Kate and Dan: El Norte Grande

On the map, the plan was simple: Drive east to Salar de Huasco, head south on the highway past Salar de Copasa to Callaguasi, take a dirt track to Chela, follow el Rio Loa to Calama and take the highway east to San Pedro de Aticama. We filled up the tank with diesel, grabbed a few small loafs of bread and headed west.

The drive to Salar de Huasco was sandy and bumpy. We thought we were making pretty good time until a Chilean local passed us like we were going backwards (and we were making a good 60 km/hr!)

After an hour of driving, the Andes came into view.

At Salar de Huasco, we reached the highway. It was broad and paved; hopes were high for a smooth journey.

After a few miles on the highway, we reached Salar de Copasa and headed down to the Salar to take a look.

Look I'm working, can I bill expenses?

Kate caught view of something pink in the distance. Flamingos!

And llamas...

We returned to the highway, which abruptly deadended at what appeared to be a border crossing. After some discussion with the guard, we figured out that it was actually a mine entrance, which has all the security of a Mexican military check point. The friendly guard directed us to a nearby police station to discuss how to get to Collaguasi.

The police appeared to be beside themselves to have Americans driving through El Norte Grande to Calama. After plenty of laughs, smiles and handshakes, we headed south on a small dirt road. The police recommended that we go to Ollague instead of Collaguasi. They were pretty sure that the road we planned to drive deadended on a mountain near Chela.

We hit the road with the policeman's advice and immediately were met with a handful of forks in the road with no signage. We chose correctly every time.

Kate's photos of the Collaguasi mine.

We met a fork in the road and a road sign about 45 km from the police station: Ollague (left), Calama (right). The road to the left looked less traveled and Calama was our goal, so we choose to disregard the policeman's advice and headed right.

In this arid land, there is some amazing vegetation; small wild flowers, grasses and this moss that requires only 1/20th inch of water a year.

A few more hours on the road and lots of hill climbing. We were getting a bit nervous about our decision to follow the sign to Calama. Numerous forks in the road were encountered and we had some fun discussions about the merits of "left" vs. "right." Would Kate's last words from her dry, parched mouth be "I told you to go right"?

Navigating. The 1:750k scale map was not a big help.

After two or three hours of seeing nobody, nervously watching the gas gage and not being quite sure if we were on the right track, we met two workers from Schumberger Water Services (of all people to meet in the Atacama desert!) The ensured us that we were headed the right direction. Another hour of driving delivered us at the Rio Loa canyon.