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

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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    Near Las Flechas

    December 9, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The light continued to fade but we wete still quiye many kms away from where we had planned to sleep for the night. The road had been way more scenic than what we expected, so we had made quite a few stops to take pictures and it had been a dirt track all the way, so about 2.5 hours after we had left Cafayate, we were just about 50 kms away. The 1st fuel pump was still about 25 kms away.Read more

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    Las Flechas

    December 9, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Around 8 pm, we reached the area called Las Flechas. It is a beautiful landscape that has formations in the shape of fins. The land here is formed 20-30 million years ago when the land block was raised and then got quickly eroded bu rain and wind into pointed fin like structures. This place reminded us of the Sillar formations near Tupiza in Bolivia. It was a truly breathtaking landscape.Read more

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    Sunset at Las Flechas

    December 9, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    There was a viewpoint of the Las Flechas on the way. We stopped there and climbed on one of the fins to get a panoramic view of the fin formations and the valley behind. The instructions near the viewpoint entrance suggested not having more than 5 people at a time due to the fragile nature of the natural formation we were on.
    It was about 8:05 pm by now and the sun was setting so we stayed on for a while longer to see the sunset before proceeding further.    Read more

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    To Angastaco

    December 9, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    From here, to Angastaco village, the distance was about 25 kms. This was the village where there was a petrol pump where we hoped to find the services facilities and to refuel as well. The landscape continued to be the same all the way to quite near the village. Jist about 5 kms before Angastaco, we saw the 1st green valley and fields.Read more

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    At the restaurant in the middle of nowhere village
    At the restaurant in the middle of nowhere villageDinnerOur camping location

    Camping at Angastaco

    December 9, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We reached Angastaco village by around 8:40 pm. It was quite dark by now. The petrol pump was at the start of the village and it turned out to be a small one. We refueled a bit here. There was an open space next to the petrol pump and when we asked there if we could park our can and camp tgere, they didn't have a problem with it. Tgey would also let us use the toilet during working hours but they didn't have a shower. We decided to drive on into the village for food and then come back here for the night.
    There we found a restaurant right on the main square next to the church. While waiting for the meal, Hristo who was looking up Maps.me, found a municipality camping place just a 100 mts away. He went to check and was back in about 10 min. The camping was there alright and they had toilets and showers and everything included would be 25 ARS per person. The only issue was, there was a concert stage inside tge camp and a concert was going on there. We decided to check it after dinner.
    When we went to the camp after dinner, there was no one at the entrance. We drove in and parked. The concert was going on and there was a lot of loud music. We drove around the toilet building to reduce the noise and parked there. There were sinks there behind the building but the toilets and showers were locked. A storm had been coming in and there had been a lot of thunder and lightning and some rain had started falling. We decided to sleep here for the night. The earplugs worked very well and we slept good.
    In the morning, we woke up early and freshened up at the toilets near the concert hall. There was still no one at the entrance so we drove off. Even the village was asleep at 8 am, so even the restaurant was closed. We decided not to wait at the village and to drive off and have our breakfast somewhere on the way.    Read more

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    To Piedra del Molino

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The greenery continued for some time and the suddenly as we started climbing, it changed to high altitude desert landscape with cactii and clay and sand. 70 kms later, we turned Eastwards for about 50 kms towards our final destination in this Argentina trip. The 1st of the group of points we planned to see was Piedra del Molino.Read more

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    Cuesta del Obispo

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The 2nd stop was about 2 kms down from the top. It was the viewpoint of the snaking road coming up to the mountain pass from Salta in the plaims below. Its a 21 km road built between 1928 - 1931. It is called Bishop's Road (Cuesta del Obispo) since the bishop of the catholic church used this track in 1622 during his travel.Read more

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    Parque Nacional los Cardones

