Trip Report Eight:
Visitors
March 24 - April 25
see pictures from this trip report
Trip Report Eight:
see pictures from this trip report
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March 24 - Rest day in Copiapo. March 25 - I bike along the Pan Americana
to the city of Vallenar which is halfway between Copiapo and La Serena,
the town where Liz is scheduled to arrive. It is a monotonous but fast
ride through barren desert. The entire Pan American highway in northern
Chile is like this and I am not very disappointed that I have neglected
to bike through most of it. One 25 kilometer stretch of road is entirely
straight without any roadside diversions. Total distance biked 155 km.
March 26 - I am waiting for Liz and I see two bad American movies at the La Serena multiplex. March 27 - Liz arrives at noon and we build her bike at the La Serena airport. I convince her of my necessity to return to Ojos del Salado. I promise her excellent camping food, hot springs, and flamingos. She agrees to go. March 28 - We rent a pick-up truck, throw our bikes in the back, and drive 500 km to Laguna Santa Rosa in Tres Cruces National Park. March 29 - We wake up to foraging guanaco
and bathing flamingos. Cerro Tres Cruces, a snow-capped 6500 meter volcano
forms the backdrop. We drive to the Laguna Verde ranger station, meet
with my carabinero friends from the previous trip, and inquire about
the status of my Ojos del Salado climbing permit. The fax has not yet
arrived so I am technically not allowed on the mountain. I give the
carabineros a box of wine and a watermelon (as a gift) and inquire again
about the status of my climbing permit. However, they say I still have
to wait for the fax of permission to arrive from Copiapo. Chilean carabineros
are friendly, honest and notoriously uncorruptable. This is a very good
thing considering the corruption in police departments in Chile's three
neighboring companies.
March 30 - The fax arrives and I finally have permission to climb. After a morning soak in the Laguna Verde hot springs, Liz and I drive to Campamento Murray (the haunted house base camp for Ojos). The plan is that I will leave at about 10:00 PM for a slog of epic proportions (2200 meter elevation gain and a 60 km roundtrip walk). I will return the next afternoon just about the time that Liz is feeling fed up with reading and waiting for me. She will then minister to my soar muscles, feed me hot camp food, and drive the two of us down to Copiapo (280 km distance) where we will dine on hot dog completos (my treat). Liz agrees to this entire plan without complaint. What a woman! Unfortunately the plan is foiled by unstable weather and my own personal weakness of character. At 10:00 PM, the mountaintops are covered with clouds and high winds and I begin to consider my options. I have the choice of venturing out into the cold and darkness (there is no moon) for 20 hours of misery in uncertain weather. Or I can remain in the warmth of a comfortable refugio with excellent company. I opt for the cuddles. March 31 - The morning dawns with perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky and low wind. I lost my opportunity because Liz does not want to wait another day. My frustration and regret over my failure to leave the refuge is immense. We descend to Copiapo and continue southwards to a remote beach where we camp for the night. En route to the beach we stop at a tiny fishing village and eat at the only available restaurant. At this restaurant, the only available meal is a mysterious marisco we don't recognize. Our guide book translates the seafood as a "pink sea creature that lives inside a hairy mud ball." It is very chewy but tolerable with lots of hot sauce. April 1 -We drive the coastal route through
Huasco and then south to Pichindagui. The carabineros stop me for speeding
just south of La Serena (122 km per hour in a 100 km per hour zone).
Fortunately, they leave me off the hook after a short chastizing. April 2 - We drive to Santiago to spend the night at Rene and Natasha's house. Driving in Santiago traffic without a Santiago map is stressful for me. Fortunately I have Liz as a navigator who is very good at the job (when she is awake). Liz and I bike up San Cristobal cerro in the afternoon. April 3 -We pick up my dad and his recumbent bike at the Santiago airport. We have the impression that he may be a little intimidated by the trip (on the phone he had asked whether he should bring toilet paper or whether it could be purchased in Chile). But we quickly assure him that Chile is a very civilized place with plenty of soft toilet paper. We drive about 500 km back north to La Serena. April 4 - Our first group bike ride
is a trip up the Elqui Valley, an agricultural region which extends
inland from La Serena. We bike through vineyards and papaya plantations
to the town of La Vicuna. The contrast between the lush irigated valley
floor and the barren desert valley walls is striking. My father is on
his strange recumbent bike and enjoys lots of stares, comments, and
laughs from drivers and pedestrians. Total distance biked 65 kilometers.
