As with all of the organisation of our trip, a driver, Gabriel, turned up at our house in Tilcara at 0800 sharp - as planned - totally prepped for the 298 mile drive to Chile. We had a very comfortable 7-seater minibus which gave us all plenty of space to spread out in.
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| Our initial ascent from the Humahuaca Gorge region |
The plan was to drive for 3 hours to the Chilean border, traversing passes as high as 4,100 meters, spend one hour in customs prior to negotiating passes up to 4,800 meters on the remaining 3 hour journey.
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| The high point on the Argentine side |
This drive is a must for anyone going from Argentina to Chile or vice versa. The scenery and often the climate, changes with every Puna (valley) and is quite simply mind-blowing.
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| Mid range at nearly 4,000 metres |
Although high, it is not at all Alpine and the flats between ranges extend for miles and incorporate salt flats, rocky desert and a variety of wildlife - mainly Vicuna (camelid family as llama)
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| Volcanos on the Chilean side |
Surprisingly, we also went through a number of rain showers - even towards the end of the mountain range; surprising because the end of the range extends into the Atacama desert where it rains very little (15mm pa).
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Salt flats at 3,800 meters
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| Flamingos on a flooded salt lake |
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| Yet another wonderful view |
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mid mountain range scenery
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Vestiges of a potential war
We passed volcanoes over 6,000 meters (There are 90 in this region, 4 of which are active), moonscapes, some isolated towns and to top it all, a mine field, laid on the Chilean side following a near war with Argentina back in 1978 combined by a fear of invasion from Bolivia to reclaim the cities of Antofogasta and Calama in what is now Northern Chile. The final stretch of road was a straight 24km, dropping 6,000 feet into San Pedro de Atacama. We finally arrived at 5:00pm at Tierra Atacama - a relatively new and awesomely located hotel.... |
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