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The route back on highway 33 was mainly through very flat land with no striking feature. It passes over the small mountain chain that are part of the Parque Nacional los Cardones amd then continues in a very straight line for tens of kilometers along the dried river beds of the altiplano. Nothing grows here except some varieties of cactii. We kept driving till 1:30 pm and stopped only for some lunch at a small roadside restaurant near Payogasta.Read more

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    2The winding road on the other side

    Abra de Acay

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We continued with our ascent along the beautiful Ruta 40. The road climbs pretty high over the pass of Abra de Acay at 4895 mts before descending on the other side in a long winded route visible from the top. It had started snowing lightly while we were climbing to the pass and there was thunder and lightening. Luckily, by the time we reached the pass, it was sunny but quite windy and cold.Read more

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    San Antonio de Los Cobres

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We descended on the winding road down on the other side of the Abra de Acay pass. There was still some snow at the sides of the road. After a few kms, the road evens out into a flat plain again but this is not the lowlands like from before the pass. These were highland of the altiplano and despite the flat land, it was more than 3500 mts above sea level. We reached the town of San Antonio de Los Cobres by 6:45 pm. It seemed like a big enough town in the altiplano and even had a train station. There was even a huge dish antenna here and we could see quite some movement of trucks and commercial vehicles here. There was even a petrol pump where we refueled. But, we couldn't really figure out why this town was so populated. We didn't see any industry or agriculture or anything special around this region. It really was a well populated small town in the middle of nowhere with no major cities anywhere nearby for hundreds of kilometers.
    We had our dinner at one of the restaurants in the town and then continued further to reach as close to the border as possible. We had found a place just off the Ruta 37 at the starting of the provincial road 70 which was marked as a 'wall with camping' on Maps.me so we decided to go there and see if we could camp. We reached there quite late in the night and dound some half broken walls but it was quite less windy and cold here despite the altitude so we parked our van and decided to sleep there.    Read more

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    Starting the ascent near La Poma

    Greenery after Payogasta

    December 10, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    After lunch, we started North again from Payogasta. Here, suddenly it was much more greener in the valleys and the locals had used the abundance of water to grow a lot of crops. The main sources of water here are the big river Calchaquí and a tributary Rio Piyul. The surrounding hills are very rich in iron oxide and are red in color. The road continued like this till a little after La Poma. From here the road started climbing up.Read more

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    42Our camping site

    Starry night on the Cauchari salar

    December 11, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    It was a beautiful starry night with a few specs of clouds here and there. It was a typical clear altiplano night with tons of stars and galaxies visible all over the sky. It was an unforgettable, peaceful, quiet and stunning end of the day. We slept by the ruins. No vehicles passed on this very narrow bylane the whole night and it didn't get extremely cold as we had been expecting. The reason was clear when the sun came out. We had been camping in the shadow region of the Cauchari mountain at the edge of the Cauchari Salar. We woke up early at 7:00 am, so as to reach San Pedro de Atacama as soon as possible.Read more

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    Cauchari Salar

    December 11, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The route took us straight across the Cauchari Salae. This salae was quite different than the other salt plains we had seen in that it was more red than white. We even passed some abandoned houses and a borax extracting plant on the way. The route continued in a straight path till we reached the tarred highway 52 that we had taken while coming into Argentina.Read more

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    Food kiosk at the border2Border checkpointOur stamp collection at the border

    Back in Chile

    December 11, 2017 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The route 52 quickly took us to the Argentina - Chile border. We stopped just short of the border at some food kiosks to have our breakfast. After the breakfast, we entered the checkpoint and had to go through the same bureaucratic procedure of going through 6 different windows to collect various stamps before we were allowed to pass through into Chile.Read more

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    Salar de Tara
    Salar de Tara2

    Back in Atacama

    December 11, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We passed the Salar de Tara and reached back in Atacama at about 12 pm. We went straight to Hostel Hara which we had booked before leaving and we got the same Room no. 2 again. After that we went to give our clothes for laundry and then we returned the van at Wickedcampers.
    We relaxed and slept the rest of the day to recover for the journey towards Santiago starting next day.    Read more

