SETTLING IN ON THE CENTRAL CHILEAN COAST

Yesterday I went into the port of San Antonio, Chile with my friend Diego Savignone, who is also the caretaker of Las 7 Cabañas where I am staying in El Tabo here on the central Chilean coast. Our purpose was to buy some fresh fish right off of the docks for upcoming meals. The image above shows some of ther activity going on yesterday on the dock that extends out from the main fish market there in San Antonio, with a freighter of South Korean registry in the background.
As I´ve been saying, of late I have largely come to eschew the idea of going out on another long, extended drive into another part of this continent, and now I have come to the decision that even going on some smaller excursions from this rather stable base on the shores of the South Pacific would most likely just be excercising an option that now seems to be an unnecessary use of funds and energy while at the same time departing from a decidedly good thing which I´ve found right here.
So what all that means is that I like it here, and after all, this is supposed to be a vacation and not something meant to be unsettled or stressful. So, I´ve talked to Diego and his wife Luisa about extending my stay at Las 7 Cabañas in El Tabo right up until 15 or 16 January when I am supposed to be bringing my rented 4x4 pickup truck back to Andrés and his company there in Santiago. They are quite happy with having me stick around, as they have come to really enjoy my presence, and have welcomed me into their home as sort of part of their extended family. And their two kids have started to call me "Tio," which is Spanish for uncle.
It is the sort of thing where I´ve come around to understand that there really is no chance, in the scant three weeks I have left to be able to find anything better than what I´ve got right now, and with the heavy tourist season set to begin immediately following New Year´s, I´ve decided it is in my best interests to simply stay put, and enjoy where I am.
Watch for a new post in a day or two about some rather rewarding reading I´ve been doing here in my digs in El Tabo. Until then, I´ll say chao, amigos.

LA IGLESIA EN EL CAMPO

Yep, that´s "La Iglesia en el Campo," or The Church in the Field, in English. This time I´m using the Spanish, because I think it has a much better sound to it. Back on Saturday, my friends Diego and Luisa Savignone, the caretakers of this group of oceanside cabañas I´m staying at, invited me to a big family reunion at the very impressive country estate their family owns at an agricultural community known as Codigua, which is about 80 kilometers from here, inland from the sea and about 20 kilometers from the agricultural town of Melipilla (80 km SW of Santiago). To say that this church, located out in a pasture, and with no congregation whatsoever, is an anomaly is an understatement. But what an impression it had on me when I first saw it!
Actually, the church is an exact replica of another church which exists on the Chilean island of Chiloé, about 1200 kilometers south of this estate, where this copy was built six years ago.
I am including photos of the interior of the church as well as several views of the estate, to give you a better idea of this beautiful and quite pastoral place.

This picture to the right shows the main house on the estate as viewed from the church, complete with a pasture full of horses whose owners pay to have grazing rights in these pastures.

Here are some images of the interior of the church, which show that the structure´s interior has also been replicated with an eye towards accuracy, right down to the posting of the Stations of ther Cross on the interior walls. The dark photo on the right was taken on the upper level, showing the ladder that leads up into the steeple (sorry, no church bell, however).

The image to the right shows the altar and some of the pews.

The above image shows Diego at the church, and he told me that in the winter months when there is little work at the cabañas, he spends quite a bit of time down here at Codigua, working on maintenance projects to preserve both the church and also the main ranch house as well as the guest house (seen below and to the right) and the rest of the estate.

Now, I have posted many of these pictures in "small" size in order to get them onto the blog with a minimal use of space. Remember, you can click on any one of them to view a larger image.

This last image I´ve posted here is of the pond which is also a part of the estate. There are ducks that have nests there, and the waters are stocked with trout as well.

Anyway, Saturday was a special day spent with Diego and Luisa and their family. Ther almuerzo was superb, even though everybody ate too much. But the real joy for that day was discovering such a beautiful and peaceful place, and enjoying it in such good company.

RELAXING ON THE COAST AT EL TABO

After spending five idle days in Santiago, I finally resumed my travels, albeit on a much less ambitious course. To be specific, I drove more or less due west, in a return to the rustic cabins at El Tabo where I had spent time at the end of my trip last March. The resort is called "Las 7 Cabañas," and is located about one kilometer south of the center of town of El Tabo, and only a few kilometers from Pablo Neruda´s famous ocean-front home at Isla Negra. If you go back through my archives to my posts from March 2007, you will see images I´d taken at the Neruda compound.
Anyway, the above picture shows cabaña No. 5, which I am currently occupying. The big windows (my bedroom windows) look out upon a variety of dwellings down below the slope

and feature a superb view of the South Pacific.

In keeping with my resolution to cut back on driving and to spend more time relaxing and taking in wherever I am at, I´ve booked myself into this place through the holidays, with my scheduled departure for points south down the Chilean coast set for January 3, 2008. I expect that this will be a time for introspection and reflection. I´ve already gone for one really nice beach walk, an activity I am assuming will be part of my daily routine as I while away the days between now and the New Year.

