Chile

Parque Lauca/Arica/ Reserva Nacional Pampoa del Tamarugal
After a lot of hmming and hawing we finally made up our minds to avoid the bad roads in Bolivia and check out what Chile had to offer. We decided to take a gravel back road from the hotel in La Paz up to the Alti Plano and managed to avoid the La Paz and El Alto traffic, what a shortcut! The road took a bit of route finding, but by asking a few directions it was relatively easy to find our way. Dom and Belinda were heading up to El Alto as well so we gave them a ride. Once we reached the Alti Plano we dropped off Dom and Belinda and a local hitchhiker who we picked up on the way, then headed towards Chile. We had heard that the stretch after the Chilean border didn’t have any gas for a long time so we bought a 20 litre gas container and filled it up with cheap Bolivian gas. The drive was flat and straight with hardly any traffic and the closer we came to the boarder the prettier the scenery got. When we got to the Bolivian side of the border we were stopped by some soldiers who jumped on top of the van and were going to confiscate our Bolivian gas that we had just bought. Luckily our tank had enough room to fit the twenty litres so we now had a full tank, plenty to make it to Arica. With a bit of confusion we managed to get our exit stamps and sign our van out of Bolivia. Then we drove for another 5kms to the Chilean side passing beautiful lakes and high altitude flamingos. Here we were taken by surprise at how friendly and relaxed all of the officials were. In the migracion office they were pumping Crystal Method and other heavy techno beats at full volume and the Customs officers seemed to be more interested in us and our trip that searching our van. Although they did confiscate our honey, some grains and our bamboo pole for our awning. Just a kilometre or two past the border we reached a beautiful campsite in Lauca National Park. It overlooks a beautiful lake and a couple of spectacular volcanoes. The lake itself is at over 4500 metres with Volcan Parinacota towering behind it at 6339 metres. We set up camp and quickly got out the camera before we lost the evening light. We took photos and watched the sun set, then wolfed down some food and jumped in to the van to escape the bitter cold. The temperature was dropping quickly and we were worried about our antifreeze possibly freezing. We had a few leaks along the way and in Central America you can’t find antifreeze, only coolant which has the same freezing temp as water. We had tested it in La Paz and our tester read that it was good until -10oC which didn’t seem like enough considering it was already -5oC at 8pm. Oh well nothing we could do until the morning. While Karen kept the bed warm, Pete played with the camera and tripod and to his surprise got some cool photos of the volcanoes. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful, but freezing cold sunrise. Our thermometer was maxed out at -10oC and there was a thick layer of ice on our windows, by far the coldest night of our trip. We waited until after breakfast when the sun had warmed the radiator and then set off with no problems. On the way to Arica we stopped at the ghost like town of Parinacota where we were told to visit the old church and to ask for the key from one of the locals. Unfortunately there was only one man who we saw in town and he didn’t seem to have the key. We hung around waiting for anyone else to turn up or wake up but we had no luck and eventually left. We descended from 4500 metres to sea level in three to four hours and didn’t see much of anything except a couple of small towns in the middle of nowhere. When we finally reached Arica we hit up a grocery store and an ATM, then searched for a Hostel which had parking. We drove in circles for a half an hour before we finally found one. It was a strange place with strange owners and the price was quite high, so we drove north of town and found a cheaper place to camp. The next morning we attempted to leave town but somehow missed a turn and ended up on a cool scenic coastal road. We were driving south, the right direction but this narrow winding road definitely wasn’t the Pan Americana and we had no clue where it went so we eventually turned around and drove back into Arica. This time we asked for directions and quickly found the Pan Americana and were on our way. We made it to Reserva Nacional Pampoa del Tamarugal where we decided to spend the night. The campground here wasn’t too impressive and was also expensive, so we checked out another place on the other side of the highway. It appeared to be closed, but just before we left the caretaker came out. Karen charmed him and he let us camp there for free. We were the only ones there and the best part was that we had our own private swimming pool.

