Foto: The church of San Pedro de Atacama (bron: Ronald van der Veer)
Chile - At the bus station, the luggage is loaded into a minibus. We then walk about ten minutes to the hotel in the center. San Pedro de Atacama is already a very nice and busy village early in the morning. It seems like time has stood still here. The hotel looks very cozy. All rooms open onto the inner street, and with our travel group, we practically occupy the entire hotel. Fortunately, the sun is already warming the inner street a bit. The rooms themselves have no heating, and it’s clearly been chilly during the night. It’s nice that the rooms are already available. We can freshen up immediately (literally and figuratively). In the center of San Pedro de Atacama, we visit the shopping street, the church, and the antiquities museum. The church is being painted today by soldiers. They use all kinds of things to paint the lime on the walls. The ground next to the church and the soldiers themselves are mostly white. We have lunch in one of the many cafes. In the afternoon, we walk out of the village and take a hike toward the salt lake. However, it turns out to be further away than expected, and just outside San Pedro de Atacama, there is another checkpoint set up (later we find out this is the border post to Bolivia).
Climbing the Villarica volcano
Chile - For the first hour, we walk over gravel and rocks. Then we reach the first patches of snow. Soon we climb through the snow. As the sun rises higher, it also gets warmer. We zigzag slowly up the volcano. By following the tracks of those ahead, a kind of ...
Easter Island
Chile - Jacob Roggeveen gave Easter Island its name on Easter Sunday when he visited the island in the Pacific Ocean in 1722. Easter Island, or Isla de Pascua as it is called in Spanish, is also known as Rapa Nui. The island has fewer than 4,000 inhabitants and ...
The Atacama Desert
Chile - At the viewpoint, we have a view of the village of Putre. We also see the cultivated agricultural terraces with the imposing Parinacota volcano in the background, with its summit over six kilometers high. We have now ascended to 3,500 meters, and this ...
Torres del Paine
Chile - Shortly after, we stand at the starting point of the hike to the mountain lake at the base of Torres del Paine (the towers of Paine). Just as we start, it begins to drizzle lightly. With my rain pants and jacket on, I climb steadily for the first hour. ...