ODO: 349,114
We use our late check out to dawdle and eat more room service empanadas. Once we get moving its resupply time. On the way out of the grocery store, we meet an older fellow who is very excited about the truck. He did a similar trip during his thirties, and wanted to do some reminiscing, until his wife finally pulled him away. We’re still headed a little further south before we cross over and can head north for real. The road takes us through some very Utah looking landscapes. Our first option for the night is a small lake that turns out to be a dud. A little further down the road we are able to cozy into a small canyon. As we try to make dinner, we learn we did a bad job at the grocery store and forgot half our dinner ingredients. Sandwiches and guacamole it is!
Our camp spot is very picturesque in the morning, so we play photographer. We even head back the way we came a few miles to see the Antifeatro (the amphitheater), a small natural amphitheater just off the road. Then we backtrack a few more miles to the Garganta del Diablo, an area that looks like it would be terrifying to see when it rains. Back on track, in front of us is Cafayate, and the House of Empanadas. Our excitement is misplaced, these are not great empanadas. The landscape continues to be amazing, changing from Utah to Baja, with goats and sheep all over the place. We are heading uphill again, so find a spot to stop for the night just under 9000 feet, we want to be able to sleep tonight. After we tuck into an arroyo outside a small town, we make the chili we were unable to make last night. Thank you to the small grocery store in Cafayate.
Today the road takes us through high altitude valleys, which is some of our favorite landscape. Up here, we start seeing huge packs of vicuña’s, the wild alpacas. The scenery is incredible and we stop often to take pictures. As the road turns to dirt the wind begins to howl…again. This area of Argentina is called the Antofagasta, and we love it. We come across the Pumice Giants, an area full of large sculptural pumice stones, where we explore and hide from the wind. Our road becomes sand, and then rocks, and then washboard, repeat. Our high point of the day is 14,000ft. The road down from here turns into a sketchy, deep sand shelf road. No one likes this, but it only lasts a few minutes before we’re back on safe dirt. As we start looking for camp, spot one has flamingos in a pond, but exposed screaming wind. Spot two is a hot spring with some really cool geothermal features, but its too cold to get into. Spot three is a different hot spring, also too cold, but the winner because its getting late. Our final height is 11,000ft, and screaming cold wind. We’re very grateful for the heater tonight.
The altitude keeps everyone awake on and off all night. KoKo has a dream about monsters knocking on the doors, and scares Berne out of going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It’s still very cold in the morning, so more heater. We pack up in between gusts of wind. Todays road starts as a very long, very high shelf. Then it becomes a canyon where half the time the road is the river, and pumice towers pop out of the canyon side. When we hit pavement, the wind has turned the sky hazy with sand. Our plan was to see the sand dunes, but we cant see anything through this sandstorm. We need gas, but the storm has knocked out the power in the closest town. The next gas is an hour out of our way, but what can we do? Fueled up, we manage to find a small canyon to hide from the wind for the night.
We wake up to no wind! For the first time in forever, outside is lovely! First order of business, wash some dishes. They’ve been piling up while the weather was not great. Today is a border crossing day, and we’ve picked one that looks small and in the mountains. To be clear, literally every border crossing between Argentina and Chile is in the mountains. We pass tons of donkeys, and a couple guanacos (wild llamas), and endless vicuña. There are no side quests allowed today because we have 525km until the next gas station. This is the last time we are going to cross out of Argentina. The border office to leave Argentina is at 15,200ft. There is a 100km frontier land (aka no mans land) between border offices. At the Chilean border office, they take our eggs and bananas. We find a narrow valley, off the main road for the night. When we get settled, we remember that the heater threw a code the other night, and we never dealt with it….no heat tonight…
Apparently the heater just needed some time, because this morning it turns on! Today we have chores to do: laundry and resupply. Our city for this is a mining town called Copiapo at the base of the mountains. It takes us a couple tries to find a laundry place that exists. Dropping off our laundry is one of our favorite luxuries. While sitting in traffic on the way to a camp spot, we experience an earthquake. We means Berne. He felt the truck move, and thought we got bumped by another car, until we caught the conversation between the street vendor and the car next to us. KoKo felt nothing. There is nothing but sand in all directions, and we head out into it looking to stop early tonight. Unfortunately, we try 3 spots before finding out spot for the night. Sitting in the desert in meetings, KoKo feels a giant boom (our guess is from mining), and Berne feels nothing. We are very uncoordinated in our feelings today. The weather is lovely, but setting up for dinner signals the wind that it is time to whip the sand around. Its a miracle we manage a sand free dinner. When the wind is quiet, there is another sound, like a constant train off in the distance, that we also guess is mining.
It is hot this morning. We cant pick up our laundry until 3pm, so we laze around the desert until noon before heading over to our favorite grocery store: Jumbo! Then we grab our laundry and get on the road. We are officially heading north now, and we get to do it along the coast. First stop: Pan de Azúcar National Park where we get to camp on the beach. We cant remember the last time we were on the ocean, and the Pacific does not disappoint in views or vibes. It has that good ocean smell, with a cool breeze to cut the heat from the sun. We get to watch an epic sunset with dinner.