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    Goodbye Atacama

    December 12, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ❄️ -4 °C

    We left Atacama towards Calama by the 10:15 am bus. Calama is about 90 kms from Atacama and it takes about 1.5 hrs to reach there. Our flight to Santiago was from Calama and was scheduled at 2:30 pm so we would have enough time to catch it. The bus ticket to Calama was 3000 CLP while the tickets to the aeropuerto was 8000 CLP. The airport was just 4 kms from Calama. So we decided to go to Calama and have our lunch and then take a taxi to the airport.Read more

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    Highway jaywalking in Santiago

    December 12, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We landed in Santiago at 4:30 pm. We had an early morning flight at 6:45 am to Easter Island next morning. All the gotel we could find around the airport on booking.com were quite expensive with the rates similar to those in Stockholm. We decided to walk out of the airport and try and find a cheaper place. We even checked at the Holiday Inn at the airport. It was 1800 SEK for a night 😀
    We started walking out of the airport with all our luggage on us. In about 20 min, we still weren't outgoing and when we did, we found ourselves on the highway with no road further and a 30 min walk back to the airport behind us.
    We decided to continue walking further on the sides of the highway since we could see some hotels about a om or so away on the map.
    We ended up at a bridge with no emergency side road so we couldn't cross it, but then we saw a cycling crossing the bridge on the other side of the road. Thinking there must be a path there, we went below the bridge and up the other side, only to find a narrow side path there. We anyways didn't have any option so we continued walking along the edge and crossed the bridge.
    Then came the next hurdle. There was a control point for the airport charge and then the road split into multiple exits. We would need to run across these to reach the hotels a km away. And now, the airport was about an hour away. For once we couldn't figure out what to do. We decided to sit on the side and think it through. We even contemplated calling a taxi bit it would be next to impossible to tell where we were and for it to stop there. We even tried hailing a taxi along the highway but none stopped.
    We saw a local peeson near the checkpoint and decided to ask him. He told us that no taxis would stop there but we could walk till the hotels along the highway ☺️
    Then we saw at least 3 bicyclist going on the side of the highway and crossing the exits when there was no traffic. We also decided to do the same and continued further.
    We managed to cross all the exits and arrived at the Hotel Hilton Garden Inn. We knew it would be expensive but we decided to check it anyway. It turned out to be not that expensive but it was fully booked. The receptionist told us to check the hotels across the road and told there was an underpass to go there.    Read more

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    City Express Santiago

    December 12, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We checked on booking.com and found the cheapest one of them fully booked so we decided to go to the City Express hotel nearby. They had rooms available there. It was about 1200 SEK which was quite a bit on the higher side but they included breakfast starting at 4:30 am and a free airport shuttle.
    We stayed there for the night and had our dinner before sleeping off.    Read more

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    Santiago to Easter Island

    December 13, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Our flight to Easter Island was scheduled to depart at 6:45 am. So we had ordered the free airport shuttle at 5 am. We were up and ready for breakfast at 4:30 am. We had a quick meal amd were dropped at the airport at 5:15 am.
    The journey was of about 5 hours and we were supposed to land at 10:30 am (with 2 time zones difference). At the takeoff, the pilot announced that we would reach 45 min before time at 9:45 am.
    We landed on time and decided to take our bags and walk outdoors of the airport to find a place to stay. Just near the gate we found a small kiosk where the guy was advertising about his camping. A room for 2 was 22000 CLP per night and if we stayed there, we would get car to rent at 35000 CLP for a day, instead of 50000 CLP. He also told of other places where we could get discounts if we booked through him. We were a bit skeptical about it initially but the room price was way lower than what we had expected and found on Easter Island. Even the pictures of the room were quite good.
    We decided to go with him. The airport transfers were also included in the price.    Read more