Thursday, April 21, 2011

What a scenic week


There are some instances you recall that really make you laugh. Taking the picture above is one of those instances!


Ewa asked me to please stop when I found a tree! Believe me that was a pretty big ask as we had hardly seen a tree for the last 10 days. However, after about an hour or so of driving and not a tree to be seen  we came across the Salar de Pintados pan which had long since dried up, but it had a couple of trees which I saw from about 20 km away, pleasing Ewa no end.


I stopped at the first tree, seen in the distance of the photograph below and kept nookie for Ewa while she communicated with nature! We climbed back onto the bike and then I looked at my speedometer and saw that we had travelled for 200km. This is a most significant numberfor us, as if we have to cover some distance I drive for 200km then stop and have a break and a cup of coffee. So 200 km marked the next tree where we disembarked for the ceremonial cup of coffee and ham roll. Our luck was in as not only was the next tree nice and shady, but underneath the tree was a 6 * 4 sheet of plywood for us to sit on, no doubt blown off a passing truck! We were so happy that I thought the occasion deserved a photograph, the only problem being my tripod was packed away and I was in no mood to start unpacking the bike at that particular venue. An alternative method of support for the camera was needed. I hung the camera by its strap from a conveniently placed branch. Now that may sound like a fine idea, but there are factors that impact on such a method of support; the wind, and the fact that the button needs to be pressed thus causing said camera to sway! The first shot missed completely and got a blurred shot of the road and sky. We fell about laughing so much that we fell off the plywood. An adjustment to the support system was made by adding a string so that a tripod form of suspension was created, the two straps and a piece of string. This looked like a plan with a chance. I pushed the button for the 10 second timer and ran around to embrace my wife.9..8..7..6..5..4..3..a bloody great truck whizzed by and shook us, the tree, and played havock with the piece of string. By now the tears were falling on the cracked ground we were laughing so much! The camera was set up for the third time, I checked the horizon for trucks, pushed the button and ran to accompany my wife.................I don't know what button I pushed but after 10 seconds the camera just started shooting one shot after the other! The shot above is one of the ten shots! Just writing this brings tears to my eyes!
First and second tree
Ewa painting her fingernails!
Chile is divided up into 16 zones with zone 1 in the North. Zones 1,2,3 are where most of the mining takes place. This is not surprising really as the various minerals almost burst out of the ground. This leads to spectacular and extraordinary scenery. I have tried to describe some of the things we have seen, but the last week has almost been indescribable and it is impossible to keep photographing everything before us. I thought therefore I would post some  pictures and give the background to the picture.

The above picture is Ewa painting her finger nails! Actually, we left San Pedro on a perfect day and as we left the dust of the Chuquicamata Mine we drove West to the coast to meet up with the Pan American Highway before heading due North to Pozo Almonte. It is an almost dead straight road that drops down to lower altitude between eight power lines, four on either side of the road. It certainly brought home the reallity of the electrical requirements of a mine in a country where 80% of the power generation is consumed by the mines.

Once we had hit the PAM the HGV traffic diminished, along with almost all vegetation and people. 


The landscape has very little vegetation but it certainly does not lack variety and colour. At one stage we passed a dead flat area covered with small mounds which I thought were  the work of ants. Upon inspection they were rocks and certainly not formed by ants. These mounds turned into an undulating surface. The problem with the picture is it does not give the scale. It went on for mile upon mile.


We travelled for miles with these amazing colours all around us before the road started dropping towards the coast and Antafagasta.


As you can see there the scenery is pretty void of greenery.........












The river disappeared only to reveal the Geoglyphs. Geoglyphs are patterns made on the mountains with stone. Usually geometeric patterns especially of humans. The are estimated to have been made around the time of Christ.


The truck battling up the pass gives some scale to the Geoglyphs. As you go down the valley you can look across at the other side of the valley and see the undulations in the sand that have covered over other Geoglyphs. They are slowly uncovering these monuments, but one can only imagine what the valley looked like 2000 years ago!

You have got to give it to CocaCola, they don't miss a trick! This is a modern Geoglyph on a mountain side 20 km outside Antafagasta!


The road in question is quite astounding, not only for the skilled engineering in building it, as it drops down to sea-level over a distance of 80 odd kilometres, but for the mindboggling array of geological forms and colours.
If I had Photoshop on my computer I would have chopped of the bottom of the picture below. Please don't scroll down so far that the bottom of this picture is seen, then stare at what you see! You almost loose perspective and all you see is a haze of colours! Well that is how I felt as these massive sides to the valley rose up on either side of the road. It is quite disorientating.


You hit Antafagasta on the coast, then climb up the valley on the other side!


What can you say? These are colours and views on a grand scale occasionally punctuated by small mines that burrow themselves into the mountainside. Would you drive a truck up there, or enter the little holes to earn your daily bread?




I was following my GPS which lead us onto this gravel road
We topped out of the valley and my GPS lead us on to this very good gravel road. My map showed that the road was asphalt all the way to Putre, so I was a little peturbed by the road surface and the fact that after 8km we had not passed any vehicles which was not the case when we entered the pass!


I asked the navigator to please check her maps. The picture shows her trying to find them! I was all for going on as the map showed that we were travelling along the high road that eventually met up with the road we should have been on in about 26 km. The Navigator suggested we should retrace our steps as in her experience, dirt roads only got worse, and she was sure the other road would be very scenic!


