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We wanted to leave the beach before 10am the next morning. We were guessing that the roadworks at Cuya would have allotted times to open up the road for traffic and that our time, heading south, would be around 10-30am. Well, we were right. We got to the roadworks barrier at 10-10am and only had to wait 9 minutes!
The roadworks area is shorter now because they have opened up 4km that had been virtually finished when we got here the first time almost a week ago. On our way south we managed to find the Tiliviche Geoglyphs that we hadn't seen on the way north and stopped there for about 90 minutes. The geoglyphs are all along a cliff side across a valley and are mainly llamas or vicuñas.
On the way to Calama we stopped at a Copec station in Pozo Almonte. We managed to fill up our water containers, did the washing up and hand washed some clothes which all took around 2 hours. Their shower and toilet block was brand new but not yet open so we drove 3km further to the Petrobras station where we could get nice hot showers for 1,500 pesos each (around $2 US)
Kirsten also insisted on showing me how the radio works and we listened to very loud music along the long stretch of road through the desert. We stayed at the Geoglyphos de Pintados for the night where no less than 420 geoglyphs decorate the hills "like pre-Colombian doodles" according to the Lonely Planet. Most date from AD 500 to AD 1450 and there is an entrance fee of 4,000 pesos each.
The entrance was already closed by the time we got there but we could already see some of the geoglyphs from outside the entrance. There is a 3km trail to walk past them but as we have already seen quite a few we decided not to go in the next morning.
We continued south and had a short stop at the customs building where we had to show our vehicle permit and then pulled into a small village called Quillagua where we could get internet and watched the second half of a football match with our home team. We won!
By the time we left it was 3-45pm and, after a short stop at a mining cemetery we turned off onto the road to Calama. We drove over a pass at 3,000m and down past the largest open copper mine in the world where we were hoping to get on a tour within the next day or so. We went into Calama which has a crazy road system, partially not even in our GPS and we had to back track a few times. We eventually got to a car park that according to iOverlander has 24hr security.
We didn't get there until after 7pm and the only security we saw were two men taking money for parking in front of two small shacks selling flowers for the nearby cemetery. We parked at a Cenotaph on part of the car park where we didn't have to pay and hoped that we would be safe. At one point lots of transit vans used as local buses crowded onto the parking area - they looked just like Winnietwo! So everyone would think we were just another bus.
The next day we drove to the office in town to try and get onto a mining tour. There are no tours at the moment! The tour operator has changed to a new company and no one knows what's going to happen and if there will be any tours in the future. The security guard at the empty office was really nice and probably fed up of having to tell people who have reserved tours months in advance that everything has been cancelled. Some of them drive up here just for the tours and, no doubt, are not happy. He has to face all of them. So he was happy to have people turn up and thank him for the information without blaming him!
We stayed there for a couple of hours and planned the next part of our trip whilst we had breakfast. We drove along CH23 towards San Pedro de Atacama and turned off towards the Arcoiris Valley. It was a tarmac road but lots of places were covered in sand or gravel so it was slow going.
We turned off onto the track for the last 6km into the valley but the road was impossible - we would need high clearance and 4WD. So we had to turn around. About 1km back we had passed a hut and entrance to the Yerba Buena Petroglyphs so we drove there to ask them about the road to Arcoiris.
We were told that we could drive to the valley past the petroglyphs and the road was good enough for our vehicle but we would have to pay 3,000 pesos ($5US) each entrance fee. The woman assured us that it would be valid for when we returned. So we set off along the gravel road. It was very slow going but then we hit a river bed that was full of large rocks and scree. We had to build bridges using rocks to get up and down various slopes. Well, Kirsten had to get out and build the bridges and then watch as I drove through. It took us 90 minutes to do 3.7km!
Then at the end there was a very steep slope down. I started to drive down but then we decided that Kirsten should walk it first to see what was at the bottom. Good job we did because the road collapsed at the bottom and there was a huge drop with large boulders. No one could have driven through let alone us.
