San Pedro de Atacama: Hot, 32°, high afternoon winds.

Halloween In Atacama 👻  🎃 

Well, I had planned to write only about our day trip into the high Andes yesterday, and I will, but a few fun things happened on a lazy day in town today so I’ll start there. No protests today, but there’s I think a good reason why. It's Halloween of course! Just out in the early evening to find some of the famous Atacama ice cream and we found to our surprise kids out trick or treating through the town’s businesses! Wonderful! 

We and others on the street couldn’t have been more surprised and delighted. Annemarie went off for a brief shop and as I walked back to our hostel as I passed 3 kids on the main street and on impulse stopped to chat. They had a little English and were very interested to hear about Halloween in Canada. I told them about my pal Ben who lives next door to us and I told them how he showed me his ketchup costume before we left on this travel. They thought that was pretty neat. I asked if I could take a photo and they were all in. I thanked them and as I walked away they called me back and gave me three candies. I explained the concept of trick or treat to them and they liked that as well. Not too sure if I might have started something here tonight! It was nice that they were comfortable to talk with me, someone from another country. I’m usually very careful approaching kids, but this was in a very public place with lots of adults around, so I figured it was ok. Any way good to see the kids having fun.

Then there were the dogs we encountered today. There are many strays in the streets here, probably more than we’ve ever seen in our travels. The ones we saw today were pretty friendly and it is hard to see them here on the street. This pup decided to hang out with us while we had a cold drink this afternoon.

Same thing with this very young pup, who couldn’t be very old.

Not all the dogs are unattached. This fellow had lost his legs and a rig was in place to help him to get around. He was pretty quick! Also two adult owners.

Another activity today entailed our visiting the hostel where our daughter Caitlin met her partner Paul 8 years ago. 

The owner and his staff were delighted to hear their story and gave us the run of the place. A few photos for you two. Hope they bring back a few memories. 

If it hadn’t been for their story I’m sure there’s no way we would hav3 been admitted here. Too old! 

As explained, we’ve made the decision to skip Santiago until our last night before returning home. We have a tv in our room for the first time in 10 days and the images we are seeing from Santiago confirm it was a good decision. 



Coverage on tv is continuous as we walk by bars, unless there’s a football game on of course!

Motorcycle protesters buzzing police.


And with all the excitement and goings on today, yesterday’s trip in a minivan with 8 other younger folks from Spain and Chile (sounding a bit old huh?) up into the Andes seems less interesting. However, it as actually pretty interesting. We were picked up at our hostel early and we headed for the salt flats where we not only saw some different types Flamingos, but our breakfast was cooked by our driver!

  
We hadn’t expected this, but apparently it’s the thing to do. Breakfast was eggs over fresh flat bread, avocado and cheese plus coffee/tea and juice. Really very good!

Then we headed up into the mountains, stopping along the way at a small town where the locals have for generations communally grown their own food on the terraces that surround the town.

Dad, they were planting purple and stripped potatoes! 

There was a woman selling her wares. She uses the traditional indigenous method of knitting with 4 cactus needles. I purchased a pair of beautifully knitted fingerless gloves which will come in useful when walking with my camera on cold days. I probably over paid for them, but then each time I put them on I’ll have this nice memory: )

From there we climbed. Back up to over 4500 m elevation where we found some beautiful volcanoes stil draped in early spring snows.

Plus several beautiful lakes which catch the light from suspended lithium and borax.



The local indigenous people found two people trying to win$ surf on this lake and so they hav3 closed access.

We out survived the younger crow in the van as none of them had been to this elevation. They kept falling asleep while we two veterans of high altitude training stayed awake. We also dropped them on the walks. We are both finding it extremely interesting how our bodies have adapted to the higher elevations. There are changes for sure from really poor sleep, to loss of appetite to low grade headaches. Down a5 2600 m these issues have lessened. 

We went out to pick up a takeout pizza tonight and found the streets team8ng with kids. We are getting a bit tired of eating out, so we decided on pizza and a movie. 

Halloween is s very big 5hing here with people from the surrounding area driv8ng into town. A real party like atmosphere. 

We fly and hang out in airports much of the day tomorrow and pick up our rental car late tomorrow night. We will drive up to the Chilean lakes district where we hope to find some good trekking and views. Stay tuned.

Buen Halloween!

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile: Sun Heat 30°, just above the Tropic of Capricorn, 2500 m el.

Recovery, Then Some Fun!

