Month: December 2018

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Chile South America

Pucon

Pucon is known as the adventure capital of the South. You can do white river rafting, climb an active volcano (Villarica) , including gas mask & oxygen due to the sulphorous gases it continuously emits. There are are also national parks to keep hikers busy. 

This is of course if the weather plays its part. When I arrived it happened to be pretty rainy- you wouldn’t even know that there is a volcano around due to the low cloud cover! 

However, when you stay in a hostel there are always other travelers to meet- so I be-friended two German girls with whom I spent the next two days. 

Our first outing on the best weather day- was a hike in Huerquehue National Park. We were very happy to go with a easier option -and thus set our sites on the Los Lagos (lakes) hike. Upon getting to the bus station we saw a sign that stated that this trail was closed for maintenance. Damn! The other option was the San Sebastian trail. This sounded tough in the descriptions we read the day before…”You think you have reached the top but you haven’t!” was used at least 6 times! However, when we got to the national park we found out that this trail was closed due to snow! So we had one option: Quinchol trail. This is a continuously climbing and steep trail, but rewards you with great views! I went at my usual granny pace. The trail winds up through ancient Araucanía tree forest. Several people described it as being a “Jurassic Park feeling”. At the top circuit there are great views of Villarica on clear days.

There was an incident while we were having lunch on top of the hill- one of the girls spotted a very large spider. It turned out to be a tarantula!!  I did not know that they are endemic here- until this very moment! 

The area around Pucon has tens of thermal springs of all sorts and temperatures, sizes and costs. The day after the hike we went to Los Pozones, serviced by public buses and the cheapest of the hot springs. This was good to relax, and at the shoulder season, didn’t have too many people.  Unfortunately I do not have photos as there were many warnings of theft- so I took the bare minimum with me. This trip was together with the German girls as well as a Czech lady that i met on the bus ride back from the National Park. We continued our exploration the next day of the waterfalls of the area. The weather played along most of the time… we clocked 18km between waterfalls and heading back into Pucon before we hitched a ride. 

Categories
Chile South America

Lota

El Chiflon el Diablo (The Devil’s Whistle) is an underground coal mine in Lota, Chile. It is just over an hour bus ride from Concepcion. The town of Lota has run into tough times after the mine closed in the 1997 due to cheaper Colombian coal hitting the market. 

The mine tunnels are supported by eucalyptus wooden beams, and are developed under the sea. Operation started in 1857 , when the town became the center of Chile’s coal production. Lota boomed as a small port.

The mine is ventilated by strong coastal breezes and is one of very few mines that does not require forced or mechanical ventilation in the world. 

A truly beautiful attraction in Lota is the Isadora Cousino Park. The botanical gardens were planted by the original mine owners with various tree and flower species, and overlook the Pacific Ocean, the old port and mine shaft. 

Categories
Chile South America

Chuquicamata Mine and abandoned Township

Chuquicamata copper mine has been operating for the last 103 years as an open pit. The life of the open pit mine  is coming to an end in 2020, however production is being taken over by the underground section prior to this end date.

The tour commences after a 30 minutes drive from Calama city, to the abandoned ghost town of Chuquicamata. All personnel who worked on the mine inhabited this mining town. The town had schools, hospital, churches, theater and a stadium as well as housing for 20,000 residents. All personnel were moved to Calama by the company, into company housing, by February 2008. Half of the town was then tipped over with rock waste from the mine –including the hospital. The remainder of the ghost town –inclusive of the town center – is now however considered national heritage and part of Chile’s history.

The open pit is the largest copper mine in the world- 5km long, 3.5km wide and 1.1km deep and is stated owned (CODELCO). There are an impressive 87 dump trucks on this mine! Though non-impressively most of them were queuing when I was there.

A bit confusingly (is this a word?) – all people drive on the left hand side of the mine roads, due to the left hand drive trucks, and when you leave work you drive on the right hand side again. 

If you are interested in visiting, you need to email visitas@codelco.cl with the amount of people and date you would like to visit. Tours happen Monday to Friday. A 40 seater bus is used for the trip and fills up fast. The tour is free, CODELCO suggests making a voluntary donation to a children’s charity as “payment”.

 

Categories
Chile South America

San Pedro de Atacama Part 2

Laguna Cejar is North Chile’s Dead Sea. Floating and relaxing effortlessly is the name of the game. UNFORTUNATELY, though, there are no magma chambers under this lake- so the water is a bit cold for my liking. Having said that, the view of the Andes is glorious!!

Part of the trip is to go to Ojos de Salar (Eyes of the salt pan) which is nothing exciting, but gives Instagram fanatics a place to take perspective photos due to large, dry lake. No a very exciting stop though.

The last stop- for sunset drinks and snacks- is the best. Tebenquiche is located in the north of Salar de Atacama (Atacama salt flat) at 2,300m amsl. It is scientifically significant in that it contains stromatolites. Stromatolites are formed by bacteria and are thought to have significantly increased the oxygen on our planet several million years ago by the process of photosynthesis. They are now only found here, in Australia and in the Amazon.

