I am writing this blog post from Buenos Aires, clearly indicating that our time in South America is coming to an end. This is where our adventure started about 2.5 months ago, and what an amazing time it has been!
Anyway, the kids are starting to put me to shame as they have caught up big time in writing their blog posts. Usually they write them in their travel diaries by hand first and then type them up on their iPads, hence the flurry of activity over the last few days – now that we finally have some good internet connection, and some time again as well. So I better get to it and catch up on our time in Arica and then San Pedro de Atacama.
Our time in Peru came to an end in Arequipa and we took a day bus to Tacna close to the border to Peru, to then take a taxi to Arica on the Chilean side. The trip and border crossing went without a hitch and we re-united with Gesa again. She kind of became our scout and went a day early to Arica and later to Calama as well, ensuring it was ok for us to follow 🙂
Arica is an interesting place, quite famous in Chile for its beaches and surfing – and that’s what we were after. The previous few weeks in Peru had been quite full on and a few days on the beach doing nothing sounded pretty good to us. Interesting place in our minds at least as it is quite a large beach town in the middle of nothing, only sand and desert around it really. But the town itself has its charm and the beaches are very nice indeed.
Gesa had already checked into our AirBnB when we arrived early evening, and even had bought some stuff for dinner. This was excellent as the kids (and us) were quite hungry after the long trip, and we could use our roof terrace for dinner the first time. This was by far the best thing about the place, a great roof terrace with nice sea views and perfect for enjoying the sunset, which really was pretty good every evening.
Unfortunately we had to battle with a few other issues in the house, first a small flooding of our bathroom once the kids were done having a bath in the other bathroom, then a non-functioning shower, topped by the hot water boiler failing completely. This cost us quite a bit of time but to be fair the host was responsive and got things sorted pretty quickly.
Most if not every day we headed to the beach which was in easy walking distance and enjoyed the warm weather, sand and waves. There were a few more things to explore the area though, so we tried to get a rental car. Our first stop was the airport where most of the rental companies had offices. Our Uber driver was awesome and took us the scenic route past a river mouth where lots of migrating birds stopped. We returned to this place quite a few times but more to this later. He also took us past a cool road sign showing Bolivia straight ahead, Peru to the left and Arica to the right. Anyway, we didn’t get a car at the airport but the next day grabbed on in town.
Our first stop was back to the river mouth to look at the hundreds if not thousands of birds gathering and resting. What a sight! We met a local photographer who told us he took pictures of 60 different species in the morning. At our first visit we also saw the most interesting bird of them all, the Skimmer. And of course that had to be the time I didn’t take my binos, but at least I got a few decent pictures of these amazing fliers. Turned out that this was the only time we saw them though.
The next morning we headed to the local fish market. After the amazing fish market experience on the Galápagos Islands, we were wondering how this fish market would compare. In short, it was equally entertaining! Huge South American Sea Lions were swimming around and protecting the best spots to snatch up the fish waste thrown in by the guys cutting the freshly caught fish. Peruvian Pelicans hanging out everywhere to see what they can scoop up, lots of other birds trying to get into the action – and best of all, lots of Inca Terns flying around and getting their share. I read that these beautiful birds could be seen in the area, but now seeing them up close was amazing. We spent a good hour or so there and watched the busy action in this picture perfect setting with lots of small, colourful boats being thrown around in the wind and tide.
Next stop was a view point above Arica to get us a good overview. Again, not much to see but the town and then nothing around it. All life here is around the few rivers coming down from the mountains as green lines of life. The flag at the view point was impressive though, hard to gauge how big it was exactly but it was massive! And we finally could see the turkey vultures we saw circling the town in huge numbers up close. Not a very pretty bird compared to the Condor for example but still a large vulture. After another stop at our bird-watching hot spot at the river mouth, it was time to end the day on our roof terrace with dinner, beer and another nice sunset of course.
