Week 16 – These last days have been basically focused on driving south toward Patagonia, the main goal of our trip.
Starting from San Pedro de Atacama, we crossed desert, desert, and again desert… Behind each hill we were hoping for grass, trees, ocean, life! But it was again desert, desert, desert. Sometimes we had the surprise of discovering a dust-covered city in which miners, gas station and trucks looked like survivors of the end of the World. Giant opened sky mines were present everywhere and I saw trucks bigger than any of those I’ve ever seen before!
For the nights, we always went back to the coast taking refuge in one of these oasis cities nested on the ocean. Here life appears back to normal!
We finally reached the Elqui Valley where the famous Pisco (Chilean alcohol) is produced. How strange was it to find this green grassy valley surrounded by dry mountains signing the end of the Atacama desert!
After few days of rest, to recover from our desert-phase, we have continued to Santiago in order to finalise some settings in our car before resuming our journey to Patagonia!
