The day dawns sunny, 14 at first, then 31 in the sun. Our tire light has been on so Ted is checking tires regularly so we don’t get going until 10. First we cling to the beautiful deserted and mostly untouched coastline. Then climb up into the lower Sierra, studded with old and current mines, some absolutely mind boggling with the sheer size and magnitude of the damage done to the surface of the land.
Our friend Jim Allen, a mining engineer, has worked here a lot so we will have to talk to him about it when we get back. Many questions as to the whys and hows of pulling ores from the earth here. It is desolate land up to Antofagasta, huge mining port, where we head inland You can taste the sulphur in the air here. Huge old nitrate plans dot the landscape and were the lifeblood of Chile’s exports in years past. Now copper is king, due to huge demands from China and India.
The bad news: three times this day we follow the most gigantic machinery being transferred along the single lane highways. Huge traffic jams build up behind them. With no gas stations for something like 100k, and 13k from our destination, it then takes us an hour and a half to cover the distance. I finally resort to peeing in a plastic bag in the car, quite the gymnastic feat but necessary.
At 5pm we come over a ridge to the most magnificent view of a ridge snow capped volcanoes about 6000k high. A welcome sight.
Down through a scenic rift, we see the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama arrayed before us, our home for the next 5 days.
We pull into the lovely hotel there, with a warm welcome from English speaking hosts and a large comfortable room and many, many staff at our beck and call. As logn term guests, we have free laundry so all our clothes get a wash for the first time.
We are now at 2400k, about 8,000ft and after the very strong Pisco welcome drink, I feel dizzy and spend a rather sleepless first night. Fortunately, this passed and although we felt a big sluggish, we were not overly affected by the altitude.
The first morning, we had sun, cloud and (you guessed it, the Fosters have arrived) a slight drizzle, almost unheard of here. The temperature in town stayed at roughly 24, a very comfortable touring temperature.
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