Heading into town the next morning, we started to see the preparations of what we have only read on signs of before. The local, quite famous, Arica Carnival was happening the following weekend. Anybody who knows me also knows my next move – head out of town as soon as possible! Carnival is just not my thing. But fortunately we had another couple of days before the action really kicked in, so we headed to the, according to Trip Advisor at least, #1 attraction in Arica – the Cuevas de Anzota. We kind of expected a few caves to walk through and were pleasantly surprised that there was more to it. For a start, the caves are within a huge Peruvian Booby breeding colony. Then you could actually walk alongside the rocky beaches and enjoy the area and scenery. Only problem was that we all had to wear protective head gear all the time due to rock fall danger. Fair enough I guess, but still – we were all very happy to give back the helmets after a couple of hours.
The kids are really getting good at spotting birds, not just Condor Eye. One of them spotted the Red Legged Cormorant, probably the nicest Cormorant/Shag we have ever seen. Very cool! In the afternoon we headed to a hummingbird sanctuary, as you know – there is no bad day when you see a hummingbird. We actually had a few hummingbirds zooming past us on the roof terrace but having a hummingbird sanctuary only 20kms away is hard to not go to. And it was well worth the short trip, lots of hummingbirds but also other new birds and to top it off, a hummingbird sitting on its tiny nest just when we wanted to leave the place. Quite amazing place really, a green oasis surrounded by dunes, mountains and desert.
On the way back we decided to take the desert pass over to the next valley and stopped for our first desert picture. I discovered a new function of my camera at this spot. Now and then we take self timer pictures to have us all on the picture, so far so good. My camera has a jump mode though. I can remotely control the camera via my iPhone to ensure everyone is in the picture, take a normal picture of course – and then there is jump mode. Somehow it detects when we jump and takes a picture. Works quite well 😉
Anyway, quickly back to the beach for a swim and icecream but not before stopping to see if the Skimmer is back… Gesa headed away that day to scout out our next stop, San Pedro de Atacama.
We spent our last day at the beach, taking back the car and then having a nice, long dinner to bridge the time to our 10pm night bus departure. After our last night bus experience (way too hot, no sleep, …), we booked the premium class for this 12 hour trip, and were very much looking forward to a restful night. Well, that didn’t start well. Getting into the bus, it was all just normal seats “Semi Cama”?! A couple from Germany saw our faces probably and said that they had been informed just before the bus departure that the bus had been changed, no premium. At least they got a partial refund. Well, good thing that this time the temperature was good and I had a nice seat in front of the stairs giving me plenty of leg room and no reclined seat in front of me. So we had a pretty good sleep after all, which was only fair as it was my birthday when we arrived in Calama. And we got our partial refund once we arrived.
To kick off my birthday we stopped in a little restaurant which had basic but surprisingly good breakfast options. Gesa caught up with us again there as well, and I even got some presents! The kids drew some very nice cards for me, Jennifer stole a few nice beer glasses in a pub in Arequipa and Gesa saved some of her liquorice stock for me. Couldn’t get any better really!
Next we picked up our car and got lucky getting a 7 seater Peugeot 5008 with very low KMs. Nothing could go wrong now, right? Well, it confirmed my suspicion against French cars and especially Peugeot. Not even 30k on the clock and this car was awful to drive, twitching to the right out of nowhere. The inside was all flash though, and later in the trip I saw that the back left tire had been changed and had a completely different type and profile. I guess that explains the weird driving (bordering dangerous). A day later a red warning light turned on but we were pretty sure that this was for an overdue service. Still, pretty poor form for the rental car company for putting on different tire and not servicing. But enough complained about the car, in the end it got us everywhere – and the roads in and around San Pedro are horrendous. Gravel, which would be fine, but with lots of holes and very poorly maintained. Bit of a surprise really as you get charged an arm and a leg at every tourist site and the region making a fortune from the hordes of tourists visiting the area every week. Right, enough bitching around now, it was my birthday after all and we made it to San Pedro de Atacama!
