Day 273
This day we spent more time on the bus (Turbus) heading further south. At some stage we had to stop and have all our luggage examined by Chilean customs officers. This apparently is standard procedure in the area: Peru and Bolivia are so very close, you know!
Via Calama we eventually arrived in the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama. The town is very close to Bolivia–we had been very close just about a week ago… it would have been so simple just to cross over then and spare ourselves some stressful times on the train and buses. Just check out the map above. But hey, we still made it here.
San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Puna de Atacama, an arid high plateau. The local climate is extremely dry and mild, with daytime temperatures between 25-30 degrees.
At first sight the place did not seem to be really big with lots of adobe buildings. Brown was the predominant colour scheme of the township as well as region in general.
We stayed in a nice 6 bed dorm at Hostal Rural, a nice little oasis with hammocks, a ping pong table and a number of very lovely people.
Day 274
Frankly, the local sightseeing options weren’t too appealing to us since they pretty much duplicated what we’d seen in Bolivia (name: lagoons, salt flats etc).
Bettina and I wandered around the town’s dusty streets and explored a few place like the church, main square and market. In the afternoon we went on a guided tour to the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley).
It is located in Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama desert of Chile and it has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of color and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. The valley is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. As part of the tour with Corvatsch (tour operator) we also visited a lookout point to gaze at the Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). The sky was fairly overcast so the sunset pictures did not turn out to be too impressive. Anyways…
Day 275
Time to move on. We wanted to get out of the desert and therefore hopped on a bus to the south. Due to Chile’s north-south layout there weren’t many options at hand coming from north. 
Around 2pm we took the Turbus to Calama where we had to switch the bus terminal (who would have guessed that buses from different operators have their terminals in different parts of town that require you to take a taxi between them–very annoying).
From 6pm to the next morning at 9am we found ourselves on a Flotta Barrios coach closing in on La Serena. Who minds those long bus journeys. I definitely do not.
Day 276
We arrived in La Serena–what a beautiful city–in the morning, paid the usual premium (tourist) taxi fare to our hostel (Hostal Aji Verde), left our luggage and headed downtown.
Later in the morning we had to pick up our grey Hyundai Accent car hire at the local Econorent office. We only hired the car for two days so we could get around La Serena and its nearby valleys.
Oh how nice was it sitting behind the steering wheel! The car was handled very easily. After all those months in the US in our (sloppy but still great) giant minivan I almost forgot how great a more direct steering experience can be. And being able to shift the gears manually…. fantastic!
Right away we went to the Elqui Valley, which leads away from La Serena into the mountains towards Argentina. The valley offered great panoramic views of farm land. Particularly the vinyards were impressive!
We stopped in Vicuna, a tiny city some 70km up the road. We had a stroll around town, enjoyed the Plaza de Armas and the Torre Bauer, a Medieval tower that had been put there 100 years ago by the city’s mayor.
In the afternoon we checked out Capel Pisceria, the bodega where Capel Pisco is produced. Pisco is a colourless yellowish wine brandy. We went on a Spanish guided tour of their facilities which was not too impressive.
Our next stop was at Pisco Elqui which was yet another small village further up in the valley (and the local capital).
Later at night we came back to Vicuna in order to go on a Mamalluca observatory tour. We followed a long and winding dirt road up into the mountains and stopped our car right outside the observatory. This part of Chile is a renowned place for obsvervatories since the country exhibits a prime sky with almost no clouds most of the year around.
Our guide was Luis. While explaining all sorts of things he turned the observatory’s telescope and roof back and forth so we could have close looks at a number of different items on the night’s sky: Jupiter and four of its moons, Venus, some nebulae in Orion and the earth’s moon. We also got a good introduction into the southern hemisphere’s star constellations. Very nice as we were able to see so much undistracted by nearby city lights.
We came back to the hostel very late around 1:30am. Time for bed.
Day 277
It was another sunny day and we decided to head to the south to Limari Valley to check out a few more wineries. However it was more difficult than anticipated finding those places.
We stopped for lunch at Ovalle–small town, Plaza de Armas and pedestrian mall. The nearby countryside was ok, but nothing special. Plus: We did not find any winery near Monte Patria. Apparently it is not that important for the vinyards to be found. So they do not bother putting up any signs that might help random tourist to locate them.
We returned the car in the evening, bought ourselves cheese, olives and a very fine bottle of Chilean wine and relaxed at the hostel.
