Driest place on Earth

San Pedro de Atacama is nestled in the far North Eastern corner of this amazingly diverse sliver of country along the Oceania Pacifica.
We have walked on glaciers, waded rivers on horseback and by bike, climbed volcanoes, trekked through forests, tempted to swim in the seas and now it’s time to march through desert.

The drive from the capital, Santiago, northwards, has unfolded the most remarkable scenery. Just to our right, across the Andes and hidden from us, the Argentinian pampas sprawl, to our left the ever persistent sea and ahead the start of desert terrain.

Driving down the pass towards San Pedro de Atacama

Our clutch is holding, the fuel pump is pumping and our bike starts first time every time. It’s a long haul from Santiago about 1700km which we made over a few days stopping off at little no-man’s towns along the way. The temperature has increased to a wonderful riding temp of 24deg! A giant tar road tears up the desert all the way to San Pedro, the tourist capital of Chile. There are miles and miles of nothingness around us and then suddenly, quite literally this oasis pops up over yet another rolling hill.

There are several things that make San Pedro so famous; for starters it’s an oasis; you can access the world’s highest altitude geyser fields, swim/float in a salt lake, view high altitude lakes (@4200m), see several species of flamingo in/on the salt plains and above all visit the Salar de Atacama – the enormous salt plains of the Atacama.

Our first naive impression of these salt fields was of vast plains of smooth, cracking, white salt pans {think Kgalagadi in Botswana}; oops, this is actually in Bolivia……
In this Salar, the plains seem to have been tilled by monstrous tractors and the resultant soil/salt mix looks ready for receiving seed. Aggressively shaped clods of hardened salt/soil create a landscape suspended in animation while awaiting a crop that will never be. Slap bang in the centre of these flats are several large salt water lakes teaming with micro-organism, insect and bird life – all species adapted to a visciously harse saline and thermal environment.

The famous El Tatio geysers are at 4300m. Cath had just recovered from a cold so we opted for a tour rather than bike up here ( good choice since the temp on the fields was -11 degrees!!). The tours leave at 4am with the intention of getting to the geyser field at dawn when things are coldest in order to see the most steam coming off the various geysers.

The El Tatio Geysers at sunrise. If you look closely you can see a figure in the distance to give you some idea of size

Minus 11 at the geysers at about 6 in the morning….. pretty chilly

 

Andy in the Thermal Pool

I think the pics tell the story! The entire San Pedro is bounded by volcanoes between 4000 and 6000m high, in fact the highest active volcanoe in Chile is also here! Where there are volcanoes, expect hot water geysers! After seeing the geysers I even attempted a swim in the thermal baths to try to get my feet to unfreeze.

One of the largest geysers with steam rising far above the mountains in the background

Unfortunately one is trapped in this tourist Mecca, so everything is expensive. We were lucky to have the bike, for after the geyser trip, we did the rest by ourselves. It is truly spectacular to be able to drive in the desert in search of lakes, salt pans and salt water pools!

During Cath’s convalescence I kept busy by enjoying some of the extras offered; sand boarding the dunes in Death Valley ( gonna have to wait for the movie for these pics 🙂 and biking Devil’s gorge. The latter turned into a nightmare 40km desert slog, half at night. I had ridden the gorge then decided to take a roundabout way home though the desert…..navigating a desert in the day is pretty tough, it sucks at night! Having brushed up on my star-navigating abilities in Vicuña, I guided myself back to the main tar road (ok, I just looked for car headlights in the distance 🙂 oops, I hit the tar road 14km from San Pedro at 8pm!

We have spent almost a week here and look forward to shedding the desert in exchange for Peru!

Northern Chile

The Desert Hand. We were driving into Antofagasta and we saw these fingerlike projections in the distance with a tourist bus parked next to it. When you see that you have to investigate. So this is actually quite a famous sculpture. You can see me trying my best to stretch my legs so that they are long enough that I can ride the bike myself. Still have a lot of stretching to do……..

So north we are headed and the landscape just seems to change dramatically every time we take a turn in the road.

Northern Chile is mostly desert and is known for mining.

