On 9 November then we go back and have the city with the dusty streets, the bars with cool music and the many tourists, San Pedro de Atacama on the Ruta 23 heading west.
No Dornengebuesch, not a cactus, absolutely nothing waechst here in this knochentrockenen area.
There is only sand, stones and wind, the dust of countless mines many kilometers to pay.
The sky is steel, the sun is burning and it is still cold.
The route straight monotone, almost hypnotic einschlaefernd. It depends, and the idea just Versorgungs-LKW's mine, we entgegendonnern reissen us from the Tagtraeumen.
So it goes for hours.
Finally, a diversion, a construction site;
Vermumte workers beckon us to have two times already, and turn it again in the sixth step further towards infinity ....
Suddenly, the dense traffic and we substantially forward of the city of Calama us where the largest opencast mine is the World: Chuquicamata.
8,000 people work in this 4km long, 2km wide and 730m deep hole from the copper herausgebaggert.
On a visit, we then but, since we are not just comfortable campsite of Calama in icy temperatures three days yelled must hold out. It was just Friday afternoon and the next Tour would only on Monday afternoon, and so we threw halt a look at the huge mountain of rubble and then drove on through the wind and dust.
Suddenly it went in a number of curves abwaerts, we lost 1500 elevation meters to a few kilometers, and already we were on the coast of the Pacific in Tocupilla.
After weeks in the Wueste did the sight of so much water really good, although it by the Humboldt current viiiiel too cold for swimming.
Plants are there but not here. The Atacamawueste extends to the sea.
The giant condors gliding majestaetisch in the sky, pelicans fly so close on the water that they almost to the abdomen, the waves beruehren and Moewen bicker loud chattering on the beach.
We presented the tent between the rocks near the water and found along the road even just so much wood that on the evening for a knisterndes fire ranged in front of us and swept the sea ...
Along the coast it continued towards the south, to the right of the Ocean, left the Wueste.
We ueberquerten the Suedlichen turning circle and reached the 225,000 inhabitants Antofagasta City, the two days after we had left by a severe earthquake erschuettert.
Next up was deserted by Wueste inland.
We visited the National Park Pan de Azucar at the Coast, we are not just pulled from the stool. Apart from a dead seal on the beach, there was not much to see and for a boat trip to the islands with penguins and seals to us, it was foggy.
Next up was through dense fog along the coast.
We made station in Copiapo, a green oasis little further inland, where the fog does not seem to add, at the southern end of the Atacamawueste. It has fields and Weinstoecke but unfortunately no camping.
We have our tent at a restaurant with a pool in the garden up, and because it was so cozy we stayed two days.
There were even real grass for a long time and again insects. In Wueste, there was not even flying.
Another piece further direction sueden and slowly we leave the Desierto de Atacama.
The air here is very clear and dry and there is at a height of about 1000m never clouds or fog. That is why so many observatories on the mountain and one of them, we want to visit and, therefore, drove on the Ruta 41 heading east, along the Rio Elqui through a green valley to Vicuña, where we are very close to the Observatorio Mamalluca a campsite with a magnificent view down on the valley and up to the stars found.
We look forward to the view through the telescope ....