Atacama desert times at San Pedro de Atacama and excursions to Elqui Valley near La Serena
Day 273
This day we spent more time on the bus (Turbus) heading further south. At some stage we had to stop and have all our luggage examined by Chilean customs officers. This apparently is standard procedure in the area: Peru and Bolivia are so very close, you know!
Via Calama we eventually arrived in the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama. The town is very close to Bolivia–we had been very close just about a week ago… it would have been so simple just to cross over then and spare ourselves some stressful times on the train and buses. Just check out the map above. But hey, we still made it here.
San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Puna de Atacama, an arid high plateau. The local climate is extremely dry and mild, with daytime temperatures between 25-30 degrees.
At first sight the place did not seem to be really big with lots of adobe buildings. Brown was the predominant colour scheme of the township as well as region in general.
We stayed in a nice 6 bed dorm at Hostal Rural, a nice little oasis with hammocks, a ping pong table and a number of very lovely people.
Day 274
Frankly, the local sightseeing options weren’t too appealing to us since they pretty much duplicated what we’d seen in Bolivia (name: lagoons, salt flats etc).
Bettina and I wandered around the town’s dusty streets and explored a few place like the church, main square and market. In the afternoon we went on a guided tour to the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley).
It is located in Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama desert of Chile and it has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of color and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. The valley is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. As part of the tour with Corvatsch (tour operator) we also visited a lookout point to gaze at the Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). The sky was fairly overcast so the sunset pictures did not turn out to be too impressive. Anyways…
Day 275
Time to move on. We wanted to get out of the desert and therefore hopped on a bus to the south. Due to Chile’s north-south layout there weren’t many options at hand coming from north.
Around 2pm we took the Turbus to Calama where we had to switch the bus terminal (who would have guessed that buses from different operators have their terminals in different parts of town that require you to take a taxi between them–very annoying).
From 6pm to the next morning at 9am we found ourselves on a Flotta Barrios coach closing in on La Serena. Who minds those long bus journeys. I definitely do not.
Day 276
We arrived in La Serena–what a beautiful city–in the morning, paid the usual premium (tourist) taxi fare to our hostel (Hostal Aji Verde), left our luggage and headed downtown.
Later in the morning we had to pick up our grey Hyundai Accent car hire at the local Econorent office. We only hired the car for two days so we could get around La Serena and its nearby valleys.
Oh how nice was it sitting behind the steering wheel! The car was handled very easily. After all those months in the US in our (sloppy but still great) giant minivan I almost forgot how great a more direct steering experience can be. And being able to shift the gears manually…. fantastic!
Right away we went to the Elqui Valley, which leads away from La Serena into the mountains towards Argentina. The valley offered great panoramic views of farm land. Particularly the vinyards were impressive!
We stopped in Vicuna, a tiny city some 70km up the road. We had a stroll around town, enjoyed the Plaza de Armas and the Torre Bauer, a Medieval tower that had been put there 100 years ago by the city’s mayor.
In the afternoon we checked out Capel Pisceria, the bodega where Capel Pisco is produced. Pisco is a colourless yellowish wine brandy. We went on a Spanish guided tour of their facilities which was not too impressive.
Our next stop was at Pisco Elqui which was yet another small village further up in the valley (and the local capital).
Later at night we came back to Vicuna in order to go on a Mamalluca observatory tour. We followed a long and winding dirt road up into the mountains and stopped our car right outside the observatory. This part of Chile is a renowned place for obsvervatories since the country exhibits a prime sky with almost no clouds most of the year around.
Our guide was Luis. While explaining all sorts of things he turned the observatory’s telescope and roof back and forth so we could have close looks at a number of different items on the night’s sky: Jupiter and four of its moons, Venus, some nebulae in Orion and the earth’s moon. We also got a good introduction into the southern hemisphere’s star constellations. Very nice as we were able to see so much undistracted by nearby city lights.
We came back to the hostel very late around 1:30am. Time for bed.
Day 277
It was another sunny day and we decided to head to the south to Limari Valley to check out a few more wineries. However it was more difficult than anticipated finding those places.
We stopped for lunch at Ovalle–small town, Plaza de Armas and pedestrian mall. The nearby countryside was ok, but nothing special. Plus: We did not find any winery near Monte Patria. Apparently it is not that important for the vinyards to be found. So they do not bother putting up any signs that might help random tourist to locate them.
We returned the car in the evening, bought ourselves cheese, olives and a very fine bottle of Chilean wine and relaxed at the hostel.