It’s a long time, since we had a rainy day for updating our travel blog. Besides we have experienced so many highlights in a really short time, we met so many nice people, we were just enjoying. Now sitting on a couch on a rainy day next to the beach, we take the time to continue telling you, what happened the last two month on our trip through South America.
Antofagasta
Our next destination was Antofagasta. In the beginning the bus journey was along the nice coast and further through the dry landscape of the Atacama Desert. This nature is impressive and something completely new, that we haven’t seen so far during our “Around-the-world” trip. In Antofagasta we were staying at our next host’s place. His name is Jesus. He picked us up at the bus station and showed us how Chilean people make BBQ. He and his two friends Roro and Christopher prepared the big amount of delicious meat while we were eating and listening to Reggaetón music. 😊 Together with the 3 guy’s we spent a very funny evening / night. We played UNO-cards, Beer-Pong and drank a lot of Pisco-la. The next day, we call it our “Hangover-Day”, we didn’t do a lot besides eating. At least Jesus and Christopher showed us the port of Antofagasta in the afternoon and we walked a bit along the coast. Antofagasta is a long city trapped between the sea and a mountain range. At the shopping mall we ate Ice Cream before we were heading back to Jesus place to cook Spaghetti together for dinner. Before we took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama the other day, we visited “La Portada”, which is a bit offshore around 20km north of Antofagasta. This often-photographed national icon is a gorgeous natural arch and home for a lot of birds. We made a stroll along this impressive coast and observed many many birds flying from and back to this natural arch “La Portada”.
San Pedro de Atacama
The bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama was through the impressive landscape of red sand rock formations. It reminds Natascha and Lisa a bit of the landscape in Death Valley of California, USA, where they have been travelling in autumn 2016. During our bus ride we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Atacama Valley and we didn’t really recognize how we gain on altitude. Suddenly, it started to snow. It must have been on a high altitude of around 3500 m. A bit afraid to freeze during the night, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama on an altitude of 2500m, which was located in a valley in the middle of the Andes chain. There we met Klaus our next Couchsurfing host. He is a tour guide and living with two friends in a kind of house, which is still under construction. Not knowing where we will be sleeping this night, we enjoyed the evening with good red wine and delicious self-made spaghetti from Klaus. Finally, we ended up sleeping on the floor on a half-broken mattress which was so-so comfortable. Nevertheless, we got up and wanted to see, which activities we could do in San Pedro. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the weather and because of the snow in the higher mountains and a sandstorm, all the activities and sightseeing attractions were closed that day. We visited this little cute village San Pedro with its many restaurants and souvenir shops instead. We also met the brasilian guy Rogerio again, who we got to know in the bus from Antofagasta the day before. We had a nice evening together with Rogerio, and because we could not really handle the behaviour of our host Klaus, we changed our accommodation and stayed for the next 4 nights in the same hostel then Rogerio. The next morning, we made a walking tour through San Pedro. We learned a lot about history, culture, plants, the environment and the food and could try a special nut “Chanar” and another leave, which tastes like chocolate when you chew on it. In the afternoon we wanted to explore the surroundings. We went to the “Pamela” tours and booked a tour for this afternoon to a Canyon called Qubrada del Diablo, the Sand dunes in the Valle de la Muerte and a nice view point of the Valle de la Luna, where we enjoyed the sunset, despite the steady and cold wind. In the evening we cooked our favourite dish “Rösti” with purple potatoes from Chile. Because of the weather (sand storm, snow, wind) still a lot of tours were closed the next day. We decided to explore more San Pedro and the surroundings. We were buying souvenirs and walked around 20km through the dry desert to the archeological site “Aldea de Tulor” (old Ruinas from the 12th century). For the next day we booked another tour to the Laguna Miscanti and the Salar de Atacama (Salt desert). The Laguna Miscanti are on an altitude of around 4000m above Sea level, and it suddenly started to snow. We could not continue driving anymore, that’s why we made a rest for eating breakfast, before we had to drive back. It was a special feeling to see snow in a desert. 😉 In the Salar de Atacama we went to the Laguna Chaxa, where we could see pink Flamengos in the wild life. It was so amazing to see an animal in the nature again, which we only have seen in a Zoo before. In the evening we got the message, that all the borders to Bolivia and Argentina were closed for the next few days because of the snow. Our plan was to cross the border to Bolivia for visiting the Salar de Uyuni. But now we had to change our plans and we took the bus (back to the coast) to Iquique in the north of Chile.
Around the world trip Natascha & Claudia 