{"id":23081,"date":"2023-11-06T22:46:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T22:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prikanowski.nl\/wandelen\/?p=23081"},"modified":"2023-11-20T19:47:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T19:47:29","slug":"20231106-trekking-puritama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prikanowski.nl\/wandelen\/index.php\/2023\/11\/06\/20231106-trekking-puritama\/","title":{"rendered":"20231106 Trekking Puritama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Date: 20231106<\/p>\n

Time: 9:15 – 11:10<\/p>\n

Distance: 2,9 km<\/p>\n

Overnight stay: Hostal Montepardo, San Pedro de Atacama<\/p>\n

Walk<\/h4>\n

Today we have a busy day, a tour each in the morning, afternoon and evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"We start with a trekking tour. Pick up time at the hostal is 8:00-8:30 but they would make sure we would be picked up last so we can get some breakfast, which is also from 8:00. We are early at breakfast which is good since at 8:15 the van to pick us up is there. There are only two girls in the van… They picked us up as one of the first!<\/p>\n

\"\"When everybody is on board, we go in the direction of the Tatio Geysers. We will visit these the day after tomorrow.
\nAt some point we stop and get out of the van. Everybody gets a breakfast \/ lunch package and we start our hike.<\/p>\n

The hike we do is short, around 1 kilometer, and of medium difficulty. It goes up and down a bit and we have to scramble over some rocks. we follow the Rio Puritama. Ada is steadily going forward. She manages to do the path, including the scrambling parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"We reach a nice spot in the valley with a natural pool. This is our destination and everybody can get into the pool. Ada puts here feet in the water and I talk to Victor, our guide, and make pictures. Then, after consulting Victor, I walk further up the valley. Victor accompanies me for the first part, he probably wants to make sure I can deal with the terrain. After 20 minutes or so I return, I don’t want everybody waiting for me. I meet Victor after a while, he looks relieved that he found me \ud83d\ude42 We walk the remaining part back together and he points out a huge cactus. According to Victor the cactus is about 400 years old.<\/p>\n

\"\"When we return everybody is already coming out of the pool and when everybody is dressed we start our way back.
\nBack at our van, there is a German 4×4 M.A.N. camper parked next to our van with 2 motorcycles mounted on the back. That is also a nice way to explore South America!<\/p>\n

\"\"They drop us in the town center. The first thing we do is look for a farmaci\u00e1 to get some extra sun block. Then we walk to the town square and find a spot on the terrace for lunch. They don’t have any new beer for me, except for one, Stella. So Stella it is. I undoubtedly have had a Stella before, but not since I use Untappd. So I had to go to the other end of the world to get my first Stella check-in \ud83d\ude42
\nOur spot at the terrace is nice, except for the stupid dogs circling our table.<\/p>\n

After lunch Ada is going to look for some clothes while I walk to our hostal to lose some stuff we don’t need this afternoon.
\nWe meet up at Kankas, the place where we had diner yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"\"This afternoon we are going to float in salt water. We report on time at the booking office and are brought to a pick-up point. The van is already almost full. We drive to Laguna Cejar and Laguna Piedra. Here we make a short walk before the clothes go off and we can go into Laguna Piedra to float. This is indeed a nice and a little bit weird experience. Without any effort whatsoever one keeps floating. Maybe we should also add some more salt to the swimming pool next year…<\/p>\n

After a quick shower we continue our journey to Ojos del Salar, here we have to pay the entrance fee in cash, but the oldies get a discount \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"First we go to two small pools of salt water that are connected underground. These pools get deeper every year because the bottom of the pool is dissolving in the water and partly evaporates.
\nNext we visit a big salt lake where a meteor hit the earth a very long time ago. This is supposed to be the place where life began, hence the sign Origin.
\nWe walk along the lake and take pictures. It is very hot in the afternoon sun and there is a very strong wind.<\/p>\n

The chauffeurs are driving fast and especially in the afternoon the bad roads make that we are quite shaken up.<\/p>\n

\"\"To top things off, we have cocktails or rather sour and other refreshments. This works very well after a day in the hot sun.<\/p>\n

We are dropped off nicely on time in the town center so we have ample time to go to the hostal, wash up a little and pack our stuff, warm clothes, for the evening tour.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alas the evening tour, an astronomical tour, is cancelled due to clouds. We reschedule to tomorrow evening. Instead we go for a drink and again we end up in a restaurant where we cannot get a drink without eating, so again we go, to Kankas where we are always welcome. Kankas is a Peruvian bar \/ restaurant and we seem to be selecting these while we are in Chili.<\/p>\n

All in all two nice tours today and we get to go to bed early. Tomorrow they will pick us up at 6 am.<\/p>\n

Weather<\/h4>\n

Like all our days in the Atacama desert, dry and hot. In the morning, during the trek, it was warm and in the afternoon it got hot. Later it became cloudy, but not too much. Alas too much for an astronomical tour.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t

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