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

A New South American Adventure Imminent

Hello once again to all my amigos y amigas,

Yes, it has been months since I've posted anything here, but now I want to let you all know that the silence ends here. I've decided to once again return to my vagabonding ways with another Argentina/Chile adventure tour in another one of my friend/agent André's sturdy 4x4 extended cab pickup trucks.

I will leave my home here in Nevada two weeks from now to drive up to Oregon, where I will do the Thanksgiving holiday with my son Peter. Then, after we have somewhat recovered from gorging on turkey and dressing, we drive up to Portland from his home in Ashland for a bleary-eyed 6:30 a.m. flight on the morning of Nov. 25 to Atlanta for an overnight non-stop connecting flight back to Santiago, with my arrival there scheduled for 8:35 a.m. Nov. 26, Chilean time.

I'll admit that before I made the decision to make this new journey, I spent a big stretch of my summer grappling with dark personal issues relating to the pros and cons of doing a 4th extended South American journey a mere eight months after my return from the last visit. And although I consider myself to be a very private person who does not make a point of broadcasting my personal situation in general, I have to admit that for me, the year 2007 after my return from the last trip im March has not been a time of brightness. But it is not worth dwelling on all the discouraging personal issues here on this public forum because that is not the purpose of the blog here. We all have good years and bad. Now I am looking forward to this new adventure with anticipation and the sort of measured excitement of a relatively seasoned South American gringo traveler.

As I've noted, I'll be arriving in Santiago on the morning of November 26th. I'll be spending my first days again enjoying the friendship and hospitality of my buen amigo and agent, Andrés Gabor, there in the Chilean metropolis with his family, before heading out on the road on the 29th. I admit that after purchasing my ticket I grappled with the question of whether or not I would aim my rental truck south or north, but finally to go north won out, and I am sorry if my decision was a disappointment to my friends in Patagonia, who had received a preliminary message from me saying I was going to go that direction.

I will miss seeing them. But in the end, I decided I had to decide what would be the most meaningful direction for me, and in the end, I have to say, that the parts of Chile and Argentina that I have connected with most profoundly have been to the north of Santiago: meaning the northern Chile Atacama desert and the trans-cordillera route into the most northwestern provinces of Argentina, namely Jujuy and Salta, especially the towns of Susques (Jujuy) and Cafayate (Salta). I also think that this time I need to book some significant time in the city of Salta (not just traversing through to get to Cafayate this time) because it is such a cultural hub, and I remember it was originally going to be my "point of rendezvous" with my then-long-distance South American traveling friend, the wine expert from Holland, Claudia Van Dongen back during my 2006 mega-trip. But on that journey I found myself logging in an extremely long drive from the northernmost Chilean city of Arica (on the Peruvian border) to Salta for that planned reunion, but before I got there, she e-mailed me to tell me that she had seen enough of that city and was heading on to Cafayate to check out their vineyards.....

Well, that meant I had to do a couple hundred extra kilometers to re-connect withn her, but in the end it was worth it. Of course, It was great to reunite with Claudia, but even more so, in retrospect, it was worth it to discover the wonderful town of Cafayate and to experience the beauties of the region there. So you can be damn sure I am going back there! Watch for stories and images from there and other ports-of-call from now until my return to the USA on January 20, 2008.

So now that I have this imminent pending trip on tap, I am hoping that you can take some time to visit this blog once again to see where I am and to read about what I am up to. I welcome you aboard for a vicarious jump, once again, into the lands far below thre equator, where spring is happening - right now!!!

Cheers,

John M. "Smokey" Koelsch

The Atacama Viajero