Nationalpark "Lauca" - last days in Chile

The last 4 days we spent in the national park "Lauca" which lies in the very north of Chile near the bolivian and the peruvian border in the altitude of 4.600m. This fact kept us out of breath all the time :-) We slept in "Putre" which lies at "relaxing" 3.600m and drove up to the nationalpark each day by car.
The scenery was really stunning: one vulcano next to the other, all of about 6.100m hight and more. The park is already part of the "Altiplano" which stretches into Peru and Bolivia. For european people it seems incredible that in an altitude of about 4.600m the is "a plain"! There are pastures, grazing llamas, lakes, streets, small villages, higher mountains around ... and the air is very thin and its very cold :-) !
Yesterday we ascended the "Cerro Guane Guane" which is 5.097m high and we are proud of it, because although we departed from "only" 4.600m it was still a struggle to climb the remaining 497m where there was not even a proper way but instead we had to find the best way for ourselves. The park ranger we asked the day before for an existing map or the way, looked at us in amazement and said "Just go up!" ...o.k....hm...and so we did! And were rewarded with the most wonderful panorama and an incredible strong headache from the hight afterwards :-) ...
But it was worth it!
Just look at the pictures and you will agree!

We miss you! How are you all?? Write us! What`s new at home?
Kisses, Renate

Geysiers "El Tatio"

Before we continued our journey to Arica we did another day trip to the "Geysiers "El Tatio""which lie in about 4.300 m altitude in the Atacama desert. The steaming geysiers can only be fully apreciated very early in the morning just before the sunrise and some time after the sun has come out (7:00 a.m.) because then the sun gets too strong and the steam evaporates more quickly and the "show is over".
Since the geysiers are 150 km away from the city (120km of that on dirt roads) we had to get up at 4 a.m. :-( and try to find our way with our rented car in the middle of the dark.
We were a bit worried since most people we asked beforehand in town did not know there was a direct way to the geysiers at all; we ourselves had 3 maps which showed 3 different versions of the area.. more or less detailed and/or reliable....
That we made it in time was thanks to a guy we met in a very small town called "Chiu Chiu" at 5 a.m who was probably going home after a long night in a bar :-) . nonetheless he could point out the direction we had to take - more or less clearly :-) ... and we had some luck in choosing at several crossroads ... but it was a hard race against time and the sun beginning to rise ... (Remark Renate: guess we chose the wrong type of tire...damn mechanics; we should have hired those from the Ferrari team...but who listens to a woman in matters of cars!)

The geysiers where very impressive and at about 9:00 all the tourist buses left and we had them all for us. We took a bath in one of the hot pools of the geysiers with a scenic panorama and after changing into a bikini at about 0 C (brrr..) the water was nice and warm (ca. 38 C) and the nearer you got to the geysiers emitting the hot water the warmer it got till you reached the point where it got "bloddy hot" (85 C) as an american said :-)

Who can say of himself that he took a warm termal bath in 4.300 m altitude with the most wonderful background? We can, we can :-) !!!

Best regards to all of you! Renate & Mirko

Copper and stones - Atacama desert

Hallo,

Here some facts about the country "Chile" - so that you at least learn something when doing private things during working hours ;-):
Copper is the main export article of Chile and in the last days we could witness this. We visited two mines of copper: the largest underground mine of the world and the largest surface mining of the world ...both in Chile extracting copper in high quantities 24 hous a day, 365 days a year. Uff! Both were very impressive because they are really, really big - both in depth (ca. 2400km of tunnels) as in broadening (about 900m deep and 4km wide). Both have in commen that they are in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and/or in the desert where you can only find stones and no water, and thus no living creature or plant anywhere in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Near both mines there are two villages which have been abandoned resp. "moved" further away when the pollution of the air and land became a) to big (what they say) or b) always was so high and unhealthy but could only finally be measured in recent years with modern equipment (that's what I think). The villages remained more or less as they are but only without life... which resulted in an eerie athmosphere when walking through streets along empty stores, closed restaurants, empty living quaters and houses etc...the only thing missing was the rolling bush know from "western" and "Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod" in the background :-).

We also made daytrips directly into the driest desert of the word (where one of the mines is located): the Atacama desert. We rented a car to drive around and I really didn´t want to have a flat tyre or an empty fuel-tank in the middle of nowhere in the heart of the desert - alone! During the day the sun is really strong and its hot but as soon as the sun sets it is becoming freezing cold...and Renate ("Ha, who needs suncream?!") immediately caught a sunstroke :-). But the landscape was great!

The day after tomorrow we will continue our way northbound to "Arica" to spend a few days within a national park there. There should be more green there :-) ...

Regards and Kisses, Renate & Mirko

PS: there are new pictures of Easter Islands and the Mines ... :-)

Isla de Pascua - Easter Island - Osterinsel

Renate and Mirko halfway through their journey on the Easter Island!

Not too early and not too late we had some very quiet and relaxing time on the easter island, before we start with the second half of our journey... and we have a busy time-table and thousands of plans....

Although the weather was not too good and our time lying at the beach sunbathing reduced itself to about 73 minutes, there were other things to enjoy here: green landscape, scenic vulcano craters and last but not least the "moai" - the standing and lying stone men/-sculptures on the island.

But I would like to correct some of the prejudices and images one has from the easter islands when being in Europe (at home):

things that came to our mind when hearing "easter islands":

- sun, heat, beaches, flowers, cocktails, stone-men, short trousers and hawaii-shirts, caribian music and well formed male bodies surfing on the waves of the sea, beautiful sundowns, good and cheap fish to eat , bikini

ok and now what we can confirm and what comes to our minds now when hearing "easter islands":

-unsteady weater (which means: clouds, rainfall like the world will end now, wind and sun), winter clothes, rain in the face riding a motorbike, marvelling at the scenery on top of vulanic crater, smelling the unbelievable scent of colorful flowers opening their gigantic blossoms after the rain, hiding unter trees from the rain which caught us - again unawares -, Mirkos first open water dives in the sea, wonderful tasty fruit juices made by friendly local women, soaked clothes which dry in about 15 minutes after the rain in the strong wind, reading a book in bed while it rains outside, putting on jackes (because of the cold), putting of jackets (because of the heat) and putting on jackets again (because of the rain) within the time frame of 5 minutes, sitting on the back of pick-up-jeep happy to be taken back to the city by locals instead of walking, sitting in front of gigantic moais waiting for the sun to set and contemplating about what has happened here in former times ....

a bit different from what we have expected... but a nice, wonderful island with a great athmosphere and very friendly people and wonderful nature and culture.... in one word.. we enjoyed it very much!

Kisses, Renate & Mirko