While of course we’ve been loving all the lakes, glaciers, lush green landscapes and all that good stuff, in the back of our minds we’ve been super excited to check out Norte Chico and the Atacama Desert. We kept hearing people talk about La Serena, Elqui Valley, the northern coast, and how amazing the desert looks. Laura is a desert lover, and Javi had heard the waves would be epic in the north, so there was something for everyone. Once we’d reunited we decided to visit Viña del Mar and Valparaiso (aka Valpo) before going north, since Laura hadn’t seen either. We loved both cities, and of course the layers and colors of Valpo that everyone talks about were really awesome in person. That city has a lot going on, and reminded us so much of San Francisco, it was wild. Coastal city, crazy hills everywhere, street art, a diverse mix of regular locals, hipster transplants, and tourists, gentrification, grittiness, good restaurants. . . the list of similarities goes on and on. We spent the day walking around, checking out the street art and good views. After eating some unbelievable wheat empanadas and homemade ají salsa at a small shop, we headed north out of town towards Maitencillo.
We spent a couple of nights in a cabaña in Maitencillo, right next to the beach. Laura needed to ease back into camping after the luxury of Chattanooga. We had some solid sunsets and beach walks, which provided a beautiful backdrop to our reconnection. Two and half weeks is a long time to be apart when you’ve basically spent every waking moment together for 18 months! But we survived, and actually it was great to do our own things for a while and then share our adventures. We were happy to reunite, though, and excited to see more of Chile.
After Maintencillo, we headed to the La Serena area, which we had heard so much about. As we drove, the scenery became more and more rugged, arid and sparsely vegetated. It was awesome to watch the scenery outside our windows slowly morph into a desert. Eventually, we found a great camping spot between La Serena and the large town neighboring to the south, Coquimbo. We had our own private bathroom, a first while camping! We walked along the beach in front the campsite, then visited the lighthouse and old town of La Serena. It is the second oldest city in Chile, after Santiago, and it definitely felt like we were walking around a town in Spain. We really liked the feel and vibe of the place, although we only strolled around for half a day.
Soon we headed inland to Elqui Valley. We had heard that it was a place of spiritual importance and alien mysticism, with excellent stargazing. And it is a famous pisco-making area. We were obviously sold. As we drove through the valley we were definitely struck by the beauty of the sloping mountainsides and the green lushness of the valley floor. We stopped near Vicuña to taste some local brews at Guayacán brewery. After a delicious flight and a brief tour of the brew process, we went into town to book a night of stargazing at the Observatorio Mamalluca. There are several public and private observatories in the area, but we chose Mamalluca because it had great reviews and good potential for wild camping nearby, even though it’s a bit more touristy. After an afternoon of more driving around the valley and visiting cute towns like Pisco Elqui, we returned to Vicuña around 8 PM and followed a caravan of folks up the mountain to the observatory. It was a great night! We got an interesting intro video about the relative size of planets and stars , including the earth, sun, and moon. Then we broke off into groups and went back and forth between the main enormous telescope and the smaller ones outside. It was a bright half moon, but we still saw a lot. With our guide, we observed and discussed clusters, twin stars, super-novas and of course lots of constellations, including the southern cross. That was cool because we had been talking about wanting to see the southern cross since our stargazing nights in the Sahara. We also got to take breathtaking photos of the moon by holding our cameras and phones up to the actual telescope. Wild! It was almost midnight by the time we finished, so we just drove a little ways down the mountain and crashed out in a random roadside spot. Laura had some weird alien dreams, so that was pretty cool. The next day we started heading out of the valley, but not before a tour and tasting at Capel, the largest pisco distillery in the world. And somehow it has still maintained it’s cooperative status! It was a lovely property and neat tour.