Today after some fairly brisk travels these past weeks we took a day in Atacama to simply relax, do some travel chores like find a place to stay in a couple of days, book air flights through Santiago to Puerto Montt on Friday and check out possible excursions. We ended up cancelling our time in Santiago so have 3 days to fill in this area. We lost a few dollars making these changes, but everything we see and hear about Santiago tells us that they presently don’t need our company there, and getting around is nearly impossible with the transit system mostly shut down. The President’s earlier claims that he won’t cancel the economic and environmental summits have been reversed due to the volatility of the situation. It’s clear that the country’s elite did not plan for or expect what has occurred in one of the most economically successful nations in SA. We’ve already seen evidence of the protests and the police reactions here and I’ll post more below. Interestingly, the only country that I had concerns about from a political perspective before we departed was Argentina with its two level election showing some abrupt changes. However, there has been considerable unrest in Brazil, Bolivia and Chile as we’ve been passed through....not our fault! And Argentina in spite of it's unexpected election outcome last Sunday has been the quiet mouse in the room.

The town of Atacama is pretty basic, seemingly mostly established in its present state to support the tourist and adventure travel industry. It does this quite well.

However, it’s pretty good fun with a few decent little restaurants, this being our favourite,

There’s a pleasant square with an old 17thC church adjoining.

The church is very simple inside, but it’s within this simplicity where beauty is found.

Sitting in the shade cooling ourselves with an icy drink, the second protest we’ve witnessed since arriving yesterday afternoon marches loudly past. This one mostly students. They are peacefully non-violent, but they get their message across. Good for them!

We spend some of our relaxing time sourcing the better expedition companies on the internet and pick three that appeal. We purchase two tours at the first one we visit, lol. No street hawkers and a relaxed approach. Our way of shopping. Of course the first excursion goes out later that afternoon to Valle de Lunas, the Valley of the Moon. So relaxing day abandoned, we retreat to our hotish hostel to gather some warm clothes for later and some water, then return. No a/c in the hostels here. Usually a fan in the room if your lucky which works ok as it cools right down after sunset. And the sunset was what we were off to eventually see. This is the must thing to do in Atacama if one is into the must things to do when travelling! The 8 of us climbed into the minivan that would carry us to our destination and back. The driver was pretty good with a decent understanding about what we were going to experience. A nice guy who I have to remember to send photos to from our visit to Mount St. Helens. 

On the way out we witness a young protester blocking the road out of town by dancing in front of the traffic heading to the Valley. The minivans pull off to the side and the police arrive. Their visit is short and brutal. Annemarie wrote about this on her Facebook page, and I’m reproducing it here for those who might be interested.

As we were heading out to our tour of the Valle de Luna (pictures to come later) it appeared there was a problem on the road...there was. For those who are not aware, there is a currently a great deal of civil unrest in Chile, even in a small town like San Pedro de Atacama  - and especially in Santiago. In this instance, there was a lone protester in the middle of the highway stopping vehicles from proceeding. Our bus, like all the others pulled over to the side. Within a short space of time, the police arrived, and we witnessed a rather brutal take down....the protester was literally thrown to the ground, hitting his head rather hard. Granted he was taunting the police as they arrived, but Geoff and I agreed that the amount of force used was disproportionate. We also witnessed and videoed a peaceful march through town, and protester presence in the main square (really the only square).  The issue is the gap between wealthy and poor, and the policies of their billionaire conservative leader. While he is now trying to take actions to address the issues (reversing a decision to increase the subway fares, cabinet shuffle firing his minister of finance as examples), the protests continue and don’t seem to be declining. I suspect there will be more stories of this sort as we continue through Chile.

I snapped a poor shot of the arrest.

Clearly the authorities don’t want any disruption to the business of tourism. I guess there’s always two sides to a story.

Anyway, back to the touristic part of my journal. This is the view back to the 2500 m drop we experienced yesterday which I wrote about.  We sit on the Atacama plain/salt flats and the border with Bolivia is at the top of the plateau between the mountains. Hair raising descent.

The Valle is quite the place and I’ll let the reader decide if it looks a bit like a lunar landscape. Yes or no, it is impressive.

For me I was more reminded of my early travels through Egypt. We were invited to walk some of the site and that was pretty interesting. Things were becoming a bit more lunas I slowly decided. 

We climbed to the top of a massive barrier dune just for the view, Erin. 

 Should also mention that we met a couple, Doug and Dee from Smithers who have recently arrived, and it turns out that we will be sharing our 4 day ferry ride southward from Puerto Montt on November 9th. They seem like really nice folks and we are looking forward to getting to know them a bit better, hopefully not with our heads hanging over the side! 



As we walked back out to the minivan I discussed out volcanic structure vs the Chilean geological situation with our host and at least for the two of us, it was interesting; ) Hence the photos to be sent to him. We climbed back into our transport and headed for the most interesting part of the evening. The cliff tops where we would watch the sunset. Where was the champagne?? 

That’s a very long way down with no barriers I might add. But to me it looked a little more lunar.

Then the sunset proceeded to gain our full attention.



As the sun sank, the Andes behind us began to glow with that orangish glow that’s so special.

Fortunately the sky lit up quite nicely.

Then home to find some food and drink and then very finally, bed.

A very early rising tomorrow morning, and we will be gone for the day. Again: )

Happy Halloween! Way to go ketchup Ben!