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A quicky in Nothern Chile, twins and altitude sickness in Biofera Lauca.

Flag Chile

Sunday, August 19 2012

8 years, 28 days

Arica, Chile

About Travel Photography,
Colors of the World.

Manfred is creator of ThisFabTrek.com, travel photography, a travel blog and a photography blog (a journey from 2004 to 2013). 'I set out to see the colors of the world, always I try to capture the colors'.

Seeing, is understanding, so I report and photograph, but formost enjoy and live those different conceptions of life (all that TV [and the web] cannot give). I reject jealousy, animosity, bigotry. Be free!

Manfred in the desert of the Western Sahara

The mind, when pondering at night and always asked those questions. What am I doing in corporate wonderland of bank, university, office or church? Who is the other animal asleep deep inside, the thinker, punk, creative, or Indian, vagabond and healer, maybe artist, writer, photographer, traveler, globetrotter? Oh God, dare you to think. When I saw the lies, gambles and manipulations I follow the old dream and set out for the journey of life lived, the journey to see the colors of the world.

During years on the road I have taken the turns as they came along, and realized one thing: Only such a small part of the planet can be explored and such a vast land and sea mass will always remain unknown, to me; many swamps, jungles, deserts and oceans will never be traveled. But then I am father of twin boys, Daniel and David, my most important, and I show them some of the wonders and colors out there.

ThisFabTrek, Photography and Journey, the Stories from the Road and Life around the World, stopped in August 2013 after more than 9 years, Love and Peace.

Last vehicle.

G20, Chevy Gladiator.

Chevrolet Gladiator G20, The boys in Cordillera Blanca, Peru.
The boys and Chevy van, Peru.

The G20, the vehicle that came to me for the Americas adventures.

6 wheeled Land Rover.

Land Rover Defender 6x6
Link to Foley

The vehicle of the Africa adventures, a Foley 6-Wheeled Land Rover Defender.

Before, the MB307.

Manfred and MB307
Journey, Middle East.

The vehicle of the Middle-East and North-Cape Journeys. See all vehicles.

Daniel and David with nanny Aisha, the best we ever had, black African Woman carrying white twin babies, in Bamako, Mali.

Current Vehicle 55,357km

Trekking 986km

Train 7,015km

Land Rover 73,588km

Other cars 196,440km

Travel Blog

contains Festival/Fiesta/Art photography.

"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo.

"What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it, to tell the tale." Living to Tell the Tale - Gabriel García Márquez.

"They never taught wandering in any school I attended. ... they never taught the art of writing a book, either. It's all so mysterious."
"Wandering is an art in itself. Wandering and writing don't mix"
"Writing demands commitment and if one thing your wanderer is allergic to is that very quality of commitment, for once one is committed he runs that very risk of failure ..." Wanderer - Sterling Hayden.

"Photography enables you to grasp a place first time round. ... Photography is a means of exploration, it's a vital part of travel, almost as essential as a car or a plane. " - Wim Wenders.

"The worst prejudice we acquire during our youth is the idea that life is serious. Children have the right instincts: they know that life is not serious, and treat it as a game..." , Egon Friedell.

"How far you gonna go. Before you lose your way back home" - Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Achtung Baby, U2.

"If you want to be a hero well just follow me." - Working Class Hero, John Lennon.

"When I think of all the things I have done, I know that it's only just begun." - I love you, Lou Reed.

"One does not escape the Sahara - the Sahara let's you go or not" - Touareg.

"Planet earth is blue and there`s nothing I can do" - This is Ground Control to Major Tom, David Bowie.

"Glory for the crazy people/in this stupid world" - Ahmed Fouad Negm.

www.thisfabtrek.com > journey > south-america > chile > 20120819-arica

Arica, volcanoes country.

Map, around Arica, Biofera Lauca, Parinacota Volcano.

Download GPS (KML) track/waypoints.

This is the final push south, as we are obliged to leave Peru after almost 3 months here, we need to quasi, check out and check back in to keep our custom papers and visas clean. But from Arequipa, Chile is still more than 400kms away, a desert road through what is already the Atacama desert, in its wider definition. A lot of military bases and training grounds are all around, Peruvians are almost paranoid about their southern neighbor. There was a war once, war of the Pacific 1879-83, still today the tabloids spread fear that Chile's buying up Peruvian industries, recolonizing, preparing for war. These are the xenophobic words...

Via Moquegua and Tacna we get to the border, Friday 17th of August we enter Arica and Chile. And again I find it hard to tune my ear to a new Spanish, and set up a new Claro phone; the same company in all, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, the way to set up internet is completely different in all. Make it complicated and the customer will stick to you...

It was in Arequipa that the boys walked into one of the many travel agencies and came out with a brochure of Arica province, that features volcanoes, lagunas, vicunas, snow. Ever since I had a plan to look for those in Chile, here in Arica on the coast, this evening I surf Google Earth and I come up with this 'great' project to go to Bolivia and La Paz and then back to Puna, Peru, via the high border Andes.