Fortunately we were able to check in early, dropped off the gear and headed to our first stop, the Lagune Cejar. I never made it to the Dead Sea yet and from what I read, this lagoon should give us the same experience. For a start we had to pay entry though and got our first experience with the steep prices in the area, cough! Pretty much no discount for kids and with $30 per head, I was considering heading straight into the pub. Fortunately we decided to proceed though, walked around the first lagoon to see some flamingoes (yes, again!) and admire the setting with the lagoon surrounded by several snow-capped volcanoes – to then head to the swimming lagoon. The experience is hard to describe if you haven’t been in this lagoon or the Dead Sea. Best I can do, you feel like a cork floating around. You just lie there and float, nothing you need to do. Took the kids a while to figure it out but then they had a blast. Lying on the back is the easy bit really, you just float. Trying to swim belly down – you just make a fool out of yourself. Lots of giggling, pictures and poses later we went out again and got quickly dried by the heat and wind. The water is so salty that it leaves a white salt crust across your whole body. I thought it was funny but the better half didn’t like it one bit and headed for the fresh water showers. We were very clearly told not to put our head under water, so we didn’t but I would have loved to try and dive down. Don’t think it would have worked.
Once back in town, we headed out for a birthday dinner with the odd decent craft beer and a Pisco Sour for the (adult) girls. What an experience on my birthday, won’t forget that one!
The next morning (more lunch I think… after a Karaoke Party next door until 7am) we headed out to visit a couple of altiplano lagoons. San Pedro is at around 2600 metres but these lagoons are up 4200-4600 metres. After our experience with altitude sickness in Cusco we were quite wary as this would be another few hundred metres higher than our previous record. Actually, we drove over a 4900 metre pass back to Arequipa but only stayed there for 10 minutes or so, this would be for a whole day. Maybe a bit dizzy at times but nothing major all day though, so we all could enjoy the spectacular scenery. Jennifer and I had a small walk and we definitely felt the thin air but it was easily manageable.
En route we were passing wild donkeys, Alpaca, Lamas, Vicunas and at the lagoon we saw more flamingoes and some new bird species as well. We even spotted and got some good pictures of some quite rare mountain parakeets and the Emu-like Rhea. A really nice day which we wrapped up with another dinner in town. My dad passed away 2 years ago on that day and we thought and talked about him during the day, had a drink in his name in the evening, and were sure that he looked after us that day if not every day on our trip so far.
No time to rest though and full itinerary the next day as well. First stop, Valle de Luna. We bought (yes again…) our tickets in the morning and had a first look around this valley which looks a bit like from the moon. It is famous for its sunsets though and we returned later. Before that we headed to a large sand dune where you can apparently surf, snowboard or just boogie-board down. We had some very excited kids in the car!
The sand dune was huge indeed and when we arrived we saw one person sand-boarding down. So we all started to make our way up, a long way up! Fortunately there was kind of a path trotted into the first part of the dune but once that ran out – it was hard going. This would have been fine. The problem was that the sand was hot, like in waaay to hot to walk on, and we all only had sandals on. Lesson learned here, put on shoes and socks if you want to walk up a hot sand dune. Second problem, even after making your painful and slow way up – our plan of zooming down on bags didn’t work. Like in complete disaster. I don’t know how the guy managed to sand-board down but I thought it looked pretty slow at the time. I have done boogie-boarding down huge sand dunes in New Zealand (90 mile beach), and that was fast and lots of fun! Nothing of that here, so we were all sitting/standing at various locations on the dune and wondered what now. Feet were half-cooked already and a slow walk down was not an option. So I started running down and it was actually pretty fun, especially when you managed to get your feet out of the hot sand quickly again. The others followed and enjoyed it as well, only leaving Gesa and Jannik on the dune. Well, Gesa had flip flops, so running was not really an option. And Jannik ripped his sandals the day before and couldn’t run down with them as well. The little one came to Jannik’s rescue and took some socks to him, leaving only Gesa up. No other way but running a few steps (feet getting to medium) and then elegantly bum-dropping to cool off. So we made it all down again, yay! Only for Josina and I to head back up to do it again, it was fun after all. This would have been all good if not our little one then wanting one more go as well. The two girls headed up (good effort!) again, started running and then little one had a complete face plant! I heard a good “thump” on the bottom, so it was a decent crash!
