Deserts & Beaches & Hairy Facial Features
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2007
1
7
14
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
La Serena,
Chile
Monday, November 12, 2007
Leaving Salta behind, we headed across the Atacama Desert towards Northern Chile.
However, our planned long drive was thwarted by an electrical fault on the truck which caused a 4 hour delay, and our intended border crossing near San Pedro, Chile was no longer possible that day. Instead, we pulled up on the side of the road and attempted to set up camp for the night on the hard, empty, windy high altitude desert expanse. As the sun disappeared and left behind an armour-piercing wind, said attempts to secure tents in the rocky surface were proving futile. In fact, even covered in our stylish alpaca-wear, it was not possible to remain outside for more than a minute without half freezing to death. After a group effort setting up and holding up a cook tent, and amazingly cooking some Spaghetti Carbonara, we escaped into the relative warmth of the truck, rugged up in our sleeping bags in a contortionistīs variety of sleeping positions.
From here, we drove on and eventually spent the night sleeping uncomfortably within sight of the border (which opened at 8am).
The next morning, we drowsily queued up outside the immigration office awaiting our exit stamps, and soon continued across the desert into No Manīs Land, the bizarrely long (180km) stretch of land between Argentinian and Chilean Immigration.
Finally, after a bag search that was either pointlessly brief for some or pointlessly extensive for others, we entered Chile and found our camp in San Pedro, that was supposedly a dead hippy town, but was in fact rather expensive and touristy.
That evening, we headed into Valle de la Lune (The Valley of the Moon), driving through huge rock formations, and hiking up huge sand dunes to watch the sunset over this harsh desert, surrounded by volcanoes.
Another two days of driving and the Pacific Ocean was finally in sight.
We drove into La Serena, a substantial city on the Chilean coast, relieved to be at sea level, excited when we saw the empty cabins next to our campsite, and more excited when advised of their relative inexpensiveness.
And so, relaxed and clean (except for an increasingly porno looking moustache), ready to get to Santiago, we continue our steady descent of the continent.
