Day 39 – 30th December. A Long HOT Day.

A huge Michael Jackson greets you on the way out of Antofagasta.


Copiapo – Antofagasta 601 kms

Total Distance So Far: 9,967 kms

Leaving Copiapo it was strange to see farmers growing their crops in the shadow of huge sand dunes. It must be such a difficult environment to farm crops in.

After 10 kms you are just in a very barren dry landscape. There were not even cactus on the land today. We passed the town’s two night clubs ‘El Tackeo’ and ‘Mr Froggy’ on the way out. Perfect for some blokes back in Cheltenham I can think of!

The gauge read 34 degrees at 11am, and topped out at 42 degrees at 3pm. It was gonna be hot today. We had 4 litres of water on board and drank a bit every 30 minutes or so. We spent much of the day at 2,000 meters and the air was just so dry you always felt thirsty.

After a 100kms we hit a coastal town called Caldera which is surrounded by the dry mountains and sand. In fact sand had blown through all its streets and it gathers in door sills and entrance ways. Just next to this town is a bizarre little town called Bahia Inglesa which is a little holiday town of about 500 houses and few hotels. It is supposed to have the best beaches in all of Chile.

After another 100 kms we hit our last town before Antofagasta. Chanaral is a port town for loading mined materials. A place to refuel and have a quick lunch. The next 400 kms was very barren. We saw nothing but mountains,and sand for about 300 hundred kilometers and then this big hand statue appears out of the land. It must be something to do with mining with you hands we surmised.

Antofagasta was a bit of a nightmare from start to end. We arrived early evening and the traffic was at a standstill. On top of which a newly installed one-way system that disagreed with the maps was in operation with new ‘Devio’ signs everywhere. After an hour we got to our hotel. The parking for the hotel was 10 blocks away so I did a deal with a shop owner a couple of doors away. Security issues means it is not sensible in the cites to leave the bike on the street. Our room was full of cock-roaches (three to be exact but you can tell at this point we were tired). It then turned out our hotel was in the middle of a sleazy sex district, with Lidy scared stiff to venture out of the hotel for fear of being whisked away and carried off to a distant mining town to suffer unspeakable acts! Antofagasta was not good. It’s purpose is a huge industrial port town to hand train and lorry mine exports. Note: It is best avoided at all cost.

We packed and left as soon as possible to be greeted on the way out by a team of Dakar support vehicles preparing for the two-day stop there on the 8th. There were signs everywhere proclaiming Antofagaster was the City of the Dakar. Our last image of the town was a 12m tall statue of Michael Jackson standing proudly over the slums. Bizarre!


The strange sight of green crops on the edge of the dunes leaving Copiapo.





Clubbing options are limited in the Atacama. Your choice is Mr Froggy, or El Tackeo.



We passed the little beach town od Bahia Inglesa which is supposed to have the best sand and waters in Chile. It just seems so out of place stuck on the edge of the desert. It has it's own small airport to being in the sun-bathers.