The Driest Place On Earth!!!

We based ourselves in the city of Salta for a couple of nights but before heading any further south in Argentina we decided to make a small detour which turned out to be quite an extraordinary decision.
 

Death Valley in the Atacama Desert

A long but spectacular 12 hour bus journey across mountain passes, salt lakes and finally the Argentinean border, we arrived in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth.

After being dumped at the border we finally checked in to our pre-booked accommodation in the small, dusty desert town of San Pedro only to discover that the idiots had let our room to someone else although they never admitted it. They did however, give us a lift to a cheaper alternative place which we were grateful for as prices are stupidly high and this was a typical example. Noisy, dirty and no better than camping but we were happy to tolerate this in order to see the stunning surrounding landscape. We had just enough time to dart into one of the many ‘gourmet’ restaurants who charge gourmet prices but lack one vital ingredient, gourmet food.

Next morning we booked our return bus to Salta and our tour for that afternoon before settling down in a café for a few hours. Unbeknown to us, this was the calm before the proverbial storm.

The spectacular stom over the driest place on earth

Along with our Canadian guide we headed out just a few kilometres in beautiful sunshine to Death Valley and the lunar landscape of Moon Valley and it was here that a storm began to close in on us which was a pretty rare event considering where we were. It was spectacular as thunder and lightening, hail and rainbows lit up the unique scenery around us. Somehow we managed to remain right on the edge of it but it was then that a Park Ranger explained that we couldn’t go back as the road behind us had been washed away.

We continued to the main road heading back towards San Pedro where from a vantage point to watch the sunset, we noticed ‘snowdrifts’ of hail and rivers flowing across the desert that weren’t there just a few hours previously. The locals explained that they’d never seen this before and then the police arrived to tell us that the road ahead of us had also been washed away and we were to join the queue and await rescue.

Our bizarre rescue

Yes, we were in the driest place on earth and had to be rescued due to flooding!!!

Along with fifty or so other abandoned vehicles we joined the queue of people who the fire-fighters were helping to climb down a steep and by this time very muddy gully to negotiate a massive 30 foot deep hole where the road used to be. When we reached the other side we were met by the tour owner who explained that San Pedro had bore the brunt of the storm with some houses being washed away, three feet of flood water in places and no power.

Slowly we trudged through the streets of thick mud in complete darkness, everything closed apart from candlelight coming from the mini supermarket who was serving the line of people buying up the final remaining scraps of food and water. As we entered our room we feared the worst but luckily everything was bone dry.

For the next two days there remained no power but a few restaurants slowly began to open until unbelievably another thunderstorm hit the town but with far less rain this time.This delayed the opening of any roads in or out which meant we couldn’t return to Argentina.

Suddenly rumours began about a gravel road opening to the Chilean town of Calama just two hours away where there was a bus depot and airport. We quickly reserved two seats on a minivan and after a further two hour delay, a convoy of one hundred or so vehicles started to ship people out. Our plan was to catch a bus to the capital, Santiago, and cross the border back into Argentina from there as Chile is so expensive. Luckily there were two seats on the next departure to Santiago and we felt strangely elated despite the prospect of the next 21 hours sat on a bus. A few films later and ironically a far better night’s sleep than we’d had the previous three nights, we arrived in civilisation. Or so we thought.

We had two objectives before doing anything else. Book a bus to Mendoza in Argentina where we originally planned to go and to have a desperately needed shower as we were pretty disgusting by then. Santiago is not only a capital city but it’s supposedly the most ‘European’ city in South America so we were stunned to find out there was no running water due to contamination so everything was closed and the final straw was the one and only road to Mendoza was blocked indefinitely.

As we lay our dirty, unwashed bodies on the bed, we contemplated our next move from this expensive place that we had no desire to be in.

We didn’t have a clue.