The following pair of images hopefully will give you a little better impression of this quiet place. Incidentally, I also stayed here at the start of my 2005 Chile-Argentina trip, which was when i first found these cabañas. But during my visit last March, I´d learned that the place was up for sale; and now the caretakers have informed me that it has, in fact, been sold, and that the new owners have decided to transform it into a spa. At the end of this year´s tourist season in march, they plan to raze the cabaña I am occupying as well as cabaña No. 4, and in their place they are planning to erect a new "dormitory" which will become the primary residence for business executives and other upwardly-mobile types whom they intend to target at their principal clientele. The cabaña below mine, No.6, will be gutted and turned into a massage parlor, and the cabaña that is currently functioning as the residence of the caretakers as well as the office will be completely remodeled and used for other spa-related functions. The caretakers will remain, but will move into the cabaña up by the coastal highway. Naturally, from my point of view, these changes are a big disappointment, because it means that it is the end of this place as I´ve known it. Perhaps the one good thing about "progress" is that it follows the dictum that nothing stays the same; and all things must pass.

So I am looking at this time here in El Tabo as being my opportunity to enjoy this place for one final time.

Now, I need to introduce to all who visit this blog to my newest friend - a mellow little Chilean street dog who has taken up semi-residence here at Las 7 Cabañas and goes by the name of "El Negro."

El Negro showed up at my cabin door at about 8 p.m. last night and immediately took a liking to me, hanging around until I finally turned out the lights at 1 a.m.. But even then he didn´t want to leave, choosing to scratch at the door until i let him back in. Well, I turned the lights back out and El Negro came up to my bed and tried to jump up on it. I didn´t let him, and he proceeded to set himself up to sleep on one of the chairs in the living room, where he still was this morning. While I cooked my breakfast, I gave him some bread and cheese, as well as a slice of turkey sandwich meat, which he really loved. Actually, he has become fairly inseparable from me, as he joined me for my morning beach walk, and is currently waiting for me to re-emerge from the caretaker´s cabaña where I am writing this post. So I´d figured I´d be experiencing some relaxing solitude here at this time, but it appears that this time around, I won´t really be alone, with my little pal, El Negro, keeping me company.

ASSESSING THIS TRIP AND FIGURING OUT WHAT´S NEXT

Yep, that´s a map of central Chile, borrowed some time ago from the website of Turistel, which is no doubt the foremost Chilean publisher of tour guides for the country. I´ve posted it here because it illustrates where I will soon be going once I finally take my leave of the capitol city and venture out again on the road.
Since I finished my "forced march" drive down from San Pedro de Atacama following that very unfortunate explosion inside the pickup truck, I´ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about what to do next. Part of the task has been to make a study of the current realities I´m facing, and that includes looking at my costs so far. When I left Santiago back on the first of the month, I kept note of my gas purchases, and it turns out that the drive up to San Pedro and back cost me nearly $500 USD. Gasoline, as some of you know, is quite expensive in Chile, with the rates for the "regular," or 93 octane running between roughly 625 and 670 Chilean Pesos per liter, depending a number of factors. When you convert liters to US gallons and pesos to dollars, in my case, and then figure out the "average" price I paid for that run up to the north and then back, it came to about $5.33 USD per US gallon. And you thought YOUR gas prices were high!
Realizing that I spent nearly $500 for gas to drive that distance in a period of only two weeks is really kind of humbling. Add to that my own sudden aversion to spending so much of my travel money on fuel and so much of my valuable time left on this adventure behind the wheel, and I can start to see myself stepping back from going on another extended drive into some as-yet undetermined hinterland but rather opting for something much less ambitious, so that I can spend more time enjoying where I am at and less time getting there.
In more precise language, I am now leaning much more heavily towards heading due west from Santiago, out to the Pacific coast, to try to rent a cozy little cabaña for something like two or three weeks and spend my time reading books, meditating and beachcombing. Another reason why I am thinking this way is that I am still fairly shell-shocked by the explosion and the attendant hassles and fears which arose from that incident, (NOTE: If you are logging into this blog for the first time in a while, I suggest that you go back a couple of posts and start reading from there) and, as my fellow vagabond amigo Roberto told me, "it´s at times like this when the calming sound of ocean waves lapping on the beach is much desired." -Of course (to you, Roberto) those weren´t his exact words, but it was his sentiment, exactly.
So, I have in mind going back to the same little cabañas I´d stayed at back in March of this year, at the end of my last South American trip, just 2 km south of Isla Negra, where the late, great poet Pablo Neruda is buried, on the grounds of his fabled oceanfront home. at the moment, their name escapes me, but that´s not really important. What is was the fact that when I stayed there the last time, the housekeepers told me that they were for sale, and were about to be sold, so now my chief concern is, what changes have the new owners installed, and, considering that the real tourist season hasn´t quite started yet, if they are even open for occupancy?
I guess I´ll see soon enough. But for now, I´m spending another couple of days here in Santiago as the most welcome guest of Andrés in his third floor apartment over on Calle Mosqueto, on the other side of the block from his office, where I stayed this weekend. I´ll post more here soon, so stay tuned.

