Arriving in Atacama

Serial flights don’t scare me. Pretty much everyone with whom I had shared my flight schedule with (SMF to LAX to ATL to SCL to CJC plus a 90 minute drive) had exclaimed how overwhelming and intense it was. But to me, it’s just a liner progression and I don’t understand how others see it as stressful if the layovers are well timed. I had a frustrating time trying to pack carry-on for this trip but finally managed with just a few sacrifices. Hopefully I won’t need those heavier weight hiking pants I sacrificed as a trade-off for my collapsible travel tea kettle!

My travel anxiety didn’t hit until I was leaving home, and then mainly because I always feel so guilty leaving my fur babies. The hour flight delay to LA didn’t help but it could have been worse. My biggest upset on that flight was the realization that I hated my LifeStraw water bottle, the only vessel I have brought with me. I ALWAYS have a water bottle with me and I was terrified that I had about 15 more hours of air time and over a week ahead of me with a crappy water bottle.

I checked into the Hyatt Regency LAX for my overnight layover and was quite impressed. I felt silly over the giant suite upgrade they gave me for a room I’d be in from only 11:30pm until 9am the following morning but their service, rooms, and breakfast were all on point. Tucked into my room for the night I developed a plan for my water bottle situation.

First thing the next morning I opened my trusty Target app and found a Camelback water bottle, with delivery available between 9 and 10am. I threw in some cold meds as a contingency since its ALWAYS a good idea to travel with some, wrote a pleading note in the comments section about my time crunch, and crossed my fingers that the order would arrive in time. And it did!!! I had planned a 9:30 departure to the airport and at 9:15 I received an email that my order had been delivered.

LAX was as much of a cluster as one would expect from LAX. Even flying out of a domestic terminal for the first leg of my flight, the security area was a mess and the CLEAR service was a disgrace. But at least there was a nice lounge to pass some time before my hour-delayed flight. The flight wasn’t memorable and I watched a couple episodes of You to pass the time before touching down in Atlanta. I’m not overly impressed with this newest season.

The hour delay meant that I only had a two-hour layover in Atlanta which worked out perfectly to go sit in the lounge (they have a popcorn machine in there!) and have dinner with a nice view of the bird that I was about to board. I was quite impressed with the Delta lounge meal; the salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, and bbq chicken were all quite delicious. I could have eaten on the plane but since my flight wasn’t departing until 10pm it was a clear choice to me that I’d rather try to sleep as soon as I could instead of have a super late dinner and then try to get a few hours sleep. With DeltaOne I had high hopes of decent sleep.

On time, I boarded and settled into my little corner of the universe on the plane, enjoying a glass of bubbly as the rest of the plane was boarded. I figured it would help me sleep. I was disappointed and surprised that there wasn’t a bottle of water at my seat but at least I had my new camelback! Immediately trying to get myself into sleep mode I took my sleep aid and read until the plane had leveled out and I could lay my seat into a flat bed.

With a 9 hour flight I had set a goal for a solid 6 hours of sleep. The glass of bubbly definitely worked against me. I should have known better, I do know better. I tossed and turned fitfully and uncomfortably never falling into a real sleep until maybe the last hour or so. With only an hour left in the flight I gave up on getting any more rest and joined the waking world. As I was wriggling my bra back on, the flight attendant noticed I was awake and poked her head over the wall of my little suite to ask what I wanted for breakfast, not even flinching at my act of contortion. Only on a plane do you wake up, order while putting your bra on, and have food immediately sat in front of you.

As the sun rose, the Andes began to dominate the views with its domineering peaks, some disappearing into the clouds. I was exhausted but getting excited!

I cursed my new over-priced Away luggage as I pulled it out of the overhead and vowed that as soon as I get home it’s going back. It sucks, the handles are so tight and narrow that there is no way to comfortably grab ahold to pull it down. On the ground in Santiago, I made it through customs with my irritating luggage, and amazingly with all its contents intact! My research yielded that Chilean customs is very tight regarding food, with honey on a strict no-go list. I properly declared my food, just waiting for them to confiscate at least some of it, especially my little honey spoons, but after my secondary x-ray screening and declaration that I had no fruit they let me through! I was nervous about declaring but realize that it’s ok to declare! And better than not declaring and getting slammed with a fine if I had gotten caught.

The vulture taxi drivers as I departed the international terminal were actually quite helpful, with more than one pointing me in the right direction when I shook my head and said “domestic terminal.” I felt like I was walking to a ghost town with no signs of life as I entered the domestic terminal but finally a few people were milling around as I got closer to security. The airport lounge was disappointing but at least I had a quiet place to sit and charge my phone.

Boarding my fourth flight I was heading back north, and quite pleased that I was able to manage boarding all four flights without any giving me grief over my carry-on. My new little crossbody that I am already quite a fan of would barely squeeze into the back of my pack, totally sticking out, but it worked to get me on the plane with my irritating luggage, backpack, and the crossbody! LATAM is a stickler of an airline, with agents walking through the terminal measuring luggage and checking individual’s tickets for their carry-on allowance but with my “priority” seat choice I definitely got more leeway than others.

