Hotel La Casona Copiapo

We will post trip information here as soon as it starts. For 2010, we will continue planning the project and look for Sponsors that are willing to invest and support the Project. All indications in that regard is ...

... brain would ever take into account when assessing a given space. This has all changed. Since moving to Northern Chile in late October 2008, I have encountered, and killed, 27 Chilean recluses, or corner spiders. Every single one of these has been in one of the two rooms in my little apartment. The three that I found yesterday had built webs in the eaves directly above my bed. In my bathroom, currently, there is a wad of tissue paper blocking the only exit ...

... Actually, NOTHING lives there. No cacti, no scrub brush, no lizards, not even insects from what I could tell. Supposedly the driest desert in the world. So we rode across the Salar to Atacama and then south through the desert. That night we camped in the barren desert under an incredibly bright moon, due to the lack of humidity in the atmosphere. There are several very large observatories in this area ...

... and the heat is incredible. we stop at the BIG HAND in the desert for a few photo´s, the wind whipping over the mountain top trying to knock the bikes over. We push on and continue playing tag with our Brazilian friend. It´s getting late and we are about 200 kms from Copiapo we decide to stop in Chanaral for the evening. As we pull into town I can hear a loud, rhythmic noise coming from the ...

... the law in Chile says you have to be at least 25years old to rent a car if ytou are a foreigner. We were back to square one... So our last chance with Alex was to find two gringos to fill in the two spaces left in the car and book a tour, we spent the next 2 hours going from hostal to hostal around town to find a couple, i am sorry to say that we failed... but it was fun. We met so many people in the whole process, a canadian couple, two austrian girls, an english dude ...

Onwards from Caldera i got to the nice town of Copiapo and visited the nearby old silvermine named Chanarillo. one of the "leftover workers" showed me some samples of what was mined here. there are about a hundred mines on that site with kind of adventurous gangways. Further south i reached La Serena. Its a beach town and touristy but kind of cool. beach party... From Serena, the ...

After the day tour to the Elqui Valley, Tom, Shanna, Rachael, and I (all staying at the same hostel), decide to order in some Chilean pizza and drink some of the pisco purchased on the tour . The pizza arrives and is well received on empty stomachs and it´s not half bad either. The night is a good one and I quite enjoy the pisco. It was nice to sit down with 3 others and enjoy their company for the night. We would all like to continue to ...

... plastered with grape fields and avocado groves and scattered with various wineries and pisquerías, where the Chilean liquor, pisco, is made. We toured one of the oldest artisanal pisquerías in the area called Los Nichos. It used to bear the name Tres R´s (the name was recently bought out by a giant conglomerate, Pisco Control), named after the founder, Rigoberto Rodriguez Rodriguez. I think if that was my name I would also abbreviate to ´Three R´s.´ Or maybe just the sound ...

Next we crossed the boarder in to Chile, there was actually 150km of beautiful nomansland in between Argentina and Chile!! I had my Santa hat on while crossing the boarder into Chile and the guards were not taking me seriously, it was funny. We arrived late in to San Pedro and put up our soggy tents, it was the best place to go after the wetness of Salta because we knew it wouldnt rain in ...

... to locate it and found nice views of the town on the way. I don´t think there is a lot to do in Copiapo unless you are prepared to part with a fare bit of money to visit the national park or go hiking. For me this town has served as a rest place before heading further north. I have also made two new Chilean friends who started to chat to me in the plaza. They were very friendly, its a shame to always be wary of people ...