One of Fabiola’s challenges was that the other couple John and Judy are in their 80’s. John has some walking difficulty mostly due to a cataract in one eye. In Rainbow Valley Judy fell and dislocated a pinky finger.
So on the morning of Nov. 30 Fabiola sent them with our driver Victor directly to Puritama Hot Springs while we hiked with her an hour 40 minutes up the canyon fed by the spring.
The canyon is lush with vegetation from the river while on the walls are the tall cordon cacti that grow in an elevation range of 500 meters or so.
Our hike was from 11,300 – 11,700 feet. Halfway up the canyon were some hikers in pools still perhaps 75F.
Here there was a controlled burn, which Fabiola said assists some of the wildlife.
At the bottom of the hot springs was a sign saying masks were required to enter.
There are 8 pools at the hot springs. Each can be reserved by a private group for morning or afternoon. We had half an hour in #4, which was maybe 90F.
Driving out, here's the view down into the valley we hiked up.
Here's a hillside around 11,000 feet with lots of the cordon cacti.
We came back to San Pedro and lunch at Adobe and Judy got her finger put back in place and splinted.
The Atacama highlands are also home to the world's most advanced telescopes. At 8:45pm Mariano picked us up and drove us to his private observatory a few km away. He first gave us a condensed history of astrophysics, with modern updates such as Jupiter having 79 moons and Saturn 82. We then went outside and he used a laser pointer. The Magellenic cloud galaxies were higher up and so clearer than my previous southern stargazing at Kings Canyon Australia and on the Paul Gauguin. They form an equilateral triangle with due south and can be used for that when the Southern Cross is below the horizon as it was tonight. This area is rated 2 on a 1-7 scale for sky darkness. Then we went inside to look through Mariano’s 16 inch telescope, first at Saturn and Jupiter, then at deep sky objects.
Our final Atacama day was a drive south to some lagoons over 13,000 feet. We drove past Lascar Volcano, 18,072 feet with a smoke wisp, then to Socaire (10,700 feet), where we stopped briefly at this 400 year old church.
These yellow plants were common around 12,000 feet.
The peak at center is Mt. Miniques 19,384 feet, almost exact height of Kilimanjaro. Hidden behind the vegetated ridge is Laguna Miscanti, which is currently closed but where these tours usually go.
We continued on to this overlook of the Aguas Caliente Salt Flat.
Approaching closer we saw a herd of vicuna.
We stopped again for a closer look at thin lagoons among the salt flats.
Some resident flamingos are in the foreground of the pic above and there are several groups in this zoomed view.
This viewpoint is due south of Mt. Miniques.
Even on its south side there are just a few patches of snow.
Our farthest stop at 13,500 overlooked Tuyajto Lagoon about 20 miles short of the border with Argentina.
We had a picnic lunch prepared by Fabiola in Socaire, which like most of the small towns in the region has all commercial establishments closed. We learned from Mariano the previous night that some of the local tribes have royalty income from lithium mines and are not so interested in tourism any more.
There were several road signs warning to watch for guanacos, vicuna, even rhea (flightless bird we did not see). But Liz is partial to foxes, which we also did not see.
And we had to stop and pose for this sign.
These noteworthy latitudes are usually crossed by air. I've never crossed the equator or Tropic of Cancer on land. I've seen signs on land for 45 degrees latitude in the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand.
These sign pictures, like many, have 17,000+ foot mountains in the background which don't look like much due to distance and because the pictures are taken at 11,000. At the end of the day Fabiola gave us a map from one of the premium hotels that detailed excursions. You can climb 3 of the volcanoes. The prominent Licancabur volcano is 2-day trip overnighting in Bolivia at 4,500 meters with a serious 1,400 meter climb the next day. Day trip climbs are 500 meters to 18,381 foot Toco or 600 meters to 17,738 foot Soquete. These are probably the easiest high altitude hikes in the world due to high trailheads and almost no snow/ice.
So on the morning of Nov. 30 Fabiola sent them with our driver Victor directly to Puritama Hot Springs while we hiked with her an hour 40 minutes up the canyon fed by the spring.
The canyon is lush with vegetation from the river while on the walls are the tall cordon cacti that grow in an elevation range of 500 meters or so.
Our hike was from 11,300 – 11,700 feet. Halfway up the canyon were some hikers in pools still perhaps 75F.
Here there was a controlled burn, which Fabiola said assists some of the wildlife.
At the bottom of the hot springs was a sign saying masks were required to enter.
There are 8 pools at the hot springs. Each can be reserved by a private group for morning or afternoon. We had half an hour in #4, which was maybe 90F.
Driving out, here's the view down into the valley we hiked up.
Here's a hillside around 11,000 feet with lots of the cordon cacti.
We came back to San Pedro and lunch at Adobe and Judy got her finger put back in place and splinted.
The Atacama highlands are also home to the world's most advanced telescopes. At 8:45pm Mariano picked us up and drove us to his private observatory a few km away. He first gave us a condensed history of astrophysics, with modern updates such as Jupiter having 79 moons and Saturn 82. We then went outside and he used a laser pointer. The Magellenic cloud galaxies were higher up and so clearer than my previous southern stargazing at Kings Canyon Australia and on the Paul Gauguin. They form an equilateral triangle with due south and can be used for that when the Southern Cross is below the horizon as it was tonight. This area is rated 2 on a 1-7 scale for sky darkness. Then we went inside to look through Mariano’s 16 inch telescope, first at Saturn and Jupiter, then at deep sky objects.
Our final Atacama day was a drive south to some lagoons over 13,000 feet. We drove past Lascar Volcano, 18,072 feet with a smoke wisp, then to Socaire (10,700 feet), where we stopped briefly at this 400 year old church.
These yellow plants were common around 12,000 feet.
The peak at center is Mt. Miniques 19,384 feet, almost exact height of Kilimanjaro. Hidden behind the vegetated ridge is Laguna Miscanti, which is currently closed but where these tours usually go.
We continued on to this overlook of the Aguas Caliente Salt Flat.
Approaching closer we saw a herd of vicuna.
We stopped again for a closer look at thin lagoons among the salt flats.
Some resident flamingos are in the foreground of the pic above and there are several groups in this zoomed view.
This viewpoint is due south of Mt. Miniques.
Even on its south side there are just a few patches of snow.
Our farthest stop at 13,500 overlooked Tuyajto Lagoon about 20 miles short of the border with Argentina.
We had a picnic lunch prepared by Fabiola in Socaire, which like most of the small towns in the region has all commercial establishments closed. We learned from Mariano the previous night that some of the local tribes have royalty income from lithium mines and are not so interested in tourism any more.
There were several road signs warning to watch for guanacos, vicuna, even rhea (flightless bird we did not see). But Liz is partial to foxes, which we also did not see.
And we had to stop and pose for this sign.
These noteworthy latitudes are usually crossed by air. I've never crossed the equator or Tropic of Cancer on land. I've seen signs on land for 45 degrees latitude in the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand.
These sign pictures, like many, have 17,000+ foot mountains in the background which don't look like much due to distance and because the pictures are taken at 11,000. At the end of the day Fabiola gave us a map from one of the premium hotels that detailed excursions. You can climb 3 of the volcanoes. The prominent Licancabur volcano is 2-day trip overnighting in Bolivia at 4,500 meters with a serious 1,400 meter climb the next day. Day trip climbs are 500 meters to 18,381 foot Toco or 600 meters to 17,738 foot Soquete. These are probably the easiest high altitude hikes in the world due to high trailheads and almost no snow/ice.
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