Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

Returning from the UK at the end of May we spent the first few weeks at MAN in Santiago getting a few issues fixed for Big Bertha. Whist there, we were invited to an asado by Mauricio and Patricia whom we met at Puerto Tranquiol earlier in the year. We had a lovely meal with the family.

Leaving our friends at MAN Santiago we travelled east to the Chilean coast and then went north following the coastline.  The weather was overcast and the route not that spectacular.  At Angostura we headed inland towards Ovalle on Route D55.  This route took us through a series of beautiful valleys. 

From Ovalle we hoped to head towards the small town of Hurtado and then cross the mountains on the D445 to Vicuna. However, on reaching Hurtado, we discovered that the Gendarmerie had closed the road because of flood damage. We turned around and retraced our footsteps and found another scenic road to Vicuna and the Elqui Valley that lay beyond. Big Bertha celebrated her 300,000km birthday on this road.

The Elqui Valley is home to a famous Chilean Spirit, Pisco and while there we visited a Pisco distillery. 

We next visited the Gemini Observatory on the way back to the coastal town of La Serena and then the El Silla Observatory north of La Serena.

Heading north along the coast we visited the dinosaur fossil park at Bahia Inglesa and the leopard rocks at Rodillo, camping there overnight.

The next day we went inland, into the desert, to visit the San Jose mine.  This was the scene of the famous rescue of 33 Chilean miners that were trapped 700m underground by a rock fall for 69 days in 2010.  Reading about what happened; it was nothing short of a miracle that they got out.

Back on the coast we stayed for a few days in the Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar and hiked (43 km) some of the walking routes there. 

The next stop was the fishing town of Taltal where we fuelled and watered up before continuing north along the very scenic coast road. 

We then cut inland to visit The Mano del Desierto – a must stop for overlanders.  The other hand sits in Uruguay and the pair together embrace South America.

After visiting an old railway shed at Baquendan, we bypassed Chile’s second largest town of Antofagasta and headed straight for Calama – a town with a bad overlander reputation for theft and robberies. We were very careful and did not leave Big Bertha alone while one of us shopped. 

From Calama we started our climb into the high Atacama desert, visiting the cute town of Chiu Chiu before ascending to the Tatio Geysers, then descending into San Pedro de Atacama – a hippy backpacker town focussed on tourism.