The R&R Big Adventure

From northern desert to the central lakes

The Rainbow Valley was a great way to finish our tour of the region. Just the scenery on the drive to and from the valley was impressive. Situated about an hour north of San Pedro de Atacama, the rocks had spectacular colours and formations, including phenomena such as lighter ash layers in the hills, underneath heavier lava strata, due to the ground literally being turned upside down as result of a huge volcanic explosion millions of years ago. It was interesting as well to understand how Chile was formed from dramatic tectonic plate activity. The region still gets many, imperceptible, earthquakes every day, and the Andes continue to grow by about a centimetre a year. 

We spent the early afternoon by the pool – the 8% desert humidity (the driest place on earth, apparently) is great for not sweating when sightseeing in the heat, but the side effect is parchment skin after a few days in it. Our last night in the region was in Calamar – a mining town just over an hour from San Pedro, and convenient for the nearby airport. We weren’t expecting much when we arrived late afternoon – it was purely a convenience stopover – but we were both surprised by how every (pretty grim) apartment block, shop or restaurant had 8’+ high steel gates, topped with barbed wire. The Dominos pizza we passed had not one, but two steel gates, whilst the corner shop from where we bought some water had thick steel bars around the counter. Either Calamar is well prepared for a zombie apocalypse, or they have a serious crime problem. We didn’t venture out at night to find out which.

We’ve just finished our second (and final) flight of the day (Calamar-Santiago-Temuco). The snow capped mountains that stretched north from Santiago for so many miles also stretch south all the way to Temuco (and beyond) – beautiful to see from a plane, and brings to life just how vast this range is. Our flights so far in South America have all been good – no significant delays, or any cancellations. LATAM in particular have been punctual, and have usually landed ahead of schedule (B.A. take note).

Temuco is at the northern end of the ‘Lake District’ of Chile, the furthest south we have been on the planet (yes, further south than Melbourne) and with weather more like its UK namesake. From there we are picking up a car and driving even further south through the lake region for the next week. We are actually looking forward to a week of cool, damp weather, seeing lots of forest and greenery, and no silly o’clock starts.