Ghost Trains, Flamingos & Salt Flats
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
263
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
San Pedro de Atacama,
Chile
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
We got the obligatory photographs before moving on.
Next we passed a petrogliph on the side of a hill. It was of the bird Ņu and was over 800 years old! It was absolutely huge as well.
We then arrived at a town called Baquedano. This is where there is a large train cemetery - yep, dead trains! Because the air is so dry here, the engines just haven't rusted. As we were walking through the cemetery, past the old station, a single train engine trundled through.....but it was supposed to be a cemetery of dead trains! Was this a ghost train? It looked real and we hope it was!!
Further on I decided to climb into one of the actual engines of the train, where the coal burns. Lorna felt it extremely amusing to try and lock me in there!!
After escaping my capture, I stood on one of the trains pretending to be the driver. I was told to come down as I was better qualified as being the Fat Controller!! Blummin' Thomas the Tank Engine.
As we walked along the tracks out of the cemetery, we were advised that this was where one of the scenes was shot for the last Bond movie 'Quantum of Solace'! Most of the shooting was in Bolivia, but Northern Chile had its moments as well.
We then drove across one part of the Chilean Salt Flats (not as big as Bolivia's, but big nonetheless). This first part had a mixture of salt & clay giving a more browny colour. It was still in a crystallised formation though, which gave it sharp edges.
On the way through the flats, towards the 2nd type of salt flats, we stopped in a small oasis town of Peine. We were now 2400 metres above sea level. This was an isolated town that had some water springs in the middle of the desert. There were a couple of swimming holes here for which we stripped off and had a dip. We also had a bit of lunch here.
It was then onto the 2nd part of the salt flats. All along I just couldn't get the song 'Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls' out my head!! These were the hexagonal type that are probably more commonly known and similar to the Bolivian ones.
I just had to have a taste and guess what.....it tasted of salt.
Before we got to San Pedro de Atacama, we stopped off at the 'Natural Reserve Los Flamencos' in the 'Laguna Chaxa' sector. This was created to protect the habitat of the pink flamingos. We had a walk along the salty paths, checking out the flamingos and the different lagoons before settling down to watch the sunset over the reserve. It was pretty awesome with all the volcanoes in the background as well.
We finally got to San Pedro de Atacama (still at 2400 metres above sea level) at about 9pm. We dropped our bags off at the hostel - 'Residencial Las Kaņas' - before heading off to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Lorna had Steak and potatoes, whilst I had suckling pig with garlic and sweet red peppers. The food was lovely. There was also some live local music being played which made for a good atmosphere.
We sat outside the hostel, under the stars, having a few beers and a chat for the rest of the evening.
