Valparaiso / San Pedro de Atacama (Day One)

Valparaiso (22/05/2017)

Lots of guide books and people had recommended taking a trip to Valparaiso, a port city 90 minutes from Santiago.  Malcolm was transferring to the Crowne and by the time I had packed and checked out it was gone 11am.  We took the metro to Pajaritos and then picked up a bus.  The journey was largely uninteresting but it did take us past some vineyards.

Valparaiso – or Valpo as the Chileans call it – has it’s bus station on the opposite end of town to where we really wanted to go but we decided to walk across town as we didn’t have any firm plans.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t much like the place!  It’s all very run down.  You can see that it would have been very pretty in it’s day but everything is covered in graffiti, smashed windows and some are just facades propped up by scaffolding.  This is not just human dereliction – earthquakes have caused a lot of damage and the city, despite being a vital port, never seems able to fully recover it's former glory.

We walked west, stopping for a pizza on the way.  We gazed up the hills surrounding the city, steep streets with multi-coloured houses as far as you could see.  There are many funiculars that transport people up and down.  We made it to the port end and took Ascensor Artilleria.  This gave us a great view of the choreography of the port with trailers and containers weaving around.  The streets up here were a little nicer.

Time was ticking and I think both Malcolm and I were tiring of the place so we embarked on the walk back to the bus station.  It must have taken an hour – it was a long way!  By the time we got back to the Crowne so that I could pick up my luggage it was gone 8pm.  Sadly no time for a final drink.  Back in the metro, suitcase in tow.  Back to Pajaritos for the airport bus.  Then back out from the airport in a shuttle to my airport hotel.

San Pedro de Atacama – Day One (23/05/2017)

The two hour hop to Calama departed at 7am.  Not much comfort in this plane but I dozed and wrote a few words inspired by the sad events back at home in Manchester.  It felt particularly poignant, having travelled so far to go to music concerts and have such carnage take place at an arena I’ve been to so often.

During the 90 minute transfer I got acquainted with two British-born Australians who were to become my buddies for the trip.  They have been in South / Central America for three weeks and this is their last trip.  My hotel is much more basic, especially coming from a Western chain in the city!  And it’s so COLD!  The adobe buildings are far to insulated from the warmth for my liking!  I had plenty of time before the afternoon excursion so a wonder around the town of San Pedro was in order.

It’s not very big, full of hotels and hostels, tour companies, gift shops, restaurants and a bar / café or two but it still has a certain charm.  It’s what I imagine parts of Glastonbury Festival to be like if it were a permanent place.  I had decided I needed extra layers for the early morning trip tomorrow so I bought an alpaca jumper and gloves.  I also scoped the stalls out for more gifts (further shopping to be done on Friday morning!)

When the sun came out it was nice and warm so I sat in the square for a mochaccino and a chicken quesadilla, listening to some terribly cheesy panpipes from around the corner.  I then came back to the hotel and sat around the pool writing some diary.  The pick up for the afternoon / evening tour was 15:30 and we were heading to the Valle de la Luna.

It wasn’t too far to drive and we all agreed to take the walking option rather than the driving.  As the altitude is around 2400m our guide took things slowly – I had already noticed I was getting breathless quite easily.  The landscape is stunning and amazingly very variable, with many different rock formations in view at any time.  You could also see deposits of salt from the Salt Mountains which border these valleys and the salt flats (which I’m visiting on Thursday).  I took a few photos but it was almost impossible to capture the magnificence of the vista.

Back in the van and a drive to Valle de la Muerte.  This was never intended to be the Valley of Death but the Valley of Mars.  The geologist (I think our guide said he was Belgian) who named it was misheard between Muerte and Marte.  This was our spot for sunset and we were told that this would be an unusual one for us as we would be looking east, not west.  Indeed as the light dimmed the colours in the west were constantly changing.  It was stunning.  We then enjoyed some complimentary Chilean wine and cheese as we watched a few stars come out.

We were returned to our hotels around 6pm and told that our pick up time was slightly later than previously planned - only 6:30am!  We were also instructed not to eat too much and to not drink that night.  I arranged to meet my new friends for a light dinner.  After a bit of looking around we chose Adobe which has a nice open fire in the middle.  Taken out guides advice two of us had starters and Helen – who has been a bit poorly for a few days – ordered pasta which we all helped finish.  The wine we’d already drunk was enough in any case!