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The South American Odyssey
  • The Craze for Travelling
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The South American Odyssey

A 147-day adventure by The Craze for Travelling Read more
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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
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    2Back at the poolDesert all around

    Off from Pica

    November 27, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌫 27 °C

    Around 3 pm, we decided to go for lunch. We checked at the counter and were told that we could go out and come back on our tickets as long as it was within 2 hours. We went outside the thermas. Just across was a restaurant serving food. We went in with our wet swimming shots and barefoot/water sandals since we didn't want to change, dress up again and then change back again to swimming shorts. But that was ok in the heat of the day😉😎😎
    We were back in the pool within an hour and then continued with the fun. By now, there were many more people in the pool. We went out at about 5:30 pm, picked up our laundry and then our bags at the hotel and were off.
    The plan was to go towards Iquique and on the way see the geoglyphs of cerro pintados. Then just sleep any place along the highway when it gets dark. That way, we could see the Humberstone ghost town on the way back to Arica next day.    Read more

  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Circular geoglyph on the hill
    Circular geoglyph on the hill2Abandoned train trackCheck post for the cerro pintadosInside the locked compound

    Entrance at Cerro Pintados Geoglyphs

    November 27, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    It was about 7 pm when we reached Cerro Pintados (Hill of the painters). This area has geoglyphs on the hills made by cleaning up or putting stones in place to draw icons and diagrams on the hill. There was a huge circular geoglyph on one of the hills. Nearby was what seemed to be an abandoned train line. The road going further too mentioned that it was a dead end further on.
    When we reached the entrance, there was a closed gate across the road. Nowhere else had we seen a paid entrance to the geoglyphs. We also found out from the information board that there were timings when one could access the road further and that Monday was a holiday. Todays was a Monday.
    We were thoroughly disappointed since we had come all the way this far to see it and now it was closed. Another thing that pissed us off was there was an entrance fee for this which was still ok but having timings for seeing a hill 😐😐😐 that didn't feel right. We decided to to go in anyway. Walking was not an option since the nearest geoglyph was about 3 kms away. We checked around and saw that there was no one at the checkpoint. Even though, the gate was only on the road, it was not possible to cross over since on the sides were big unstable crusts of earth and places where it was a bit stable, they had put pieces of glass to deter entryway by vehicle.
    One place we found there were no glass pieces and we could see light track of vehicles that had gone in from there. We drove our vehicle on the track. We had to use the 4x4 at some point since the track was very uneaven and going up and down. Luckily, it was only 15-20 mts and then we were in.    Read more

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    Cerro Pintados Geoglyphs

    November 27, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    3 kms from the entrance, we came to a parking. We parked there and started walking. There were geoglyphs all over the hills there. There were diagrams of llamas, people, figures and symbols. It was a fantastic sight. No one really know what these symbols meant and why they were drawn here.
    There are approximately four hundred images made around the year 1000 AD. The felines, birds, snakes and flocks of llamas and vicuñas scratched into the rock are thought to have been indicators for livestock farmers. The circles, squares, dotted lines and human figures are more enigmatic, however, and may have had something to do with rituals, perhaps even sacrifices.    Read more

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    No pasar

    November 27, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    When we reached back near the parking, we found out that ot had been forbidden to walk on the track where we had been walking. There was am alternate road but that had been behind the locked building. We had no way of knowing it. In any case, coming into the locked compound couldn't have been a smaller breach than walking on this forbidden track.
    We left the way we had come in and then were back on the pan America highway.    Read more

  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    4Sitout
    4SitoutBedroomsLiving roomBedroom2Cafetaria in the owners cabana

    Apart Hotel Pozo Almonte

    November 27, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    At 9:30 pm, we reached Pozo Almonte. We stopped at Apart Hotel amd liked the rooms. The rent too was reasonable at 35000 CLP and there was enough space for parking our vehicle inside the compound. The rooms were like cabanas with a sitout a common living room with TV and refrigerator and 2 bedrooms. The evening tea and breakfast was included in the price which was perfect simce we wouldn't need to go around trying to find a place to eat. Another good thing was that the Humberstone ghost town that we wanted to visit the next day was just 5 kms away.Read more

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    Our cabana and the road coming in
    Our cabana and the road coming in2Old goods in the cafeteriaMovie shoot at the Humberstone entrance

    Off to Humberstone ghost town

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We woke up at 8:30 am and had breakfast at the cafeteria. By the time we finished breakfast and had a shower and packed, it was already 11 am. We went straight to Humberstone. There was a movie shoot going on near the entrance.

