Day 6/Part 2–

This was the day that Pierre had been waiting for…driving through the Andes Mountains and crossing from Chile into Argentina using the Paso de Jama crossing point at the border between the two countries. The highest elevation along the route is a whooping 15,780 ft. The elevation at the border is 13,800ft. I was excited too, because of the adventure aspect, but mostly because I saw how happy and excited Pierre was. He was determined to get his passport stamped in Argentina!

A gate is closed and locked every day at the bottom of the mountain, and during the summer months, it opens at 8:00 a.m. and it closes at 6:00 p.m. If you don’t make it to the gate before it closes, you have to park on the side of the road, and either wait or camp there until morning.

Last night, we parked in the desert between San Pedro de Atacama and the closed gate. We could see that trucks were lined up through the night waiting for the gate to open in the morning. We decided at that point to let the truck traffic thin out a bit in the morning before we set out. Our goal was to get up to the pass, enter Argentina, get our passports stamped, and get back down the mountain before the gate closed. We weren’t keen on the idea of heading up a mountain surrounded by a convoy of big rigs.

When we crossed through the gate in the morning, there wasn’t a truck in site, so we liked the way our plan was shaping up. In fact, there was hardly any traffic at all. The road was paved and in excellent condition. Before we knew it, we could sense that we were quickly gaining elevation, and the view surrounding us was breathtaking.

A few days earlier, we had seen a volcano in the distance that we figured out was Lincancabur, a 19,409 ft tall volcano that straddled the border between Bolivia and Chile. Pierre was fascinated by it, so I started describing it as “his mountain,” or calling it, “Pierre’s Mountain.”

As we climbed, we could see Lincancabur rising majestically off to our left. Even though we were climbing fast, we were dwarfed by it. I felt my ears pop and I asked Pierre if his ears had popped as well. He said they had, and then we had a quick talk about altitude sickness. Apparently, it can strike hard and fast, and it’s not really clear why some people are more affected by it than others.

A short time later, Pierre said that he was getting a dull headache. I reminded him that we would have to pull over and turn around if he started to feel lightheaded, or if he developed any other symptoms. Other than my ears popping, I was feeling fine. A few times as we continued to drive, Pierre commented on his headache. I asked if he felt dizzy or sick, and he said that he was feeling okay…just a slight headache.

At think at this point, I think pictures will speak louder than words. This is what the scenery looked like as we climbed higher and higher into the Andes Mountains…

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We saw so many alpacas and llamas, and I’ve kept a running tally since seeing the first one!

We made it to and past the 15,780 ft. mark! WOW! What an amazing adventure this is!

Chile: Day 5/Part 2–

After getting ready for the day, we headed back down the road toward Laguna de Chaxa: Reserva Nacional “Los Flamencos’–we wanted to see some flamingos!

We weren’t sure if the park was going to be open to private vehicles, because last night we had learned that the 10 km. long dirt road leading to the lake was under construction. When we got to the turn, we saw that the road was clogged with construction vehicles. We pulled to the side of the road unsure of what to do. I was SURE that I had understood that the park would be open during the day, but keep in mind that the man last night was speaking in Spanish, and I don’t speak or understand Spanish. Okay, I know a small handful of words, but that’s about it.

We had just decided to turn around, when a van pulled up next to us and beeped. The driver rolled down the passenger window, and was trying to tell us something. I was too far away to hear or understand, so I got out of the camper and approached his van.

He smiled while pointing to the turn, “Laguna?”

“Sí, Laguna,” I replied. I told you my Spanish was limited!

He spoke for what felt like a minute, but it was probably more like ten seconds. I heard a definite, “Sí,” as he motioned down the road. “Sí…flemencos.”

I took a shot, “It’s okay to drive down the road to see the flamingos?”

He answered in another long string of Spanish words, but once again I heard, “Sí.”

I thanked him and got back into the car. I turned to Pierre and said something like, “It’s okay for us to drive down the road. The park is open and we can see the flamingos.”

Pierre gave me a look that said—Yeah, right

Visibility was low because every vehicle was kicking up a lot of sand and dirt. We already knew from last night, that the road was going to be narrow and tight, but it was even worse during the day because of the construction vehicles moving about.

It was slow going, but we finally got past the construction as we entered the Nature Reserve. We saw a visitor center in the foreground, two lakes surrounded by salt flats, and the whole scene was framed by snow-covered mountains in the distance. Three types of flamingos makes their home on the lakes here–Chilean, Andean, & James. The area was beautiful. It almost had a mystical feel to it, except for the presence of the tourists who were dotted along the walking trail in the distance.

After paying a very small entrance fee, Pierre and I walked down a trail that was carved through the salt flats. It lead out to a viewing area by the lake. Pink was certainly the color of the day–we saw lots of flamingos!