DAY 35 - SOUTH OF SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

San Pedro de Atacama is set on an arid high plateau in the Andes, 1400 miles north of Santiago. It's 1400 miles north of Santiago, with landscapes totally different from anything else we've seen so far in Chile: dramatic deserts, lunar-like rock formations, sand dunes, pink-streaked mountains, salt flats, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs

 

And, just beyond the salt flats is Tambillo

not far from theTropic

and the small towns Tocunao and Socaire, on the road to a pretty pair of salt-ringed lagunas, Miscanti 

and, over the way, Laguna Miniques 

After passing the little town of Socaire, Laguna Chaxa

boasts flocks of flamingos - three types: Andean (with black tail feathers), Chilean (very pale), and James's (much pinker)

 

A gloriously still day, perfect for reflections

 

Info boards too about the brine shimp on which they feed:  they can tolerate salinity levels up to 250g per litre of water (looking at the salt flats, it's just as well)

which allows them to inhabit pools with very few predators - obviously, no one warned them about flamingos...  No idea what this little chap eats
 

DAY 34 - TO EL NORTE : SANTIAGO TO SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

Already excited to be going north, I haven't expected the aerial views of the Andes to be so spectacular.  It's a foggy day in Santiago so that the city, which sits in a bowl surrounded by the mountains, disappears very quickly.  The Andean peaks look as though they're lapped by the low cloud

with the crests giving way to the continuous stretch,

with pools, and villages in clefts or dips,

sometimes dusted or streaked with white.

Even some solar panels on the odd flat expanse

On arrival at Calama airport

we pick up our hire-car and set out 70 miles,

to San Pedro de Atacama

a rather dusty (and overly-touristy for my taste) but pretty town with traditional adobe walls and town square next to the church. It sits at an altitude of 2400m, between the desert and altiplano, on the edge of the Salar de Atacama salt-flats (of which more tomorrow) and Valle de la Luna (next day hopefully) but meanwhile here's a little of S.P.d.A.

  

(and its inhabitants!)

and welcome to our home for the next three nights ...
 

DAY 33 - PUNTA ARENAS TO SANTIAGO

Sadly a dark flight north so not much in the way of views

but the joy of checking in to our airport hotel to dive into a much-needed shower!  And then it's admin catch-up, organising and planning

and sleep ...

DAY 32 - BYE-BYE VADAR

Time to return Vadar (and face the music about the door!) so today is not an action day - dedicated, rather, to packing and cleaning (and sorting out the next few days after we get back to Santiago : an onward flight north to Calama and car hire so we can get to San Pedro de Atacama) from Calama

So, bye-bye old fella : we've been 28 nights together, zigzagging for 4,624 miles (7,442km)

And then to Punta Arenas airport to wait for the 1am red-eye 1360 miles north to Santiago.