Doing it “our way”

Now although we quite enjoyed Chile so far (nice people, very beatiful landscapes and good buses :-) ) we had a little bit of a deception when we got to San Pedro de Atacama in the north. We already had a small feeling that this place was going to be very touristy, but we didn’t expect it to be a “circus-town” with more travel-agencies and fancy, too expensive restaurants than actual people living there. But we tried not to get the mass-tourism-virus take us down, ignored the tour operators jumping on us everytime we went out for a walk and rented a car to do some tours on our own. Definitely not the most economic solution (glups!) but for sure the best one for our mental state. Have a look at our picture story below. :-)

On the first day of our private trip, we visit the Altiplano Lakes. Very beautiful Alpine lakes at 4200 meters of altitude, calmly reflecting themselves in the lake just in front of them, acting like a perfect mirror. There is not a living soul around and we really enjoy the silence. We are even lucky enough to see some vicuñas grazing nearby. :-)

Beautiful Miscanti Lake Vicuña

On our way back we visit the Chaxa lake, home to 3 different types of flamingoes. It is here that we watch the sunset in a 2-dimensional vision: not only in the sky but also reflected in the lake. :-)

Sunset reflection Flamingos at sunset

On day two we visit the Moon Valley in the morning (all tour operators go there in the evening for sunset, we decided to go there just after sunrise which made we had the site all to ourselves…)…

Welcome to the moon! Walking on the edge

….and different lagunas in the afternoon in which we amuse ourselves: swimming around and trying to be faster than our reflection (we never managed… ;-) ).

Perfect reflection Jump twice! ;-)

Finally on day 3 we got up very early in the morning, to visit the El Tatio geothermal field.

Early morning at the Tatio Geysirs Fumerolles and more...

On our way back to San Pedro de Atacama via a lesser-used northern route, we visit some old villages and the oldest church of Chile in Chiu Chiu.

The oldest church of Chile, Chiu Chiu Door made of bamboo

And so 3 great days end! :-)

Vera & Jean-Christophe

7 Comments

  1. Florent
    Posted July 18, 2008 at 8:39 | Permalink

    gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

    Ces photos…

    C’est pas humain…

    Et toujours le Vendredi… Snif :°-(

  2. Posted July 18, 2008 at 8:51 | Permalink

    aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrggghhh!!!! C’est vrai qu’elles sont terribles ces photos!! Avouez, vous avez scanné des cartes postales hein? Ben non, évidemment, les cartes postales ne pourraient pas être aussi belles! ;-) Gros bisous à vous deux!

  3. Posted July 18, 2008 at 10:39 | Permalink

    prachtig

  4. Vera
    Posted July 18, 2008 at 14:45 | Permalink

    @Flo & Manu: Hihi! C’est vrai qu’on a un don pour publier le vendredi. Mais croyez-nous, on ne le fait pas expres… :-)

  5. Posted July 20, 2008 at 13:45 | Permalink

    Hallo Vera en JC

    mooi, mooier, mooist

    good, better, best!!!

    geniet van jullie laatste dagen van deze schitterende reis

    Yvonne

  6. Posted July 20, 2008 at 22:29 | Permalink

    quelle splendeur!!!! que de souvenirs à garder toute votre vie! on a hâte d’entendre vos récits.

  7. Vera
    Posted July 21, 2008 at 1:43 | Permalink

    @Yvonne: :-)

    @Marie-Annick: Alors des recits oui! Mais est-ce que tu as du temps? Car nous, on en a des histoires a raconter!!! ;-)