The road to Bolivia

Patricia had to come back to Arica for some field work so we took the opportunity to get out of Santiago to spend a few days up North. After walking around town on Saturday (and going back on site to check up on a contractor in the afternoon) we had a free day yesterday and decided last minute to hire a car and drive up into the mountains. Cycling would have been nice but wouldn't have got us very far in only one day, unfortunately.

Car hire turns into a 'Chile Experience' where we can't reserve a car Saturday night because it's too short notice. We check the opening hours of the Airport branch and show up as soon as they are supposed to open. But of course nobody is there. Various phone calls change the situation from...

• 8:13 "nobody there and nobody can help" to
• 8:22 "someone may show up at 8:30 but it could be 9:00" to
• 9:10 "there are no cars available today, sorry [...and now please go away!]", to
• 9:30 (after we pointed out that there are loads of cars in the Europcar car park): "there may be cars available, but someone else may want them on Monday" .... [are you serious?!], to
• 9:55 some Europcar guy leasurly walking up to the counter and giving us some crap about Sunday being a 'festive day' in this country and besides we should have made a reservation, blah-blah.

And they call themselves world leaders in car rentals! Anyway, half past ten or so we finally have a car, and off we go...

We're driving east on the CH-11 road which winds its way up across the Andes towards Bolivia. It's full of lorries ferrying goods from the harbour in Arica to La Paz, 500km or so from here. We weren't very organised and had only figured out that there is a small village called Putre at 3500m above sea level which might be worth visiting, some hot springs, and Lauca National Park. Though setting off from sea level we were also conscious of the risk of ascending too high too quickly.

Putre turned out to be a charming little village with narrow streets and, although catering for the needs of tourists like ourselves, somehow still felt 'off the beaten track' (...psst, don't tell anyone!). Same with the hot springs (Terma de Jurasi), very natural setting and basic. We were tempted for a moment by the thought that a little more work could turn this into a quite an attraction. But then again it was nice as it was and the fact that other hot springs in the area are more popular had its advantages.

After a relaxing bath and some lunch in the village we headed further east and higher up into the National Park. At roughly 4600m asl, when we eventually got an impressive view of the twin cones of the Nevados de Payachata volvanoes, we decided to head back down. I am pleased to report that altitude sickness didn't catch us (or vice versa).

Termas de Jurasi

We can eat here! Veggie food in Putre.

Apparently there is evidence of human occupation in the area around Putre dating back millenia, those ancient folks must have liked the hot springs, too. 

Lauca National Park - Nevados de Payachata in the background

One of the peaks in the background is 6200m, the other 6100m above sea level.

Vicuñas - the wild cousins of the Alpaca

On the way back we stopped at a Hare Krishna community not far from Arica to have a look at some of the dome shaped cob (I think?) buildings and the veggie gardens. They appeared to be in the middle of a ceremony so we didn't stick around too long as we didn't want to intrude. The brief impression we got was that of a little paradise quite similar to the 'eco village' idea which has been in the back of our minds for some time now. Maybe at some point we'll have to get together with a few of you guys, buy some land and start our own community...