04/10/12 - Last Day in Santiago

We headed down and wandered onwards. As the Cerro Santa Lucia was near the train station, we discovered a number of stores were opening even on this most serious of holidays. There was a department store, a pharmacy, a small supermarket and the inevitable television and electronic gadgets store. Santiago is a big city, so Easter Sunday or not, you could do a bit of shopping.

You could also go to church. We passed a number of churches, and the main cathedral was pretty full as the service went on. It was strange to see autumn flowers, like chrysanthemums, instead of spring flowers, like lilies, decorating the church. Off the main square, some vendors had already set up their stands selling remaindered books and oddball figurines, none particularly Easter related.

We did find the Museum of National History which we had missed on our previous visit to the area. It was open and full of old portraits, weapons, household items and documents from Chile's history. It started with the early Spanish settlement, went on through the revolution, and soon we were looking at dial telephones and manual typerwriters. Wow, we are getting old.

We made our way back to our hotel for lunch at a Peruvian restaurant which was right down the block. Our hotel, The Aubrey, was in Bellavista which is probably one's best bet for a meal on a holiday like Easter Sunday. Constitution, our street, and the Bellavista Patio were full of restaurants and happy diners. Then we took a long nap. Remember, our flight home was at two o'clock in the morning, so we needed all the sleep we could get. Then, well after sunset, we woke up, finished packing, grabbed a bite at the hotel, and made our way to the airport. The next 20 or so hours we spent in airplanes or airport lounges, and that would only get us to Seattle.

04/08/12 - Tatio Geysers (Part 4 - Coda With Movies)

We've also posted some movies of some hot thermal action. Turn on the sound and you can hear the hiss of the steam. It's not quite like being there, but, then again, nothing really is.

04/08/12 - Tatio Geysers (Part 3 - More Stuff)

Our walk took us past a rocky area where we saw little chinchilla-like creatures called viscachas racing about among the rocks. We even managed to catch one in a moment of repose. There were also vicunas wandering about the thermal field. As we said earlier, there was always something interesting.

Then we reached the swimming hole, a naturally heated pool where we found the only other group visiting besides that one other car we had passed earlier. It was a French speaking family from Belgium in a little camper with a bicycle rack built in to the back.

Finally, we climbed a bit, but at 15,000 feet, any climbing is exhausting. We made it to the visitor center, a nicely appointed facility kept in excellent shape by the hard working staff. We took over their kitchen. Jorge convinced them somehow. Because it was Good Friday, Jorge could not eat red meat, but the senora in the kitchen had prepared a wonderful chicken stew. She generously offered us some, and we even got to try the senora's wonderful garden fava beans, but most of our lunch was provided by Awasi, and were we hungry. Enjoy the high speed photo we managed to snap before all the food disappeared.

04/07/12 - Tatio Geysers (Part 2 - Around the Thermal Basin)

04/06/12 - Tatio Geysers (Part 1- The Journey)

We were originally going to take a serious hike, down a hillside, along an old road then through a canyon and up to the geysers. There was a beautiful view of the mountains, but we were at 15,000 feet. Our nerve failed us, so we decided to head back to the thermal field where the geysers were and take a five kilometer (three mile) hike on level ground.

04/05/12 - Petroglyphs

04/05/12 - La Laguna del Altoplano (Part 2)

On the drive down we could see more. There were the distant white forms of the ALMA telescope complex in the distance and a Japanese observatory perched atop a mountain with the snow tracks of the access road visible in the distance. There were numerous lakes and lagoons, most in Chile, but some in Bolivia. Our road went to Argentina, but we were also near the border with Bolivia. We stopped a few times to admire blue lakes, snow capped mountains, industrious horned coots, and green swamplands.

There were llamas beside the road, posing in front of the mountain scenery. There were even a few baby llamas getting ready for their first winters. We stopped for a bit, then resumed our descent. Breakfast beckoned. We were already exhausted, and our day had just begun.

04/05/12 - La Laguna del Altoplano (Part 1)

The sun was still below the horizon when we stopped. Before us was the salar and the lagoon and around us were the mountains.

04/05/12 - An Amazing Orchard

04/04/12 - Up Some River, Through a Canyon

We made our way down the rocks to the canyon floor and walked, clambered and crawled upstream. Now and then we'd leap the stream or scramble over the rocks to bypass a waterfall. It was moist in the canyon, with tall cactus about along with a broad variety of plants, many in flower. There were also big clumps of pampas grass, many six or eight feet tall, and we'd sometimes have to fight our away upstream through thickets of them.

Eventually, the walls of the canyon grew lower and we could see the mountains ahead of us. We emerged from canyon-land to the surface, and the canyon itself was invisible behind us.

04/03/12 - Devil's Creek - (Part 1) To Be Continued

It followed the Creek's canyon, carved into soft rock and mud. There were gypsum intrusions and slot canyons and little caves that were carved by the bend of the stream. We were climbing slowly all along. The canyon changed and grew more open. We saw our first plants, scrubby bushes along our way. We could also see the moon rising over the canyon wall. It would be our companion for much of the journey.

04/03/12 - Catarpe (Part 2 of the Devil's Creek Saga)

We saw a few signs of life - guanaco tracks, mountain cat tracks and a lone feral donkey. Though the canyon was more open, the shadows were long, and we could still feel the sense of isolation.

04/03/12 - A Surprise and A Challenge (Part 3 - The Exciting Conclusion)

We would have lingered, but the light was failing. We left the plateau by an alternate route, clambering down rocks and emerging by the river, the same river we had followed on our way to the trailhead. Then came our race with darkness as we followed the broad flood plain of the river downstream to our guide's truck.

We arrived shortly before dark and began a mad drive along and, at times, through the river, aided by our guide's knowledge, our headlights and the waxing moon. As we are writing this, you know we made it back in time for dinner, but it was quite a journey in the dark.