This is already part of Atacama desert.
My road desert, northern Chile.
Up on Routa 11, to Putre.
Northern Chile, the boys and van.
Near Pukara de Copaquia.
The boys, Chile.

So on Saturday morning we get some more fuel and buy the bare minimum of supplies, keep some Argentinian money and head out. From the desert coast we follow desert Lluta valley, and then somewhere right and steep and up to 2,000m there is no vegetation at all. Then we get a few all dry scrubs and some giant treelike browningia candelaris (wiki), but I fail to take the picture, searching for the one cactus, near the road and well formed, then they all disappear, above 2,500m. All of this is the great Atacama desert.

Pukará de Copaquilla then is above 3,100m, a settlement, fortress, heaps of stones, pre-colonial.

To Putre and on we continue, higher to Volcan Tarapatra and there are more volcanoes behind, Parinacota, Pomerape, all snow capped and they light up in late light and 'somewhere there are lakes' I try to lure my boys, and 'look, Vicunas', to raise their excitement and I do not realize that today their tiredness and lackluster is of a different cause.

Vicunas, northern Chile.
Vicunas.
Snowcapped Pomerape and Parinacota volcanoes.
Altiplano and volcanoes.
Llamas in front of volcanoes Pomerape and Parinacota, head home over the Altiplano. Northern Chile.
Llamas head home, Pomerape and Parinacota.

It has been such a quick ascent into the high Andes, and I am breathless and dizzy too, we reached our destination, Biofera Lauca, 4,500m shows the GPS, the volcano-scape can't be more impressing, Bolivia is near, somewhere over the volcanoes is Laguna Chugará, for tomorrow, I still think... Village Parinacota and its white stone church shines while sun sets, and where I had planned to stay for night. D&D have been complaining for a while but Daniel now shows signs of heart racing, 'too much air in the lungs' he puts it, and my poor baby really suffers, such is altitude sickness.

Llamas in Atacama.
Llamas in Atacama.
Volcanoes Pomerape and Parinacota over a blue stream high up, northern Chile.
Pomerape and Parinacota.
Late sun and a bit of shade, deep bleu sky on Parinacota white church, up on 4,600m, Northern Chile,
Parinacota church.

No way we can stay on here, it would be bitterly cold anyway, so we retreate to lower Putre (3,600m) and the symptoms are gone, and they play and they have a pizza in a completely overrated restaurant on plaza de armas, I eat nothing, better so. And damn it, after pizza, when we prepare to sleep in the van, Daniel suffers again and I massage his chest and back and tell him to concentrate on his breath and he manages to fall asleep. By 11 p.m. he wakes me, still 'too much air', and we pack it up and I drive us to lower grounds, another 2 hours of curves at night and the many trucks pushing over the Andes towards Bolivia, and I shout back to David to report to me how Daniel does. At 1,900m of elevation I park near the road and all is quiet, the little mountain devils, we left them in the high Andes, and we sleep a sweet night's sleep until sun wakes us early.

My Bolivia plans are dead and we have not even seen Laguna Chungará but the signs on the wall were clear: Go home man, it's a long way back north, bring them home safely!

Coming from above, Lluta valley is full of fog, early morning. Northern Chile.
Lluta valley and fog.
Early morning, misty. David dirty face.
D&D, back on beach in Arica.
Beautiful creature.
Starfish.

The early Sunday morning we dive into the Lluta valley and it is is still full of fog and also in Arica all is hazy, cold, the morning beach not inviting. It clears and the wind slows, I force myself to just do nothing, let the boys play.

I like this Chile already, I gaze out at the ocean and imagine in the warm sun, what this 4,000kms long country might be like, anything could be found here, just not now, but hopefully later in the year... 20kms south from the border all is so different from Peru; every country in Latin America so-far has its own characteristic, they're all different. There is no police in the streets here, Peru has loads everywhere. And Toño was right, the food south of the border is terrible, it is indeed hard after the Peruvian gourmet cuisine.

And there while I ponder, I contemplate whether I should just head on, south and fly home from Santiago... but I force myself to stand still for the moment...

Rocks, brown and white coatsline, Chile..
Just south from Arica.
But the vultures are much more visible., south of Arica, northern Chile.
Mountain is white from bird's droppings.
South of Arica is a rock and the birds build their nests on it and ever since they shat and shat till the rock turned white. Northern Chile.
White mountain.

Blue skies in the afternoons make us explorers once more and we drive south, just a little to see the cliffs that drop into the Pacific Ocean, the white, full of bird's shit, rocks. Yes, beautiful country, another one, and I hope to see it in full one day...

Desert colors.
Back in Peru.

Monday we are back in Peru.

www.thisfabtrek.com > journey > south-america > chile > 20120819-arica

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