Tour to Red Rocks and Lagoons

We were up before dawn this morning for an all day tour to multiple spots of beauty in the Atacama. We reached an altitude of 14,000 feet, which made even our short one -hour walk very slow. "Drink water, go slow, breathe" we heard over and over again. That almost put in my head that I was going to be sick, so I mostly tried to forget the altitude. We were fine, just very pooped tonight. 
Our guide arranged a tasty breakfast spread. No plates, just toppings for our bread, to make a sandwich. And instant coffee!
Lunch was around 3:00. All 19 of us were served a glass food container filled with cold rice, veggies and chicken on one side and a lettuce salad on the other. Who says you can't eat rice cold? It was delicious.  Also what a great way to avoid paper plates.We saw some guanaco and vicuña. They are wild animals with similarities to the domesticated llamas and alpacas here.
Marc was being weird. He said I should caption this "altitude sickness".




Comments

  1. Hope NislyJanuary 14, 2024 at 7:17 AM

    Trips are best when there's one weird one along. You're a pretty hardy "old" couple!
    It's so much fun to tag along on your journey, to find places on the map, to get a better sense of Chile. Thanks for your posts.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Valpo, "The Jewel of the Pacific"

Valparaiso was an important seaport in the late 19th century when Europeans were rushing to San Francisco for gold. Ships sailed around the Straight  of Magellan and restocked in Valpo. Everything changed with the construction of the Panama Canal. But the city is still an important port. We saw lots of shipping containers on our boat ride this afternoon. Valpo is home base for the Chilean Navy. It was fun to see the city from the sea on our short ride. We did a three- hour walking tour today. The city was a magnet for immigrants in the late 1800s and you can see the European influence in architecture,  food, customs, and neighborhoods.  Valparaiso boasts 4 universities, the oldest Spanish newspaper (El Mercurio) and Chile's first public library. Our tour included riding several funiculars (asensor in Spanish). We also walked a lot of stairs. At the top, the views are always amazing. Everywhere there is art. Some is "teen-age graffiti " Sebatian said. But a lot of it is cr...
Read more

Valparaiso

Image
Yesterday was a travel day. I've been amazed at how well the connections have worked. Mauricio took us to the airport in Punta Arenas after breakfast. We flew the 3.5 hours to Santiago. At the airport we figured out how to get a bus into the city to get a different bus to Valpo, our colorful city by the sea. We paid our fare and, with 5 minutes to spare, boarded the fancy bus to Valpo. Two hours later we were here and by 6:30 pm we were ringing the door bell of our B&B, Casa California, in the Cerro Alegre area of the city. We met Jonny, our host who is from California, and his wife Cata (Chilean)  and sweet baby Max. We were very hungry by then. Jonny recommended a place with a view up the hill. The city is built on very steep hills. Everywhere we walk uphill or put on the brakes going downhill. Houses and restaurants appear to built on top of each other with every inch occupied. There are hidden little patios and gardens beh...
Read more

The Language

Image
We thought our diligence with Duolingo Spanish the past 6 months would pay off, but that controlled app environment has not translated into speaking Spanish naturally in Chile! Or maybe it's the Swahili that rushes to our tongues whenever we try to speak anything other than English. We are usually speaking Swa-ish or Span-hili sentences and looking at each to figure out which part is which. It's frustrating, and also laughable. But thank goodness we can understand more Spanish than we can produce, so we get along ok. But there is not much English spoken in Chile. I read that Chile uses the least English of any South American country. Mmmm, our next trips should be easier.😉 On our tours in the desert we mostly couldn't communicate with the others because of language differences.  But we found when we offered our halting Spanish to try and find out about them, the ice broke and they were happy to talk and were very patient. Those who spoke Portuguese, German or Chinese usual...
Read more