Driving in the desert

About 100 years ago nitrate mining was very important here until someone in Europe managed to manufacture it synthetically. This has left a number of nitrate ghost towns dotted along the sides of the roads. Copper is another huge industry here and a small town called Calama has got the largest open copper mine in the world. We tried to do a tour but unfortunately got to the gate of the mine only to be turned away.

The industry is very visible with big pipelines being laid along the sides of the roads and lots of large trucks on the road. When one is not seeing this the scenery has a stark beauty about it. Again totally different from what we have been seeing previously.

Sunset on the road with the Andes mountain range on the right

At times we have been riding in the middle of the desert with the snow-capped Andes to our right and then a few kilometres later we are riding along the coast with barren little seaside villages dotted along the coast.

The misty north coast of Chile with the sea on the left. Very eerie.

I hope these pictures do the scenery justice.

Our next big stop is the Atacama desert which is in northern Chile and is the driest desert in the world. Andy will be writing a post about this soon….

In search of the best Pisco Sour

Enjoying a Pisco Sour on Easter Island

So it seems that both Peru and Chile consider the Pisco Sour to be their national drink. So of course it has to be our job to decide who makes the best one.
What is a Pisco Sour you may ask…… well it depends who you ask……
A Pisco Sour is a cocktail usually served in a champagne glass and the basic ingredients are Pisco and lime juice. Pisco being a very strong grape brandy. Now comes the difference. The Chileans serve a Pisco Sour with lime juice, syrup and Chilean Pisco (from the Elqui Valley). The yummiest ones that I have had so far have a sugar rimmed glass.
The Peruvians use lime juice, syrup, egg white, Peruvian Pisco and Angostura bitters as a garnish.
So at present I am a bit biased as I have only tasted one or two Peruvian Pisco Sours but I must say at this stage my heart (or taste buds) belong to with Chile.

The Elqui Valley

To really understand Chilean Pisco we went deep into the Elqui Valley and spent two glorious days there. We went to the oldest Pisco distillery in Chile and went on a Spanish tour (didn’t understand much of it but tasting the different types of Pisco at the end was fun…..Andrew’s face was quite something…..they were a little too strong for him).
Chile is also famous for star gazing as it has the most nights of open skies and really good weather. We managed to do a night visit to an observatory and had an unforgettable evening there. It sort of puts everything into perspective when you realise how small we are.

Leaving Santiago

After almost 3 weeks off the bike, we are on the road again. Most of the ‘down time’ though has involved indulging in wonderful activities like Easter Island and Amazon jungling 🙂

Our silver steed is back on the straight and narrow with a spanking new rear tyre and functional clutch. We trust that after paying good money for the new slave cylinder, we should see great return. Writing this post 1300km from Santiago, so far so good 🙂 Jokes aside, the bike is performing superbly hauling both of us safely across miles and miles of desert road.

New back tire

Brand new slave cylinder

Very happy husband

The scenery has changed drastically and we are deep in desert-like terrain with vistas of nothingness interspersed with closely packed mountains of rock filled to the brim with mineral wealth; much of which Chile is busily digging out! There are innumerable small tracks leading off into this desert, well maintained dirt roads actually, clearly for the sole purpose for commuting mining equipment! This explains why Chile is the largest copper producing nation in the world!

Heading for the desert….. the landscape has changed dramatically

We head inland tomorrow for our first taste of altitude driving and salt plains…..

The last days in Santiago

The slave cylinder is in the country and we should have it by tomorrow!!!!

Hopefully we will be getting north soon to warmer weather. It has been very interesting watching the weather change here. When we first arrived there were yellow leaves on all the trees and I could get away with wearing a skirt and strops. We are now wearing tracksuit pants and hiking boots (again quite a fashion statement).
We have had a great few days here. Our accommodation has been interresting. We have been staying at a backpackers (Andrew’s worst nightmare) for a few reasons. They have luggage storage (for all our stuff while the bike has been in the garage), they have 24hr reception (we arrived back at Santiago at 3 in the morning after the Amazon trip), it is affordable and they have a great breakfast. The bad part is the travellers. One can’t believe that people can behave like this (or maybe I am just getting old). I had to listen to a drunk couple fighting outside our bedroom last night (about who said what…. I’m not even sure what the “what” was!). The guy then proceeded to cry for 2 hours…. I eventually decided that I couldn’t go out and see what was wrong as I was convinced he had done something to his partner and I didn’t want to get involved in the middle of a criminal investigation…..but when the sun was up it seemed as if the fight had not even happened??!!!!, the night before I had to get up at 2am to tell 4 people that I really didn’t care if they preferred margarine or butter at this time of night (you have to wonder what people are talking about).
The days have been pretty good though. We visited the Santiago house of Pablo Nerudo (the Nobel winning poet… we visited his other house in Valparaiso) and again I was inspired. I took the photo’s below outside his house. Sadly one could not take photo’s in the house. We spent lots of hours in coffee shops and even went to see a movie (don’t bother seeing Battleships).
Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow

