Hola. I’m in Santiago in my hotel chilling before flying home tonight. Dropped the camper off yesterday afternoon, no worse for wear except for the 12,000 miles I racked up on her.

The last five or so days have been a bit of a whirlwind, as the distances traveled were huge. Getting from the Atacama to Santiago took three days of driving, with cool stops on the way, but northern Chile isn’t really my cup of tea – too bone dry, barren, hot and parched. I prefer evergreen forests, glaciers and sparkling lakes and fjords. Cool to see it, though. Here are photos of those places:

Holiday cheer in a local brewery in La Serena:

Astronomy night at Alfa Aldea Observatory in Vicuña. Their telescope was terrific. Super cool experience.

Concón, just north of Viña del Mar:

Ahhh – Viña….

Cajon de Maipo, southeast of Santiago:

That’s a river I’m driving through. A bit of gnar….

Last night in the mountains. It got mystical…

Here’s a slide show that hopefully represents the vibe and highlights of the entire trip – six weeks on the road in a camper – two very large countries, 42 days, with 5 spent in hotels (I know, I’m getting soft in my old age…). It’s really hard to choose and exclude photos, as I have so many from this journey, but I think these provide a good flavor of what I saw and experienced

The trip was truly great. No mishaps, mechanicals, crazy people, law enforcement or fronterra run-ins or bad luck. I feel really blessed for that, as I’ve driven a ton, including thousands of miles on bone jarring unpaved roads, and I’ve seen an incredible amount of both countries and their people. So, damn the torpedoes – here goes:

That’s it – it’ a wrap. It was an incredible trip, with adventure and fun each day. Thanks everyone for following me on these crazy jaunts. It makes it really fun to share the experience with friends and family. Catch you all on the next one. India and Africa are on the wanderlist…..

Rich

Wow – I’ve seen a ton of places and met so many cool people during the past six days. Been off the grid for most of it, so I haven’t been able to post any updates.

After leaving La Rioja, I stopped in San Miguel de Tucumán, a big town / small city with a very laid back vibe. It was unbelievably quiet in the center of town despite countless people moving about in rush hour. A gorgeous town square was the center of activity. No horns, no raised voices, no loud music. Everyone was just super chill and tranquilo. Some scenes from there:

This filet mignon (I actually prefer a good burger to a steak, but Argentina is the place for great meat) was crazy good. The entire meal cost $8.00…

The government municipal building, decked out for La Navidad:

Great lighting all around:

I woke up to this fellow after camping at a vineyard:

There are police checkpoints everywhere in Argentina – entering and leaving virtually every town and city. Very chill, but it’s weird. I was breathalyzed at 9:30 am the other morning. Guess the cop was bored… .

Grillin’ up a storm in Salta. I wasn’t impressed with the town, despite reading good things about it. It was dirty, crowded and very poor. Good food, though.

I ordered a beer. The waiter brought me a quarter keg (that’s a half liter beer mug on the table)…

Bustin’ out of Argentina north of Salta, en route to the Atacama Desert and back to Chile:

Map room and breakfast break. This was in a gas station, which as is common there, had a really nice restaurant and assorted goodies:

Arroso and Carmen – a really sweet couple from Mendoza I spoke with for a while:

Climbing from around 2,500′ to the 13,000′ – 15,000+’ (very) high desert altitude. Amazing ascent from Argentina into the Atacama then Chile.

Northwest of Salta, close to the Argentine border and east of San Pedro de Atacama, lies incredibly pristine and pure super high desert. Entering over a hundred miles to the east of San Pedro de Atacama after crossing the frontier where I did meant that the desert stretched north and south for over 1,200 miles. That’s just enormous, and you feel that you’re completely within its grasp.
Quick escapes are impossible (if you were to feel the urge), and the desert’s staggeringly large scale is mind numbing – it completely overwhelms the senses. There is absolutely no vegetation in every direction forever. Nevada would appear by comparison as lush and verdant as Vermont.

It is incredible, though. So pristine and vast. Like nowhere I’ve been, and I’ve seen a few deserts.

Lunch at 14,500′ in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Couldn’t believe there was a restaurant there:

OK, so I had the Llama Milanesa…. It was incredible 😜.

A really nice couple – Johnny and Elizabeth with Johnny’s Dad Juan. Johnny grew up in La Paz, Bolivia and moved to the States as a young adult. He and Elizabeth live outside of Nashville, and his Mom and Dad go back and forth between both countries. Super cool folks.

Vast salt flats in every direction above 14,000′. I didn’t need any….

This mini twister came into view when I was about a mile away. I hoped to get a good shot of it, and realized as I kept driving that we were on a direct collision course. It totally sand blasted the camper, and I grasped a bit too late that it would have been better had I closed the windows….

Llama, vicuna, alpaca and guanaco. All the same beast, but their names differ, depending on where they live and at what altitude. They are found in many places in southern Chile and across Argentina, commercially raised for food and clothing (alpaca is said to be lighter, warmer and more water resistant than wool – gotta run that down) and in the wild.