On the 90ish minute flight to Calama, the nice lady sitting next to me took it upon herself to be my translator, even though the flight attendant totally spoke English, and guide, telling me about the region we were flying over. Turns out, many moons ago she actually spent a year working as a guide at Explora Atacama and was headed there herself. Given that my FOUR emails and phone call to the lodge inquiring how the heck I’m supposed to find my driver when I arrived went unanswered I was pleased to have met someone else going to the same place who had a better idea of the process. I was getting excited, learning about the region, watching the landscape emerge out the airplane window, and even the Cubano sandwich they served as a meal was really quite delicious!

Finding my driver turned out to be simple and during the 90ish minute drive to San Pedro de Atacama he was a wealth of information about the area. Who know that Calama was known for copper mining. And that there are still areas you cannot enter because of active mine fields leftover from foreign conflicts many decades ago!

Finally, I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama and pulled up to Explora! From the moment the van pulled up this well-oiled machine of a lodge was spinning. As soon as I stepped out of the van I was greeted, by name, my Maureen, the manager of the property. She welcomed me and led me up the stairs into the reception area to hand me off to another manager who had my paperwork and room key waiting. Part of the paperwork included the liability and risk information for the various explorations, and signing off that I understood the altitudes of each option. We confirmed my details, and she made a frantic call on the radio as I asked her to confirm my feather-free bedding, a very important detail I had included in my pre-arrival dossier that Explora guests must complete before arriving. She showed me to my room and asked if it was ok if the housekeeping staff was in there to de-feather my room. Of course it wasn’t done. And of course it was ok since it HAD to be done. While housekeeping changed my bedding she gave me a brief tour of the property and informed that at 3:15 I would have an orientation with a guide and begin planning my week. There was an exploration leaving at 4 that I would be able to join.

The room was actually nicer than I had anticipated. As a luxury exploration lodge they are clear that their priority is for their guests to get out and connect with the desert so they purposefully keep the rooms more basic, but it exceeded my expectations and was better than what I had expected based on the website and reviews. I am especially excited for the giant jacuzzi tub. A welcome kit was waiting for me with a book about Explora, bookmark, luggage tag, and trekking kit that contains blister band aids, tissue, compostable bags, chapstick, and hand sanitizer.

By the time I finished unpacking and freshened up a tad it was almost time for my orientation. I was anxious to get this show started! During my orientation, a guide went over a brief slideshow about Explora and their philosophies of connection and conservation. He also covered some housekeeping, such as always meet at least 10 minutes early for a scheduled exploration for gear check and that each evening to double-check the posted list of everyone’s next day excursions to confirm the departure time.

After my orientation, I was handed off to another guide, Magdalena, and a trainee guide, Chris, to begin planning my week. They sat me down at a glass table with a map of the region and began by giving me my two choices that were available for this afternoon, I chose the visit to Laguna de Chaxa to see the flamingos amongst the salt flat. With that detail set, I told them my priorities were hiking and high altitude training. Magdalena immediately took it upon herself to lay out her idea for how each of my days should go. I was annoyed because she wasn’t providing me any details or asking me for any feedback, and rushing to try to get it laid out before my 4pm departure. They don’t know better than me what I want to do.

The entire reason I chose the Atacama region instead of going to Patagonia was to climb Volcan Lascar, one of the more active volcanoes in Chile, on my birthday, and I was heartbroken to learn that it was closed off and currently inaccessible. Their website had indicated other explorations that weren’t currently available but had nothing noted about the volcano closures. Apparently, Lascar actually had a little eruption about three months ago and has been showing signs of extreme pressure and activity, indicating that a large eruption could occur any time. Not only did this mean that Lascar was “closed” but so are all the other volcanoes in the same range. About half the itinerary I had been planning on before my arrival was out the window. Magdalena was completely tone deaf to both my disappointment and my irritation with how she was trying to steer me towards specific explorations without providing me any meaningful details or listening to my feedback. Thankfully, Chris was less tone deaf, stepped in, and helped me put together the first days of an itinerary that I was beginning to feel good about. Each day I would basically be going a little bit higher in altitude to acclimate.

Even with Magdalena trying to irritatingly rush me, we still didn’t get through planning my full week before I had to leave for my mini introduction excursion. Running back to my room to grab my pack, I made it to the excursion meeting area in the front lobby and was shown important details such as where the water bottle filling station was and how they set out tables of snacks for guests to pack before we head out; nuts, banana chips, dried mango, fresh fruit, nut and seed energy bars, and dark chocolates.

I was introduced to my guide, whose name I cannot remember, and the other four guests that I would be excursioning with; the couple I met on the airplane, a young man from Argentina whose family was arriving later that evening, and another young woman who I know nothing about because she spoke not a lick of english. Our guide started by leading us to a large map on the wall and explaining where we would be going, how long the drive would take (about 40 minutes each way), and what to expect. We were then led out to a van and introduced to our driver.

