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We Meet the Pacific Again - Then North to Peru

30/11/2010

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From Calama we had hoped to go by train to Bolivia but Macchu Picchu was calling and we had a deadline to meet - our next cruise left Lima in only 10 days time.
So we took a bus to the Pacific coast of Chile, destination Peru via Antofagasta. We arrived to a fairly dreary part of town and managed to organise an overnight bus to the Peruvian border, departing in about 4 hours time so a chance to explore a Chilean city.
We got a taxi to the boardwalk area and then walked back toward some large shopping malls. Basically, once in the down town area we could have been in any modern city anywhere in the world. It was a buzz to see the Pacific Ocean again and before dinner we watched a sunset over the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
After a traditional Chilean dinner at TGI Friday's, we headed back to get our rather luxurious business class bus to Arica, the last chilean town before the Peru border.
At the border in the morning we organised a taxi to run us up the coast to Tacna in Peru, crossing the border just after it opened for business and joining the queue of old American cars running people and goods to the North. Tacna was quiet and we were able to organise a bus to Arequipa without too much trouble and a leisurely wait. On to arequipa.
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Sunset over the South Pacific
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Crossing the Andes - Into Chile

6/11/2010

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Salt flats in the distance
We left Salta all too soon, taking an early morning bus to Chile (as you do!). We climbed from 2200 metres through rain and drizzle, to 4400 metres at the Jamos Pass. As we had already discovered, buses in South America are very comfortable with more leg room than normal and seats that recline 45 degrees, plus meals and drinks as you would get on a flight.

More pleasantly surprising than the bus was the road conditions. A very well maintained, tarmac road with wide parking bays to the sides. Just what you want for a bit of reassurance when crossing the Andes.

The road winds North of Salta and then West, tackling several mountain ranges before crossing amazing slat flats (at over 3000 metres) and then eventually crossing into Chile and dropping into the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth. Throughout the journey there were towering peaks of approximately 6000 metres in view, some dotted with snow and most showing their volcanic history.

We arrived in Calama, Chile, passing near the world’s biggest copper mine, and found a fairly normal town centre with more stray dogs then we have seen anywhere. We saw our first Chinese restaurant in ages, then another and another – apparently China buys all of the copper so I guess they have attracted businessmen and restaurateurs alike. We had Chinese for dinner and then the next day I tried to find out if the train still ran to Bolivia.

It doesn’t so we took a bus to the coast and visited Antofogasta, second largest city in Chile and ugly as hell on the west side of town but beautiful and modern along the Pacific Coast. We managed to find a TGI Fridays for some truly traditional Chilean fare and then took a night bus to the border with Peru.

Somewhere between Calama and Antofogasta we decided that Macchu Picchu was our must see and that a side trip to Bolivia was a nice to have – so we were heading to Cusco in Peru.

Through bus travel, a border crossing to Peru by taxi and then another bus to Arequipa, we were finding travel in South America to be fairly relaxed and easy to coordinate. We definitely didn’t see much of Chile and it’s people, and what we did see of the country was all desert, right up to the edge of the Pacific Ocean! But then we were about to see a little bit of desert in Peru…………..

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The edge of the Atacama Desert - or the Moon, hard to tell which!?
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Customs and immigration, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
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Outside the butchers in Calama at closing time - a popular place for some residents
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Our first sunset over the Pacific!!
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Argentina

6/11/2010

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We left from Puerte Iguacu on a midday bus that would take us through the night across the North of Argentina to Salta.

Salta was a place on a map to us, in the right direction and on the right route for us to see some of Argentina and cross into Chile where there were some big attractions…….then we discovered that Salta is a huge attraction on it’s own!

Surrounded by mountains reaching to over 6,000 metres, and with spectacular desert, canyon and mountain scenery, Salta is a popular destination for national and international tourists. The town itself is very well preserved, with centuries old buildings in Spanish/European styling and with lots of cafes and bars around a central garden square. Of course we were to find out that the census next week is expected to reveal a population of nearly a million but the town centre had a feel of a typical country Australian regional town.

We took a tour – our third this year(!) – to a town called Cachi. The highlight was the terrain we traversed along the way, climbing out of mountainous valleys to a height of over 3,400 metres, and then dropping gradually again through cactus filled desert plains and hidden valleys of colourful mountainsides and desolate lunar landscapes. What we didn’t realise at the time was that desolate was an exaggeration compared with the coming days of travel!

Along the way we saw a Cliffside climbing to 4000 metres that the driver told us is named after the Condor as they can someimtes be seen here. Yeah, right! Like the Jaguars in the forests of the Rio da Plata – possible to be seen but not probable!

And then we saw them, 4 at first, then they disappeared, then 1 and then a little further along and as we had climbed closer to the top of the pass we saw 9 of the world’s largest flying creatures, the Condor, soaring not far above us!

Further along in our little VW Crossfire, a sort of 4WD hatchback, we ventured off the main dirt road and went to investigate a valley next to an old Uranium mine! The mine was out of view but the valley was spectacular, multi-coloured cliffs, eroded pinnacles also in multi-colours and true cacti, 15 feet high with little arms sticking out. Of course the detour wasn’t without drama – the little VW didn’t quite have the dust sealing properties that the designers had hoped for so we drove along in choking dust for 15 minutes before returning to the main road.

After a stop in the small town of Cachi, we headed back towards Salta. As seems to be the case 9 times out of 10, I noticed that having had an enjoyable, meat packed lunch and it being 1500 metres above his home town, our driver was a little tired. The will power he used to keep those little dark eyes open was impressive but not enough. I worried that my conversation may actually make him even drowsier (“so what languages do students study at school in Salta?”) and as it turned out it did so he pulled over. Phew!! Just to get some “tablets” out of the back of the car!! Yikes! Well, we got back safely without too many hair raising moments as we descended past drops of a thousand feet.

The only other thing we could say about Argentina is we didn’t give it enough time. It is like Australia (as is Brazil) with so much varied country to see you need I would guess at least 3 weeks to see the best of Argentina. We certainly liked what we saw, found it more relaxing then Brazil (and cheaper) and could have stayed longer just in the parts we had seen. But onward to higher and dryer destinations – across the Andes into Chile! 
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