Our last day included a stop in what was almost a little ghost town in Chile. Only seven people still live there, but this little doggie sure found a friend!
And finally it’s time to leave the Salt Flats and head back to civilization. First, though – because it’s a long way from there to anywhere – we had one more day to cross the border into Chile and spend one more night out in the middle of nowhere.
After four days there’s not a lot more to say about the sights. Llamas. More flamingoes. Mountains. Shipping containers for eating and sleeping. Smooth sailing while driving on the salt flats themselves but then plenty of bumpiness once we were back on gravel roads.
We saw a lot of llamas while traveling through Bolivia. Heck, we even learned how to tell the difference between an llama and an alpaca!
One interesting observation. When we crossed the border back into Chile our driver and crew changed. Bolivia doesn’t like Chilean workers coming over so when we were in Bolivia there was a Bolivian crew (driver, cook, helper) who traveled with us. When we got to the border we said goodbye to them and picked up the Chilean crew – driver and cook – for the last night. We were excited about the new cook, a guy in a real chef’s outfit, suggesting even better food. Alas, it was not to be. Notwithstanding the chef-looking clothes, we liked the ordinary Bolivian woman’s food better. There’s a lesson there somewhere.
One more shipping container to sleep in. (Though from the windows there you can tell this was the dining car; the sleepers had no real windows…)
Sunset at our campsite
So that was it. From the Salt Flats we drove across the border into Chile and spent one last night in a shipping container. Our guide Danilo had figured out that we definitely like to hike so he worked some pleasant hikes into our journey and then finally the last day we drove into Iquique, the strange beach town in northern Chile. I say strange just because, well, everything about it seems strange. Of course what we loved most after five days was having Internet access again. My God, how different life is when you can just look at the news or weather or Facebook whenever you want. Civilization again!
After just one night in Iquique we flew to Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s biggest city, before we head on to Paraguay. Our trip through the Salt Flats and all that hiking was fabulous, but it’s also good to be back to normal.
This was the tiny town we stopped in for a break. Danilo told us only seven people live here, five adults and two little girls whom we met.
Notwithstanding the tiny population, the Chilean government had invested in this unusually attractive central square. It was genuinely nice, though it’s hard to imagine the justification of the investment for seven people, when their houses are little more than shacks.
More llamas on a hike
We were still surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains
One more shot of a gorgeous sunset
And then finally, as we were flying out of Iquique back to Bolivia, we saw this sign while checking in for our flight. We’ve traveled a lot; I get that you’re not supposed to have hatchets or grenades or dynamite on a plane. But what the hell is a guitar doing on this list???
https://airodyssey.files.wordpress.com/2005/08/airplane-guitarlarge21.jpg
Guitars are very dangerous on airplanes, according to the movie Airplane!
God I loved that movie!