My guide was nice enough but her voice was so annoying. Her and the Argentinian were speaking about some drink she had with her and they invited me to try it. I have no idea what it was but it was some highly caffeinated tea concoction typical of Argentina, and oh so very bitter.

A few minutes down the road I had my first llama sighting! A llama was standing right on the edge of the road with a few friends behind him and a couple more on the opposite side. Our driver stopped so we could get out and see them closer. One did not look happy to see us there and I hoped I was out of spitting range.

A few minutes after leaving the llamas, our van stopped again. This time at a police checkpoint. A heavily armed police officer approached our driver and asked for all his paperwork. I figured this was normal and we’d be on our way quickly but the officer was not waiving us on and instead was reviewing the paperwork and asking our driver for more information. I turned to the guide and asked if these checkpoints were normal. Nope, they are not. We are very close to the Bolivia border, she guessed that most likely something happened at the border and they are looking for a specific person or vehicle. Awesome. The van started to move but only to pull off the side of the road. Our driver stepped out of the vehicle to go with the police. I turned to the guide again, “can’t we just slip them a few bucks and be on our way?” Nope, apparently in Chile if you try to bribe the police they throw you in jail for the night. My guide told me a story about “a gringo like you” who had recently ended up in jail that way. That was good information to bank. After a couple more minutes our guide suggested we all get out of the van and walk to see a little river up ahead instead of just sitting around. So we did and a few minutes later our van eventually pulled up to meet us and off we went, our driver free and clear.

Finally, we arrived at Laguna de Chaxa. It was a very short, easy, and rather boring walk around the salt flats with our guide going on in her raspy over-used voice about stuff I already knew; how flamingoes get their color, brine shrimp, blah blah blah. It didn’t help that the salt was stinging my eyes. There were three types of flamingoes in the lagoon, Chilean, Andean, and James but they were mostly pretty far away. In one area they were a little closer but it wasn’t anything overwhelmingly exciting.

There was no magic until the sun started to set and cast a pinkish purple haze over the mountains and surrounding landscape. Lascar volcano had her head in the clouds and and her snowy peak turned pink in the evening light. It was a beautiful sunset. Even though we didn’t speak the same language the other solo woman in the group and I could speak a universal language of enjoying the beauty of the landscape and documenting the moment by taking pictures of each other. My adventure contentment was beginning to fill my heart.

Arriving back at the lodge I noticed the chalkboard by the front entrance that I had overlooked earlier. It showed all the explorations happening the following day and their departure times. The way it works is that each guest can select any of the myriad explorations they offer each day so after all the next day’s planning is done and they know which explorations are taking place that they update the board.

During my mini property tour upon arrival, I had been informed that dinner tonight was a special event, all guests were to meet in the bar area at 8:30 and together be led down to their Quincho, a construction of the Lickanantay culture, made of adobe and natural materials. Back in my room after the Chaxa visit, I was sooooo tired. The housekeeping staff was just arriving at my door to do my turndown service but I needed to shower and get ready for dinner so I declined their services; before turning away the housekeeper handed me a chocolate truffle. The long travel night and day had left me exhausted by that point so I figured the truffle could be just the pick-me-up I need to get me thru dinner. And OMG, that brown sugar center filled truffle was one of the best that I have EVER had! I need to figure out how to get more of them!!!

A few minutes prior to 8:30 I joined the other lodge guests in the lobby and Manager Maureen led us all out the back of the lodge and down a long dark path. She walked beside me and told me that there were two other solo female travelers at the lodge right now and she would push us to sit together at this communal dinner. Walking with Maureen, I was the first guest to walk into the Quincho and wow! Staff greeted the guests holding trays of juices and assorted empanadas. A large salad bar covered one table. A large grill was filled with trays upon trays of meats and vegetables. Two carcasses roasted over an open flame. I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure what kind of animal the carcasses are. At first I thought pig but guanaco makes more sense so maybe guanaco? I don’t know.

As promised, Maureen told me where she “suggested” I sit and then shuttled Lynn my way. Lynn is 63 years old, retired, loves to hike and travel solo, and is continuing her trip into La Paz to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. She is intense and I admire her tenacity. Joan and Sykes, a much older couple from London, and Jackie, the other solo woman, from Luxembourg, filled the rest of our table. I ate whatever the carcass over open flame was, chicken, beef empanadas (that I don’t think were actually beef, much gamier), trout, potatoes, some delicious casserole thing that I have no clue what it is, and salad. As if the magnificent feast wasn’t enough, a large group of musicians emerged, with dancers joining them a few minutes later. One of the waitresses stood off on the side dancing in her own little world as the musicians played and the dancers gyrated around the open space, changing costumes between songs. I wish I’d had the energy to stay longer but I hadn’t really slept in about 48 hours and I have a 7:45am departure time in the morning so at 10pm I called it a night and snuck out of the Quincho and back to my room.

Tonight’s magnificent sunset and dinner entertainment have been quite the welcome to the Atacama desert and I am excited to dive into what this adventure has in store.