When I got to the little boarder town it was 6pm, cloudy, and the wind was blowing a bit of a gale... It was a very small town too, and I was glad that there was a Hospedaje where I could get a room...
I didnt fancy the idea of having to deal with boarder formalities and then having to ride another two or three hours in the dark to the first decent sized town in Chile etc.
So, I spent the night there.
And I was glad I did because the next morning I got to see the area in reasonable light (and without the wind too), and I have to say that it is quite spectacular!
There are beautiful snow capped volcanoes that reach into the sky to 6500m. There are green plains dotted with llamas and alpacas. There are little heards of wild vicunas here and there. There are lakes with ducks and coots and flamingos... and reflections of the mountains etc... Just beautiful :))
I even got to see the Americas version of Africa's Ostrich or Australia's Emu or Casawori, or New Zealand's Moa... The Nandu (largish, long legged, long necked flightless bird).
If you are ever in the area then I thoroughly recommend taking the road from LaPaz to Arica...
After the beautiful high country, it was down to the northern Chilean coast at Arica... Within about 30K of crossing the boarder though, the country changed very rappidly to the super-dry coastal desert. Again, I dropped thousands of metres in the space of an hour or two.
They sure know how to do "desert" here... Not a tree or shrub, or blade of grass anywhere!
Just vast flat plains and huge dry valleys of nothing but sand and rock... But its still beautifull!
The valley sides are the subtlest of blends and mixes of colours. From the standard earth tones of creams and browns and greys to rich oranges and yellows and reds and even olivine greens and gun-metal blues or dark purples... A painters palet writ large... Really large!
The valleys are over 1000m deep and the walls are usually a single uninterrupted slop from crest to base.
There are about four of these huge valleys in a row along the coast here in northern Chile. The main highway runs North-South (as does the country!), and when the highway comes to one of these valleys, it just dose a sharp turn inland at the top edge and then goes for more than 20Km in a smooth steady descent (constant 5% grade) of the valley wall. Then it crosses the valley at the bottom (a Km or two) and starts the long 1200m climb up the other side of the valley heading back to the coast.
They have a name for these crossings... They call them "Cuestas" with the name of the river at the bottom following... It means "cost"... Seems reasonable :)
Made it to the coastal city of IquIque...
Quite a site on arriving... A densly built city right on the coast of a super arid brown desert and hemmed in by MASSIVE coastal dunes.
And the thing I liked about it most is that it has a huge paragliding launch area at the top of the ridge above the city... Apparently the weather here is such that you can fly every day of the year on the coastal breezes... But never in the afternoons because the winds get way to strong... That makes sense too - Equatorial, high ridge, supper arid desert... Makes for an extremely strong sea breeze every day.
They sure know how to do "desert" here... Not a tree or shrub, or blade of grass anywhere!
Just vast flat plains and huge dry valleys of nothing but sand and rock... But its still beautifull!
The valley sides are the subtlest of blends and mixes of colours. From the standard earth tones of creams and browns and greys to rich oranges and yellows and reds and even olivine greens and gun-metal blues or dark purples... A painters palet writ large... Really large!
The valleys are over 1000m deep and the walls are usually a single uninterrupted slop from crest to base.
There are about four of these huge valleys in a row along the coast here in northern Chile. The main highway runs North-South (as does the country!), and when the highway comes to one of these valleys, it just dose a sharp turn inland at the top edge and then goes for more than 20Km in a smooth steady descent (constant 5% grade) of the valley wall. Then it crosses the valley at the bottom (a Km or two) and starts the long 1200m climb up the other side of the valley heading back to the coast.
They have a name for these crossings... They call them "Cuestas" with the name of the river at the bottom following... It means "cost"... Seems reasonable :)
Made it to the coastal city of IquIque...
Quite a site on arriving... A densly built city right on the coast of a super arid brown desert and hemmed in by MASSIVE coastal dunes.
And the thing I liked about it most is that it has a huge paragliding launch area at the top of the ridge above the city... Apparently the weather here is such that you can fly every day of the year on the coastal breezes... But never in the afternoons because the winds get way to strong... That makes sense too - Equatorial, high ridge, supper arid desert... Makes for an extremely strong sea breeze every day.
