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Posts tagged ‘san pedro de atacama’

Nov 25

San Pedro de Atacama – Salta by bus (11hours)

This will remain my only real bus ride (+5hrs) during my entire holiday – sounds almost pathetic… but yes it is true. I think this is not my desired mean of transport.

Although I have to admit it was not too bad, despite the fact there is simply not enough space for your legs, the backpack and myself. I really don’t know what engineers think when they design the so called ‘first class’ coaches.

Nevertheless… once squeezed into my seat it turned out to be pretty comfy – though i wouldn’t have minded another person next to me… she was taking almost every minute a picture accross myself which was kind of a pointless mission as the reflection in the window was killing it all (i picked some of the best in this post… total waste of space on the memory card!). However she kept going… and i joined her in with taking some pics… felt somehow too disinterested if i had continued reading…. She even explained me when it was really worth taking one ha ha.

So after about 100 pictures we reached the Chilean / Argentinian border. Far too early for my liking as i still had apples in my bag and the sandwiches intended for lunch were still untouched. Having said that it was mainly due to the signs at the border which were very clear: you were not allowed to bring any fruits/veggies, no dairy products, no meat, no nothing across the border. Well what to do – i didn’t want to rely on the crappy snacks they would provide later but also not get unnecessarily in troubles. So i decided to quietly throw the apples in a bin but keep the cheese sandwiches in the bag.

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At the scanner it meant keeping fingers crossed — and yes either they didn’t care or they didn’t see them. Unfortunately i missed to bring my big bag for the scanning in the first place which meant i had to go another time through the scanner….. but no objection against my lunch – yess!

After about 1h at the border, they distributed the first snack box just before continuing the journey. Man was i glad i had my sandwiches… you really don’t want to rely on this stuff. Chocolate, crisps, marshmallows, fruit juice, candies and energy bars. Well actually not so bad – just not what i consider as a lunch.

To be honest besides all these silly non important comments this bus ride was probably the most beautiful i have ever done. Driving across a pass of i cannot remember what altitude, passing beautiful volcanos, mountains coloured by it’s various minerals, salt flats and spectacular serpentine roads. Due to its beauty it passed surprisingly fast… i would have never imagined that.

An absolute must for anybody travelling from Chile to Argentina even if the start of this post is hinting in the other direction.

Nov 25

Volcano Sairecabur – 6000m!!

After whizzing around in La Paz, the breathtaking altiplano and Salar de Uyuni i was quite used to the high altitude and when i saw they offer tours to this volcano out of San Pedro de Atacama it was a clear thing – that’s where i want to go to

So they picked us up at the hostel at 06.00h in the morning zzzzZZZZZ and we drove into the valley up to about 4500m where they prepared breakfast on the ‘backflap’ of the pick up. At that altitude it was freezing cold so it was not exactly a long breaky. With a hot mate de coca in our stomachs, we continued the dirt road up to 5500m and you could tell that not only we started to feel the altitude but also the pick up as the engine would break down now and then. Luckily we didn’t show any major problems with the height yet.

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Once everybody had its gear ready, we started to hike or should i say rather climb, because this was rather a climb than a hike. First a steep part up through loose gravel where you had to try to be as careful as possible so that the one behind you didn’t get all the rocks on his head (helmets!? no, doesn’t exist in Chile… neither in the mountains nor when riding a motor bike). Afterwards it got a bit easier as we had to climb over big rocks but it went higher and higher. Doing about 150m at this altitude feels like you do 300-400m in Switzerland. It took us almost 3h to do these 500m.

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However once we reached the peak it was a fantastic feeling and the panoramic view made up for all the sweat and short breathed moments. Interestingly, instead of a book they had a box and a stick for offerings on the top of the mountain. So we put some chocolate in the box and i attached my ‘1st August Placette’ onto the lama which was already dangling on the offering stick. As it was quite chilly up there and not the entire group made it to the top we just made a quick picnic and soon started again our descent.

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As always going down is usually even harder than going up… but we made it down without any further incidents.

During the drive down and back to San Pedro my stomach started to develop really bad cramps – somehow it must have been a too quick drop in altitude.. the guy was racing down the mountain with the pick up. Thus by the time i arrived at the hostel, I was totally wasted and went to bed… even my room mate confirmed i looked like a dead parrot! Nevertheless ,I would go immediately again up there – it was such an amazing feeling knowing to have been on the top of a mountain that is 1500m higher than our beautiful Matterhorn!

Nov 25

Sandboarding in San Pedro de Atacama (SPdA)

Nachdem ich in der Salzwüste von Uyuni schon viele Lagunen und Felsformationen gesehen habe, war ich etwas zurückhaltend mit dem Buchen von Ausflügen und Touren in SPdA. Denn die Salzwüste war einfach umwerfend schön und einzigartig, so dass ich Bedenken hatte dies noch zu toppen.

Deshalb suchte ich etwas anderes zum machen… einfach aktiv sollte es sein, denn wir sassen ja viele Stunden einfach nur im Jeep.

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Nun Sandboarding wollte ich schon immer mal machen, aber irgendwie hab ich’s bis jetzt noch nicht geschafft. Ok gebucht und
off we go mit einem Minibus ins ‘death valley’ der Atacama Wüste. Dort angekommen, war ich etwas enttäuscht, denn die Düne war jetzt nicht gerade hoch, nun das zahlt sich beim hochkraxeln natürlich wieder aus. Denn es gibt ja keine ‘Skilifte’ dort. Zum Glück machten sie eine Art Weg diagonal zur Düne, was das hochgehen um einiges erleichterte.

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Oben angekommen, versuchte ich mal etwas runterzurutschen, aber der Sand ist viel träger als Schnee, so dass ich beim ersten mal quasi gar nicht vom Fleck kam. Ich dachte schon, was für einen Mist hast du jetzt hier gebucht. Vielleicht besser gar nicht weitermachen und zurück ins Büssli und Buch lesen bis die anderen ‘ausgerutscht’ sind. Nun so schnell konnte ich natürlich doch nicht aufgeben und die 2. Talfahrt ging dann schon etwas besser. Man muss einfach wie sagt man so schön ‘Pfiffegrad’ runterbrausen, dann gewinnt man schon etwas an Geschwindigkeit. Für die nächsten Durchläufe ging ich immer höher auf die Düne rauf und langsam gings besser.

Ich merkte dann auch, dass der Guide überhaupt nicht ‘snowboarden’ kann. Er ging immer einfach gerade runter ohne eine Kurve zu machen. Nach ein paar Abfahrten nannte er mich auch ‘the professional’ – er gab dann auch zu, dass er erst seit 2 Monaten hier sei und dass er es selbst noch nicht wirklich gut könne ha ha. So einfach ist es Sandboard-Guide zu werden – und diese Agentur ist angeblich die beste in SPdA.

Am Schluss machte es mir wirklich Spass, aber dann mussten wir schon zusammenpacken, denn diejenigen welche noch nie Snowboard gemacht hatten, waren natürlich fix und fertig… ui da gabs ein paar panierte Gesichter.