BACK IN SANTIAGO - WITH A QUICK CLARIFICATION

I got into Santiago about two hours ago after making the roughly 1700-kilometer drive in little more than two day´s time. Sure, my head is still swirling around in circles regarding the explosion and how that curtailed my trip up north, and I´ll try to get into describing a little of that a bit further on, but right now I need to make a distinction, or if you will, a correction regarding one specific fact: originally I had said that I believed that a fire extinguishor had exploded; in fact, it had been a different sort of cannister - it was one of those emergency "Fix-a-Flat" tire inflators which exploded. Initially all I could tell was that it was some sort of pressurized canned accessory, and looking at the mess of debris I could make out the can shell, some valve apparatus, and a hose mixed in with bits of shrapnel, shredded papers and the drying slime goo that was all over the place. I instinctively figured it was the fire extinguisher. I didn´t even know that the truck was equipped with an emergency tire inflator, and certainly didn´t know it had been placed in the upper glove box, which opens up on the top of the dashboard.
Anyway, I was able to piece together some of the shredded label for that device, and could read that it warned against storing the object anywhere the temperature might reach 50 degrees C., and that the contents were extremely flammable. Considering the latter little bit of information, I guess I should say that I was lucky that the explosion didn´t ignite, and cause the entire vehicle to become engulfed in flames. And I´ve done some rather amateur physics analysis during my drive back to Santiago, and I figured that originally, the can had been packed and pressurized somewhere near sea level. So I figured that driving the vehicle to a significantly higher elevation (San Pedro de Atacama is 2,470 meters, or 8,100 feet above sea level) could cause the critical temperature level to correspondingly drop, as the pressure inside the can increased with the elevation climb.
Anyway, as I drove the long road southward, my mind kept playing over and over the frightening "what if scenario" in which the can didn´t blow until I was off on my drive over the top of the Andean cordillera, the Paso Jama, which reaches a height of 4,600 meters, which is over 15,000 feet, in a couple of places, and the entire ride from San Pedro to Susques, in Argentina, is over 4,000 meters. What if the cannister exploded while I was driving the truck at that elevation, with the blazing hot tropical sun blazing down through the windshield and onto that dashboard? Would I even know what hit me? It would have been like my own personal car bomb blast, a la Gaza or Baghdad, except that it would be happening in a very remote spot. Perhaps it would have caused me to have a heart attack. Maybe my eardrums would be blown out. Shrapnel could have ripped my flesh, and the whole vehicle could have been engulfed in flames, while hurtling down the road at 100 km/hr, careening off the pavement like a real fireball.
So I suppose I should not try to dwell on that scenario so much but rather, to count my blessings instead. I left San Pedro de Atacama with a severely damaged windshield on the day before yesterday. I knew that it would be impossible to drive all the way to Santiago with such impaired vision, and of course, the Carabineros would have stopped me for sure and directed me to the nearest town for repairs.
Well, that´s exactly what I did. I drove straight back down the hill and back to Calama, where I was familiar with the work of the Leo-Loa Parabrisas (Windshield) repair shop. They´d fixed a broken camper shell door for me on my 2005-2006 trip, so I knew that they did good work. And this time was no different from the first time, they had everything changed, a new windshield with all the inspection stickers and registration tags neatly transferred, as well as the all-important auto-toll reader that is required for vehicles using the highways in Santiago. All done in a little over two hours´time. Cost: $170 USD, which I will expect to get reimbursed once Andres has had time to assess the damages.
With the new windshield I was again legal, so I set off from Calama on my concerted drive south, making it back to Taltal before nightfall. Then the next day I figured I´d really have to push myself so as to get into Santiago in prime working-hour time so Andres and his staff could take me in, assess the damages and get me put up for a weekend in the city. So I left Taltal as early as I could, and then proceeded to push south, eventually making it all the way to Los Vilos, a forced drive of nearly 900 kilometers, but only 225 km from Santiago. It meant that today´s drive was a piece of cake.
So now I am soon heading with Andres to lunch and to take my bags to the apartment. I´ll plan to talk to him more about what happens next, and once I know that, I´ll share the news with you.
So that´s it, for now.
Chao.

EXPLOSION IN TRUCK WRECKS JOURNEY

Okay, so I wrote earlier today that I´d reached the high desert oasis of San Pedro de Atacama, where I was going to stay for three nights before heading up and over the cordillera and into Argentina´s Jujuy Province and a planned stop for Christmas and New Year´s in the town I´ve come to really love on the past two South America trips: Cafayate.

Well, I got myself settled into the nice Hosteria

Incahuasi (I recommend it to any one of you who are considering traveling to this part of South America, especially with the new management) and took a siesta during the heat of the afternoon.

But while I was sleeping, there was an explosion in the truck, which was parked just outside of the Hosteria. I didn´t know it yet, but there was a fire extinguisher that Andres´mechanic had placed in the glove box...and as you can imagine, with all the intense heat from a sun beating down from virtually directly overhead (yes, this is thr tropics here), plus the pent-up pressure from being at high altitude, and BOOM!

It not only blew out the right side of the dashboard (and possibly vaporized the vehicle registration papers) but the force of the blast shattered the right side of the windshield (although it is mostly still intact).

Well, there is no place here in San Pedro where I can effect repairs, but I do know of a place in Calama where I can get the work done at least to replace the windshield - but regarding all the safety and emissions inspection info and the Santiago auto-toll device, all of which are attached to the windshield, I do not know what will happen. Actually, I REALLY do not want to have to go back to Calama. I´m hoping that I can dodge the Carabineros all the way back to Santiago and then drop the rig off with Andrés.

