February 6:
After the horrible crossing of the Drake Passege we landed in Ushuaia early in the morning, had breakfast and began waiting for the announcement to begin disembarkation. That took longer than anticipated but we were eventually on the bus and were dropped off at the the pick up point for transfer to the airport later in the day. What a differenc ein the weather from the time we departed. When we left it was almost 30 C but this day it was 2.6 with rain and wind. Most unpleasant. I had manyhours to kill so went to the Albatross Hotel where I knew there was a comfortable lobby. Much to my initial delight I discovered that they also had internet connections there. When I finally got connected I discovered almost 9,500 e-mail messages awaiting me. Of course 98% of them were spam but I still had to skim them. Unfortunately the connection was unbearably slow and it took me six hours just to sort through them with no time to consider or reply to the relevant ones. Then it was off to the airport for the flight to Santiago, Chile.
The flight took us through Punta Arenas, Chile where we had to go through Customs and Immigration. It wasn't all that onerous but finding the way around the airport was complicated as signs weren't very helpful. After an hour or so we re-boarded the plan for the flight to Santiago. I was lucky in that the middle seat remained open and the flight went well except that the jerk in my row kept wanting to get out to get his things (I was in the aisle seat) from the overhead bins. Arrived in Santiago and was met by my guide to take me to my hotel for the night. It was a very short night as I got to bed around 11:00 and had to be up at 3:00 to get ready for the trip to the airport at 4:00.
All I ate all day was the snack on the plane (almonds, brownie and cookie)...
February 7:
The flight to Calama, Chile was uneventful and not too full. I had a row to myself so slept some of the way. No breakfast, only the same snack as above.
Arrived in Calama and couldn't see the person who was to meet me for quite a while and was getting concerned when I finally spotted her. She said hello, pointed to a van and disappeared. My luggage went into the van and I waited until eventually the driver was ready to go. The drive took around an hour to cover the 103 kilometres to San Pedro de Atacama. The scenery was stunning in an ugly sort of way. Different landscapes every few minutes. We saw some guanacos (sp?) but my cameras were buried in my backpack so I didn't get any photos (know I missed one really good one).
Arrived at my hotel, Terrantai Lodge, and was somewhat surprised to see that it was all one story of stone buildings and to find that the rooms were very small and lacking in amenities (no tv, no clock, etc.). Once checked in I went to bed for a nap and got up in time for my first excursion into the desert. We visited a small town that wasn't overly interesting to me and then proceeded to an archeological site where they are excating an ancient community. Moderately interesting and the guide provided a good deal of history.
Had a salmon dish for lunch (menu was very limited) that wasn't bad but I had to remove a great deal of the fat before I could eat it. Skipped dinner and went to bed.
February 8:
Two excursions today. The first from 9:00 to 3:00 took us to a couple of lakes high in the mountains (4,200+ meters above sea level). Most interesting was the scenery along the way which changed every few moments. Saw some llamas, a fox, wild donkeys, flamingos and vicunas and lots of tourists. I found it a little difficult to breath easily at that altitude. For lunch (picnic) I just had some cucumber and tomato salad.
The second was to the Valley of the Moon so named becuase it is believed to appear other worldly. I have to agree in many aspects. The landscapes are amazing and I took quite a number of photos as the light changed and we waited for the rest of the group to complete their two hour trek. Following that we headed to another mountain to watch the sunset that really didn't amount to much as the were no clouds and sun just disappeared behind another mountain.
February 9:
Another long day as we left the hotel at 5:00 am heading high into the mountains once again. Our goal this time was to visit some geysers (can't think of the name at them moment and am too tired to look it up). We stopped just outside of town to look at the sky crammed with stars. As we stood and watched Venus rose over the horizon and Mars and Jupiter were also visible. After a horribly rough two hour and fifteen minute ride (I swear that none of the vehicles have any shocks and the roads are never graded) over washboard roads we arrived at the geyser site and disembarked into -8 C weather. It was weird to see the hot geysers with pools of ice covered water beside them. There were a great many tourists there but I got a few decent photos I think. On the way to the hot pools we spotted a herd of vicunas and stopped to photograph them from several angles. Also saw some rabbits with tails like foxes living among the rocks at the base of one of the mountains. Then it was another bone jarring, kidney shattering ride back to town.
I skipped the afternoon excursion because it required a great deal of walking around town. Took advantage of the time to recharge my laptop and work on the photos form the previous days.
Dinner was some very good seafood soup and an excellent seafood risotto with a peanut nougat (which as more like a sorbet) for dessert.
February 10:
My driver got me to the airport in Calama by 9:00 for my 11:10 flight to Santiago. The flight was crowded but fine and we got the usual snack (see above). One beer was free!!!! Unheard of these days. I had been advised that there would not be anyone meeting me at the airport so I had to find my own way into town and to my hotel. It took me a while to get through the gauntlet of rogue taxi drivers and find a company that appeared to be legitimate. As it turned out it was quite reasonably priced and efficient. I checked into the hotel and went to bed for a nap as I was still quite tired.
Went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and had a very good soup and seafood fettucini. Unfortunately I wasn't all that hungry despite only eating the airline snack all day so ended up sending half of my main course back.
Tried to use the free internet dial up connection to check my e-mail but it was SO slow and kept disconnecting so finally gave up on it and went to bed.
February 11:
Up early after a not so good night's sleep. Tried the internet connection again with no better luck.
Met my guide (Claudio) and driver (Jose) for the day's excursion at 9:00. Our first visit was to Maipo Canyon and a town called San Jose. The scenery wasn't all that spectacular so I didn't take many photographs. Claudio talked non stop the entire day and I had to tune out sometimes. We visited the Conha Y Tora winery (the largest in Chile) and I took as much of the tour as my back would allow. I did manage to get to two of the three wine tastings however. One, the white, I didn't like at all and the other, the red, was great. Following the tour I went into the winery store and bought a few things including a bottle of the wine I liked.
The it wa soff to lunch. The restaurant we were supposed to go to didn't have our reservation (and there no other customers) so we went to another. I had some cheese emapanda type appetizers and salmon and mashed potatoes. I ate the salmon, half of the mashed potatoes but not the salad as I was already full. The meal came with a glass of good red wine and I also had what is said by Claudio to be the country's drink (Pisco Sour) which reminded my of Cachasa (sp?) or Cuperina (sp?) from Brazil and South Africa. Very good and very potent.
On arriving back at the hotel I tried the internet again but couldn't tolerate the slowness of the dial up so arranged to use the wireless access which is high speed. As a result I have managed to get all of my photos uploaded and also pretty well caught up on my e-mail.
Tomorrow is more driving tours. I asked to cancel the winery visit because my back problems makes it not worth while.