Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina

 Thursday, March 9, 2023

 

This day started very early for us we had an early morning flight to catch (7:30 am). That meant a 5:30 am alarm and then racing the clock to move both us and our luggage to the airport, courtesy of hotel shuttle. Remarkably, we made it and settled in for a 1 ½ hour flight from Santiago to Calama, in the foothills of the Atacama Desert. I met an interesting woman on the plane, an avid traveller from Australia who was joining a trek one we arrived in San Pedro. She had already completed a trek in Patagonia and was eager to head out on this one. She has travelled in more than 5 countries; our count is currently about 65 so we spent the entire flight comparing the places we went and the experiences we had. It was a lively conversation, to say the least.

 

When we arrived in Calama, we rented a car at the airport and headed out on the open road. Destination – San Pedro de Atacama, a small town about 90 kilometres from the airport. No problem … even with traffic delays, it should take no longer than 90 minutes. How wrong we were!!!

 

The landscape of this desert is like nothing we have seen before. Mountainous barren terrain, sculpted into peaks and valleys by wind, volcanic activity and occasional rain. Layers upon layers of rock and sediment portrayed a rainbow of reds and browns everywhere we looked. Vast plains devoid of all vegetation extended to distant mountains. What a desolate yet beautiful part of the world. Of course, we made frequent stops for pictures under a brilliant blue sky and bright sunshine.

 

So what is the appeal of this area. For travellers, it is the sheer beauty and uniqueness of the landscape. For developers, there were many opportunities. Rather than building skyscrapers and big highways, the development work here took on a much more environmental approach. Vast areas were covered with solar panels, thousands and thousands of them. Called solar farms, the energy generated in the Atacama Desert, was converted to electricity and fed into a grid that provided power for the small communities that still exist in this vast area.

 

The other development scheme included erecting hundreds of wind turbines. High in the mountains, with no constraints of vegetation or buildings, the wind literally blows strong 24 hours a day. I could certainly feel its power as we traversed the hills and valleys of this highway. A terrific place to generate more power.

 

We were just becoming accustomed to the landscape when it suddenly changed. Still void of vegetation and other life forms, we were now descending into gigantic valley, following the winding, steep slope into an area of dry riverbeds, huge dry waterfalls and sheer walls of wind carved rock that plummeted to the valley below. Clearly, at some point in history, this valley was well supplied with water.

 

Down, down, down we went. Fortunately, the road was in excellent condition, no potholes or other impediments. Except for the trucks … loads of them, plying the highway with much needed supplies in each community. The trucks were all standard transmission, and set in second gear. This reduced their risk of losing control and heading down the mountain road on a path they had not designed. So, as the trucks slowed, so did all the other traffic. Yet another reason this trip is short on paper but much longer with all the traffic.

 

At the bottom, … yes, we did finally get there … the beauty of the landscape continued to enable us to form a lasting impression in our minds as well experience the thrill of ‘conquering the mountain’. How naïve, again. Once we had taken the requisite numbers of photos, we headed back onto the highway, this time climbing out of this vast valley at the incredibly slow pace of the trucks ahead of us. More beauty in the land … and lots of time to soak it in.

 

One wonders why there are so many trucks along this high quality and very remote highway.

 

Several hours after we started, we finally reached San Pedro de Aticama. What we found and what we had expected were not aligned. I guess we had been looking forward to a resort town in the middle of the desert. What we did find was a dusty town with rugged red rock buildings, all attached together with clay (or something of a sort). What a shock!! It reminded us deeply of an old Mexican village where the buildings where stores mingle with homes and they all look the same. Wooden doors prevent strangers from simply walking in. Some doors are painted in bright colours, helpful in finding one’s own home is a world of ‘the same’.

 

We found our hotel, a modest structure on the edge of town. We were taken to a spartan room, clean and comfortable but without many of the amenities we are accustomed to. In this case, no air conditioning. Just throw open the windows and turn on the small electric fan. It was well over 330 degrees outside. The tiny fan was not going to do the trick. The proprietors were very friendly and clearly proud of this hotel they have built at the end of a long and dusty road. Even Jim said to me privately, “I do not know exactly what I was expecting, but this is not it.”

 

We headed back into town on the unpaved streets and had a lovely very late lunch in a small restaurant. The food was very good; the facility quite attractive but the parking was terrible. It was then that we deeply realized that this is a pedestrian town. Oops!!

 

After lunch, we stopped into a tourist office to arrange a formal tour of the Aticama Desert, an all day tour for tomorrow.

 

Back to our hotel for a much needed nap. It was then we realized that something very fundamental in this experience was not working well. I was genuinely gasping for breath and Jim was feeling ill. After considerable deliberation, we had to admit that we could not stay in this village. We had climbed quite high in elevation and we were not coping with the impact of oxygen deprivation. So, we reluctantly decided to drive back to Calama. There was a glorious sunset along the way, an amazing amount of traffic, again controlled by the speed of the trucks. The air was extremely clear and we could literally see the lights of Calama from 45 kilometres away. Amazing!!

 

Our hotel hosts had refunded 2 of our 3 days in San Pedro; the tour company refunded our payment for the tour tomorrow. Our hotel in Santiago had a room available for us. We could return our rental car. And, remarkably, there were still two flights from Calama to Santiago late in the evening. So our three day excursion to the Atacama Desert, suddenly transformed into a day trip. We arrived back in Santiago about midnight and were settled into our air conditioned room an hour later. And happily, we both felt better at this lower altitude and had a much needed good night’s sleep.

