While continuing to travel in the company of Cora and Florian we have been putting miles under GANNET2 and now find ourselves catching our breath for a day about 300 miles north of Santiago -“Saint James”- the capital of Chile.
I think it’s safe to say all four of us are a little tired of the endless beige of the Atacama Desert, so by common consent we pressed on to get out of that Martian landscape. Not all of it was flat boredom as we did have mountains and valleys to look at and we all enjoyed the perfectly smooth PanAmerican Highway which allowed us to use cruise control and set the speed at 60mph, so easy was the driving. I took it off on windy sections where the set speed forced the Promaster into a lower gear and high revs but we were traveling so smoothly Layne spent much of the trip keeping her wounded leg propped up which allowed her to fall into a deep sleep as Rusty and I kept watch. Cora the nurse is keeping an eye on the healing and changes the dressings as needed.
We used the iOverlander app to find places to camp, Cora and Layne would put their heads together and look for dog friendly campgrounds with hot showers and not further apart than five or six Google hours on the map.
The Chileans we met were a cheerful bunch, even the toll takers at the three or four booths we passed ($3 each toll) had a cheery smile and wished us a good trip. A small thing but a pleasant change to surly Peru. And then I met a Peruvian who happened to be filling my tank at one of the rare desert gas stations. It seemed a miserable sand blown job but he was so happy to be out of Peru saying the country was in a deep crisis and nothing works and he was happy as a clam in the dust cold oasis in the Atacama Desert.
I love Chile, don’t get me wrong but the shortage of gas stations along the PanAmerican Highway is startling. We missed the turnoff to a gas station in a village but with 180 miles range showing in the car we pressed on to our destination of La Serena which was a big mistake. We arrived in the bustling beach town on fumes. I can’t understand why there are so few places to get gas and the ones there are have long lines. So far it (and $5:40 a gallon) are the worst thing about Chile.
Antofagasta is an industrial port city not usually in the tourist map, but we have needs hotel visitors don’t think about.
We came looking for groceries and we found a Jumbo supermarket downtown which worked for the Germans in their low slung VW Eurovan. We couldn’t fit in the covered parking lot and street parking was packed do we set our sights on a more suburban Jumbo at the southern end of town.
Usually u plan our supermarket visits by looking for possible parking in Google satellite and street view, though sometimes the street photo are badly out of date. In this case we were in company so we pressed on. A gentle reminder it was to navigate my own ship at all times.
We got the job done eventually and by ten o’clock we were ready for the desert museum which gets lots of reviews online.
The entrance is masterfully understated so naturally with our keen look out we missed it and spent 15 confused minutes circling a vast block to get around back again to find the tiny secret entrance to this major tourist attraction.
We needed coffee after all that and went some bus drivers waiting for their tourists to finish visiting the museum. One was Colombian and was fascinated by our van so he got a tour. He was from Cali so we had a place in common. Chile has a booming economy that attracts migrants.
The museum celebrates the vastness of the Atacama desert and has a huge display on the mining of nitrates the main economic driver of development.
They also celebrate the space exploration conducted in one of the least light polluted places on earth. Night sky observation is also a growing tourist attraction in the desert.
Because total aridity of the Atacama most closely resembles the surface of the Moon and Mars NASA collaborates with the University of Chile to develop and test Moon and Mars rovers like this prototype:
It was encouraging to watch a huge crocodile of youngsters on a field trip to the museum. Future leaders of Chile growing up in a country with opportunity:
History fascinates me and I can’t get over the fact this was 150 years ago part of Bolivia. Arica and Iquique were in Peru and Chile took it all in the War of the Pacific. Which is why the Atacama Departmebtvin Chile is so far south in the Atacama Desert. The northern parts were named after their capture in 1880.
Though we had planned to visit it we had forgotten to set our Google mapping to take us there. In the photo below is more than just desert:
Tourist attraction alert!
It was Thursday lunch time and we were not alone.
We arrived as the ice cream seller got off the bus from his home in Antofagasta and I offered him a ride out to the monument where he proceeded to make some sales to a group of motorcyclists and the coach travelers.
The hand is about two hundred yards off the PanAmerican on a rough bouncy track and how the coach made it without tipping over I’ll never know. I just went very slowly as usual.
So we milled around and took photos in the time honored fashion.
I think after they ship back to Germany in December Cora will get a dog.
Rusty as usual was not hugely impressed and retired to the comfort of his bed in the shade. He needs a lot of water in this climate and at every stop make sure to offer him his bowl.
Wasn’t I surprised to see these Brazilian BMW riders wearing this t-shirt.
They planned the whole ride for a dozen of them to do a vacation circuit from Santa Catarina in Brazil out here and back.
Quite the club ride especially as they didn’t have a lick of Spanish. I’m going to need to learn Portuguese and I think it will be a chore.
Even the meaning of the hand is debatable. Layne found a claim it was funded by the city of Antofagasta but there were no signs to that effect and I figure when a city does something like that they like to take credit for it.
I found a claim that it is a monument to Chile’s dead and disappeared from the Pinochet dictatorship and it stands as a monument to the oppressed. You can look it up for yourself and figure what you like I guess.
I thought the back of the hand was quite expressive but reviews say it is used as a bathroom. We found the whole place to be scrupulously clean.
Onwards to the south and toward the sea.
Definitely a Martian landscape.
Not a leaf a blade of grass or a plant.
It can’t go on forever…
…can it?