Portrait with a seashell for hair

Big fish eats small fish…..

Made me think of the owl house for some reason

Valparaiso….killing a few days in and around Santiago

So while waiting for the slave cylinder to arrive we decided to visit the surrounds of Santiago and headed off to Valparaiso. (We are just really hoping that the part arrives by tomorrow….. as everyone here says give it a few days extra usually as it is Chilean time!!!!)

We caught a bus to Valparaiso (quite interresting to feel how others travel). While on the bus it is so easy to block out the surroundings. One can sleep, read, watch TV or even play on your computer. I found that I didn’t even notice the scenery around me which is so different to travelling on the bike where you are acutely aware of everything around you.

Painted doors on one of the streets we walked alond

Valparaiso is known as the cultural capital of Chile. I took the lead and started us on a walking tour. The city is shaped in a U around the harbour. There is a flat area around the harbour and then just hills everywhere with brightly coloured houses all over.

Valparaiso….. the view from the balcony of our hotel

It is famous for the ascensores which are really big elevators. We tried 3 of them and they were all being renovated which meant that we had to climb up very very steep staircases (we really missed the motorbike). We started walking through the most rundown areas (Tin and wood houses balancing precariously on the slopes with dogs and dog pooh everywhere). At this stage Andrew was really wondering why on earth I wanted to visit this place.

Mosaic street lamps….

We then headed to the area called Cerro Bellavista and I thought I was in heaven. All the street lamps and cement benches were covered in mosaics and every wall had a mural on it.

Mural of Valparaiso

Quite something…. the camera was snapping away. The views were also incredible. We went and visited the poet Pablo Neruda’s home and I felt like I was home. The walls and floors were covered in the most beautiful mosaics I have ever seen. He collected beautiful objects from all over the world and then game them a home in his house. Quite something.

I only noticed the face in the background after I had taken the photo

Modern mural.. I loved the big mustache

We then walked around a bit more and found a really lovely hotel, then walked down to the harbour area and had delicious hotdogs and caught a taxi home as we couldn’t face the steep hills yet again.

Sunset ….. the view from our bedroom…..

Amazonian animals

After our amazing trip on the Amazon river we spent a few days in Iquitos and we visited the animal sanctuaries and parks.

Manatee up close and personal

My favourite had to be the Manatee sanctuary. These beautiful mammals are high on the endangered list. This sanctuary rehabilitates them and then releases them back into the Amazon. It is the only sanctuary in the world where you can really get up close and personal with a manatee. I am quite embarrassed by the fact that I didn’t even know that there was an animal called a manatee before this trip. They are really beautiful and look something like a cross between a seal and a hippo. They have two flippers and a body that tapers down into a tail. They use the flippers like hands to help them eat huge quantities of plant material (80kg of Amazon ‘lettuce’, ubiquitos surface plant) and they play an important job in keeping the equilibrium of plant material to open water in the Amazon. Their faces are gorgeous and we had the opportunity to feed them which was quite something.

Hungry Manatee

Their heads and faces are wrinkled and their snouts are covered in white whiskers and when they et from your hands the whiskers brush up against your skin. They are so graceful in the water but are actually quite slow which has lead them to become endangered as they are very easy prey for hungry locals. I could really relate to them as most of their time is spent eating and resting which is a pretty good way to spend time ;). Despite their seemingly sedate life, they are enormously powerful. One of the volunteers from the centre was telling us that they needed 8 men to hold an adult manatee while drawing blood! (I’m not quite sure why theyneeded the blood or where they rew it from but that I suppose is beside the point) These beasts grow up to 3m in length and weigh over 300kg!. They have a gestational period of about a year, their babies suckle for 2 years so they can only have one baby in threee years. I guess us hmans could learn someting fom this!!!!

