Northern Chile, Southern Bolivia, and Northern Argentina

 

 I just returned from a fabulous trip with my Chile teacher friends, the four women I taught with in Santiago in the late 60’s (Lynda from Scotland, Susan from England, Glenda from Canada, and English Erica who lives in Santiago).  This was our fourth trip together since 2010.  This year we returned to South America and traveled in northern Chile, southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. 

  

 We flew north from Santiago and started out in San Pedro de Atacama where the buildings are all adobe. It is an oasis in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.  We had an excellent knowledgeable guide, Jimmy, who took us out in the desert, first to the Tatio Geysers (highest in the world at 14,170 feet/4300 meters with steam, boiling water and mud, but not quite as impressive as Yellowstone where I had just been.  We saw herds of vicuña in many places (llama and alpaca are domesticated, while the vicuña and guanaco are wild).  Quinoa grows abundantly here and in much of Bolivia. We also saw a small animal, viscacha, whose head is like a rabbit and tail is like a squirrel. Many were scampering and jumping like kangaroos up the rocks. We also saw Arctic fox. We had breakfast at a place where the river flowed warm and various organisms in the water were beautiful orange, yellow, and green hues. The landscape was brown and barren, but with clumps of yellow grass and some cacti.  Later, in the Valley of the Moon, unique rock formations created an otherworldly landscape, especially with a thin layer of salt on the ground that looked like snow. We were high on the puna as it is called in Chile, or the altiplano in Bolivia.  We visited several lagoons  of various shades of blues and greens, breathtaking with the snow-capped Andes in the distance. One lagoon, from afar had impressionistic layers of color, white borax being one of them. There were big expanses, big spaces.

From left, Erica, Susan, Darlene, Glenda, Lynda on the Salt Flat

  After several days in San Pedro, we departed for a three-day tour into Bolivia to the Salt Flat of Uyuni, again with our same guide, Jimmy. We first visited the White Lagoon, a very light aqua color, then as we drove over a hill another extremely brilliant dark green lagoon was in sight, the Green Lagoon, with the snow-capped Volcano Licancabur towering behind. We drove on into the brown desolate altiplano; at one point rocks were randomly scattered for a surrealistic landscape, appropriately called Salvador Dali.  We drove to more geysers, which hopefully eventually will provide electric power to nearby villages; currently the steam is channeled to a borax factory. We continued up to the highest pass at 16,200 feet/4900 meters, and later we raced up and down and around sand dunes crisscrossing tracks that led to who knows where.

Susan had been looking forward to the Laguna Colorado where she had traveled with travel writers and photographers over 50 years ago when there weren’t any tracks. She had glorious memories of the red lagoon and the pink flamingos. Finally we caught sight of the lagoon, and indeed it had red streaks running through it because of red sediments and algae, and there were hundreds of pink flamingos. Later we sat spellbound on the shore and silently observed a small group poking their beaks in the sand, intertwining their necks and strutting about. It was definitely a memorable moment. 

Another memorable magical place was a lovely flat green area with wet mushy grass where llamas were grazing, Andean geese were wandering, and there was a beautiful lagoon where coots were nesting.  Again we watched the birds and the reflections of rocks and reeds in the water. That night we stayed in a salt hostel where almost everything was made of salt, beds, tables, chairs, walls, even the floor had a layer of salt crystals.  The Bolivian towns we drove through were small, bleak, and very depressing, but they all had schools and a small sports stadium, thanks to the president, Evo Morales.  

The next day we drove to the Salt Flat of Uyuni; we left early so that we could see the sunrise from an island.  The Salt Flat of Uyuni, is the highest and largest salt flat in the world, 4,090 square miles/10,580 square kilometers, and with an elevation of  11,995 feet/ 3,660 meters.  It is 126 meters deep and stretches on and on.  The minerals in the ground are sodium, potassium, lithium, magnesium, and borax; 50 to 70% of the world’s lithium is located here. We climbed up to a lookout point on the island with dozens of other tourists where we could see the volcanic rock and petrified coral on the island, and tall cardon cacti with white blossoms.  One could see the whiteness of the salt flat in every direction with blue mountains in the distance. We drove on and then our guide had fun doing trick photography. We eventually arrived in Uyuni, a bleak tourist town that was cold and windy at night, but with interesting metal sculptures of found objects. The next day we were off at the crack of dawn on a bus to Tupiza in southern Bolivia. What a ride it was, up and down mountains on a gravel road, with hairpin turns; all we could see was the edge of the mountain as the bus seemed to hover over the edge.

