The Atacama Desert is a land of extremes. Located along Chile’s Pacific Coast, the 600 mile stretch of land is one of the driest places on the planet. It is so dry in fact, that much of the region has not seen rain of any kind in hundreds of years of recorded history. And the places that do see rain, average just 1 millimeter of precipitation per year.
This remote, seldom visited region, is found west of the Andes Mountains, and in recent years it has become a popular destination for adventure travelers who are drawn to the extreme conditions. The desert is located at high altitude, and there are very few permanent settlements there, which adds to the solitude of the setting. Some of the surrounding mountains actually reach above 20,000 feet, but because of the lack of moisture, they remain free of snow and glaciers.
The solitude and silence of the Atacama is exactly what impressed travel writer Sankha Guha, of the U.K.’s Independent, the most on a recent visit to the desert. While touring the Atacama, Guha found that it was a place that continually challenged your notions of what you know about it. For instance, upon arriving there, it immediately began to rain, which was completely unexpected in a place often described as the “driest desert on Earth.” But even more surprising to Guha was the silence found there, something that is compared to a sensory deprivation chamber, as the place is empty and still. There is little life to be found in this Atacama, but the writer did find plenty of beauty in the bold colors and rock formations that cover the area.
If you’re an adventurous traveler looking for an off the beaten path destination, then perhaps the Atacama should be on your list. If you do go, you’ll find a land of stark beauty and quiet calm, that will stay with you long after you have returned home.
Katie Spotz has big plans for the new year. The 22-year old American is currently in Senegal where she is completing the final preparations for her attempt to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. If everything goes according to plan, she’ll set out on her journey on the first day of 2010, and won’t step back onto dry land for three months.
The young woman from Cleveland, Ohio will depart from Dakar, and cover approximately 2500 miles, with the hopes of arriving in South America, somewhere along the coast of Guiana, in approximately 70-100 days. While out on the ocean, she’ll face huge waves, massive storms, and endless days alone on the water.
Katie will be making her journey on a specially designed 19-foot long rowboat. The boat has a small cabin that can offer some shelter from inclement weather, and specially designed hatches will help keep her gear and equipment dry. Two freshwater tanks are used as ballasts, while offering an emergency water supply, and the solar panels mounted along the deck will help keep Katie’s communications equipment charged, so that she can stay in touch while at sea. She’ll be making updates on her website, and sending back dispatches on her progress once she gets underway.
While the ocean row will be a challenge unlike anything that Katie has done before, she isn’t doing it just for herself. She is using the opportunity to raise funds and awareness of the Blue Planet Run, an organization dedicated to financing projects designed to deliver clean drinking water in remote places across the planet.
To follow along with Katie’s adventure stop by her website where you will find more information on her ocean row and read updates as she prepares to hit the water. Then return in the New Year to track her progress and watch her make an attempt on history. If she is successful, she’ll be the youngest person to ever row solo across an ocean, and the first American to row from Africa to South America.
Standing at a height of 3212 feet, Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world. Located in southern Venezuela’s Canaima National Park, the falls are a UNESCO World Heritage site and are named for Jimmie Angel, an American pilot who first spotted them from the air back in 1933. He would later bring photos to the world of that astounding sight, making the falls famous across the globe. Now, however, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looking to rename the falls, restoring their indigenous name.
Amongst the local Pemon people, Angel Falls is known as Kerepakupai-Meru, which means “waterfall of the deepest place” in their tribal language. On his weekly television show, Chavez, who has a contentious relationship with the United States, asked his countrymen how they felt about the falls being named after the American aviator, and then proposed the change after fumbling with the pronunciation a few times. The Venezuelan President went on to say that the landmark, which is one of his country’s biggest tourist attractions, had been seen by many indigenous people before Angel ever arrived on the scene. He concluded his declaration by saying “No-one should refer to Angel Falls any more.”The falls are fed by the Kerep River, which plunges over the side of the Auyan-tepui. The drop is so massive, that strong mountain winds actually atomize the water before it reaches the ground, turning into a fine mist. That mist does reform at the bottom however and continues the flow of the Kerep, which eventually empties into the Churun River further down stream.
Despite the fact that the falls are a major draw for tourists, there are few resources available to make it an easy place to visit. Going to the falls requires a flight to Canaima camp, where visitors can board small wooden boats during the rainy season, and approach the falls from below. Those that make the trip, are treated to quite the natural wonder.
The current name for that natural wonder is now open to debate.