The next stop was the butterfly and animal sanctuary. Being able to actually see the life cycle of butterflies all in one place was such a learning opportunity. The different colours were inspiring. Andrew, Pat and Doug did a great j of understanding our spaish uide. I slid along at the back taking photographs.

Butterfly worm…… before it makes a cocoon

Butterfly cocoon…. looks just like a new leaf

More multicoloured butterfly worms

Blue butterlfy

Orange butterlfy

I am quite glad we only went to the fish park after our trip on the Amazon otherwise I would have been terrified. There are massive fish native fish called paische which grow up to 5m in length and weigh almost 500kg! Their mouths are HUGE!!!!! If I had seen them for the first time while in one of our canoeing trips I probably would have had a heart attack on the spot. They almost looked like large snakes when you look at them under the water.

Paische waiting for their next meal……

All 3 going for the same mouthfull

Hungry Paische about to swallow it’s next meal

Up close and personal

Monkey island was also an eye-opener. Here we got to see sloths up close.

Andrew and the sloth

The sloth took a real liking to Doug… must have kindred spirits. Doug also got up and close and personal to a monkey and they were definately checking each other out…..Pat you might have to watch out for this one…..

I got attacked by a very excitable brown capuchian monkey who couldn’t stop giving me little love bites all over my neck and arms. Had to keep my face protected or who knows what he would have tried to do.

Love at first jump

Quite an interresting experience having a large monkey covering your head while you are trying to walk along a narrow wooden bridge. Doug and Andrew were extremely brave and had a large anaconda draped over their shoulders. We thought that it must really have liked Doug as it left some snake business all over his pants!

Examining the Anaconda…..

We also saw a “prehistoric” turtle, large camon and turtles.

Prehistoric turtle

Camon

4 green turles sunning in the sun

All the sanctuaries we visited were either rehab centres or enclosures where rescued animals were kept away from the evils of captivity. Bar the sadness of seeing magnificent creatures in cages, we had the opportunity coming face to face with real native Amazon animals. The most striking species were the Ocelot, Coati and Jaguar. The Ocelot is a smaller version of a leopard – beautifully fine facial features with striking black markings on a pale yellow coat. The jaguar was the golden in colour and resembled a more robust version of our leopard. A very heavily set cat with powerful jaws and similarly patterned coat.

The Coati

The coati is a cute little beasty not much bigger than a badger. Similar to an ant-eater with a very long snoat, these guys however have a fur coat. They also have long claws and an inquisitive personality.
Having seen the animals after our trip into the Amazon itself was most rewarding. We were able to appreciate just how difficult it is to see them in the wild and more to the point, how endangered they are. This, together with watching massive barges coming up river filled with massive felled trees left a nasty feeling in one’s gut about how we as the human race, are destroying our environment.

The loving sloths

Sleep time for sloths

Incredible Amazon Jungle

The brown Amazonian water

Starting in the highlands of Arequippa, Peru at 5000m and entering Brazil only 200m or so above sea level this giant leviathon of water represents the biggest body of freshwater in the world – 7000km long, 65km wide at it’s widest and 100m at its greatest depth!

We spent a week on a tiny fraction of it and can still only marvel at its full blown might as it winds and twists across the south American continent.

The team on the speed boat heading upriver to Muyuna Lodge. Doug is in the far background, Pat is in the middle and Andy on the left.

The main jump off point to trips on the Amazon river is Iquitos; a crazy town of close to 800 000 people in the middle nowhere which you can only get to by boat up the Amazon or by plane. Jungle expeditions mostly happen downriver from here towards the Brazilian Amazon. Things are a bit different and far more isolated upriver. Our lodge was in the latter location. Established and run by a local, Peruvian couple, 13 years ago, Muyuna Lodge is 140km upstream from Iquitos reachable only by river. It’s a 3 hour  speedboat ride into paradise.

Shortly after leaving the bustling port of Iquitos its clear that you are either on the ocean or a massive, massive dam……….not a river! The Amazon waters are a definitively different brown colour to the rivers that lead into it around Iquitos which are a darker inky colour. The former attributed to the massive currents generated by such a body of water as it churns up the river basin.

