We’re currently in the beach town of La Serena, north of Santiago, Chile. And we’re practicing “ping-pong” traveling at its best. This is a phrase coined by a friend of mine, to describe what happens when your travel plans change drastically based on factors beyond your control.
Long story short, we’ve spent the last couple weeks spinning our wheels, trying to figure out what to do in the Andes during the month of October with so much snow still in the mountains. Our initial idea was to slowly head south anyways, doing snow hikes and generally killing time until enough snow melts for the trekking season to get underway. We made it to Talca, south of Santiago, where we met Franz – mountaineer, guide, and owner at the beautiful Casa Chueca. With his extensive knowledge of the Andes, he quickly convinced us that our best strategy for October would be to instead head north to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. This is a region I’ve been wanting to visit for many years, but we were thinking that it was just too far to go to this trip. But with Franz’s encouragement we’re beelining it north on buses to spend three weeks in the Atacama.
The rough plan is to rent a 4×4 pickup truck in Antofagasta, stock up on supplies, then head over to the area around San Pedro de Atacama. We’ll spend a week or so around there, mostly camping around high lakes and hiking up small volcanoes. Then we’ll head even more north, to Lauca National Park – more beautiful lakes and volcanoes surrounded by desolate desert landscapes. To get a glimpse of some of the fantastic landscapes we’ll be traveling through during the next three weeks, take a look at Gerhard Hüdepohl’s photography of the Atacama. Stay tuned!