 

 

Friday, March 10, 2023 – Sunday, March 12, 2023

 

A new day!! Clearly, we were both very tired last night after our arduous drive, mainly in the dark, and our ‘breathless’ visit to the Atacama Desert. We slept long and late, awoke renewed and ready to face the day. We then made a choice … The Santiago airport is right across the road so we could go anywhere but we decided to stay put for a couple of days to rest and to plan, in detail, the final few weeks of this adventure.

 

Areas yet to travel … Mendoza and the Malbec trial, Montevideo (Uruguay), Buenos Aires (Brazil) and Iguazu Falls (Brazil/Argentina/Paraguay). We are booked on a bus trip from Santiago to Mendoza on Monday, March 13. And we have a reservation at a hotel at Iguazu Falls on Monday, March 20 (can be changed). We want to spend a couple of days in Malbec country, then a brief visit to Montevideo and a brief visit to Buenos Aires. If you have travelled with us before, you will already know that we always prefer the countryside to cities so our visits to cities are generally very short (a day or two). Our goal here is to plan an itinerary that will do justice to each location but still have us home before the end of March (ticket yet to be booked). Also, Jim’s birthday is on March 23 and we hope to celebrate that occasion at Iguazu Falls.

 

So, we are staying here until Monday, a La Quinta Hotel adjacent from the airport. Jim will do the trip planning and I will write the blog and catch up on the creation of our photo books. We will also nap, relax, do laundry, swim in the pool, read a book, call our families, eat wonderful food in the restaurant here (the seared tuna is amazing!), watch a couple of movies (in English) and be ready to go again on Monday morning. We have already booked the Uber to the bus terminal.

 

Jim is putting together a plan that will achieve our travel goals and bring us home. We will be rested and ready on Monday morning to, once again, take on the world. Please stay tuned for the final chapter.

 

Monday, March 13, 2023

 

After a lovely relaxing weekend in Santiago, we are back on the road again. We boarded a bus and travelled overland from Santiago in Chile to Mendoza in Argentina. It was a double decker bus and Jim managed to book the front two seats on the upper deck. What an amazing view we had of the countryside as we travelled along.

 

For most of the journey we were in the Andes but the mountains we saw today were absolutely void of snow. We are further north now than we have been to this point and we were actually on the northeast side of the mountains. Snow is mainly found on the southwest slopes. The area we traversed today was much drier, facing away from the ocean so less rain fell here.

 

The  mountain peaks were spectacular, rising high into the sky. There was no vegetation on most of the slopes so the varied colours of the rock were visible. On some, it was a veritable rainbow of browns, reds, auburns, greys and black.

The mountains were steep and there was evidence along the way of many landslides and avalanches. Large boulders were strewn in every direction and, in many places, there were tunnels or shelters built to protect the highways from devastation. With many, many switchback turns, there were moments when it felt like the end was near. But trucks, busses and many, many cars seemed to make the trip easily. It was fun to watch it all unfold from a balcony seat.

 

In the past there was a train line that climbed these mountains on one side and descended on the other. Some of the stations are still standing and lots of evidence of dangers along the way. In spite of building shelters for the train tracks, clearly, landslides had created great havoc and loss of life and transported goods. The train line has long been discontinued although some of the tracks and bridges are still visible.

 

The border between Chile and Argentina tends to be at the very peak of the Andes. This is the third time we have crossed the border as we zigzagged from place to place. 

This was the most interesting crossing, perhaps because we were on a bus and not driving a car. At the very top of the mountain highway was an enormous building into which all cars and busses had to go. There were bus bays as you might find at a bus station. We were assigned Bay One. Everyone had to disembark with appropriate documentation and enter the customs and immigration office. While the officers processed each person, a second set of customs people searched all the luggage stored in the hold of the bus. Fortunately everyone on our bus met the standard. No one was turned away and no luggage was seized. Reasonably efficiently, we were all back on the bus and on our way again, now travelling mostly downhill.

 

It was quite astonishing to be travelling on the east side of the Andes. The landscape is incredibly different than on the west. First of all, there was absolutely no snow on the peaks of the mountains. The landscape is barren, with many colours of rock and soil at every altitude. Quiet beautiful actually. The river at the bottom of the VERY deep canyon is almost dry and the climate is amazingly dry as well. Very few plants are evident. Just dry rock and soil. Quite a contrast to our impression of the Andes to this point.

 

We arrived at our destination, Mendoza, about mid afternoon. It was a huge bus station and it took a while to find the exit. At one point, Jim had gone ahead of me to find the nearest taxi stand. He returned by cutting through the bus bays. Not the thing to do apparently. He was accosted by a security guard who scolded him as if he was a school boy and sent him back to enter the area through the correct door. I was on a bench only a few metres from him but that did not lead the guard to change his stance. Back went Jim who appeared at the correct entrance about 5 minutes later. Somewhat funny but also somewhat frustrating.

 

We finally found the taxi stand, loaded our luggage and set off to our hotel which was quite close to the bus station. It is a modest but very clean hotel with the requisite breakfast included, good internet and air conditioning in the room. We are experiencing a decidedly warmer climate as we move north and neither of us brought particularly summery clothes.

 

Mendoza is in the heart of one of the largest wine districts in Argentina. Trucks at every turn filled to the brim with freshly picked malbec grapes on the way to be processed into wine.

Many types of wine are made here but the specialty of the area is Malbec. That is exciting for both of us. Tomorrow, we head off on formal wine tour, followed by a visit to an olive oil production location. The instructions provided by the tour operator were to eat a hearty breakfast because we will be drinking soon after. I am glad I am not driving for this occasion.

 

Early to bed tonight. It is amazing how heat and travel can lead to fatigue. And we must be at our best for tomorrow.