But one thing is for sure, I will have to turn around first thing in the morning and start on my way back to Santiago, to bring the truck back to Andrés, and to see if he can get me some kind of vehicle to salvage something of a trip.

I know, there´s a phrase for this sort of thing...Sh*t happens. Shucks.

JUST ARRIVED IN SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

Hola, everyone, this time I`ll just be making a quick post to let you all know that I arrived in the high desert oasis town and hip little tourist trap known as San Pedro de Atacama. Sorry, no pictures yet, as I`ve only been here for less than an hour so far and have not booked myself into any accomodations as of yet.
But I am planning to spend the next three nights here, and then will set out to cross the cordillera into Argentina on the 14th. One thing I would like to say at this moment is that it sure was good to get out of Calama this morning. I have never liked that rather grimy city, which is the main population center here in this corner of Chile with about 125,000 people, many of whom are connected in one way or another with the huge open pit copper mine of Chuquicamata, which lies just a few kilometers north.
Anyway, my drive across the Atacama to Calama went smoothly enough, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of trucks on the road hauling hazardous materiels, like radioactive materials and sulfiric acid - that sort of thing.
After I get settled in here and snap a few photos of San Pedro, I`ll log back on here and post something before heading out for Argentina.
My best to you all. Cheers, the Atacama Viajero.

HIKING THE CERROS OF LA PUNTILLA

Three kilometers south of the city of Taltal the rocky promontory known as La Puntilla juts out into the deep blue waters of the South Pacific.

Its rugged permanence defines the southern limits of the Bahía de Taltal,

and its presence helps to preserve the relative tranquility of the Taltal waterfront. From there one can appreciate a unique view of the town itself across the bahía.

Every year, in February, Taltalinos use the chapel and shrine on this promontory for a series of ceremonies in Taltal´s annual Fiesta de la Virgen de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, a spectacular religious and dance festival that draws hundreds of participants from Antofagasta, Calama, and from other communities in northern Chile, many of whom camp out at La Puntilla during the fiesta.
Pictured at left is the shrine where these ceremonies take place.

Yesterday I made my own pilgrimage out to the promontory, which is currently unoccupied, and hiked around on the cerros (hills) which help to define the character of this small peninsula.

The following images will give you some kind of an idea of the beauty of La Puntilla.

I hiked out about as far as I could and sat down to enjoy a sack lunch I´d packed along, and looked out onto the farthest rocky extension, a guano-covered islet which contains a lively (and loud) sea lion colony, which along the Chilean coast is known as a "loberia." Form my vantage point high above the loberia, I could see several fishing boats operating in the shoals surrounding the islet, and it seemed that their presence was very disturbing to the sea lions, whose agitated barking and growling seemed to be met by similar guttral utterances coming from the fishermen. No doubt there is little love to be found to exist between the two - as the fishermen likely see the sea lions as little more than competition for the fruits of the waters.

This last image looks southward from La Puntilla to the Bahía Tegualda and Punta Verde and also the coast extending further south. Here too, the waters seemed to be alive with fishing boats busily working to extract their harvest of fish for the day.

Last night this little city rocked out with a "Reggaeton" music extravaganza, an event which didn´t even begin until 11 p.m. It then ran through most of the night, finally concluding at close to 5 a.m. this morning. The music was loud enough to be heard throughout the town, with driving, pulsing rhythms undoubtedly thrilling an eager audience of the town´s youth, who could frequently be heard cheering the musicians. I suppose if I were a few years younger, I´d have gone to it, but as it was, I tried my best to sleep through the heavy reggae and rock beats of the performing groups. So I didn´t sleep so well last night, but hey, it was put on as another fundraising event, linked to Chile´s annual "Teletón." (Remember, I´d mentioned Teletón in an earlier post?)

Today is going to be my last day in Taltal, and I am planning to get on the road early following breakfast heading up to the northeast, bound for an overnight in the city of Calama before heading on to the desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Incidentally, I am looking into making some changes further on in my journey. After my time in Argentina, I see that I might be able to shorten my route considerably if I re-cross into Chile further south, at Paso del Agua Negra (east of the Río Elqui Valley) instead farther north at Paso San Francisco (east of Copiapó). Consider that this change is highly a highly probable alternative to what I´d originally posted.

NOTE: Perhaps you will have noticed that I´ve altered the layout for this blog page a bit. I did that because for some unexplained reason, My Profile, my site Links, and the Archives of this blog had slipped down to the bottom of the page, even though the template layout6 seemed to show that they should be at the top. Anyway, yesterday I tried all sorts of possible fixes for this problem before I decided I needed to change the layout. Now, at least, visitors can (hopefully) see My Profile when they access the blog, instead of having to scroll down to the bottom. I hope that this fix doesn´t get undone!

Next post will likely not be until San Pedro, so have patience.

Chao, amigos.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TALTAL

So here I am, once again spending some quiet time here in this very tranquil small coastal city of some 15,000 people known as Taltal. Considering the fact that this is one of the few places I´ve spent time in during each of my four trips to Chile ought to say something about what my feelings for this place are. It´s quiet (usually, but not always), laid back (all the time), clean and scenic. Still, my friend/agent in Santiago, Andrés, sort of thinks I am a little off my rocker to "like" sich a place, and choose to spend days and days here rather than in some real tourist centers such as La Serena or Viña del Mar. But hey, people who know me recognize that I eschew crowded places and prefer to spend my time a little bit off of the beaten track.

