had also been waiting for 45 minutes for us! She met us at Bumkaldi and we eventually determined that there was, in fact, another of the same ice cream shop on the other end of the main street. We all had a good facepalm and laugh, but were thankful she at least got some ice cream. Also a good lesson that it takes a lot of ice cream shops to saturate a market ;).
The rest of the day we spent relaxing, chatting, and reading before Darcy left. Adina and I returned to Llama Loka to relax a bit and cook dinner, before heading back into town for my bus. It was pretty strange for me to say goodbye to both of them, as we’d been together for so many weeks that it really felt so normal by that point. It had been four weeks since Sarah had arrived in Nicaragua, so when I finally said goodbye to Adina, I definitely felt a sense of aloneness that I hadn’t for a month. This time together had been incredible, and so full, and so well-planned, that it was hard to remember what it was like to do this all alone again and without much planned.
For the first time in a month, I was arriving somewhere without a place to stay and without a plan. All I had booked was a plane ticket out of Bolivia to Ecuador ten days later, and a whole country to explore in the meantime.
I was able to hide out for a few hours before my bus at a hotel that was located on the corner where the Llama Loka shuttle drops off. A couple of days before, Darcy and I had gone in here to use their wifi to try to message the hostel when we were waiting so long for them to pick us up. It was a bit cold outside (desert nights, as they are), so I tried my luck inside. It was already past 10pm, so it was only the night watchman there, but he was kind enough to let me in, use the wifi and booth seating, and even fill up my tea thermos.
The bus arrived on time, and I sat down next to a burly Brazilian guy, being extra grateful that I had reserved an aisle seat, so that when the person in front of me reclines, I have some means of escape. An interesting first was that there were thick, wool blankets provided on each seat. The bus didn’t feel too cold really, so I was a bit surprised. I had bundled up in my pants and sweatshirt, as is customary on bus trips since they tend to blast the A/C, but I was feeling pretty comfortable and got to sleep easily. Across the aisle to my left were two young Spanish girls, and the one on the aisle (basically right next to me) was coughing pretty bad and had said she had a cold. I immediately hoped that I wouldn’t catch that (though of course I did).
After we made a stop in Calama to pick up more passengers, we started our way towards the Bolivian border. This is when it started to get REALLY cold, and I was very glad for the thick blanket, and not too upset about the body warmth next to me from the Brazilian guy.
An hour or so before we arrived at the border, the bus helper passed out the requisite immigration forms. Normally, this is something I can do in my sleep, having memorized my passport details by this point. But Bolivia would be a bit different.
We got to the border just after the sun was rising, which revealed another total Martian landscape out the window. My seatmate turned out to be a mountain guide who leads climbing groups up to the massive volcanos in the area, and he was pointing them out to me as we passed.
Overland border crossings are always a bit nerve-wracking, especially compared to the simplicity and ease of an airport. Chile, however, being a bit more “advanced” than a lot of other South American countries, was a complete breeze. Even though exiting a country is usually quite simple, it was very much so for Chile. The guards were sprightly, friendly, and there was even a kiltro pup for us to pet while we waited in line.
The entry to Bolivia, on the other hand, would be a totally different experience.
