Their flight was cancelled out of Dallas due to mechanical problems, resulting in them leaving 12 hours later. Larry and I couldn't help but wonder why this never happens to us when we are returning to Chile? They arrived in Santiago that night but had missed their flight to Calama. After moving through immigration and customs and then arranging for their flight out the following morning at 4:55 a.m., it was around 11 p.m. so they decided to just hang out in the airport. They arrived in Calama at 7 a.m. the following morning with smiles on their faces and just happy to have arrived at their destination.
Larry was able to get away from work early that evening so collected us and took us out of town to watch an Andes sunset while sippping a Chilean malbec.
The following morning, Larry headed off to work and we headed for downtown Calama.
We returned to the house after a full day to sit on the back porch and sip some Chilean red.
On Wednesday of their arrival week, we arranged for a taxi to take us to the village of Chiu Chiu (featured in a earlier post probably in 2009?). The taxi driver showed us the conflux of the El Rio Salado (on the right in this picture) and El Rio Loa. Hard to imagine El Rio Loa having the ability to provide hydroelectric power eh?!
*El Rio Loa is the longest river in Chile, it rises in the Andes at the base of Miño Volcano, near the Bolivian border, and flows southwest through the mountains, emerging at the oasis of Calama; it then veers westward and northward across the Atacama Desert. About 45 miles (70 km) north of Tocopilla it turns westward again, crosses the coastal mountain range, and empties into the Pacific Ocean after a course of 275 miles (about 440 km). Before it receives the runoff of the Saládo River, its waters irrigate Calama and other oases, provide drinking water, and are used to generate hydroelectric power for nearby copper and nitrate mines. I pulled this information from the Britannica Encylopedia.)
Former priests of this church in Chiu Chiu are buried here.
After visiting inside the church where Sue had me take pictures of the statues of Jesus dressed in a skirt (all of which were blurry), we then headed to the Pukara de Lasana (featured in our Flat Stanley post in 2009?) a pre-Inca fortress.
We returned home to once again sit on the patio and sip on Chilean wine.
The following day, Larry had meetings in town so we had access to his truck and headed for La Laguna Chaxa where we would see flamingos, and then we back-tracked to San Pedro de Atacama allowing Sue some shopping time as well as lunch (empanadas), and then we headed for La Valle de la Luna (The Valley of the Moon or Moon Valley?) We returned to Calama in time for Julie (from Copiapo) to stop by. She had returned to Calama for a visit, and stopped by for a Pisco and to meet Mike and Sue. We ended the day packing for our trip the following morning for Los Geisers del Tatio and then onto Salta, Argentina.
The following morning, we headed out for the Geisers at 5:30 a.m. for the two hour trip to arrive before dawn to experience the best effects of the steam plumes. We're thankful to Mike and Sue for coming this way which allowed us a reason to see the Geisers again -- as Sue said, it was magical.
We then headed for immigration in San Pedro de Atacama allowing us to cross into Argentina. Below is a photo of Mike abd Sue at the highest elevation we reach while making this trip to Salta.
The trip to Salta across the Andes provides for all types of scenery. This is one of the two salt flats we crossed.
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We couldn't help making Larry and Mike stand by the small cars we came upon.
Much of our time in Salta was spent sitting at street-side tables enjoying wine, beer, and food.
Our Salta hotel.
After a relaxing two days in Salta, we reversed the trip returning to Calama. The following morning, Mike and Sue said good-bye to Calama and we all boarded a plane -- destination: Santiago. We rented a car and headed south for the Colchagua Valley wine region for a one night stay. Fall (in April!) in the wine region was beautiful as were the many fruit stands we came upon enroute to Santa Cruz.
Following a stop at the Montes and MontGras wineries, we headed for our hotel where we were greeted with a complimentary bottle of wine which we enjoyed on the porch this beautiful late afternoon fall day.
We woke the folowing morning to fog as we began our journey south on Ruta 5 Sur -- destination: Pucon/Villarrica. We encountered rain for probably half of the trip.
Upon arrival to our cabin, we headed into Pucon for dinner. I'll have to get a copy of Sue's pictures because you have to see the steaks the guys had to believe how big they were. The following morning, we woke to clear skies allowing us to enjoy a great hike with beautiful vistas.
We came upon this fellow and his girls along the trail. He looked big enough to eat us.....
We returned to Pucon for some shopping while the fellows enjoyed a brew at a street-side table and then we headed up to the Villarrica Volcano for a sunset view.
The Villarrica Volcano is an active volcano and a ski area --- hmmmmm. That is steam coming from the volcano. We were told we should only worry if the color turns from white to black -- hmmmmm.
We had to leave the following morning for our return journey to Santiago (minus the lay-over in Santa Cruz) but had to capture the setting of where we stayed before we left for future reference.
So, we returned to Santiago and the following morning we took Mike and Sue, via the Metro, to downtown, historic Santiago.
And then, it was time to deliver them to the airport for their return trip to the U.S. They were great visitors in that they never complained about the long hours required to travel to the destinations we chose (perhaps because there was always wine at the end of the road?) We're glad they enjoyed the experience and we enjoyed being able to share what we know of Chile (as well as some new experiences for us) with them.
I had to hurry this blog as we are leaving only six days afer having ended this trip with Mike and Sue. We head for the U.S. Our first trip back since August! We're ready for a U.S. fix. We'll be back for three weeks. During that time, we'll be traveling to the Grand Canyon for the guys annual rim-to-rim-to-rim hike. We return to Calama on May 29 -- until then....
