Chile-Argentina 2006

Saturday 29 July 2006

The salar and the andean lagoons of Miscanti and Miñiques

By dorian on Saturday 29 July 2006, 10:36

In order to rest after the bike journey, we took a "all included" for today. The program : ride to the salar to discover it "more deeply" and the Chaxa lagoon, then ride to the Miscanti and Miñiques high lagoons. In the morning, we wander about the salar, we watch a few pink flamingos looking for micro-organisms. These micro-organisms live in the stagnant, highly saline lagoon waters. Then, we leave the salar to go up to the Altiplano and reach the high lagoons and there...

The visual slap, two lagoons separated by a strip of earth and surrounded by stunning peaks. I have the impression I repeat myself in my descriptions because what looks like more to a lagoon than another lagoon ?

But the chromatic cuff, we received it. More than 4000m high, we are breathless ! The Unesco photograph we met yesterday strafes the scenery, and so do we. It was the climax of our visit in the San Pedro de Atacama area, a really warm-hearted village. Pictures sometimes needn't words...

Coming back, we say goodbye to the people we get on well with during the stay. Cristian, a Café Export waiter, we nicknamed "desea algo mas ?". We laughed a lot with him. Humor is universal, beyond the borders.

Friday 28 July 2006

We ride the salar...

By dorian on Friday 28 July 2006, 10:36

While the doping problems splash the Tour de France, we fearlessly take dope, a dope based on a mix of almond chocolate, orange juice and bananas. Yesterday a young Chilean sketched a map for us on a piece of sheet - a map to reach the Cejas lagoon in the beginning of the salar. We rent two bikes and we ride the endless road which go away, eastwards from San Pedro.

About ten kilometers further, we turn right to ride a muddy road at the starting point of the salar. A flat but not smooth salar. The levelling result of the rain doesn't occur here, the imperfect mix of salt and mud agglomerate in small clods which offer us an even but impracticable by bike ground.

1h30 after leaving San Pedro, we relax on the bank of the lagoon and we cheer up eating. The volcanic sinusoid which rips the skyline monotony reflects itself on the water.

It's time to leave, for the return trip, we have a gigantic mate, the majestic Licancabur, always there.

The return trip is particularly hard on this endless road, the wind facing us and with more than 50km "in the legs". Exhausted and painful buttocks, the San Pedro lively streets are not for us tonight.

Thursday 27 July 2006

From the El Tatio geysers to the moon valley

By dorian on Thursday 27 July 2006, 10:36

To paraphrase our dear president visiting a tiny village in the deep France, he didn't know what to say and as soon he met a person, he shook his hand adding : "it's far but it's great !" A short, precise sentence I borrow to him to talk about the El Tatio geysers, the death valley and the moon valley.

To sum up what we learnt today : geysers are water ejections from the ground, those ejections are more or less anarchic, these kinds of natural water spouts bring out smokes ; plain smokes without water gushing from the earth are not geysers. We can find geysers in only five spots in the world : in the Yellowstone park in the United States, in Iceland where the name comes from, in the Kamtchaka peninsula, in New-Zealand and here in El Tatio. These ones are the highest in the world, 4300m high.
The day begin at 4 o'clock and by night we drive 85 km away from San Pedro. The smokes loom while the sun is rising. The place is surrounded by dunes and valleys, a typical scenery of the Altiplano. The sky gets clearer and clearer and we snake through the smokes, the geysers haven't a regular activity, they switch off and switch on alternatively depending on the location of underground water currents. The geysers are not really impressing, the highest one hardly reaches one meter high but this field of smokes is worth seeing it.

Welcome to the surrealist landscapes of the Altiplano, the geysers are one among other ones : the perfect cone-shaped Licancabur volcano looks over us while we are going back, the drought of the salar of Atacama and the white of the salar of Uyuni, the colors and gentle shapes harmony which sketch mounts and valleys, fringes of sharp stones in the death valley covered from time to time by sand rivers.

The frustration is great inside the minibus, not to be able to pace in this intrepid adventurers paradise. On the road, we stop to take a bath into hotspring waters. Up to go back to San Pedro, we'll contemplate the sequence of the surrounding volcanoes.
In the early afternoon, we leave San Pedro eastwards to reach the death valley. The valley contrasts the smooth landscapes we saw in the morning. There are quite only French people in the group and the ambiance is really delightful. The valley is a kind of shrill rocky blades canyon. A kind of canyon backgrounding by a volcanic range.

A sunset ends the day in the moon valley, the Altiplano glows and falls asleep whereas the sun is disappearing beyond the skyline.