Stromatolites are the mounds that you will see in the lagoon in the photos. From a purely aesthetic point of view- the blues around this lake are so beautiful and so many hues- together with the blue sky, and then changing colours during sunset- it is purely WOW.

Laguna Chaxa contained the most flamingos out of all the lakes at the time of visiting. The lake gets visits from the three types of flamingos that call Chile home: Andean, Chilean and James flamingos. They differ in height, beak and tail feather colours.

As I seem to be writing this post back to front, I will actually close off the San Pedro de Atacama portion of the blog with photos of the actual township! 

This area has been known to be inhabited since 11,000 years ago. The local people are called Lican and the indigenous language is Kunza. This language has nearly died out as the Spanish would cut the local’s tongue out if you spoke it! 

San Pedro is not an attractive town by any means, but the surroundings are. 

Categories
Chile South America

San Pedro de Atacama Part 1

A relatively short bus trip of 5 hours, gets you from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama. This is a small desert town, out of which you can explore the Atacama Desert and volcanoes surrounding the area. I’m sure that the tourist to local ratio is at least 5:1 – it’s very popular!

I spent nearly a week here- not because I had such a packed schedule here but it tied in well with a very cheap flight I managed to get from Calama to Concepcion, in the south. Five days would be just perfect.

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) is a mixture of sand dunes and a large crater giving it a moon-like appearance. It also has salt caves to explore- mind you, you do need to contort a bit to get through them. The Valley is located in the Cordillera de la Sal. We went in the late afternoon and stayed for sunset too. The colours across the volcanoes and Andes is great- not sure that the photos capture it.

Licancabur is a 6,000m amsl volcano that overlooks San Pedro, and has a classic shape but cannot be climbed from Chile. It is too dangerous due to the landmines that Pinochet dropped on the Bolivia/Chile border during the 20th Century War of the Pacific. The locations of the landmines are unknown- and every time there is a large downpour they move.

The Laguna Altiplanicas (highland lakes) are located at 4,200m amsl. They consist of Laguna Miscanti – 15km2 surface area and Miniques-1,5km2 . “Miscanti” means “frogs” in the local language and the volcano by the lake is named after the lake. The smaller lake also has a volcano next two it. There is a theory that states that the lakes may have become two after a volcanic explosion. Flamingoes do live in these lakes- though there were only two when I was visiting 🙂 .

The lakes do freeze as sub-zero temperatures do occur regularly at this altitude.  

The smaller volcanoes between the larger ones are known as Punta Negras (black points) and do have some thermal waters.

During this trip we were lucky to spot some local animals. The vicuna- highland relative of the llama- lives between 3,500 and 4,500m amsl. The suri is an Andean ostrich and the viscacha which is like a rabbit/chinchilla rodent.  Vicuna wool is the most expensive in the world, however due to the protection of the animal hunting and wool gathering is not allowed.

A 04h00 rise and shine and a pick up between 04h30 and 05h00 means that a trip to El Tatio geysers was coming up.  El Tatio is the third largest geyser field in the world, behind Yellowstone and a field in Siberia that you can only fly over. It is also the highest geyser field at 4,300m amsl. Amazingly you can walk through and around the geyser field. The feeling of walking on top of a very active volcano- with magma chambers ONLY 6-8m below your feet and water that squirts out of holes at 85°C is a bit unsettling. The temperatures ranges experienced during the day- San Pedro de Atacama was approximately 6°C, -5°C in El Tatio and then 28°C when we got back at midday. I later heard that two days after I did this trip it was -12°C in the morning!!! The reason for the trips being so early is for the greater variation in temperature between the steam and outside temperature. It gives a more dramatic and visible impact. 

The road to and from the geysers is a dirt road –which is great as you can explore more outback areas. We stopped in a couple of places which included two wetlands in the desert!! Machuca is a tiny town of 10 families and is supported by tourism- the best things here are the church and the wetland of the same name. 

Had a lovely time at Hierbas Buenas (Petroglyphs) and Valle del Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley). It was a great morning out –in the only area around San Pedro that must not have 23 tours happening at the same time! Had a peaceful walk around the petroglyphs –which were between 1,000 and 5,000 years old. Images include llamas, foxes, monkey and dog.

The rainbow colours in the valley are due to many different minerals.

Categories
Chile South America

Antofagasta

Antofagasta reminded me of Whyalla…the only two similarities being that they are both on the coast and the amount of mining vehicles around in town. Antofagasta has several mines around and is the port out of which all the copper from Chuquicamata Mine is exported and the mines around Atacama. I stopped here after a 12-hour bus trip from La Serena-and due to being in mining have heard the name of Antofagasta a few times- so thought that I would stay a day.

The city is long and narrow and has campamentos (locations) running up into the hills. Again, the poorer people live in the hills, while the richer people live closer to the coast.

Below is a collection of photos from the day. Includes a very nice modern library.