[Above: DATW Land Rovers in Chile's Atacama Desert.]

Journal by Todd Borgie

Yesterday was cold and rainy, and we were all short of breath. Today the sun is shining, we are in shorts, and we are chillin' in one of the driest places on earth. We are in the mighty Atacama Desert, an area of mineral and metal wealth, and a contested area between Chile, Bolivia and Peru, who are not the friendliest of neighbors. This area was the sight of a war (War of the Pacific) from 1879-1884, which Chile won. Bolivia lost its only access to the sea and Peru lost some land. You can tell by the graffiti on the bathroom walls that irritated feelings still persist. Final disputes resulting from this war were finally resolved in the year 2000 when Chile and Peru finally came to an agreement over the use of the Port of Arica, now Chilean territory.

It was wonderful to be in Chile again and it was nice to be down at sea level. Even though it was warmer than we had been used to, at least the slightest effort would not make us breathe hard. As we rolled into Arica last night, one of the major hints that Chile was a fully developed country were the pet-food billboards we saw. If a country is advertising pet food it has got to be doing OK.

As I mentioned, the Atacama region of Chile is one of the driest places on earth. Yet, the temperatures are not oppressively warm. Actually, Arica is one of the hot spots for Chilean beachgoers. We saw the crowds, as it is currently summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Although rainfall occurs only two to four times a century, the area gets quite a bit of fog as caused by the thermal inversion layer that comes off the ocean. A thermal inversion layer is defined as a layer of air in which the usual rule that temperature of air decreases with altitude does not apply. The ocean current (the Humboldt Current) passing by this area is directly from Antarctica, thus the water is cold. The cold current produces a layer of cold air that lies on top of the cold water. This layer of air acts like a wedge, pushing the warm air from the land up while the cooler air is trapped below (thermal inversion). This phenomenon produces fog and also monitors the temperature, preventing incredibly high temperatures.

Due to its dryness, we did not see much vegetation as we drove down the center of Chile.
Being in Chile was like a mighty embrace. Chile was starkly different from the previous places we had been to; it was a completely developed nation, and it made us feel like we were back in the States. I felt like we were rolling through the Mojave Desert and I would soon be home in Los Angeles with chocolate chip cookies waiting for me at my parents' house. I loved basking in that feeling that I was almost home, but then again didn’t want to wake up to the heartbreak, that California was 10,000 miles away. Don’t get me wrong, I love being in Chile, but after 3 months on the road it is not unusual to miss your family and home.

The day mostly consisted of us driving through the mountains, the dunes and the rocks, with not a plant around. Railroad tracks came out of mining areas, and rocks and sand seemed to be dumped randomly throughout the landscape. To pass the time we debated as to whether the piles of stone and sand were creations of the desert, mining creations, or military embankments. We never really made the determination, but we passed a couple of hours talking about it.

We stopped at a variety of agriculture stations. They wanted to make sure we did not have any fruit with us, as the Mediterranean fruit fly, amongst others was a definite threat to Chile’s large agriculture industry.

The desert was expansive and it lulled us into its rhythm, perhaps too much so. Not used to the large expanses of nothingness between towns, we failed to take our gas stops seriously. We pulled into an agricultural inspection stop, with gas lights just beginning to pop on. After a few, questions it was determined that the next large gas stop was 250km away, Uffda! After a few more questions we realized it was possible to get some gas from a small town 5km away, phew!

The four Land Rovers rolled into the little town and began our search. Unfortunately, one of the two gas venders was off getting more gas (nobody knew when he would return) and the other vender had run out of gas as well. The good news was that there was a town only 90km away that had a 24-hour gas station. Night was approaching and we -- Neil and I -- began canvas the area for gasoline. We bought a gallon from one guy and another 30 liters from another. 20 liters from another guy, and we were looking for 20 liters more to make us comfortable. We discussed the option of filling one car and having it fill up all the jerries, but we were going for broke and were going to attempt to take all four vehicles to the gas stop.

Neil and I found someone that could give us 10 additional liters, but we after a few attempts of siphoning, and a mouthful of gas, we decided that the costs were too high.
The group reconvened about 10:00 p.m., and we distributed that last of the gas and set off into the night air, not knowing how many vehicles would make our desired destination.

Todd
todd@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for January 21st, Day 82
Start: Arica, Chile, 1100
S: 18* 29.003'
W: 70* 18.907'
Finish: Somewhere in Chile, 0715
S: 25* 53.620'
W: 70* 27.993'
Mileage: 590
Notes: Well, we're stopped briefly at an internet cafe on our way to Santiago, so this'll be brief. It's the 22nd, and I'm writing about the 21st. We just drove all night, and I'm not too happy about that. ANYWAY, we left Arica yesterday to head to Santiago, more than 2000 km away. On the way, it was decided that we needed to do a marathon drive in order to get to Santiago in time to do some work before the weekend. So...we were driving and driving and, I'm so embarassed, we realized wouldn't make it to a gas station. The town we were in didn't have one, and it was 90 km to the next one. We spent hours trying to buy liters of fuel off the locals. Finally we had enough for all four vehicles and pressed on, just barely making it to the pumps at about midnight. It was there that the team voted to press on rather than camp in the perfectly good location we were in. Justin and I, by the way, voted to camp and then continue in the morning for safety's sake. Everybody else felt like pressing on to the next town. We ended up pressing on all night, and we are still pressing. It's almost noon on the 22nd now. We're all doing fine, and we're about to go grab chow. Don't worry, we'll stop the minute somebody gets too tired. That's the benefit of having enough drivers to swap out with. We now have another 900 km to Santiago. Talk to you when we get there. (N.O.)

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