Problem - the road was very narrow and steep so we couldn't turn around. So I told Kirsten to give me a push to get me going backwards and then had to reverse uphill, trying to steer clear of the massive drop off into the valley below! We ended up pulling off at a kind of turn around spot and decided to park there. We would have to walk the rest into the valley which would add on a few more kilometres but we had made it this far so we might aswell go ahead and do the walk we had planned.
Tough drive to the Valle de Arcoiris
It was almost 6pm by the time we had parked up so we would set off tomorrow for our walk. We made a cup of tea and then a donkey came and poked his head through our side door!! We fed him a carrot but then had to stop him from using our spare tyre on the back door for a back rub!
We made cauliflower cheese with fried potatoes for our evening meal and took the leaves and potato peel out for the group of feral donkeys nearby. They were a bit skittish and kept moving away so I waved the leaves at them and then dumped the bucket with the leaves and peel onto the floor. Hopefully they'll eat them once we've moved away.
The next day we went for a 14km walk into the Arcoris Valley. We packed all our important papers and some other items we didn't want to leave behind, along with all the items we needed for a days hiking. The backpack weighed around 8kg! We hoped our motor home would be safe where it was parked but we took things with us as a precaution.
We walked down the steep hill and got down to the river. There were two cars that were trying to cross the river - they'd obviously come along the lower road, the first one we had seen and immediately rejected as a way into the valley. One of the cars had got stuck and the other was trying to pull it out! We were surprised they'd made it that far!
There was also a large caterpillar working on the lower road and trying to make it passable. It would be a big job but hopefully he'd come and do the upper road for us too! There has obviously been a lot of rain and the rivers and run offs have taken out both the upper and lower roads. We could see a farmhouse in the valley so there are people living here and need road access.
After 40 minutes we had found a sign pointing us in the right direction for the Arcoiris Valley and a car park area. We didn't have any map with us so we were just going to follow our noses. At least we'd managed to find the start of the valley!
Valle de Acroiris - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We spent around 4.5 hours walking up into the valley, exploring side valleys and came back down through a different valley on the way back. It was a great walk. There were rock formations in various colours - green, pink, brown and dark purple. We climbed up rocks to see water chutes that were dry at the time. It's been a long time since we've managed to get out and do some walking so we really enjoyed it.
Valle de Acroiris - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We got back at 5-20pm, emptied the rucksack, had bowl washes and didn't eat until 8pm. We were quite tired so we were in bed by 10pm - really early for us!
We spent the next day working on the computer to try and catch up with the website and later in the afternoon the caterpillar came by with a truck. Maybe they're going to do the upper road? We found out the next day - the road was a great deal better. The caterpillar had made a very straight line through the river and it only took us 25 minutes to drive back. An hour less than it had taken to get there and we didn't have to build any bridges!
We encountered numerous llamas along the road and some were having dust baths and rolling around on the road in front of us.
Hiking Valle de Arcoiris, drive out & llama dust bath
As we had already paid the entrance fee we spent just over 2 hours wandering around the rocks to see the Yerba Buena Petroglyphs which were mainly llamas. Afterwards we headed towards San Pedro de Atacama and spent the night at a small pull out off the main road. It was just as good as a viewpoint we had passed that cost 3,000 pesos per person and would close after sunset.
From our spot we could see into the Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna) below and we had a quiet night. We drove into San Pedro de Atacama the next day. It was very hot and dusty with narrow sand roads. It didn't seem to have changed much from the last time we were here 14 years ago!
We found out about a tour to ALMA (see next report) and drove to the parking area where the bus would pick up people for the tour. We didn't have a reservation and the tours only take place on Saturday and Sunday, one per day. So we were going to get up early and hope to get on one tomorrow which is a Saturday. Kirsten had also been to a hotel to ask if we could park our motor home there. It would cost us 600 pesos per hour but it would be secure and the tour itself is free.
We both took separate walks into the town so that one of us always stayed with the motor home and I managed to get us some supplies. Not easy here because the shops are all very small, there are no supermarkets, so I had to scout around for things. There wasn't much fresh stuff available but I managed to get us some bananas and various other things to last us for the next few days. We didn't need much anyway, because we would be going across the border back into Argentina from here.
