After a night of high altitude sleep in Espinar (3,915 m / 12,844 ft), we headed southwest to Cabanaconde, a small town located in the Colca Canyon. The Colca Canyon is allegedly the world's second deepest canyon - approximately 3,270 m / 10,728 ft at its deepest point, making it almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! The canyon is home to the Andean Condor, which is the second largest flying bird in the world. We were there right at the end of the "season" to see the condors, so we were hoping we would have some good luck.
First, however, we had to get there. As is usual when Brian says it is going to be an "easy day of riding," we had a few surprises along the way. Neither of us bothered to look up the elevation for the ride, thinking logically that we would be dropping since we were headed into a canyon. I didn't bother putting my fleece leggings under my riding pants, but soon came to realize I picked the worst day not to wear them. As we made our way out of Espinar, we continued climbing in elevation. This was the first time we REALLY felt our 250 engines struggle as we forged our way against a headwind up to 4,800 m / 15,748 ft. Before we knew it, we were in the high plains, surrounded by snow!
We were still making pretty good time and enjoying the cold but beautiful scenery until our nice, paved road turned abruptly into mud. Thanks, google maps.
Knowing that the only other alternative route would add 150 kilometers to our trip, we decided to push on. Within 1/2 kilometer, our tires were completely caked in mud, causing us to lose almost all of our traction - this was "the worst kind of mud," according to Brian.
After one kilometer, one almost bike drop, and many curse words, we decided to turn around and take the much longer, but undoubtedly paved road. I knew it would take me at least twice as long as Brian to make it through the muddy road conditions, and we still had no idea if the road that the mud road led to was any better. So, just like that, our short and easy day became quite a bit longer. The ride into the canyon, however, was gorgeous as we wound our way down between the massive rock formations, finally dropping in elevation over the last 20 kilometers.
Ironically, the last stretch of road into the canyon that we had seen was dirt on the map beforehand (and were mentally prepared for to be dirt) ended up being completely paved - a pleasant surprise. Our decision to turn around was also validated as we saw two different points of the second road we were trying to reach on the mud road and both portions looked equally bad. We celebrated our good decision and overall great day of riding with some beers and a dinner overlooking the quaint main square.
We woke up early the next morning to ride the 10 minutes into the canyon to the designated condor viewing point (aka tourist drop-off station). We spent an hour and a half taking in the sunlit view, but with no condors in sight. Brian and I, having seen a condor during our trek in Colombia, decided the ride into the canyon had been worth the trip already and we needed to hit the road. Funnily enough, about five minutes down the road (out of sight from the touristy view point) we found three condors, one of which flew right over us. We enjoyed our private show for a while before continuing on.
A nice and short four hour ride later, we were in Arequipa. On our way in, we saw some crazy Mad Max scenery (a reference to the movie for anyone who has seen it).
We wanted to celebrate New Years in Arequipa, so we spent the next four days relaxing, finally giving our riding gear a long overdue washing, going to the local gym, discovering a delicious local sandwich shop which we ate at four times, touring by candlelight one of the oldest and largest convents in South America (very creepy), and getting the bikes serviced (we were just shy of 10,000 km at this point). We really liked all of the hidden charm we found in Arequipa, compared to the in-your-face charm of Cusco. We also found the sunsets here to be breathtaking.
We had heard Peruvians go crazy with fireworks for New Years Eve, so after getting some pisco sours at a local bar, we took to the main square to watch the spectacle at midnight. Although there is no official firework show in the city, you wouldn't know it looking at the sky. From the main square everyone around us was setting off their own personal firework display that did not disappoint.
In Peru, people don yellow clothing and accessories as a wish for luck and happiness in the upcoming year, so Brian and I bought some yellow leis in the street. We were also given fake money from the bar to put in our pockets in hopes of financial success the next year.
One other interesting thing to note was that all day on New Year's Eve, there were protests going on in the streets due to a political scandal that was developing. Two special prosecutors investigating corruption at the highest levels had been dismissed by the Attorney General (Chavarry) under dubious premises. Fortunately, the next day, the protests turned into celebratory marches as the president declared a national emergency at the judicial level, leading to the reinstatement of both prosecutors.
The day after New Years we got our bikes serviced in preparation for heading to Chile the following day. We were originally going to stop just before the border in a city called Tacna, but we had heard from other overlanders that there had been some recent theft in the area, so we decided to make it a long day and cross over to Chile that evening. The road from Arequipa to the border was relatively straight, so we were able to make good time despite the increased distance. The kilometers also flew by with the help of some music (up until now, Brian and I had kept our intercoms on to warn each other of potholes, crazy drivers, etc, but now that the roads were straight and not full of many surprises, we finally hooked up our phones so we could listen to music).
We made it to the border by 4:45 pm (Peru time). Even with a tedious process that required us to get six stamps on a paper at various stations and then take all of our luggage off of our bikes to be sent through a scanning machine (checking for fruits, vegetables, and other banned items), we made it through the border in an hour and a half. At one point, we were a little worried about Brian getting through as the woman who processed his bike into Peru made an error and listed his bike as having a U.S. license plate. She wrote a note on the paper explaining the clerical error rather than redoing the process, and the guy at the Chilean border was unable to find Brian's bike in the system. Luckily, we made it through and we were welcomed into Chile with a beautiful sunset as we rode the 20 kilometers along the coast to our hostel.