Such sentiments fit, for me, here in Taltal. Above you can see a view of the nicely-shaded town plaza from Avenida Prat (1st picture); and above, a glimpse of the view northward of the Pacific shoreline looking north from the waterfront park. The structures on the right side of the picture are historic, going back to the late 19th century when Taltal was Chile´s third most important nitrate shipping port.

Anyway, that thougtht brings me to write, as the title of today´s blog reads, "a little bit about Taltal."

Taltal was founded in 1858, originally established as a port that would serve the emerging copper mining industry in Northern Chile. With the treaty of 1874, Chile ceded everything north of the 24th so. parallel to Bolivia, so for a time, Taltal was the northernmost port in Chile. Then, when the possibilities for exploitation of the huge nitrate resources began to change the face of the Atacama Desert and transformed its economy, the Chilean government looked toward developing Taltal as a major port to serve this dynamic new industry. In 1876, with the emergence of scores of "oficinas salitreras" (nitrate mining settlements) in the desert inland, Taltal began to grow exponentially.

Then the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) happened, and Chile was victorious over the combined forces of Bolivia and Peru, wresting territory from both, leaving Bolivia a suddenly landlocked country, which it remains today. The territorial adjustments effectively gave Chile the bulk of the extensive nitrate beds of the Atacama Desert (spoils of war?) and Taltal continued to grow, as the Taltal Railway Company linked the port to the nitrate mining settlements in the interior. Antofagasta and Iquique also grew as a result of the war´s outcome, and the fabled "Nitrate Clippers" sailed across the seas from Europe to load up with this precious raw natural resource to haul it to the world´s markets, to make both fertilizer and munitions.

At the end of the 19th Century, Taltal´s population was approximately 20,000, but that figure would shrink once the lucrative nitrate mining business was crippled by the eventual technological breakthroughs which allowed for the manufacture of synthetic nitrates. But thanks to the fact that the ocean provides for a lively fishing industry and the fact that the interior remains a source for other minerals, such as copper, silver and iodine, Taltal has survived. And now the city is looking to develop the potential for to serve an expanded tourist presence, basing their efforts on sandy beaches both here in town as well as a few kilometers south, at Cifuncho, plus the pleasant climate. So Taltal is growing, gradually.

These three pictures are just a few taken from a series of murals that have been painted on the walls of Taltal´s primary schoolyard by student artists. The first one is entitled,¨"El Paso del Teniente," or the Path of the Lieutenant.

The second image is entitled,

"Mujer de Piedra," or the Woman of Stone.

And here, the final one is entitled,

"Matador de Tiburones," or The Shark Killer, and depicts the bay here at Taltal.

Of course, as always, you can click on any one of the above images to see an enlarged version.

DRIVING INTO NORTHERN CHILE: THE LAST FOUR DAYS

Okay, so I´ve got a lot of traveling to put up on the blog, and I´ve uploaded a bunch of pictures to help give you an idea of what´s up here. The above photo was taken last night b efore the sun went down at the place I ended up camping at. I´ll tell you more about it when I get past today´s images from the road

So today I arrived at Taltal, which as some of you know, is about my most favorite places on the north Chile coast. The image to the left is of a line of stunning, chocolate-ribbed hills that lie just east of Chañaral, right near km 1000 on the Panamericana (Chile National Route 5). It´s about 150 km south of Taltal.

Now, the image to the right (if this sequence holds up is of tanker truck - but this tanker truck is a beer truck! Now, of course it is a common sight to see beer trucks, but they are always carrying the finished product - bottled or canned beer - either to a distribution warehouse or to a retail outlet. This was the first time I´d ever seen a tanker truck...Crystal is one of the most popular of the Chilean beers...

Now the next photos come from my campsite, where I stayed last night. The first picture is of a young red fox - when I woke up and climbed out of my tent I was surprised to see this little one curled up awaiting my emergence - only about 10 yards away from me. I immediately took his picture, and then commenjced a very interestin g morning as this fox was joined by another, slightly larger one, and they both seemed to be intent on watching my every move. It turns out that despite being in such a remote place, these foxes have figured out that wherever humans are, there is food. Well, they were totally passive towards me and I never felt that I had anything to worry about from them, so I eventually shared my breakfast with them...a piece of bread, some water, a slice of cheese for both, and part of my banana, which was hogged by the bigger fox. They stuck around and watched me pack up my sleeping bag and tent, and then I waved good-bye to my little fox friends, although I know that theywere probably only disappointed that I wasn´t leaving anything behind for them to tear apart.

Here is a picture of my camp. It was up in the dry mountains at the site of an abandoned silver mine known as Chañarcillo, which once upon a time apparently had been a real monster producer of this precious metal, and was significant for providing much of the early wealth to the biggest city in the region, Copiapó. The silver at this mine was discovered in 1832 by an entepreneur named Juan Godoy, and the city which sprang up at the base of this mountain came to bear his name. In 1860 the town of Juan Godoy was the second largest in the region, after Copiapó, boasting a population of 14,000 people.

But as many of these sorts of places go, the boom was folowed by bust, and I understand that the mines closed forever in 1888, once it was determined that the caverns had flooded with seeping groundwater.



