The Atacama Desert is well known for being the driest place on Earth. For some reason this means it should be a tourist destination. Having just escaped the altitude to Chañaral, we reversed direction and headed east back up into the Andes towards the popular town of San Pedro de Atacama. As we have no maps and only a GPS, it was set to take 'shortest route', which meant to not take the proper road, but instead a series of mining trails. After much fiddling and fuddling, we popped out onto the great Salar de Atacama, a giant lake covered with a thick hard crust of salt.
After seeing the so much salt, we headed into San Pedro to see what tourists come here for, since you can get salt pretty much any place in the world. As we arrived in town, it started to rain. Rain in a place which is supposed to be the driest place on Earth. Very disappointing. The big talk of the tourists was the excursion to a geyser which explodes in the early morning, but was a few hours drive away. Wanting to get a head start, we did the cardinal sin and headed out to the geysers after dark with the intention of sleeping beside them. The geyser road was blocked by some police vehicles as the road was apparently in bad shape from the rains. One look at us, and mysteriously the impenetrable road block was opened for us to proceed.
There was no one on this road, and it was dark dark dark. We kept it slow, but the road was a real challenge with all the huge ruts and wash outs. It then became clear why we were waved on by the police, they were driving behind us seeing if we would show them the way. I like flattery, but as it was dark there weren't enough spectators to see me show my stuff, so I called it quits; I snapped a rear shock absorber in half to bring this fool's errand to a close, just as the road became near vertical. Enough was a enough. We headed back to town. Perhaps the next day we could visit some other small lakes around the area.
There was no one on this road, and it was dark dark dark. We kept it slow, but the road was a real challenge with all the huge ruts and wash outs. It then became clear why we were waved on by the police, they were driving behind us seeing if we would show them the way. I like flattery, but as it was dark there weren't enough spectators to see me show my stuff, so I called it quits; I snapped a rear shock absorber in half to bring this fool's errand to a close, just as the road became near vertical. Enough was a enough. We headed back to town. Perhaps the next day we could visit some other small lakes around the area.