Brian and I both experienced a bit of a driving culture shock as people in Chile actually follow driving rules. People stayed in their lanes, there were traffic lights at intersections, and the cars in front of us shockingly stopped at a crosswalk for pedestrians! We soon realized our time riding in Peru was going to make us the assholes on the road until we readjusted. After making it to our hostel in Arica (a town just over the border), we unpacked the bikes and went out for a quick dinner before falling fast asleep.
The next morning, we did a little bit of trip planning before heading south to Iquique, a city right on the coast with some crazy sand dunes and nice beaches. We made the mistake of assuming there would be fuel on the major highway and ended up almost running out of gas. We were forced to fill our tanks with some questionable fuel from this kind gentleman:
With the two hour forward time change in Chile, we made it to Iquique in time to catch the sunset on the ocean at 8:30 pm.
The following day, we headed to the less touristy portion of the beach that we had heard about from a local we met in Arica. We spent the afternoon watching the humongous waves breaking on the shore and getting a little too much of the desert sun, despite our two applications of sunscreen.
It was hard to leave the beautiful scenery of the Iquique coastline, but we knew we had even more gorgeous scenery to come in the Atacama Desert. Thus, the next day we set off for our longest day by far - over 500 kilometers of insanely windy desert road. Before getting too far out of the city, however, we stopped by two very eerie ghost towns, spending a couple of hours exploring the remnants of large nitrate mining facilities that are now UNESCO world heritage sites. Some background: Northern Chile was once part of Peru and Bolivia and the countries had gone to war over the mineral-rich lands in what was called the "War of the Pacific" 1879-1884. Chile prevailed in the end resulting in Bolivia becoming a landlocked country and Peru losing much of it's nitrate-rich lands to Chile. Nitrate was highly valuable at the time. It was used as fertilizer and more importantly for the production of gunpowder and explosives. At one point, there were over 100 "oficinas" employing more than 46,000 workers. Humberstone and Santa Laura are the best preserved of the oficinas, which were essentially self-sufficient mining towns with thousands of workers, schools, hospitals, and housing to support these operations.
After exploring for a while, we were back on the road. With our slightly longer than planned detour, we had some time to make up. Luckily, we had straight and paved Chilean roads ahead of us. We were making good time, despite having to ride at an angle for most of the day due to a vicious side wind, until we were about 90 kilometers away from San Pedro de Atacama. Brian is not sure what caused him to look down at his front wheel, some subconscious sense perhaps?, but when he did he noticed something strange about the tire. We pulled off to the side of the road and sure enough he had a flat tire - our first (and hopefully last) of the trip.
We took a moment to laugh at the timing as it was our longest day ever (525 kilometers), it was 8:00 pm and the sun was beginning to set, we were in the middle of the Atacama Desert, and Brian's cold he had been developing over the last couple of days was at its worst. Luckily, however, it was his front tire, which is much easier to change than the rear, and we quickly got to work. It turned out that the tube valve stem had gotten jammed sideways (unrelated to the flat), making removal of the tube a little more difficult. After finally prying it free and inserting the new tube, we uncovered a new complication: our tire pump was missing the piece that allows it to latch onto the tire and fill it with air. Thus, I began flagging down every car and truck that came by to try and find one we could borrow. Eventually, we got the attention of a very friendly family from a city nearby that had one in their trunk. After filling the tire and thanking them for their help, we reattached the tire and got ready to hit the road again. While scanning the ground one last time for our missing pump piece, we found it buried in some gravel! It was a relief to know we would have eventually been able to make it out of there on our own.
We got the tire back on just as the sun was setting. We took a few moments to watch the last bit of sunlight dip below the horizon before getting back on the bikes. We rode the rest of the 90 kilometers in the dark, arriving at the hostel with just barely enough energy to walk into town and eat a late dinner.
The following day, Brian was still feeling under the weather so we spent the afternoon relaxing around town. In the evening, we went for a short ride to catch the sunset at Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). The large, pristine sand dunes and otherworldly rock formations really did make us feel as if we were walking on the moon. We hiked up one of the dunes to watch the colors transform around us. (There is no photo editing on any of these pictures).
After a good night's rest and a lazy morning around town the next day, we set off toward the Lagunas Altiplanicas. One of the many perks of being on motorcycles, especially in a super touristy town like San Pedro de Atacama, is that we are able to go and see everything we want without paying the outrageous tour package prices. Thus, we climbed up to 4,200 m / 13,779 ft, crossing over the Tropic of Capricorn on our way. The majority of the route was paved, until the last section through the park which required us to navigate through some sand. The views were absolutely worth it, however, as we rode past the bright blue and sparkling lagunas surrounded by mountains and desert.
And just like that, it was time to head toward the border of Argentina, but we will be back for more adventures in Chile further south!
Cheers,
Erin and Brian
Excellent decision to go the long way round instead of continuing in the mud. Many bikes burn up the clutch when trying to continue in that sticky mud. More great photos of amazing areas and I really like reading what you tell us about the history of where you travel.
I find it interesting that none of the cars or trucks passing you when you had the flat tire stopped to ask if you needed anything. So many places almost everyone stops to offer help. Funny time lapse with matching music of the flat repair!
I'm loving reading your experiences and seeing the pictures.