Nothing else to do but to run up to her, get her out of the hot sand and carry her down. Good news, nothing broken only slightly cooked face and legs but nothing what a good cuddle couldn’t help. Tough girl that one, 10 minutes later they wanted to head back up, and they did. But only after the lesson to elegantly bum-land (as shown by Gesa) if it is getting too fast. Last run went off without a hitch!
That was enough excitement for a bit, so we headed for an hour or so drive into another valley, famous for its rock formations with different colours and lots of cactuses. The drive was well worth it, very cool colours (especially greens, reds but also blueish) and rock formations, and huge cactuses! After an exciting off road drive through a few river beds later, we headed back to Valle de Luna for the sunset. As expected, there were much more tourists and tours gathering around the lookouts, but we found a good spot and waited. Finding a good spot was made easy by hundreds of stop/don’t enter/not here,… signs plastering the whole valley. Ok, not that bad but I started taking pictures of them all as they were everywhere.
The sunset was pretty good but nothing close to being as spectacular as described in a lot of reviews. We might have been a bit spoilt from Arica sunsets but at least in my opinion is was pretty average. Worst of all, just after sunset the ranger came up and herded everybody down. And in my experience, sunsets get most interesting/colourful 10-15 minutes after sunset. Anyway, a bit disappointing but a nice valley.
That night after dinner we headed out into the desert to do some star gazing, after all the world largest radio telescope (ALMA – Atacama Large Millimeter Array) is just around the corner due to the near perfect low-light, desert conditions. Unfortunately for us it was nearly full moon, but still lots of stars and the odd shooting star.
Last full day in the Atacama Desert, and we saved the biggest attraction for last – the El Tatio Geysers. Most tours start at 5pm at the latest to be at the Geysers at 7am for dawn. We decided that this is not what we want to do in our holidays and started at 7am to be there at 9am just in time for all the tours to leave and hopefully have the place to ourselves. To be fair, the reason for the early start is that the temperatures are much lower at 7am and the steam and the geysers are more spectacular. Well 9am had to do for us. And it played out nicely indeed. On the way we passed a few small lagoons full of flamingoes and other birds, and couldn’t but stop and take lots of pictures. Perfect conditions with the light and still water, really a beautiful spot with all the birds and vicunas playing around amongst them. If you are interested, there are three different species of Flamingoes just in this part: Chilean, Andean and James Flamingo. The James one was our favourite, very pretty!
From 9am on the clock onwards the hordes of tour buses came towards us heading back to San Pedro. When we arrived a bit later, there were still a few tour busses around but mainly serving a rather nice breakfast to their crews. A bit jealous we headed to the first few geysers.
The geyser field is impressive and all the bubbling and steaming gives you an out of this world feeling, but I couldn’t help but to think that Rotorua back home is much more impressive. Just much more colours, smells, larger and higher geysers, – way more intense. But the setting with snow-capped volcanoes in the back was spectacular I have to say! This is the second time I have compared South American sites with locations back in NZ (Bariloche/Central Otago and El Tatio/Rotorua). Trying not to do this too often but these two stuck out for me.
Last thing to do at the geysers was to swim in the hot thermal pools, which funnily enough, we now had to ourselves. Very relaxing and we all loved it! Well, that was until later in the day when we were back home and I started to have an allergic reaction. I wasn’t aware that I am allergic to anything and never had a reaction, but something in the water didn’t play well with my skin. Fortunately Gesa had some antihistamine and an hour later all was good again. This stuff is now part of our travel medic kit!
That’s it, another short post about the last couple of weeks or so 🙂
The really sad bit is that we then had to say goodbye to Gesa. Nearly 4 weeks ago we caught up with her at Cusco airport and we had a great time travelling with her. We and the kids will miss her! But Gesa is heading towards South Patagonia to catch up with another friend and we had to make our way back to Buenos Aires. So time to say good bye 🙁
Safe travels Gesa, see you in Germany in a few months, maybe for a Pisco Sour?!
Next post will be a short one, promise. Just a quick post about Salta and our time in BA before heading to Uruguay for a week, to then tackle our last big highlight – Iguazu Falls! Flights are now booked to take us to our next continent, Africa!
