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Chile

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-- From 2016/08/01 to 2016/08/07
-- From the border to Arica
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The GPS road tacklog
from the border to Ruta-#1
from 2016/08/01 au 2016/08/04

Paso de Jama

Enter Chile, CL

On Monday, August 1st I arrived around 10:00 at the border post of Paso de Jama. In a room a counter is occupied by the immigration and the customs of Argentina, and the immigration and the customs of Chile. It was necessary for me less than fifteen minutes to fill the formalities. A young lady accompanied me to visit my truck in order to control that there were not prohibited products, fruits and vegetables in others. The visa for traveller and the license to circulate for the vehicle in temporary admission are 90 days. I continued my way up to San Pedro de Atacama.

It was once in the desert of Atacama…

In a former life I climbed six summits in the world including two in Chile in August 2002 in the desert of Atacama, Licancabur and Gallatiri. This trip undertaken in August 2016 in the north of Chile is a jubilee. I invite the Net surfers to follow the hyperlink: Desert of Atacama, Click the pictures to increase them


San Pedro de Atacama

In San Pedro de Atacama I took money at the ATM of a bank in the La Paige street close to the Tourist office. I went around of the Plaza de Armas by visiting the church. My Nokia smartphone under Windows Phone 10 informed me that there was a WiFi connection of good qualities. I returned to my truck to prepare the sending of the publication of the last page of Argentina from Plaza de Armas. Then I was going to seek a bivouac close to the entry of Valle of Luna in the desert.

Visit San Pedro de Atacama, click the picture

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The following day two visits were in the program, Valle de la Luna opens at 9:00; to see the rising sun I was going to the Mirador Coyote on the road to Calama. Then I returned at the entrance of Valle de la Luna. It is a trip of 11 km with parkings for points of view and photographs. At the end of the morning I returned to my bivouac in the desert at 2500 m to continue my acclimatization with altitude before going to see the geysers of El Tatio at +4300 m of altitude. The below Russian military map at 500.000e shows the way in blue for the Watchtower Coyote then that of Valle de la Luna starting from the bivouac 01-desert.

Visit d'El Mirador Coyotte & de la Valle de la Luna, click the picture

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El Tatio

I left the desert close to the entry of Valle da Luna before the sunrise to be in El Tatio. But the road is a track of 90 km in the mountains. I arrived around 8:00. The tour operators from Calama had already poured their horde of tourists. Some young girls in evil of adventure played the naiads. I begun again the track up to Calama to make supply before continuing towards the Coast of the Pacific. Indeed I by-pass Chuquicamata drowned in a cloud of dust, I will see on my return in two weeks. It is the deepest copper mine to sky-open. It was open in 1912 by the US-Anaconda Copper Mining Company before being nationalized by Chile. I found not without difficulties a bivouac in the desert.

Visite Geysers d'El Tatio, click the picture

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Tatio Geysers, a spectacular attraction

Ruta-#24, bivouac

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Ruta-#1

On Thursday, August 4th I went down from my bivouac in the desert towards the sea. The change of weather was dramatic I left the blue sky and the sun for a weather covered and gloomy at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I crossed the town of Tocopilla at approximately 10 meters of altitude without to stop to find a bivouac between sea and mountain.

Ruta-#1, click la photo

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Bivouac between sea and mountain
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The GPS road tacklog
from Ruta-#1 to Iquique
from 2016/08/05 au 2016/08/05

Iquique

On Friday, August 5th I traversed the coastal road between sea and mountain in the desert up to Iquique. The landscape is sometimes Dantean by the tears of blocks of rocks posed there by a diabolic hand. Many beaches are accessible for fishing and camping. The approach of Iquique by a turnpike of 40 km is covered  by fog in this season and there too between sea and mountain like a mirage in the desert. Plaza Prat is dominated by Torre Reloj in front of the municipal theater. I tried to obtain booklets for Putre and Parinacota at the Tourist Office without success. Moreover the hostess could not indicate to me where to find a Wi-Fi connection! I lunched of a soup and a fish slice in Mercado Centenario before going to bivouac at seaside on the calle Capitan R. Perez.

Iquique, click the picture

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Humberstone

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Iquique panorama

On Saturday, August 6th the rise in laces of the dune overhanging Iquique is spectacular and gives a bird's eye view dramatic. In Humberstone the derelict land of Oficina Santa Laura gives a Dantean outline of what was the exploitation of saltpeter by 1872 in a town of 800 blue-collar workers. The discovery of synthetic nitrate involved the closing of the site in the Sixties. I only walked in the site by having in memory the visit of Auschwitz. Admittedly the ultimate goal was without comparison but the atmosphere of desolation, the succession of the dwellings and the hutments and the human exploitation gave to me an impression of finitude of the man. Only the pictures and the text clarifying the origin of the paminos recalled me with reality quite different from the two sites.

Visit Oficina Santa Laura, click the picture

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The GPS road tacklog
from Iquique to Arica
from 2016/08/06 au 2016/08/07

Pisagua

On the way towards Arica I made a detour to go to Pisagua unknown historic site of Desembarco de Pisagua 2 noviembre of 1879! The descent from the altitude of 1000 meters to the sea level is spectacular with the view of the village at the bottom of the dune. The highlight is Torre de Reloj. In the single street I was stopped by two police officers in khaki behavior and heavily armed. We discussed lengthily from where I come where I go what it was my profession etc… without to ask my documents. It was good-child, they advised me a site of bivouac. The village is in the process of becoming a ghost town.

Visit Pisagua, click the picture

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Arica

On Sunday, August 7th the departure from Pisagua was hard so much the coast is sloping. The 40 kilometers up to the junction with the ruta-#5 were traversed in the clouds. The sun appeared starting from the altitude of approximately 1200 m. Work on road slowed down the progression towards Arica. On the way a strange panel drew my attention for a turning of a hundred meters I discovered sculptures in the desert representing the guardian presence (protective). I reached Arica, oasis in the desert at seaside, at the beginning of afternoon. I made the location of the Tourist office to visit it on Monday morning. I bivouacked on the small peninsula  named Nelson Mandela.

Monument de la Présence Tutélaire, click the picture

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