I started the day at the 5 star hotel in Lima - kind of on the early side. It took awhile to clear customs and immagration as always, but not that bad. This was a flying day and the first part was a flight from Lima to Iquique Chile to clear customs going into Chile. The flight took 3 hours and was just over 700 miles.
On the flight down I was looking on the ground to see if I could see the Nescalines as they were on the route down the coast but unfortunately I couldn't find them - they could have been a hundred miles inland for all I know.
This first shot is a long final at Iquique. The air dried out now as this part of the world is the driest place on earth. (or maybe South America) You can see the Pan American Highway down there along the coast.
The next photo is the short final shot!
N82XL on the ground in Iquique
This is really a desesrt even though it is on the ocean. The mountain is really a big sand dune.
Luckily all 4 planes made it to Iquique - just kidding on the lucky part.
The terain between Iquique and Calama was dry dry dry. I felt like I was in Arizona.
Short final into Calama. The runway is at 7,600 feet - it doesn't look that way but it is a high desert.
All four planes in one spot - we had the do controller working pretty hard to get all of us and an airliner into this little airport.
After landing our hotel was a mere 1 1/2 hours by car. The drive was weird and really felt like any other desert but the terain got more interesting the further we drove.
We stopped to take a picture at a beautiful spot. The two French guys - haming it up, Thierry and Patrick.
There is a volcano on the right that must be 20 some thousand feet. It is in Bolivia as the border was 60 kilomets away. The full moon on the left - artsy!
As the sun was getting lower and the colors were pretty cool - I hope you can see the pictures on the blog.
More pretty pictures - I could be on the moon - in fact one of the hikes tomorrow is in the valle of the moon.
I didn't take any shots of the hotel - the Exlorama as it was too dark when we arrived. It is a far cry from the Miraflores in Lima. It is remote and simple and beautiful in a whole different way.
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