We see the occasional small, palm thatched huts of the local river-side villages  which get fewer and fewer as we proceed upstream. Finally we branch off the main channel, take a few more twists and turns along some tributaries and arrive at the lodge firmly nestled deep in the Jungle.

The floods this year caused the highest water levels in the past 20 years. Most of the local villages were under water as seen here.

It’s high flood season and this year is exceptional with the largest river flood seen in 20 years. This only affected our overall  experience of the Jungle in as much as we never saw the jungle floor in our 5 days :):)!

The lodge is constructed very Eco-Friendly with all the chalets (20) made from local wood and roofs from palm leaves. No hot water, much to the girls distress 🙂 All the staff are locals from Iquitos and exceptionally friendly and the food wonderfully plentiful and tasty.

Our home…. even the walkway was flooded. They had to put new floors into the bedrooms and living areas as the water level was so high.

To the jungle encounter; 5 days and 4 nights of jungle immersion. Due to the high water there is no walking so we are effectively doing jungle ‘game drives’ in either a small outboard or in canoes. Our guide, Cesa, is a local fellow full of traditional stories and local knowledge. At one point it became clear that visiting the jungle without a spotter is a waste of time – his ability to spot things and find creatures is phenomenal. He could spot a sloth in the highest branches, track monkeys, see birds we could not see until we were on top of them, interpret sounds that we merely attribute to jungle noise etc etc…….rather embarrassing for salted African game spotters :):)!

There are insects an every leaf…… the abundance of life is astonishing.

Spotting is a big issue in the jungle. Every cubic meter of jungle (in this you must include the water mass) is jam packed with biomass. Every leaf has something on it be it a spider, an insect (grasshopper, ant, 6-legged gogga), fungus, saprophyte, symbiont or other. Every bug has a defensive or offensive strategy going to wipe out its neighbour. The water is rich in minerals, fish and silt, the latter loosened up our bellies just to remind us we are in the jungle!

“Slothing it” in a tree

Can you spot the eight bats on the tree trunk?

Every tree or vine seems to have either toxic, medicinal or construction properties.
Cesa is constantly casting his eye everywhere guarding against nasties like snakes, wasp nests and fire-ant trees, he does so with skill while we stare blankly at this overwhelming environment and just realising how susceptible we are to the jungle without our saws and mills.

Monkeying around….

Camera zoom is not the best but I thought this was quite a good artist shot

We are not great ornithologists, but during the week we saw almost 10 species of bird that we have never seen or even heard of! During one of the evening boat trips our guide hand-caught a baby camon (crocodile!) about 2 foot long. This was to be the first in a long series of land/water animals that we had again never heard of let alone seen! Cath will talk about our Amazon animal encounters a bit later.

The amazon at night…… some of us were very bug aware!!!!!

Camon …. looks a bit like a baby crocodile but apparently they can grow VERY BIG

Bar the first night when it was raining, we went out every night for a river trip. One night Doug and I went out with Cesa on our own in a canoe; the girls had had enough of spiders and things falling onto their canoe during the day!

The jungle in the day is spooky enough, try it at night……. There is a cacophony of noise that envelops your auditory sense, an eery luminescence from fire flies, spider’s eyes reflecting from the torchlight assaulting your visual sense and a tactile awareness everytime a branch brushes across your face or body.

After 5 minutes we are totally disoriented and may as well have been 100 kms from nowhere. We got back to the lodge an hour later with our senses on fire and minds in awe of the experience.

Everyone has a soft spot for dolphins. On the last day we boat out to the main channel to a spot known to be the home of a pod of pink dolphins. Again, a species we are only distantly aware of. These are fresh water dolphins who by sexual maturity have a completely pink skin! Cath, Doug and I braved the amazon waters to swim with these creatures. Ok, we did not get close, but viewing them from the boat was amazing! Graceful creatures breaching and cruising these murky waters – but pink!

If you use your imagination you can see a bit of a dolphin in the water 😉

Nervous Amazonian swimmers…. or at least the one climbing on top of her husband was nervous. There were little fish that kept nibbling our feet… a bit nerve wracking when you think that we caught piranah in the same river!!!!!!

The first of five…..