Uyuni Salt Flat

Tupiza was a pleasant place to relax for a few days and with a beautiful plaza. Through the hostel we had the use of a hotel swimming pool, which was a nice bonus. We took a tour into the countryside and hiked, there were red rock formations, some flowers, and humming birds. In Tupiza we said our good-byes to Erica who would return to Santiago to work and the rest of us continued into northern Argentina.

Northern Argentina was a wonder of mountains with incredible formations and fantastic colors. Humahuaco was a small touristy town with restaurants and lots of small artisan shops, the small plaza was nice, but stray dogs were everywhere. Here we rode high up a mountain in a pick up to have a view of the Quebrada (canyon) de Humahuaca. The colors because of the different minerals in the rock were bright and formed writhing twisted lines, many wavy like a Van Gogh painting.

Salta, a lovely colonial town, has a grand plaza with two museums, the Cathedral, and restaurants all around.  We visited the fascinating High Altitude Archaeological Museum and saw one of three Inca child mummies, a seven-year-old boy; only one is on display at a time for preservation purposes. The three Inca children from about 1480 AD were found in 1999 on the top of Mount Llullaillaco (22,000 feet/6,700 meters), frozen and mummified. The children were given chicha an alcoholic drink, and buried. It was a celebration for hopes of good times, according to the information in the museum, not sacrifices. With the children were personal items, food and utensils. In Salta the money-changers approached us because the street rate to exchange American dollars is much higher than the official rate.  Depending on the city, we exchanged in a travel agency, a pharmacy, a jewelry shop, and on the street. 

Salta Cathedral

From Salta, we had another scary bus ride west to Cachi. At first we rode through very green rain forest vegetation, then as we climbed a mountain it was rainy and foggy so we couldn’t see a thing until suddenly at the top of a mountain it was clear and a huge valley with fields opened up in front of us.  Cachi was one of our favorite small towns with a small, but good archaeological museum, and vineyards and mountains surrounding the town. The adobe buildings were painted white so everything appeared very clean. We walked out of town exploring a country road with small adobe houses, round ovens, gardens and sometimes a few chickens or goats. 

From Cachi south to Cafayate we rode in a van through several small towns. We stopped to watch weavers using primitive looms weave beautiful ponchos and blankets. Our guide driver made several stops so we could gaze at more amazing rock formations and mountains with squiggly contorted lines. Cafayate, the second most important wine center in Argentina after Mendoza, was another pleasant town where we could walk to bodegas for wine tastings. We took a tour to Quilmes, an archaeological site which was an urban settlement occupied by 7000 Diaquita Indians in 1000 AD. Several families lived together in thick stonewalled structures, and the dead were buried inside the houses. In 1480 the Incas invaded but they lived together peacefully until the Spanish came. The Indians resisted the Spaniards, but fell to them in 1667 at which time they were relocated south of Buenos Aires. We visited the Pachamama (the earth goddess) Museum, in Amaicha, a definite highlight. It is a private museum and the artist who created it works with textiles, paint, clay, metal, and rock. The courtyards were amazing with cacti gardens, huge statues, and rock mosaics.  Another tour took us to the Quebrada de Cafayate. We hiked into several areas with red rock formations, brilliant mountains and again strata of various colors running through the cliff side.

Pachamama Museum

 On to Tucuman and then Cordoba, a long 13-hour day in buses. We arrived late in Cordoba and the town was buzzing with activity with young people roaming the streets and in bars and restaurants, definitely a students’ city with seven universities. The oldest university on the continent is there, the University of Cordoba, founded by the Jesuits in 1622. It is free and one hundred thousand students attend. It’s a lovely city with a vibrant atmosphere. Then on to Mendoza with several pretty plazas and tree-lined streets. We spent a day relaxing at thermal baths, then over the mountains and on to Santiago to meet up with Erica again and to exchange travel stories.

It was a terrific trip with great travel companions, primarily a nature trip with incredible Andes mountain scenery, lakes, vegetation, and animals. We traveled by bus to interesting towns and cities, saw many beautiful churches, museums, plazas, and enjoyed good wine in all three countries.