The land of the Desert - Antofagasta, Chile
Antofagasta, Chile
What an incredible journey!
We've had some great hitches getting into the dessert region. We've had some long drives - 5 hours average with various lorry drivers. They go slow but hey, they go the full distance and we get a bed! And again everyone has been so absurdly friendly. I had the nicest peach ever by one of them, another stopped off at a road-side empanada stand and bought us dinner?! and the third dropped us off right outside our flat in Antofogasta - he wasnt even going there!
The day of the Empanada man, was the same day as when we left the Elqui Valley. We had hoped to travel straight to the National Park Pan de Azucar, however as we didnt set off until abit later and as we had been hitching in lorries, it had taken us longer than we had thought. It was already 8 and no way of getting into the park another 2 hours away. So, we asked where we might be able to camp or stay in the area of the empanada stand ... the Empanada lady said we could stay with them and use their back garden (the beach) as a campground! ... It gets better ... her friend was there and they said they had a spare room we could stay in. The only problem being they were having a birthday party that night so it may be quite noisy. We obviously declined, not wanting to be any trouble, but they insisted, and not only invited us into their home, but to join in with the celebrations. So that night we joined a birthday party, got given beer and pisco, a 2am feast of muscles and bbq fish, and a bed!??? Once again, Chilenos are so unnecessarily hospitable and nice!
The drives themselves where amazing. We soon left green and cacti region, and it turned into sand and rock. For miles all we could see was dessert, with mountains in the background and towards Antfogasta apart from Mines and occasional observatories, there was nothing. We did drive past 'El Mano a la Desserto' - the hand of the dessert. An 11m hand sculpture made of iron, cement and sand. Best seen at night as it is 75km south of the city and for star gazing it is apparently unimaginable. But we drove past at 4pm in 35 degree sun, sweating our backsides off in the lorry. Ho hum.
Before Antofagasta, we just stayed one night in the national park. We arrived and set up by 2pm, so spent the afternoon relaxing by the beach and taking a dip in the sea (thats all it was, far too cold).We got up early the following morning so we could do a walk (it reaches 34 degrees by 11). And whilst i was cleaning my teeth, looking out to the ocean and the island of Pan de Azucar, i saw dolphins! Definitely not what i expected to see, and amazing to watch :)The walk was pretty good, through a valley where we found various types of cacti, and we also followed the old road that was hit by a flash flood some years ago. Amazing to see what damage it did - a huge gorge created and you could see all the different layers of shell that made up the rock. (Geography classes coming back to me).As expected, by 11 it was boiling, although we did have the slight benefit of cloud cover.We packed up and left the tent and all our camping gear with the owner of the campsite. Sad times! That was our last camping trip as the nights are cold in the dessert and camping isnt really a thing in Bolivia or Peru, or anywhere else anytime soon really.
The next stop was Antofagasta, the largest City in the north, created because of its surrounding mining industry and its port. After travelling 400k without seeing a single town, it was absolutely bizzar to see such a big city. Back by the coast for the last time until northern Peru, we enjoyed the view from our hosts, Antonio, gorgeous apartment. We met him a few times, but he wasnt living there this week as he had some family issues to attend to on the other side of the city. So he told us to enjoy the flat, its ours for as long as we want to stay, and to help ourself to his food as he wouldnt be there to eat it himself! How are we having so much luck!? We really didnt want to take advantage, it was an obsurdly nice gesture and too much, but he insisted we should help ourself .. so we enjoyed salmon, chicken, pork, loads of fruit, and spent a day baking. What flashpackers! We insisted he should come round for dinner one night so we could say thank you properly and cook for him. We were joined by Fernando (explained later) too, but after the afternoon of cooking roast beef and a cheesecake, Antonio couldnt make it! Atleast Fernando still came as we had enough left overs as it was!
So, Fernando. The night we arrived in Antofagasta we later went to a bar in town to meet Antonio for a drink. Little did we know that we were actually joining an English-speaking society, and we were the 'star' guests ... A group of about 15 get together with other chilenos that want to practice speaking english, and also other foreigners that have moved to Antofagasta to give them a chance to integrate. So there was Steph from New Jersey, Mike from Canada, a french girl, us, and loads of chilenos. One of which was Fernando.We had a really good evening chatting to everyone, learning about their different stories - why theyd moved to the region, why they want to learn English, and lots of them exchanged contact details with us incase we need anything, to hang out, and for a contact for them regarding travelling to England. What a nice idea!
We spent a day exploring the city, where Antonio and Steph joined us, showing us the museum and taking us to the fish market. Then on Sunday we met with Fernando and he took us around some of the sights outside of the city. He's such a nice guy, 22 and an amazing photographer. His picture of the hand of the dessert at night made it into national newspapers and into a chilian tourism magazine in Brazil. He really wants to move to England for a few years to try and make more money since its not that well paid here, so he was keen to learn more about England and our culture and photo opportunities. Hes got a long way to go though - he didnt realise we were an island!!!?
So, on our day trip we went to La Portada where there is a group of rock formations just like Durdle Door. Very impressive.Next stop was a small village, Juan Lopez, with a great beach - it was packed out but finally we could enjoy swimming in warm water!Then we took a drive through the dessert where we got a view of Isla Santa Maria, and took a short walk to a Mirador in the National Park Morro Moreno. The view was amazing - vast dessert meets vast ocean. It really wouldve been great to see it at sunset, but still, not bad atall.
Apart from that our days were filled with relaxing in the luxurious flat.Our next stop is San Pedro de Atocama. With nearby borders of Bolivia and Argentina, it's a tourist hot spot in the middle of the Atacama Dessert, where there are lots of salt flats, geysers, thermal lagoons, places to sandboard, and treck. We're hoping to stop just for a few days to get a feel for the place, before swiftly moving on with a tour into bolivia to see the salt flats, lagoons and geysers there. Country number 6 here we come!