Interesting adventures in northern Chile

One day we drove a short way out of town, to hike in a canyon with both cacti and a river. The views and topography were very unique to the area. San Pedro de Atacama is in a desert, but as you approach this canyon, you notice that there’s something different here…Green!

We first started hiking on that narrow trail you see on the right side of the picture above. We only got about 1/4 mile in when the trail petered out, and I tried scrambling up a rock wall, to see if it might continue around a bend, but it was a long drop to the river, with no clear path to be seen. So… we backtracked, and tried the left side of the river. See, the hotel reception guy told us it was “easy hiking - start at km 24 mark”, and we had no other trail map to go on, other than reports on Trip Advisor that said how beautiful it was, and how they went with a guide. A guide for these two intrepid world travelers? Pshaw!

our beginning treat

farther in the canyon

After hiking about 45 minutes, the scenery was remaining about the same, but the trail was getting harder to follow.

So we turned around, satisfied that we had gotten some hiking in, as well as experienced this special area.

Another day, we drove 1 1/2 hours to the altiplanic Lakes Miscanti and Miniques, at 4150 m (13,600 ft). I just looked up the definition of Altiplano - a term that was tossed around in both Chile and Peru. It refers to the plateau where “the Andes are at their widest” and is the most extensive area of high plateau in the world, outside of Tibet.

The views were quite striking…

But after snapping the obligate shots…

…we were decidedly underwhelmed by the destination after driving so far. The only “hiking” was along a very limited trail that paralleled the dirt road, and didn’t approach the lakes nearly close enough for my liking. Also, there was very little bird and animal life to be seen.

The three dots in the water were the only flamingos we saw, and I believe they were the pale Chilean flamingos. They were each standing on one leg, with their bills tucked under their wings.

Since we had driven so far, we decided to check out Laguna Aguas Calientes that was “nearby”, and purported to have numerous flamingos. We followed Google Maps’ first recommendation for a road that would be a shorter trip, but turned back after 3 km, when the road was washed out for the second time, and the way around had boulders the size of our car tires. Soooo… not to be thwarted, we followed the next map that was on paved road for ~15 km, ‘til we reached a village and where the road was washed out (a theme here?). Intrepid (foolhardy?) explorers that we are, we continued on the WORST washboard dirt road we have ever been on, bar none (including in the Serengeti in Africa) for a bone and teeth rattling 30 minutes, before we called it - given that we still had another hour of that torture to reach the destination, then face the daunting 1 1/2 hrs back on the same stuff. We at least got to see Volcan Laskar:

Later that evening, we were treated to a gorgeously colored sky on our way to dinner. Whew! Enough adventures for now.