The picture to the left shows the remains of perhaps what was the most striking mine shaft on the mountain. Known as the Pique Dolores, built after the discovery in 1832, it still shows the massive rock wall buttress that once held up the smelter and various outbuildings on the slope of the mountain. Now the buildings are gone, and the buttress holds up what is now the precarious roadway that winds up and around to the top of the mountain.

The image to the left shows one of the many deep and un-fenced mine shafts that drop straight down into the heart of the mountain. When I approached this view, I was struck with the most frightening sense of vertigo I could imagine. To take the picture I found myself dropping down onto my hands and kn ees to approach the opening to take this fleeting glimpse into what I would clearly call the abyss...

Now, these two shafts are right next to the abyss, and even though they open up to the front, the dark interiors suggested both mystery and danger. Best to take the pictures and be on my way, I figured.

But before going to camp at the mine at Chañarcillo, I´d spent my first two nights in Vallenar. That´s the plaza in Vallenar to the left. I´d originally planned to spend one night in Vallenar, and two in Huasco, which is downstream from here on the coast, but by the time I´d got to Vallenar on my big push up fro m Santiago, there was plenty of daylight left, so I decided to drive straight out to Huasco. When I got there, I could not find a single accomodation that was open for business. It was frustrating, but hey, I was going to need a room somewhere. So I doubled back and returned to Vallenar, and booked myself into the Hotel Puerta de Vega, a nice, clean place, but pricey!

Well, I was booked in to Vallenar for a quiet and peaceful Sunday after putting something like 770 kilometers on the odometer of my rented Nissan 4x4 the previous day. So I slept in, and then, when I felt like it, I took a leisurely stroll through town. Vallenar has a nice park set up along the banks of the Río Huasco, which flows down from the snows and glaciers of the high Andes through here to the sea. The above picture gives a glimpse of this modest river which gives this arid valley its life.
The image to the left gives another view of the Río Huasco, downstream from Vallenar. I stopped for a moment on my ill-fated drive down to the coast, in my attempt to find accomodations in Huasco. But such is life, here on the road.

But there was one pleasant surprise waiting me on that otherwise forgettable drive down the river to the coast last Saturday: Totally by chance, I stumbled upon a floklorico dance that was in progress in the town of Freirina (pop. 3,200) . It was in conjunction with the big national "Teletón," which is exactly like the Jerry Lewis Telethon in the USA. Chile holds this big fund-raiser every year on Nov.30-Dec.1 (except in election years), and many local communities hold special events in their plazas while most of the major TV networks carry the pledge drive feed to draw in the most money possible. Well I stopped for maybe 15 minutes at most. I donated 1000 pesos, roughly the equivalent of $2 USD. But I was extermely impressed with these young dancers, pictured above.

Now I will be here in Taltal for several days - actually I won´t likely leave until next Monday. So I´ll be getting around and about this town of some 15,000 people, and maybe I´ll post something about the local scene here.....

So stay tuned!

Cheers,

JMK, The Atacama Viajero

IN VALLENAR - AND SET TO REACH THE DESERT

Okay, so my schedule has already been altered somewhat. Here I am in the city of Vallenar, where I spent a lazy sSunday strolling along the banks of the Río Huasco and taking in a soccer game which the local team lost 2-0. I´d said I would be staying in Huasco, which is out on the coast, but it turned out to be a bust - I couldn´t find any accomodations that were even open for business, so I turned around and headed back inland to stay at the rather pricey Hotel Puerta La Vega, anbd I am set now to check out in a few minutes.
I´ve got some good pics from the region but no time to upload then now, so maybe ((or maybe not) I will do so later, once I get to Taltal. But for now, I am ahead of schedule by one day so I am thinking I will spend it camped out in the desert somewhere north of here, outside of Copiapó. There might be even more pictures from that little bit of diversion.
Well it´s time to go finish packing my bags and get on the road...
Saludos, amigos
The Atacama Viajero.

TENTATIVE TRIP ITINERARY

During the last couple of nights, as my preparations for an imminent departure from Santiago move forward, I have constructed a rather basic trip itinerary, which, by necessity, must be labeled as tentative only, owing to the fact that invariably, unforseen events will determine thye actual trip as it unfolds. Already I have delayed my departure for one day as we finish up with the necessary maintenance works for the Nissan 4x4 while we still have not located my camping gear and will presently be searching through the storage closets here at the office for the tent, backpack stove, and cooler.

