Amazing Atacama

After the small town of Pisco Elqui, we then moved onto Copiapó. A similar town to La Serena, but one which was based on mining, so was a bit more industrial too. It wasn’t the main reason for stopping here, except for it being on the main route northwards for the very efficient Chilean buses.

We came for two reasons. the first was to visit the rather cute Bahia Inglesa. “English Beach” was about an hour away, and was home to more pelicans and a rather lovely beach. It was warm enough to sit outside, and some brave souls did swim in the rather cool sea dominated by the Humboldt current. The rather strange name was as a result of the English pirates who landed here while plundering the Spanish ships laden with silver and gold.

Our second reason to visit was the Atacama Desert itself. We had a very long day, travelling around two hundred miles up to the Argentine border. We reached 4,924 metres above sea level and saw just one other vehicle in eleven hours.

Roberto our guide took us to some amazing places. We stopped a few times at regular intervals to acclimatise. At one point we visited Signor Juan and his wife who were farming sheep and goats in an oasis in the middle of a barren valley. The house was made of stone with corrugated iron, and the animals were extremely well looked after.

We then stopped at Santa Rosa, a lake high up on the Chilean Altiplano (“High Plains”), where we saw a member of the llama family, a guanaca, grazing beside the lake. There was a refuge run by Alvarez, who lives there for ten days at a time, but who hadn’t seen anybody else for four or five days.

Perhaps the highlight was Laguna Verde. This was the furthest and highest point. A lake which was emerald green and surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. In this part of the world, it is sunny most days of the year, so we were treated to fabulous blue skies too; although the altitude made it pretty cold too.

We saw so many things that day, from animals to lakes, and volcanoes to river oases. It was truly fabulous and one of the most remote places we have been to. Roberto dropped us off at our Airbnb, where we had a quick shower before heading to the bus station to catch an overnight bus further into the Atacama. It truly is the “Amazing Atacama”.