April 5 - We continue biking up the Valle
del Elqui to the town of Pisco Elqui, a hangout for long-haired, tarot-card-reading,
astrology-minded hippy freaks. We stay in a beautiful hosteria (complete
with pool) and take a tour of the local pisco plant. Pisco is a fermented
grape alchohol which is made only in Chile and Peru. It is good. Total
distance biked 40 kilometers.
April 6 - We bike downhill to Vicuna
and catch a bus the rest of the way to La Serena. Total distance biked
40 kilometers.
April 7 - We drive northwards and car
camp on an exquisite rocky bluff overlooking the Pacific. We are surrounded
by crazy rock formations that appear to be ventrifacts rather than wave-eroded.
Liz and I do some fun mountain biking around the Dali-esque scenery.
April 8 - We drive to Chanaral, ditch
the car at a gas station, and bike in and out along the coast to Pan
de Azucar National Park. We have an awesome watermelon for lunch. Total
distance biked 56 kilometers.
April 9 - We wake up after car camping in the desert. Our rental car has a flat tire and an incomplete tire jack. Fortunately there are occasional cars that pass and we flag one down for help. We drive the rest of the way to Calama. April 10 - After a tour of the Chuquicamata
copper mine (the world's largest man-made hole -- very impressive),
we get a super-late start towards San Pedro de Atacama. Night catches
us in the middle of nowhere (a flat gravel desert that is completely
devoid of vegetation). It is our first night together of real bike camping
for the three of us. The stars are magnificent in this part of the Atacama.
Total distance biked 40 kilometers.
April 11 - We continue biking to San
Pedro de Atacama. En route we surmount the Cuesta Barros Arana (900
meter climb) and then promptly descend 800 meters. My dad is loving
life on his recumbent bike and is by far the fastest of the three of
us. Following the descent, there is another 250 meter ascent over the
Cordillera del Sal (a salt flat that has been naturally bulldozed so
that some of its layers extend vertically). Finally we descend to the
oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama. Between San Pedro and Calama we
have seen only one tree (it has a sign nearby which asks passer-bys
to please give it water). Total distance biked 60 kilometers.
April 12 - We explore the Valle de la
Luna (near San Pedro) by bicycle. The Valley of the Moon is located
in a portion of the Cordillera del Sal where erosion has formed deep
canyons and created impressive caves. The approach roads to the park
are non-paved and my father has some difficulty on the sandy and washboard
stretches, while Liz and I have fun with our knobby tires and front
suspensions. I feel badly enough that I offer to trade bicycles with
my father for a while. Total distance biked 26 kilometers.
April 13 - We decide to drop our bikes
for a day and hike Lascar Volcano (one of the most active volcanoes
in the Southern Andes complete with a growing dome). The night before
we had met an affable Brit named James who had a 4x4 rental pickup and
was interested in climbing a mountain. We left as a group of four at
5:00 AM for the 130 kilometer drive. We arrive at the trailhead (4800
meters) and begin the slow hike upwards (summit elevation is 5500 meters).
James has a headache and my father is a little dizzy, but both appear
in good shape as they struggle up the slope. The last two hundred meters
are a bit desperate for my dad who is increasingly more dizzy and increasingly
more stubborn as we approach the crater rim. He refuses to consider
descending as he believes (as do the rest of us) that the crater rim
is only a few minutes away. Unfortunately, the slope is very deceiving
and we struggle up the last bit for the better part of an hour. We finally
arrive at the rim (elevation about 5450 meters) in a bank of clouds
and descend immediately towards the car. Dad is walking like a drunkard
(and needs some assistence) until we descend several hundred meters.
As we get lower, his coordination improves significantly. Because of
the epic nature of the climb, we decide to return for a rest night in
San Pedro de Atacama rather than remain camped en route. We return via
the entire bumpy 130 kilometer route and arrive in San Pedro when I
realize that my bike trailer is no longer in the back of the pickup.