How right Ewa was! Had we continued on the dirt we would have got to the end of 26km and gazed at a wonderful tarred road 40m below us and a donga as wide as the Grand Canyon separating us and the road! Well done Ewa!


She was doubly right, the right road was as spectacular as the previous pass. If you look at the bottom half of the picture you will see a the thin thread of the road dropping into the green fields below.........how are the colours on the mountain?


What can I say? Ewa's view of the road ahead!


As we got out of the pass things started to change. If you look at the mountains in the picture, you will see a a faint tinge of green............




















.......................................then candelabra cacti! Look closely!




..............................another pass as we climb up to 3500m and look down on Quillagua and Inca terraces......


 the vegetation is not unlike the Cape fynbos..........
..........................looking down on Putre, a hot shower, decent meal and a good night's rest at the end of a days travel. What a day.


Putre is a very pretty village at the base of the 6350m Payachata Volcano. We decided to stay for two day to acclimatise to the altitude and make sure that we were not caught with altitude sickness in the back of beyond, in the wilds of Bolivia.
Hostel Cali was great. We had a very clean, quiet en-suite room in the middle of the village at a very reasonable price! Just what we needed. 


Ewa was very pleased to join the locals on Palm Sunday at the little church, where the doors were opened to the worthy parishoners and their pets! It was an informal affair marked by the holding of an olive branch, which  proved useful in shooing away aggressive Llama's!


Re-charged with energy we drove the 80km to the Bolivian border. Thank goodness we were not in a car or worse still a truck. This road is one of the main arterials for moving goods from the Chillian ports to landlocked Bolivia. There is a special Border Post for trucks. Luckily the Border official at the Chillean post of Chungara waved us passed the the two trucks ahead of us and told us to do all our business at the Bolivian town Tambo Qumado. Had we been in a truck moving from Bolivia to Chile, we would have had to join a 4km queue of trucks. Why this was so I do not know, but at a political level there are many talks going on as the Bolivians try to get access to the sea. This has caused political friction and may have resulted in a go-slow at the border. Whatever the cause of this massive line of trucks I for one was certainly please to be on a motorbike going in the opposite direction!


The border crossing was uneventful, but the scenery before and after was quite magnificent..........
 ..........there is a National Park before the Chillian Border where we could have camped for free and minus 2 degrees. The stars would have been spectacular and the scenery astounding, but I am sure Ewa would have complained about my cold toes, and the ice on the lake!................
 ....the start of vegetation and really unusual scenery..............
 .......and lots of Llamas which look so quizical with the ears up and little heads that are too small for their bodies as do the smaller Pequeno...................................


 I was not prepared for La Paz. We had a n uneventful drive through fairly uninhabited countryside...........


 ...........then we came to La Paz. Over the past three weeks we have been in rather sparse surroundings. The drive through the outskirts of La Paz give you absolutely no clue as to what to expect as you drive to the lip of the valley. This is what you see below you.......................astounding........................ 
We arrived at rush hour and scrambled our way through the markets and car part stalls, clothes stalls, fruit sellers, tinkers and tailors and masses of people at the top of the valley. Taxis everywhere. The road then dropped from the point where this photograph was taken, almost vertically to the Centre of La Paz!


If I thought it was busy at the top, I was in for a surprise at the bottom........................ 

 
 .........................cars, buses, people, taxis, market stalls all overflowing into the street as the pavements are choc-a-block with stalls selling every imaginable article..........................turn into Illampu and go down to Plaza San Pedro says the Navigator.......No problem says I with not a trace of sarcasm!


WE FOUND the Plaza! as well as Mathias and Tanja on their Africa Twin which they had shipped out from Hamburg!


The purpose of stopping in San Pedro Plaza was to see if we could get lodgings that Lonely Planet said could accommodate motorcycles. 


We were out of luck both Hostels were full. We had another lead, the Continental Hotel. It was back where we had come from, so I lead the way with M & T following...........the blind leading the blind! Luckily I took a wrong turning which took us down a side street and the Savoy Hotel! You can imagine the look and words I got when I stopped and asked Ewa to see if they had a vacancy as well as a place to store the bikes! She came back with a smile on her face that almost cracked the helmet! En-suite double breakfast included and a garage for the bike for R200!! We have been here for three days!


On site parking
Taxis, people, stalls
.........interesting old architecture
How do they keep their Bowlers on?
Enterprising people
1967 Olympic stadium
Olympic Village
Quaint Streets
Historic Walkways
Mother-in-laws

We like La Paz, it is colouful alive and cheap. Ewa's spectacle frames broke. The ones that cost R7000 just before we left SA. I fixed them but they didn't look great. We arrived at the Savoy at about 5.30 pm. Looking out the hotel window I saw a sign that said OPTICA. I suggested to Ewa that maybe they could fix her glasses! Two hours later she had brand new Titanium frames with her original lenses at a price of R100 which included R10 for labour. She was left carrying the baby on collection with a proud father looking on below!....just practising being a Granny!!

Health and Safety would not be pleased with this arrangement. In the evening the streets are a real buz and bursting with really colourful goods, all lit up with lights which plug in to this array of plugs!

Pumpkin?
Three course meal for R8?
If its got to be moved ask you wife!
Dentist while you fill up?
We are off into the countryside for Easter at the invitation of Cristian and Luisa who will be described in my next Blog! If I don't get this off now, it will never end! Happy Easter to you all!