Volcanoes and Vicunas

Typical riding on the Altiplano of Chile, a volcano in the distance and a meandering dirt road.  We rode about 160 miles of dirt yesterday mostly over 14,000 feet and as high as 15,500 feet.

This photo is from the flanks of Nevado de Putre looking west towards the lowlands.

The approach to Putre, which is in the valley below.  The horizontal lines on the hills are abandoned Inca terraces. The photo above was taken from the left flank of the volcano in this photo.

The climb from Arica, Chile, to Putre, Chile was fun, twisty and arid the whole way.  Arrival at Putre is like changing worlds from the arid and hot to the moist and cold.

We rode from Putre to Iquique in a single day.  The riding on the Altiplano was fun, as was the twisty asphalt decscent.  The exhausting part of the ride was the constant winds near the Pacific.

Internet connections have been hard to come by.  Lately it is has either been intermittent connections or meant sitting in the lobby.  My apologies for so few photographs, they take bandwidth I don't have.

In addition to vicunas, we saw rheas,  They are supper fun to see.  Riding along and suddenly you see a huge bird that looks like and ostrich.  We even saw chicks?  They were bigger than chickens but nowhere near full size.