We have to mention the piranha fishing; as much as it hurts – Cath caught 5, Doug 1 and Pat and me none. In my defence, my hook was so blunt that I could not even drive the point of it into my finger!
These guys are really small, but one look at those teeth will explain why they are so feared!

I’m small but I can bite!!!!!

We had an incredible time and these are just some of the wonderful things that we experienced. What made it even more special was being able to share it with family.

Foiled at customs

A favourable twist of events coincides with the wait for the slave cylinder with our much anticipated trip to the Amazon Jungle with Doug and Pat. (Brother and sister in-law)
Cath has done a super job arranging flights, Amazon package and general coordination.

We arrive at Santiago airport, en route to Lima (where we plan to meet Doug and Pat), check in……..and are foiled at customs when my entrance ticket showed a black stamp indicating that I arrived by bike.

There and then customs bumps me off the flight and tells me in no unclear terms that I need to bring the bike mechanic to the airport, sign that he has the bike and then carry on. This is bizarre, its 6am in the morning; I have been kicked off my flight at the last minute and have lost the opportunity to even change the flight, I need to find the mechanic ASAP, bring him to this customs guy, then find another flight to Lima in order to hook up with the family so that we can still be in Iquitos the next morning by 9am; all this on a Saturday morning!

So I say goodbye to my wife who gets on a plane from Santiago to Lima. She takes all the luggage so I am left with my iPad and some cash.

My dear mechanic friend speaks zero English. Back to the hostel where a really nice guy at reception does some translation and we are set to go to the airport with the mechanic. At customs, all it involved was literally the customs guy clapping eyes on the mechanic and scratching all over the bike papers! But here’s the thing – I needed to do this all in reverse when we return to Santiago!

After much money and Skype calling Peru I got on a late afternoon flight to Lima, missed the connection and caught the red-eye the next morning!

Suddenly very money conscious I decided that it’s silly to rent a room for the night in Lima so I spent the whole night wandering around downtown Lima in a district called Miralfores, specifically around the entertainment centre called Larcomar. On the way back to airport at 3 am the taxi driver took pity on me and he and I fell asleep, in his taxi, outside the airport for an hour while he waited for his next load of passengers at 4am!

Off to meet the family hopefully in the morning…

Mechanical failure part 4

The death knell……………….

Gone are the good old days; if you suspect your slave is not working, beat them senseless and if that does not work, feed them up and sell for a small profit. Unfortunately this does work with BMW slave cylinders. These are unique creatures designed by some Nazi in an underground bunker and destined to indiscriminately drive anyone bonkers;
They are talked of in few forums,
they are never replaced at a 10 000km service,
they are never available as a spare part,
they look innocuous to the novice,
cost a bloody fortune,
If unattended cause civil strive by seizing up the gearbox!

Please see the infamous slave cylinder

The slave cylinder

It’s part of the clutch – the bit that does the real dirty work physically disengaging the clutch plates. It’s well hidden deep in the bike but surprisingly easy to extract. There is no way of telling when it’s about to die untill the last minute when your clutch actually vreks! The worst is you can look for ‘leakage’ around the seal and be falsely assured if there is no leak – yee be fooled, it can leak INTO the engine which you can’t see in which case you are proverbially f***ed!

Thanks to the HUBB and Chris and Chloe’s recent good fortune meeting Reuben, a kind-of BMW guy in Santiago, we have been able to order another one into Chile (arrives in 2 weeks). This fellow is a BMW owner and bike mechanic. He is not too familiar with the BMW clutch almost having poured brake fluid into the main reservoir ( this is the 8th deadly sin by the way ) but incredibly helpful. We drove around Santiago on his 1200 for 3 hours sorting out clutch and tyre issues! He even fed me twice! I have a new respect for my dear wife as a pillion rider!
Reuben will hang onto the bike untill our part arrives……..

There are a few people to thank again.

Firstly, AndyW from  http://www.MotorcycleInfo.co.uk/ who sent me a picture of the offending part and warned me about not using brake fluid,

Andrew King from http://www.kingtek.co.za/ who has answered weird hour emergency calls and diagnosed all the issues!

By no means last, Ray Muller from www.toursforafrica.co.za, for his spot-on advice.

The Amazon trip awaits, let’s hope our part clears customs by the time we are back!