Evidently it was ejected somewhere en route. Although this piece of
equipment is integral to the continuation of my bike journey to the
north, I am remarkably relaxed and calm. Actually I am thinking that
compared to (nearly) killing my father on a volcano in the middle of
the Atacama, losing a bike cart really isn't so bad. In any case, James
offers me the use of his pickup so that I can retrace our route and
hopefully find the ejected bob trailer. Remarkably, we locate it on
the side of the road, undamaged, and only 65 kilometers from San Pedro.
April 14 - After the stresses of the
previous day, I need a rest. Liz and I leisurely pedal out to Valle
de la Luna and mountainbike through the salt canyons. Afterwards we
play Scrabble in the San Pedro plaza and drink several cervezas. I am
much happier than I ws during the previous day.
April 15 - We hire a driver to transport
us and our bikes along the paved Paso Jama international road. He deposits
us at the highpoint and suggests that we are at the summit of the highest
paved road on earth. At the pass, our elevation is nearly 4800 meters
and we have 2400 meters of pure descent (beautiful paved road and nearly
zero traffic) to reach San Pedro de Atacama (57 kilometers distant).
We barely have to pedal along the entire route and the scenery is magnificent.
I have a guilty conscience because of so much undeserved downhill.
April 16 - James offers to drive us and
our bicycles to the El Tatio geysers and on to Calama. The geysers are
not an appropriate destination for my father's recumbent bicycle so
our only option is to drive.
April 17 - We have one more day of bike
riding before my dad heads home, so we rent a vehicle and drive our
bikes to the coast at Tocopilla. I let Liz and my dad out of the car
and onto their bicycles for two paved downhill stretches (each drop
is about 1000 vertical meters). We leave the car and the three of us
pedal about 20 kilometers along the beautiful coastal road before packing
up the bikes and returning to Calama.
April 18 - My dad departs by plane from the Calama airport and Liz and I jump on the 12-hour-long international bus to Salta, Argentina. I am leaving my bike in Calama and returning with Liz so that I can see her off at the Santiago airport. April 19 - We spend the day in Salta and see another bad American movie at the cineplex. April 20 - We take the twenty-hour-long night bus south to Mendoza. April 21 - We spend the night with the Oligary family (parents of a friend of mine who lives in the U.S.). They don't expect a phone call from two dirty gringos, but are extremely hospitable to us anyways. April 22 - We leave on a mid-morning bus to Santiago. After a three hour ride, we are informed that the international pass to Santiago has been closed due to snowfall. We return to Mendoza and the Oligary family. They are still very nice and hospitable to us. We are a little freaked-out about how we will get Liz to the Santiago airport in time for her flight home to the U.S. the next day. April 23 - Liz buys a plane ticket for Santiago in the morning, but then we learn that the international pass has opened. Her ticket is refundable and we decide to go overland. The schedule is tight, but our bus company claims a 5:00 PM arrival in Santiago. They are full of mierda. After interminable waits for the bus to depart Mendoza and interminable waits at both border posts, we pull into the Santiago bus station at 7:30 PM. We immediately transition to the airport and get her there only an hour before her departure -- not nearly long enough for us to have a good cry before she leaves for home. April 24 - I do errands in Santiago, play squash with Rene, and take the night bus to Copiapo. The night bus is a disaster. One hour out of Santiago it breaks down with a broken drive belt. They radio out to Santiago for a replacement. It arrives but is too small. So they send the service vehicle back for another belt. After the 'fix', we continue for a half hour before the rear of the bus finally explodes in steam. The bus is done for and they radio for a replacement bus. After a four-hour delay we are finally on our way again. At several points during the night, I lose my temper, and let the bus staff have an earful about the poor service. I realize that I am playing the roll of obnoxious gringo (few of the Chileans are complaining) but at least manage to confine most of my expletives to english. The supposed 12 hour bus ride takes a full 16 hours. April 25 - I arrive in Copiapo with permission in hand for another Ojos del Salado attempt. However weather is not looking promising for the days which are to come. I can't bear the thought of another failed Ojos climb so I decide to cut my losses and continue on to Calama to retrieve my bike gear and begin biking through Boliva, Brazil, and Venezuela. |
