Chile - Protests & Demonstrations

Wednesday, 23 October through Thursday, 31 October 2019

I was going to make this my first post on Chile, but it seems more appropriate to conclude with it.

A few days before we left for Chile, the country erupted into civil unrest. The tipping point was a 3% increase in subway fares in Santiago. The extremely wealthy president (Piñera) is very unpopular, and while Chile is the wealthiest country in Latin America, it has the highest economic inequality (and that says something in a region beset by inequalities bred in colonization). In a few places, notably Santiago and Valparaiso, demonstrations devolved into rioting and looting. Most of the demonstrations we saw were vigorous but non-violent. Most participants were carrying a pot and spoon to beat out the protest beat: da-da-dadada-

Much of the damage was broken windows and advertising displays.

Broken windows on the upper floors of an office building in Santiago.

Most of the grafitti pertained to removing Piñera from office, but the "recipe" for gunpowder was seen occasionally.

Another "violent" graffiti in Santiago.

In the evening many fires were set in the streets. This one was visible from our hotel's 8th-floor restaurant.

Amazingly, in the early morning, many of the protesters came out with brooms and trash bags and cleaned up the mess from the night before. Streets and sidewalks were generally clean by 8 AM.

The nurses' union in a lunch-time protest walk in Santiago.

A peaceful march in Vicuña, showing both whole families walking together, and the protest beat.

Another peaceful march, this time in Antofagasta.

The march in Antofagasta lasted about 6 hours (3 PM to 9 PM), as the protesters walked all around the town. Here they were walking past our hotel.

Even in remote and calm San Pedro the municipal workers were in solidarity with protests throughout Chile. Like most of what we saw, they state emphatically, "No estamos en guerra" ("We are not at war") in contradiction of President Piñera's pronouncement.

As I write this post, protests continue, especially in Santiago and Valparaiso.

Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

Thursday, 31 October 2019

We finally got a chance to walk to the center of San Pedro for a look.

The main plaza of San Pedro. It was quite lively because it was a long-weekend holiday. While "Halloween" is not observed in Chile, 1 November is All Saints Day, a major holiday. There were a lot of small shops set up in the plaza selling artwork of various sorts, t-shirts, and souvenirs.

The town church is an old adobe structure.

The church gates are made of cactus wood. We weren't able to go inside for a peek, but the interior of the church is also made of cactus wood.

This artist was making woodburning designs using a magnifying glass as his source of heat.

This mobile juice stand had wonderful drinks from fresh fruit. Lon had an orange juice, and I had a lemonade with "rica-rica", a local herb.

This dog clearly read the sign that said he was not allowed inside!

Equal time for cats - a black cat on Halloween.

The afternoon brought not-so-distant storm clouds over the Andes in Bolivia and Argentina. They did not make it over to San Pedro.

Storm clouds behind Volcan Licambur.

A crescent moon set as we were having our farewell dinner al fresco. Even this sliver of moon made it difficult to see the magnificent southern hemisphere Milky Way.

Chile - Atacama Landscapes & Wildlife

Thursday, 31 October 2019 (mostly)

Our drive back to San Pedro from El Tatio was filled with amazing landscapes and lots of wildlife.

We stopped along the Rio Putana to view wildlife and the volcano. In the mid-ground is a sulfur mine.

Volcan Putana emits smoke from several vents at the summit.

A closer look at the summit (and smoke) of Volcan Putana.

The marshy river had a lot of nesting waterfowl. These appear to be mostly Puna teals, but there may be a few coots in there as well.

We also saw vicuña in this area.

A bit further down the road we came across more vicuñas.

Dark spots on the desert floor, frequently accompanied by lusher vegetation are evidence of vicuña "bathrooms". Vicuñas prefer to contain their urination and defecation in very specific spots.

We also saw a herd of llamas, which are domesticated animals, not wild ones.

Just past the small town of Machuca, we stopped at another pond to view flamingoes.

This pond was much deeper, as you tell by not seeing the flamingoes' legs. These are Andean flamingoes.

An Andean gull was waiting for any food to drop in the parking lot at El Tatio.

Back on Tuesday, we saw a rhea and chicks. It's the male rhea that incubates eggs and cares for chicks until they mature. (Photo courtesy of Sidney Wolff. My rhea photo isn't nearly this good!)

Chile - Geisers del Tatio

Thursday, 31 October 2019

Geyser basins are always fascinating places to visit. We left early in the morning to arrive at the Tatio geyser basin at sunrise. El Tatio is the third largest geothermal geyser field in the world (after Yellowstone and the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia). While lacking the really tall geysers that can be found in other places, El Tatio makes up for that with its mostly continuously-erupting geysers.

At an altitude of 14,400 ft, El Tatio geyser field is the highest in the word.

Over the years, the geyser field has attracted the interest of a few geothermal energy companies. As of today most of the efforts have been abandoned due to the challenges of working in a high, remote environment and a controversial environmental incident in 2009. However, the drilling that has been done has already altered the hydrology of the area with some geysers being reduced to hot springs and fumaroles. Currently, El Tatio has become a protected area and is under the administration of the local indigenous population.

The highest geyser reaches about 10 m (33 ft) in height.

The geyser field was quite crowded with tourists. Walkways through the basin were lined with rocks.

A small geyser erupts.

Most of the time mineral deposits were smooth because of the water flowing over them, but there were places where jagged crystals also appeared.

This geyser had a unique foamy appearance - very different from the other geysers and hot springs.

Another small geyser / hot spring.

Algae and bacteria give some of the hot springs interesting colors.

Deposits around the water source for a hot spring.

A classic geothermal hot spring. Water was flowing from this spring at a significant rate, but it did not bubble up like most of the other pools of hot water.

Chile - Mars Valley & Moon Valley

Wednesday, 30 October 2019

We had an afternoon excursion to two sites: Mars Valley (Valle de Marte, also known as "Death Valley", Valle de la Muerte) and Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna).

Moon Valley (Valle de Marte, Valle de la Muerte)

This forbidding landscape is a former sulfur mine.

The dune at the left in the photo above is a popular sand-boarding location.

A closer look at the sandstone bluffs at the edge of the valley.

A panaoramic view of the valley.

Moon Valley (Valley de la Luna)

Moon Valley has mountains of sandstone and salt.

We started our tour at the end of the road and made our way back to the main road. Our first stop had some interesting "hoodoos". This set is called "The Three Marias" (Las Tres Marias). These figures have been vandalized, especially the one at the left which has been knocked down.

Another nearby hoodoo.

Salt domes found in the same location.

A former salt mine.

A close-up of the salt.

A sandstone ridge with lots of small faults visible in the layers of sediments.

Rugged landscape along the park road.

View down the valley towards San Pedro. Volcan Licambur is in the distance.