    Humberstone is a former mining town in the Atacama Desert, a few hundred kilometres from Chile's borders with Peru and Bolivia.
    It was named after James Humberstone, a British chemical engineer who emigrated to South America in 1875.
    He made his fortune from saltpetre, which was dug out of caliche - the nitrate-rich crust of the desert - and used to make fertilizer.
    For a while in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, almost all the saltpetre in the world came from the Atacama Desert. It was known as "white gold" and was in huge demand in the industrialising countries of Europe, which needed fertilizer to help grow food for their rapidly expanding populations.
    Founded in 1872, it was originally known as La Palma and in its heyday was home to around 3,500 people.
    When World War One broke out, the British blockaded exports of saltpetre to Germany.
    That prompted the Germans to look for alternatives, and they invented synthetic substitutes that could be used to make fertilizer. Suddenly, no-one needed Chilean nitrate anymore and the industry collapsed.
    These days, Humberstone is a ghost town. No-one has lived or worked here for half a century. But in the dry desert air it has been well preserved. You can still see the old company store where the workers bought their food and provisions. Humberstone is now a United Nations World Heritage Site.

    It was 11:30 by now. We saw there was a guide tour at 12:30 pm. It would be in Spanish but still better than no explanation at all. Instead of wasting time here, we decided to go to its twin ghost town Santa Laura. This is where the extracted saltpeter used to be processed. There is no guided tour here and it is much smaller than Humberstone. The entrance to this place is also included in the ticket. We decided to spend an hour here and then come back before the tour start.    Read more

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    2Santa Laura
    2Santa LauraOld wind millOld metal fountainProcessing plantTrain track to bring saltpeter from Humberstone

    To Santa Laura

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    This small place was a working place with no residential accommodation. This is where the saltpeter was processed after extraction. The dry desert atmosphere has preserved all the buildings and machinery.Read more

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    Humberstone ghost town

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We started the guided tour at 12:30 pm. We were the only 2 people on the tour. It was fim listening to and trying to understand everything in Spanish. Eventually, the guide downloaded the description of the whole place in English and gave it to us to read before showing us the buildings about which we were reading.Read more

  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Church at Humberstone
    Church at HumberstoneMain plazaMarket place at the maim plazaFish market place in the middle and other shops around2Swimming pool

    Humberstone church and swimming pool

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    There were remains of other major buildings like the church made from pine. This was a place for a lot of marriages just before the town was shut down since a lotta of men and women had been living together but wanted to get married so they could live together once they moved out of the town. There were the remains of the swimming pool as well. This had been made in an unusual style with iron planks riveted together and it even had a 3 level diving board. The water from the swimming pool was circulated within the campus for other usages.Read more

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    Humberstone engines

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    In one of the workshop shed from that era, there are a number of engines and parts of the vehicles that were used to transport goods in and out of the town.

  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    2Minimiñe canyon
    2Minimiñe canyon2

    Quebrada Minimiñe and Camarones

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After a long featureless drive, we passed the green Minimiñe canyon and then the Camarones canyon. We reached Arica at around 5 pm. After inspecting the vehicle, they wanted to charge us 60000 CLP for the missing front grill and wanted to put it down to theft in Putre so that we have the full liability. We told them that the grill was there when we left Putre and it was lost in Suri Plaza due to bad roads. The negotiations continued. We gave every possible reason to reduce the liability like we had more fuel in the tank than what we had to leave, that the ac was not working so we should be compensated etc. Finally, we both parties agreed to 30000 CLP as the charge. We got the rest of the deposit of 300000 back.Read more

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    In the shared taxi to Arica
    In the shared taxi to AricaBis to Atacama2Our bus from Turbus

    Off to San Pedro de Atacama

    November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After dropping off the vehicle, we took a shared taxi back to the center of Arica. Here I managed to fix my problem of not getting 4G on my SIM card and Hristo managed to fix the problem with the recharging of his SIM card. After that we had a good lunch/dinner. After that we took a taxi to the bus station. Here we enquired for the timing and prices of the buses to San Pedro de Atacama at all the counters. Finally, the 9:15 pm (an hour later) bus from Turbus suited us the best. It cost us 11700 CLP per head. It was not a very comfortable journey. We had to wake up at 3 am and get out of the bus for some pest control check. Then there were some other police checks and then at 6:30 am we reached Calama.Read more

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    2Lentil soupPesto pasta

    Scouting for tours

    November 29, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We slept soundly for about 6 hours amd woke up around 4 pm. After having a shower, we got ready to go out for some food and to find out about the various tour and car rental options.
    We found a canteen a few meters away from the hostel. They had a full meal with 2 courses of soup and main dish for a very reasonable price of 3600 CLP. They even had a vegetarian option of lentil soup and pesto pasta.
    After having the food, we went to the main street in San Pedro de Atacama about 200 mts away. The main street was a single storey mud brick houses. Every hous had been taken over by different tour agencies. We started asking around for the various tour options and their prices.
    We even went to the Europcar rental (the only car rental agency in Atacama), but they were closed by now. We also tried Wicked Campers but they too were closed.
    With nothing planned for the next day and noy having all the information needed to make a decision, we decided to just walk around the town and try Europcar nexy day morning before making a call.    Read more

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    Around San Pedro de Atacama

    November 29, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After having decided to go to Europcar the next day, we just decided to walk around the town. It was quite pleasant in the evening once the sun had set. The whole place is very touristic. Almost every house is rented to a tour agency and the rest are either restaurants or other tourist related activity shops like bicycle rentals and sandboarding rentals. We went back early and slept again.Read more

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    BreakfastSan Pedro de Atacama church