Street protests are not a common occurrence in Galapagos, but a recent decision by the Ecuadorian government to fight over fishing and illegal fishing by giving fishermen tourist permits – over other residents, who’ve been waiting patiently themselves, many for years – sent locals into the streets armed with pots for banging, loudly. Virtually everyone who’s moved to the Galapagos in recent years has come with hopes of participating in – getting rich off? – the booming tourism industry. With permits greatly reduced, the line of hopefuls is long. That the government is trying to buy off fishermen by letting them jump to the front of the line isn’t sitting well.
Near the front of the protest is a solitary gringo, a sixty-something man in a red polo shirt and khaki shorts, carrying a placard and a megaphone. Jack Nelson’s father came to the Galapagos in 1961, by a thirty-six-foot sailboat; he opened its first hotel. When the son came a few years later, hoping to avoid the U.S. draft and maybe adapt to island life, he never anticipated staying. He went on to become the Galapagos first tourist guide and is still here, watching the place he loves evolve. The hotel has been sold but he still co-owns a dive shop, so is actively interested in who’s getting new tourist permits … and who is not.
“The human population in the Galapagos is doubling every five years. What is really significant about that number is not just the environmental impact or living standards, but it’s political in that the political majority has been here just five years. There are people who don’t know anything about the place, don’t really understand what the issues are but since they have become the majority the government responds to their demands.”
Does he still love the place? “In some ways. It’s certainly still very beautiful but it’s becoming less enjoyable to live here because of the political problems and conflicts and things like increased noise pollution and contamination.
“One thing that’s killing the place is the introduced species that arrive with all the increase in tourism and business. Here’s a great example. A young lady arrived at Baltra with a rose that her boyfriend gave her Quayaquil, a rose with some tissue and foil around the base to keep it damp. At the airport the national park rangers jump her, take it away and burn it with their cigarette lighters because it’s an ‘introduced species.’ Simultaneously at the dock a few miles away a ship is unloading thousands of tons of uninspected cargo – bales, boxes, crates and bags of stuff, much of it carrying invasive species of one kind or another.
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“What do we need? Desperately, better public education about the local issues and economics, in a way people on the street can understand. Pretty presentations with university level vocabularies are meaningless. If people can’t understand where the money is coming from … or not… they don’t care about anything else.
“Education about simple things too, like the problem with the introduction of species. Everybody who comes to live here wants to bring a dog. And not just any dog, but a special breed. One wants a German Shepard, another a Great Dane, another a cocker spaniel. It shows that they don’t really understand the impact of that on this place. It’s not just dogs and cats; we have five new species of introduced gecko living here that are competing with and chasing out the endemic gecko. Which changes the balance for the birds, plants and soil and on and on, a cascade of changes.
“We definitely need stricter migration policies and realistic caps on the number of boats and number of beds and how many times they can turn over each week. Now, for example, a lot of the tourist boats are running what I call the nine-day week. They sell a five-day tour and a four-day tour, which means on a couple days each week they’re doubling up, turning over a lot more tourists than the caps should allow, which raises the pressures on everything. Another problem is that local population is promoting more and more mass market, lower quality tourists because they have no access to the first-class tourists. And mass-market tourism brings heavy environmental impacts for low profit and requires even more infrastructure.
“I think we may be coming to a point where a whole lot of the laws, regulations and policies have to be reformed. When you’re in the tourism business the last thing you want is trouble. Like street protests, for example. Even perceived trouble in a tourist town can cause cancellations and wreck business for a long time. So to avoid ‘trouble’ sometimes we just go along with bad things we see happening around us. But it’s too late to ignore now.”
Earlier in the week we posted a story on 18 of the world’s craziest roads, which featured amazing and downright scary highways from around the globe. Absent from that list is a 770-mile long stretch of pavement that runs from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins, right through heart of Chile’s Patagonia district, that is known as the Carretera Austral.
This lonely and remote highway offers one of the best adventure roadtrips anywhere in the world, with miles of open road, much of still unpaved, surrounded by some of the most striking and dramatic scenery on the planet. Construction began on Carretera Austral, or CH-7 as it is known locally, back in 1976 under the direction of General Augusto Pinochet. The route was opened to traffic a dozen years later, and while primary construction was completed in 1996, new extensions continue to be added today.
The road cost over $300 million to build, and yet it provides access to just 100,000 people who live in and visit the area. Outsiders are drawn to the region by the legendary hiking and trekking that Patagonia has to offer, and the Andes Mountains make this as scenic of a drive as you’ll ever find. Of course, Patagonia is also legendary for its intense and unpredictable weather, which can make driving on the CH-7 all the more adventurous.
Travel writer Colin Barraclough, along with a good friend, recently made the journey to Chile, to drive a 330 mile section of the Carretera Austral, and he chronicled his experiences for the Boston Globe. You can read his impressions from the road in a story posted here. A word of warning however, after reading this article just may be booking a trip to South America.