Regardless, here is the plan:

Nov. 30: Leave Santiago, overnight in Los Vilos (229 km total)
Dec. 1: Drive to Vallenar (432 km)
Dec. 2: Drive out to ther coast at Huasco (57 km only) - stay for two nights
Dec. 4: Drive up the coast to Taltal (490 km) - stay for five nights
Dec. 9 & 10: Camp out on the So. Pacific coast - near Paposo (north of Taltal) or at playa Cifuncho (south of Taltal)
Dec. 11: Drive to Calama (213 km NE of Antofagasta)
Dec. 12: Drive to San Pedro de Atacama (103 km) - stay for three nights
Dec. 15: Cross over Paso Jama and into Argentina to Susques, Prov. Jujuy (280 km - high points at 4600 meters elev. over the Cordillera de Los Andes) - stay for 4 nights, with hikes into the back country planned
Dec. 19: Drive to Salta, capitol of Salta Province, Argentina (approx. 260 km) - stay for two nights
Dec. 21: Drive to Cafayate, southern Salta Province (185 km) -stay for five nights, including Christmas
Dec. 26: Drive up the Valles Calchaquies from Cafayate to Cachi (158 km) -stay for two nights
Dec. 28: Drive down the Valles Calchaquies from Cachi to Angastaco (89 km) - stay for two nights.
Dec. 30: Drive back to Cafayate from Angastaco (74 km) -stay for two nights, including New Year´s eve.
Jan. 1, 2008: Drive from Cafayate to Belén, Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina (243 km) -stay for three nights
Jan. 4: Drive to Tinogasta (82 km) - stay for three nights
Jan. 7: Drive from Tinogasta to Paso San Francisco (200 km; elev. 4748 meters) and cross back into Chile. Camp overnight at Laguna Verde, just west of the pass
Jan. 8: Drive to Copiapó (291 km)
Jan 9: Drive back to Vallenar (146 km)
Jan. 10: Drive from Vallenar to Pisco Elqui and Río Elqui Valley (546 km) - stay three nights
Jan. 13: Drive back to Los Vilos (339 km)
Jan. 14: Return to Santiago (229 km)

I suppose that some of these places might not exactly ring a bell for you, so you might want to look them up in an atlas. But in a more basic way to explain my route, I can say that I will first be driving north from Santiago with numerous stops in Northern Chile and in the Atacama Desert before crossing into Argentina near the Bolivian border. Then I will be going southward through Northwestern Argentina as far as Paso San Francisco, where I will cross back into Chile once again, and then spend a few days in Pisco Elqui before returning to Santiago.

Of course, now my truck rental will give me until January 16 to return to Santiago, which gives me some kind of a cushion to fall back on with the above tentative itinerary, but regardless, my flight back to the USA will be leaving Santiago on the evening of January 19, so I will have to be back by then. Anyway, I hope that you can return to this site to read my trip reports, which will begin with my next post here. Cheers to all...

John "Smokey" Koelsch
The Atacama Viajero

BACK IN SANTIAGO AGAIN

So once again I am here in the grand capitol of Chile. It is springtime here, and the trees in the parks are providing ample shade from the blazing sun, while flowers of all sorts are in full bloom. The temperature here today is likely in the mid-to-upper 80 degrees (F.) with a slight feel of humidity. They are saying that it will be a hot summer here in Chile, and I am just about set to absorb what it has to offer between now and my scheduled return to the U.S.A. on a flight that will leave in the eveninf of January 19, 2008.

Anyway, speaking of flights, my arrival yesterday morning capped off an extremely long day of travel, which began at 3 a.m. in Portland, Oregon, and included a long layover of over seven hours in Atlanta, Georgia. I´d planned to spend a part of that time getting out to explore that city (I´ve never been to Atlanta before) but the weather was awful - raining all day. But of course, considering the severe drought there in the SE U.S., I suppose that the folks there were sort of figuring that it was the answer to their prayers, so I guess I shouldn´t be feeling bad about the fact that I didn´t get to go out as planned.

The long non-stop overnight flight down from Atlanta to Santiago was uneventful, but surprisingly it had plenty of empty seats, so I was able to stretch out my coach accomodations a bit in the always vain attempt to find some sleep. That´s right, I never can sleep on such flights, but at least my neck and back didn´t hurt as much as usual once I got in.

My agent/friend Andrés had sent his old office hand Luis to pick me up, and he brought me right into Santiago Centro, where I was destined to spend the next eight hours waiting for some other tourists to leave my appointed apartment over on Calle Mosqueto, which is on the other side of the block from Andrés´office. I finally got in there at around 6 p.m., and after spending a couple of hours resting, finally got in my shower and pronounced myself good to go.

So today I got out and walked around a little bit, refreshing my memories of the sights and scenes of Santiago Centro, or the downtown district in this city of nearly six million people. The photo to the right shows one glimpse of the park at Cerro Santa Lucia, which is only a couple of blocks away from this office. And below is a photo of a statue of the poet Pablo Neruda which is located on Avenida Agustinas, just down from Miraflores.

So far, I´ve been to lunch twice with Andrés, yesterday to Café El Alemán, and today to Café Nuria. Then, after the almuerzo, Andrés took me to an interesting place, I think it was called Icarabú, to introduce me to "Café con Piernas," which is another unique aspect of Chilean culture. If you want to know more, do a google for "Café con Piernas Chile."

In the next couple of days, before my planned departure for points north of here, I will hopefully be recovering the camping gear I´d left here when I departed back in March. I´m also hoping to get to visit two of Andrés´three children (the third, Matías, is currently on a student exchange program visiting Mexico for a couple of weeks.

So it is good to be back here in this sunny and warm country. Quite a change from the cold weather that is settling into my digs back home. And my message to all of you, my friends and family, is to check back here often. I will be posting things on this blog as much as possible as my journey unfolds.

