ODO: 333,045
It is so, so cold in the canyon shade this morning. We are all very slow getting moving, like the poor lizards that live in this windy, shady rock ditch. There is rumor of a geothermal area nearby, so of course we need to find it. The area is a small, very colorful very active spot with one small and extremely angry geyser. Exploring around, we see some very bubbly paint pots in grey, blue, brown and yellow. Our route today takes us into some even more remote (I know, how is that possible?!) parts of the park, including up and over a 17,200ft pass. A new personal record for us. The goal today is a hot spring. This could be amazing or terrible, there is no in-between, so we decide its best to scout it earlier in the day, just in case. It’s AMAZING! Views across the laguna are full of flamingos and wild alpacas, amazing sunset colors with lighting storms light up the far side. The air temperature is perfect for a late evening-into-nighttime soak. Being covered in dust for the past week, this almost counts as a shower.
The only thing left between us and the border is the Salvador Dali desert. Here, random wind sculpted rock outcroppings scattered across the sand. After we get our fill of driving around in the desert, it’s border crossing time. Everything starts off very normal, normal questions, normal forms, normal inspection….and then they find a rotten onion we had forgotten about, and its all over.
Next thing we know, we are being told forcefully to unpack, item by item, our entire pantry and hand each item over for inspection. We lose a half container of honey, and a package of popcorn kernels (we later learn they weren’t supposed to take the popcorn). The inspector has decided this is all KoKo’s fault, and is quite rude with her, threatening to ban her completely from Chile. This is serious. And then we get extremely lucky. Another border official comes over and tells the first inspector he is being ridiculous, and waves us through. Yikes. This has been our most stressful border crossing so far.
We enter Chile at 14,500ft, and drop down to 8300ft in less than half an hour. We can feel the air getting thicker. After a quick gas up, its time to part ways with our friends. Hopefully we see them again in Ushuaia. Now we hustle. We have 5000km to go in the next seven days. We drive alongside the Atacama desert late into the night, only stopping to pick up some dinner. We find a nice (we hope, it’s dark so who knows) spot along a side road that leads to an observatory. This will be a quiet night.
We wake up on Mars! We’re pretty sure this is where The Martian was filmed. Today is laying down more miles through the desert. As we make stops, we start putting our pantry back together, and cleaning out some of the dust from last week. It feels like the cab has a quarter inch thick layer of dust everywhere. And rocks in the cabin air filter….Part of our drive is along the Pacific coast, which is always good for views. Our day ends in the desert again between two observatories this time.
Wake up, drive, rest, drive, rest. This is how our days will be until we reach Ushuaia. It’ll all be worth it. We finally booked an Antarctica trip! It was extremely last minute, making it extremely on sale. One great thing about Chile, they have rest stops! And they’re really nice! We didn’t realize how much we missed these. They are much nicer than we’re used to, and even have showers! Which we don’t use, we opt for a hotel instead. This is our first real shower since we entered Bolivia, we are very due.
Wake up, drive, rest, drive, rest. But today we head into the mountains! The scenery looks suspiciously like the Rouge River Valley. We see signs for a volcano, but never actually see the volcano. We find a nice spot next to a lake with another RV as a neighbor, five minutes from the border.
First thing in the morning we are surprised by the volcano! And on top of that, we get to drive through a forest of Araucana trees, aka monkey puzzle trees! As soon as we cross the line, the road turns to dirt. We didn’t realize this is foreshadowing because it is a really nice dirt road. The landscape turns from monkey puzzle forest/volcano to Eastern Oregon/John Day area, to lake country before settling on mountains and pine forest. Our first planned camp is very smokey, according to Google maps we are between two sizeable fires, one of which we see from the road. Our second spot doesn’t exist anymore. Our third spot is a cute little campground. Its just chilly enough and just quiet enough for a good night of sleep.
We wake up in the shade of a couple of small mountains. We enjoy the views while we make coffee and smoothies, and then it’s right back to driving. Not far past the mountains, the road deteriorates a lot. We play dodge the axel snapping pot holes with the other cars. It takes us way too long to figure out we should be on the nice dirt road that runs parallel to paved road. On the sides of the road we see more wild llamas (Guanacos) than we saw in Peru and Bolivia combined, and a whole heard of Rhea’s. It never gets old seeing giant birds walking around. We make it to a nice (but VERY windy) beach camp on the Atlantic for the night.
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