Pit stop. Checkin’ out whatever…

Quite the trip to be at this altitude. I was between 14,000′ and 15,800′ for around five hours en route to San Pedro de Atacama, and although I felt great, I did feel kind of buzzed some of the time. Stargazing up there was incredible. I felt the universe in a much more three dimensional way because of the incredible abundance of stars everywhere and their seemingly different depths and distances from me, which I’ve not felt at considerably lower altitudes. It was as though I could reach out and touch them. Unfortuntely, photos don’t compare with the actual experience.

Jama Pass, leaving Argentina and entering Chile. Super high winds and very intense solar radiation.

Crossing between Chile and Argentina is a silly game that takes a lot of time, showing all of your documents (including for the vehicle – a major pain in the a*s) to four or five different people, all at different desks, first to the authorities of the country you’re leaving and then to the one you’re entering 300 meters later, but hey, what are you gonna do?

On the western flank of the super high desert, approaching the town of San Pedro de Atacama. It’s sublime.

Desert scenery. So huge and pristine. It made me feel really small, which I love.

Gazing upward. Oh, my….

I’ve been in another space and time the past four days. The Atacama Desert is a world unto itself, incredibly far removed and different from anywhere else I’ve been.

Yeah – I got a little spaced out between the altitude and the ridiculous number and brightness of stars and constellations screaming at me from the night sky…

Downtown San Pedro de Atacama. An interesting place – unbearably poor everywhere but the immediate downtown, where tourist dollars have lifted folks a bit.

Volcan Licancabur at 19,423′, looming over the town:

Great hike to ruins dating from the 12th century outside of town with incredible geologic formations. Hard to believe that people eked out a living here and then were attacked and conquered by the Incas and then the Spanish. What the heck was there to conquer and steal?

Nice guys – Whitman, Guillermo and Walter, whom I talked with in the town square of Copiapo for a bit. Los Tres Amigos…

The town square all decked out, including a life sized crèche:

La Serena, very Spanish in history and architecture:

The only nice sight I saw in Antofagusta:

My chill habitación two nights ago:

Sebastian, who helped me last night in a La Serena with wifi (my Entel SIM card, which was great everywhere south of Santiago, is worthless up here, and I need to get a different one today), filling up and grabbing ice at the local gas station. Big change from Argentina, where gas costs around $1.20 a gallon and Chile, where it costs about what we pay in California. Great kid – very personable and smart – he’s from Columbia and is traveling to see other parts of South America.

Some random thoughts and observations with five days left in the voyage –

I’ve dreamed in Spanish several times in the past two weeks – including a very long and interesting one the other night Very cool.

The people in Chile and Argentina are all super nice, friendly and chill. The German presence in southern Chile, with many Nazis and their sympathizers having fled there after WW II ended, left me a little creeped out though. Not that I saw anything bad there, but the fact that Chile (and Brazil and Paraguay) opened their arms to those folks leaves me slightly disturbed. Realpolitik, as Henry Kissinger would say…

Northern Chile west and south of San Pedro de Atacama is a dystopian wasteland – truly God forsaken country – where extracting the earth’s minerals and resources trumps all else. In essence, it’s an absolutely enormous garbage dump. There is nothing redeeming for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Calama, a mining town, was actually scary visually – the Earth was destroyed in every direction for as far as I could see. Antofagusta is also absolutely horrid, although it’s on the ocean. I saw people lined up to get water from trucks everywhere – this in a city of 400,000 people.

The poverty in both countries is really disturbing and disheartening, especially because there are some incredibly wealthy folks in both who have cornered the copper and natural resource industries. Hmmmm… – reminds me of the good old USA, with finance and tech in their places…

A landscape quite similar to that west of San Pedro de Atacama is likely what awaits us on Mars or elsewhere, without the benefit of being able to breathe their atmospheres or venture outside without being bombarded and laid to waste by solar radiation. Why would anyone want to live there? Elon – what are you smoking? How about spending some of those billions on keeping the Garden of Eden we were given for free, with no mortgage, clean and habitable?

Entering from the east at San Pedro de Atacama, where I did, meant that the desert stretched north and south forever. Quick escapes are impossible, and the desert’s staggeringly large scale is humbling – it completely overwhelms the senses. Nevada would appear by comparison as lush and verdant – and as small – as Vermont. There is absolutely no vegetation in every direction forever.

I arrived in La Serena yesterday afternoon. It’s an interesting city on the coast, with many Spanish buildings and influences. A little European after countless shanty town pueblos. I cut out after dinner, as I’m not a fan of cities in general, to hit Vicuña, forty miles inland – where I am now. It has countless vineyards and, more importantly, four astronomical observatories within spitting distance (Chile is the world’s best place for astronomical observation because of the atmospheric purity and Andean altitudes), and I have a visit scheduled tonight at Centro Astronomico Alfa Alde. I told them I’m an astronomer and astrophycist (I am, kinda…) to get in on such short notice – hah hah…). Can’t wait to check out their telescopes and the skies here.

The Village square in Vicuña. Boo:

I’ll check in again before wrapping up the trip. Caio para ahora.