Thoroughly satisfied with our visit to Elqui, we came back to La Serena for a night, then continued further north, snaking along the smaller coastal roads, instead of the major highway a little further inland called Ruta 5 (part of the Panamerican Highway). We hit Punto de Choros and set up at a cute campsite in the small village. The next morning we were stoked for a boat trip out to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. It was a gorgeous day out on the water! We saw a ton of Fin whales, which were HUGE. We stopped first at the smaller island, Isla Damas, where we were actually able to get out of the boat and walk on the trails managed by CONAF (the Chilean parks agency). It was a short but beautiful spin around the tiny island, and then back to the boat. Then we headed over to the main island, Isla Choros, where we did see a few (adorable) penguins, but mostly a ton of petrels and cormorants, and of course pelicans and gulls. We couldn’t get off the boat but we rode around the perimeter and saw even more amazing wildlife like sunning sea lions and even a couple of sea otters! On the way back, we saw more Fin whales, and a humongous flock of petrels (we think) flying along in the same direction as the boat. We were mesmerized by how the flock would separate, then come together, and sometimes strings of a few birds would sail up into the sky and return to the flock. It was one of our favorite moments during a very special day.
Driving into Choros, we had started to really feel like we were OUT HERE. The landscape was more desert, less populated, and more remote. Leaving Choros, it just got better and better. One night we posted up at a stunning cliffside free camping spot at Playa Blanca in Puerto Viejo. Another night we spent in a cabaña at the mind blowing Bahía Inglesa, the “Caribbean of Chile” as they say, due to crystal clear waters and white sand beaches. The day after that we went more inland, and posted up in the middle of nowhere in the desert. It was GLORIOUS. We watched the sunset, and the full moon rise over the mountains, we listened to music and also to the deafening silence, we cooked a great dinner, we did some stargazing and dancing. And drank wine of course. Even a little curious desert fox stopped by to join the party. It was a highlight of our time in Chile.
Nothing could top that really, but we almost did with a night of free camping in the completely unreal Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar. We had been in total awe of our driving views as we headed north, but this was truly like being on another planet. Open desert, mountains, big crazy rocks everywhere, and epic beaches. This would be the most northern point we would visit in Chile, and it was the perfect place to honor our entire trip and start making our way back to Santiago to make arrangements for our next destination. We didn’t rush things on the way back down, and camped along the way, checking out beaches as always. Playa Hippie was a particular favorite.
In Santiago, we actually pretended to be tourists for a couple of days, finally! The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino was a particular highlight. Incredible history and art from up to 6,000 years ago! It was very well curated and organized, and featured pottery and art from not only Chile but all over the Americas. We finally had some “terremotos” at the infamous La Piojera, a fun dive-type place with a good mix of locals and tourists watching soccer games and getting wasted. These things are seriously dangerous with a strong mix of fernet, grenadine, white wine, and a float of pineapple ice cream. Good times. We also climbed San Cristobal, a huge hill in the middle of the city with an enormous Virgin Mary statue at the top. It was a nice hike and a peaceful atmosphere around the statue. All in all, it was a solid send-off.
So, as crazy as it seems to us, this is our last Chile post. We have been here now over four months. The longest stay in any country on this trip by far. A while back we had planned to leave earlier and take the car to places like Bolivia and Peru, but a number of factors led us to stick to Chile. Not least of which is that it’s a big beautiful country with so much to do. This was a nature explosion, nature on a “symphonic scale” as our guidebook says. We certainly visited a lot of beautiful natural places and remote locations in Europe and Morocco, but it was also a LOT of cities, villages, museums, and culture. Chile provided such a graceful opportunity to really reconnect with nature longer term. We are so grateful and thankful that we got to experience this country so deeply. Thank you CHILE!!!!
On a side note, we sold Condorito in Santiago, which is sad but necessary, as our next spot is too far to drive and we’d have to bring Condorito back to Chile to sell it according to the laws here. So we figured it’s best to just end the road trip here. It’s been real, road. Now back to backpacking life (only with a lot more stuff, including a surfboard).
Next stop: ECUADOR!
Norte Chico / So Long Chile
