Pedro de Atacama, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama. Tuesday Nov 15th.

We had a tail wind across the Pacific and landed in Santiago an hour after we left Sydney. Sunday afternoon we walked to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. As it was Sunday most shops were closed but plenty of people were out strolling. There are many fine 19thC buildings but far too much graffiti.

The museum has a great collection mostly ceramics but including heaps of very ancient intricately woven textiles.

Three Graces fountain in Santiago.

Some of the mainly Mayan ceramics in the Pre Columbian museum in Santiago.

Monday morning we flew to Calama. Flying along the snow covered peaks of the Andes, which we had not been able to see in Santiago because of the haze/smog. It was then an hour's drive across the desert to San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis town. This hotel is lovely - enormous hollihocks in the gardens and at the bar, everything except Chivas Regal (18 yrs old) and Red Bull is included in the room rate!

Looking out the plane window - between Santiago and Calama.

Hollihocks in the garden of the Tierraatacama hotel.

Our room has a terrace and a view of a volcano (dormant) with an almost perfect cone and some snow, although strangely the snow only fell recently as a result of some very unusual weather conditions.

View from our window at the Tierraatacama.

Last evening we went to the Salt Lakes to see the flamingoes and to watch the sunset. On the way we drove past the site of the new very large radio telescope - an international project with 750 people building it in the middle of nowhere at an altitude of 5000 metres.

We walked around the small village of Toconao and visited the little church. Apparently the Spaniards used to send the faces and hands for the statues of the saints, from Spain and the locals completed the figures. In San Pedro ithere was a statue with articulated arms and legs and the locals could have their photo taken with San Pedro's  arm around them or on his lap, etc. I like the idea of such friendly and homely saints, but apparently someone (an evangelic is suspected) did not and recently burnt the statue.

Small reservoir of fresh water at Toconao which is used to irrigate orchards of apricots, quinces etc.

Cactus wood door in the church in Toconao. This is a very hard dense wood, but  only if you harvest wood from dead cacti.

The Trinity, i.e. Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Flamingoes take off fromthe Salt lake.

A lone flamingo as the hills behind start to colour as the sun sets.

Sunrise from our room.

A burrowing owl.

Today was the Valley of the Moon and Death Valley a strangely eroded landscape devoid of life.

The forbidding landscape of the valley of the Moon.

Rock crystals of Salt

This afternoon we thought we would walk into St Pedro. We got lost (one adobe lined lane looks much the same as another!) However the locals were very helpful and our rudimentary Spanish was sufficient. 

 The church in St Pedro de Atecama

 Statue of the Virgin in St Pedro Church.