    Planning for the next 5 days

    November 30, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    We woke up around 8 am, got ready and then changed our hostel to Hostel Hara. It was 2000 CLP cheaper at 34000 CLP per night amd had excellent wifi. The room too was bigger and generally, it had much better space and facilities. Plus they had breakfast also included in the price. After that, we went to the Europcar office to enquire about the car rental. They didn't have any vehicles till Sunday (3rd Dec) except one for 1 day for 1st Dec. We were to be in San Pedro de Atacama till 4th Dec, so we decided to plan what to do over breakfast.
    We had the option to rent a car on 1 and 4 Dec and do the tours on 2 and 3 Dec and half of 30 Nov OR book tours for tge full duration. We figured it would be a bit complicated with multiple rentals and refilling every time etc. So we decided to go for the tours for all the days. That would cost us 160000 CLP per head for all the days after all the discounts etc that we had negotiated with the cheapest tour operator. We decided to go the Towanda tours and book the tours so we could start right from the afternoon with one of the half day tours.    Read more

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    Wickedcampers vans
    Wickedcampers vansSample semi naked pics for the 20000 CLP discountThe entrance to the compound

    Wickedcampers Atacama

    November 30, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Before we finalize the tours, we decided to check the Wickedcampers as well for the price and the option of renting it for the North Argentina leg of the trip. Their location was as hep as expected. Tge vans were as cool as expected. The prices were on the higher side when including all the taxes and charges but quite reasonable if we slept in the vans and reduce the charges we would save on the hostel stays. We decided to try it out for a week for the Argentina part of the trip so we assess if we could use it for longer periods in Patagonia in the South. The cost would be about 550000 CLP for 7 days. All the vans could be converted to have tables behind to sit or remove the table and convert it to a bed for 2. The rental included 3 thick mattresses, a water sink in the back, a stove to cook also in the back and utencils and cutlery for 2 people and 2 foldable chairs and a table to sit out. Perfect for the 2 of us. They also waived off the 4% service charges and the cleaning charges of 25000 CLP. On top of that, they had a scheme going on that if we take a almost naked picture with the van in some exotic location, we would get further 20000 CLP discount.
    We booked them for a week starting from 5th Dec to 11th Dec for the North Argentina leg of the trip.    Read more

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    Towanda tours

    November 30, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    We went to the Towanda tours to book our tours. There we had an issue about the prices. The day before we had gone to 2 of their offices and had got cheaper prices at one of the office. We went to this office today but the person who had given us the cheaper prices wasn't there but the lady who had given us higher prices at the other office was here and she couldn't believe how cheap we had negotiated our price. She told us it just wasn't possible to get that price. She gave us a different higher price. We didn't accept that and luckily we had the contact number of the other guy (Jonathan from Colombia). We contacted him and told him about the issue. He assured us that he is fine with the price and that he would be be back in town by 2 pm and he'll fix everything for us. He just wanted what tour we would want to do that day. We told him we wanted to do the Puritama hot springs since they start at 14:00 and the entrance fee is 9000 CLP after 14:00 instead of 15000 CLP in the morning and the weekends. Plus we wanted to do the star gazing tour at 21:00 for the same night since we were moving towards a full moon on the 5th Dec and every night we delay it was going to get brighter and it would be harder to see the stars.
    He promised to book the 2 tours and told is we would plan the sequence of the tours once he was back at the office. Wd felt satisfied and went back to the hostel and relaxed a while.
    We arrived 30 min before 14:00. Jonathan wasn't there but it he had done the bookings so we were on the van that took us to Puritama hot springs.    Read more

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    Valley of the puritama hot springs
    Valley of the puritama hot springsPath down to the valley2Entrance to the Puritama hot springs.

    Puritama hot springs

    November 30, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    The name "puritama" simply means "hot water" in an ancient, pre-Inca tongue, suggesting that these medicinal springs have been used for millennia. The high concentrations of relaxing lithium and minerals accord all sorts of health benefits. Temperatures hover around 33°C (91°F), so they aren't ridiculously hot, making daytime visits a treat.
    Though most pools have been left in a relatively natural state, there are changing rooms, eateries, campsites, trails, handicrafts vendors and other improvements all around.
    Open daily 9am - 5:30pm
    The "hot springs" are property of Hotel Explora, a five-star brand located in all of Chile's hot spots. The facilities are basic, yet elegant and extremely functional. The entry fee's something to watch out for: 15.000 pesos (25 USD). The landscape is stunning, and the water perfect. Ancient agricultural terraces line the canyon-sides, along with massive stone walls, and even some cacti. The layout of the place is as follows: there are eight artificial pools, cleverly made with volcanic rocks, so that they mesh perfectly with the scenery. The 1st one is the warmest as it is nearest to the source. In the seventh, the water is just a little bit colder, but the pool is very large, and has a sizable waterfall that doubles as a hydro-massage.
    The entrance fee after 2pm is a reasonable 9000 CLP.

    We reached there at around 3 pm and decided to start from the 7th pool as the water would be cooler and it was still quite sunny and then work our way up to the 1st when it would be the coldest in the evening.    Read more