San Pedro de Atacama
The following morning we continued on towards San Pedro de Atacama. About 10kms outside of town we reached the turn off for Valle de la Luna, a park full of sandstone formations and dunes and decided to check it out for its famous sunset. We paid our fee, checked out a view point, and then before we knew it we were out of this small park. We were going to head to town, but on the way Pete convinced Karen to camp in the desert for a night. We found an awesome spot and set up in time to watch the distant volcanoes change different hues of red as the sun set. Again Pete played with some cool night shots and then we cuddled up for a cold desert night’s sleep. In the morning we were in no rush to leave so we cooked up a good breakfast, hung out in the sun and played some Frisbee. Finally we decided it was time for a shower so we packed up and went to a campground in town. Here we were pleasantly surprised not only by hot showers, but also by a great artificial climbing wall. We spent the rest of the day lounging around, climbing a bit and exploring the town. The next day we were introduced to Pablo, a local Chilean climber who luckily had time on his hands so wanted to show us a local climbing hotspot. We decided to wait one more day to go so that Paola and Marlen two other Chileans could come with us so we spent two more days relaxing, doing some hard bouldering with all the locals, and enjoying their hospitality with some dinner and drinks.

Climbing Outside Socaire
Finally it was time to go climbing so we woke up early, picked up Pablo and then continued to the girl’s awesome adobe house for some breakfast before setting off. The climbing area was only an hour away from San Pedro, but over a 1000m higher at 3500m. When we arrived we were absolutely blown away. Here in the middle of the Salar de Atacama was this perfect canyon with steep walls covered in pockets...PARADISE!!! We had decided to stay in the van so the rest of the gang went to set up camp 10mins down in the canyon and we got the van ready for the night before gearing up to climb. The rock was freezing, but we soldiered on and were rewarded with an awesome afternoon of climbing. We finished just as the sun was setting so by the time we reached the van the surrounding rock and mountains were red and the moon was rising...wow!! After snapping some shots we headed back into the canyon by moonlight to the camping spot where the girls already had the night’s meal cooking. There was a perfect cave to cook and keep warm in so we all huddled by the fire eating, chatting and listening to music. Finally it was time to go to bed so we said our goodnights and started our trek back up the van. The full moon lit our way there and lit up some more night shots for Pete. The next morning everything was frozen, but by the time we reached camp there was enough sun to warm up our bodies for another incredible day of climbing. With Pablo as our punishing guide we were pushed to do some pretty hard climbs and were both thoroughly pumped out by the end of the day, but incredibly happy! That night it was our turn to cook and we did up a proper fire cookout. It was delicious! We hung out again and then went back to the van in time to hear snow falling on the roof. Wait a minute, snow? In the driest desert in the world?!?!?!? You wouldn’t think it was possible, but we woke up to some snow on the rocks and frozen water jugs, brrrrr. It was our last day to climb because the girls had to get back to work so we dragged ourselves out of bed and geared up. Luckily we found a climb in the sun and all pumped ourselves out on it before heading back to San Pedro. It was 6 days in a row for us after not climbing in months so we were punched and happy to be taking a well deserved break.

San Pedro de Atacama
When we got back to the campground we were surprised to hear that we had friends here waiting for us. We turned the corner and there was Marcus and Sonja from Switzerland who were the first overlanders we met on the trip way back in San Cristobal, Mexico! What a surprise! They’d shipped down to Argentina when we shipped to Colombia and are now on their way North. We quickly showered, started catching up and then decided to go out for dinner. It was really nice to catch up with them and hear how their travels were going. They still have another year or two to go and are looking forward to the next stage of their journey in Australia. After a great night’s sleep in a little warmer climate we woke up to a leisurely morning exchanging photos and music with the Chileans and making plans with the Swiss for a night in the desert. We had been told about some lakes in the middle of the Salar that were free to camp by so off we went. Two hours down a washboard road later we finally found a spot (not sure if it was the right spot) to camp for the night and cooked up an awesome meal and shared a few bottles of wine before it got too cold to sit outside any longer. We were treated to a little warm up in their heated Land Cruiser before crawling into our own freezing cold van for the night, brrrr. The next morning we went to pick up a Swiss guy in town to give him a lift over to Argentina so we skipped breakfast and retraced our bumpy steps back to the highway. We picked up Mathieus and then went around in circles to find the best hidden gas station in the world before hitting the road to ARGENTINA!!!

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