Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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May 2 - Copiapo, Chile Antofagasta - Copiapo, 378 miles |
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Wind on the Atacama Desert - and On The Coast Yes, we rode more on the Atacama Desert. It seems to go on forever, and we have two more days of riding, maybe more of the same. In the past few days, the air was quite calm on the Atacama, but today it was really blowing. Since we were going in a southerly direction, about 25 miles inland, any wind that the ocean pushed over the mountains was west to east, and therefore a crosswind for us for 200+ miles. I estimated the wind velocity at 30-35 mph, so it made riding somewhat difficult. Any higher winds could have been dangerous. Our route crossed about 265 miles of the Atacama first, then the road went to sea level, about 60 miles right along the Pacific Coast, and then the rest of the ride going back into the desert. Quite a variety of riding conditions today. The wind along the coast was just the typical onshore breeze, but apparently with the "high" offshore, pushing the air through the openings in the desert mountain range gave quite a wind speed increase in the desert. But the gem of things to see today was "The Hand in the Desert". :You may have seen this in a National Geographic type of article, or in some "explorer" type of magazine, and to be sure, it is really special here in Chile, in the Atacama Desert! It is not from nature, but was sculpted by some sculptor whom I don't know.
To see how big it is, here is a shot with me standing in front of it. this was one of the important goals I had for this trip. I have wanted to visit "The Hand" for many years, and here I am!
Going along the seashore, I found that the 60-mile section was extremely rugged, with most of the coast having very sharp lava, and so it had almost no beaches. There were about three exceptions, with people having built what I would call "beach shacks" and a few beach houses in a couple of coves. (See if you can find me in the mirror of my bike, taking the photo below.)
Then when we continued on the road (Highway 5, the "Pan American Highway"), it took us back into the Atacama, and right by a brand new airport in the sand and rocks, and named, -guess what - "The Regional Atacama Desert Airport". Over the first range of mountains inland from the sea, we found a long valley with the barren desert hills limiting the valley on both sides, but the valley was GREEN! Kind of amazing how this one piece of desert was so different from the rest. By the way, one of our tour guides said that the part of the Atacama Desert we rode through first today gets rain, on the average, about once every six years!! |
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