ON THE EVE OF DEPARTURE

Finally my time of departure has come, and I suspect that this will be my last post until I have arrived in South America. Today I finished with the last few odds and ends that relate to making this new trip, and I must say that it is a relief to have taken care of all those little things and can finally start to concentrate my thoughts on images like what you see above - which is a glimpse of the countryside along Argentine Ruta Provincial 16 east of Susques in remote Jujuy Province, in the far northwest corner of that country.

Being out in such a wide open place has always held a special appeal for me. It gives me such a sense of space, much like I also find in the many empty parts of my own state of Nevada, which I suppose is one reason why I ended up living in rural Elko County. But of course, there are differences as well, not the least of which is the fact that Nevada is on the cusp of ste start of another winter, but down in the other hemisphere, it is springtime, and soon another austral summer will be commencing. So I go, and can only feel good about getting back into this other realm, to travel and hike, soaking in the warm rays of the brilliant sunshine of the long days ahead.

I have chosen to again journey northward after spending my first few days in Santiago, which means that I will return once again to the driest place on earth - that strange and oddly wonderful place known as the Atacama Desert. Along the way, of course, the familiar and the absurd will be revisited in the guise of certain landmarks - such as La Mano Del Desierto, which pokes out of a small rise in the terrain in the midst of the barren valley traversed by the Chilean Ruta 5, also known as the Panamericana, about 70 kilometers south of Antofagasta.

My vagabond amigo Roberto sent me a preliminary Chilean highway report that describes the principal stretches of routes that sutained damage in the earthquake of November 14th, and it appears that the route I have chosen, which will go north from Santiago to the Antofagasta turnoff and then to go east to Calama, San Pedro and the crossing into Argentina over the cordillera will miss the bulk of the damages, which are for the most part, from Maria Elena and on north to the approaches of Arica, on the Peruvian frontier. All of that is further north than where I will be going, so that is a relief.

I'll also be hoping to re-connect with some friends I've made on some previous journeys. Here you see Eugenia, who was managing the hotel and resturaunt known as Pastos Chicos, outside of Susques, in Argentine Jujuy Province, along with Elizabeth, aka "Ellie," who is her best employee. Now I'm not sure that Eugenia and Ellie are still there, because I know that the work was hard and the pay was less than it should have been. When I was there in February, Eugenia was saying that she didn't think she'd still be there too much longer, and Ellie said that she'd go too if Eugenia left.

I could tell that the tasks of running the place were wearing Eugenia down, but I also was impressed with Ellie's energy and how much of a help she was for her immediate boss. Of course, Pastos Chicos has an absentee owner who lives in nice, big house in the city of San Salvador de Jujuy, some 150 kilometers away. Well, I'm still going to go back to Susques, and I do hope that these two friends are still there.

But you know, even though I am leaving home tomorrow, I won't be getting down to South America for another week. That's because I will be driving up to Ashland, Oregon first, to cook a big Thanksgiving dinner for my son and his friends. Then I'll travel up to Portland next Saturday, for an early morning flight to Atlanta and a 7+ hour layover before my long, overnight, non-stop flight to Santiago.

Anyway, it's time to be "on the road again."

Cheers to you all...

MAJOR EARTHQUAKE HITS THE ATACAMA DESERT

Yesterday morning, Northern Chile was rocked by a major 7.7 magnitude earthquake. The fact that the epicenter was located some 37 miles below the surface limited the destructive effects of the quake to some extent, although least two deaths (both in the coastal city of Tocopilla) and significant property damage (in the cities of Tocopilla, Arica, Antofagasta and Calama) have been reported.





The accompanying maps come from the USGS, and give much better detail than the fuzzy-pixeled versions one finds attached to most of the web news reports of the incident. Please click on the images to see the full-size versions. The first one illustrates the relative location of the quake epicenter while the second map presents an image of the varying intensity of the shock
within the general region.



From the first map, one can get a general idea of how volatile
the area is by observing the incredible number of volcanoes
that run the length of the Andean cordillera in this part of
South America.


The link to the USGS website which I have included below will give you a general overview of the quake and its effects. If you go to the site, click on "Summary" for a report of the quake and the relative rankings of the intensity level of the shocks reported from different locations in this part of South America.

Now, this new earthquake instantly becomes a factor for me in this trip I will be taking in literally a few days because it happened right where I will be going. Of course I expect that there will be travel disruptions, and I would not be surprised if there will be parts of the highway that will have been busted up by the tremors, and there will also be the possibility that basic services I would normally expect to depend on might not be available. No doubt the relief efforts directed toward the victims who were injured or who lost their homes will also be clearly evident. As I understand, some 1000 homes in Tocopilla alone were destroyed yesterday, which meant that thousands of residents slept out on the streets last night. Accomodations in the cities might be at a premium, so I will possibly be camping out a lot more than I had planned during my time in this part of Chile

But considering the offhand chance that there might be another major seismic event during this period I might reconsider my plans to camp on the shores of the Pacific at Los Hornitos, north of Antofagasta. I'd camped there in January 2006 and didn't think a thing about it, but now I have a nagging apprehension tugging on my mind about the possibility (albeit remote) of being washed out to sea by a tsunami...

Anyway, this earthquake will no doubt cause me to pause and to reflect on the mysterious forces of nature at work on this earth, and what their potential consequences are for us, the inhabitants. So here is the link to the USGS site. Remember to click on the "Summary" to read more...


http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007jsat.php#details