10. The Last Day in Atacama


Day 154

Christmas is in two days and I don't have a picture for my Christmas card. Every year I make my own Christmas card with some Christmasy motive. I have a pretty good idea what I want for this year, but I was not not able to make it work so far. Finding a Santa hat in the middle of the desert is proving to be a very difficult task. But Mike and Leanne, my kiiwi friends, had one with them. So I took them to the Lagunas where I've been yesterday with Terry, just to take some shots for my Christmas cards. We had great time taking Santa pictures. I think they came out quite well.

Christmas was really a non-event this year. It is hard to get into a Christmas spirit in the middle of the desert. The town was full of people, many tourists from Brazil. There are lots of BMW's with Brazilian license plates around. It's a good sign, as I plan to go to Brazil later on my way north. 

They celebrate Christmas in Chile on New Year's Eve, just like in Europe. There was almost nobody on the streets, and most of the restaurants were closed. But we managed to find a nice one and had a great dinner with Leanne, Mike and Terry.

I have one more day in San Pedro and I have no idea where I'm going from here when I leave. The tires on my bike are getting at the end of their lives and I have to make some decisions. I can go through Chile south to Patagonia and change my tires over there. But that would be pretty boring and I would miss the top part of Andes with all those beautiful mountain passes and valleys. Another option is to go to Argentina but stayed mostly on pavement and nurse my way to the top of Patagonia. The thing is, I don't want to be riding around worrying if my tires will make it. I want to go full on and take head on whatever comes my way. I know there is a BMW dealer in Antofagasta on the coast. That would mean to go to Antofagasta, change, tires, change oil and filters and check my bike and come back to some Pedro and then over to Argentina. A short 700 km detour. But I don't even know if they have any tires for my bike in Antofagasta or any spare parts either. Luckily Terry leaves San Pedro for Antofagasta one day ahead of me. He rides on BMW as well and he needs to have some maintenance done there as well. So I will have my own personal scout and he will send me a message when he's on the coast.

But I have one more day here in San Pedro. I have seen everything there is to see around here and I have one more spot I want to see. It is the Vale de Luna, which is the Moon Valley. So the last day over here I got up early and went over there. I arrived at the gate of the park before they opened. There is a dirt road which goes through the valley, and it is about 12 km long. There are a bunch of parking spots where you leave your vehicle and go for a short hike to several viewpoints along. There are hiking trails very clearly marked and you have to stay on them. No adventuring or exploring is allowed over here. I was the first one over there so I had nobody around me. The whole valley was very nice and bizarre. Again, you don't even feel like you are on the planet Earth. But I found a living creature over there! A tiny little lizard about 3 cm long. It was hard to spot in the sand. It was very well camouflaged. And it was very very fast. Had to ran around for a bit, trying to take a picture of it. Other than that, it was nice valley, but the Magic Bus valley I've been a few days before was the same with nobody around and with free access. Anyway, I spent a few hours over there and was time to get home and start packing.

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning, but I still don't know which way I'm going. The Plan A is to go westbound to Antofagasta on the coast, the Plan B is to eastbound to Argentina. I have changed my mind about 10 times in the afternoon, but I was really waiting for the report from Terry who left that morning for the Coast. Terry was great, he sent me a message as soon as he got to Antofagasta. The first message said that BMW dealership has nothing there. No engine oil, no engine engine filter, no tires. He felt like they don't even want him to be there. But he was going to another shop and he will send me another message. Few hours later I got a message that in the other shop, they have everything which is not available at BMW dealer. They even have a great selection of brad name quality tires to choose from. That was great news and the decision was made to ride to the coast tomorrow. I booked a nice hotel on the beach. I'm hoping to make a nice relaxing two days on the coast out of it.

I packed my bags, cleaned my bike a little bit and went for one last dinner with Mike and Leanne. They are staying in San Pedro until the new year and then they will continue through Chile to Santiago. They will end their adventure there, pack their bike and ship it home to New Zealand. They will fly themselves to Los Angeles and then to Auckland in New Zealand.

My time in Atacama desert has come to an end. I spent almost 3 weeks over here and it was fantastic. It was nice to leave all my gear and bags behind and do only day trips. I've seen some gorgeous places and have many photos. I managed to take some great Milky Way photographs. Unfortunately, it was coming to a full moon at the end of my stay in my desert. Otherwise I would have way more pictures of the stars. But I am very happy with what I have so far anyway. It is time to leave as the low humidity and dust and sand is getting to me. My throat and nose is getting very sore, it is hard to even talk and I start to cough constantly. I have no idea how people can live in these conditions over here. I'm leaving for the coast tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to cooler temperatures and a nice humid Pacific air. The Atacama stop on my trip was a must stop and I was very much looking forward to it. I must say I've got out of it as much as I could have. I can check it off as “done” on my bucket list and I have great memories and thousands of pictures.

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11. The Maintenance Day on The Coast

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9. Swimming in The Desert