These were taken in the high desert north east of Copiapo
This is the road we took….
A little further up, you can see the plants growing where the dew collects.
Our destination a salt flat (elevation of 4500 meters) on the way to the Argentine border.
On the way back down. It would be amazing to go back with a large format camera and more time.
Today I offer some critters….
Working dogs on rt. 5 going north from La Serena towards Copiapo.
Donkeys grazing on the way up to a high pass. This is from a long series the rest of which I published back on November 18 2012, while we were traveling.
A bit of greener on the way back down. it’s impossible to tell here but those are not small grasses.
Bonus critters from rt.5, you have to love working dogs.
We went east out of La Serena, a city I really liked, towards Vicuna and the south to Hurtado and Monumento Natural Pichasca. it started with paved roads, they’re on the map and everything…..
This is the road from Vicuna to Hurtado, it was beautiful…it was long.
There was pavement from Hurtado to Samo Alto and then we took a “short” cut
My short cuts are often beautiful, but rarely faster….I have no idea why Victor listens to me, except that I always retain control of the map and he likes adventures.
This is from our atempt to reach R. N. Pinguino de Humboldt, an island with penguins etc….that was a bust, too windy, off season, and the tour guides’ complete horror at the idea of my wheelchair in their boats. Ah well, people were so much more adventurous in Vietnam. The drive was really interesting, but the lighting conditions were very difficult, low hanging fog, so not a great day for shooting.
So this is what I wanted to post today.
these are from Ovalle…
probably should have lead with the dog….
So here’s another from Santiago.
These guys were trying to get a better view of a Red Bull promo event, cars of some sort – loud fast, we never got to see them.
I posted this yesterday but some formats didn’t show it, so here it is again.
Eventually I’ll get all my formats to match….argh.
So I’ve been AWOL for awhile, but I have a ton of stuff to post – old and new. I thought I would start with a new edit of my photos from Chile.
These were all shot in Santiago.
More to come……..tomorrow…..I hope
These are a couple of things from Chile that I am fond of but never posted.
My fascination with shades of orange shows again. The one below has a bit of a silly story. My travel addled brain decided that the shapes in the door was an amusing bit of art work, a little tongue in cheek image of umbrellas painted on the door. Yeah well, I get home blow it up on the big monitor and they are just umbrellas. Oh well, I still like the image I just wonder about my brain.
Maybe I’ll just tell everyone else that it’s art.
Slightly different versions of photos in the earlier post.
I was obsessed with how plants struggled to survive in this climate, from the golden tinges of dormant grasses to brilliant greens of sturdy trees. I can’t even imagine how deep their tap roots must go.
Pink flowers growing by the road show where moisture gathers.
This is an almost vertical face with a few tufts of grass struggling in the scree.
Plants follow the path of the spring run off.
Finally, I have waded through all the photos I shot in Chile…almost 1500 images. They seem to be sorting themselves out into general categories, but not a smooth narrative, but then I’m not sure the trip had a narrative, just vignettes. The landscapes are the strongest images, particularly the ones from around Copiapo, so I will start there. Feel free to offer opinions, pick favorites or anti-favorites, if you prefer. I am going to split this group into three or four posts to keep it reasonable.
This is looking back into Chile on the way to the security check for the border crossing into Argentina. The 12th stage of the Dakar Rally 2013 ran near here, it blows my mind that we drove through the same landscape as the rally, my Dad would have been so proud. This was also the highest point we photographed from – roughly 4,500 meters – we didn’t go too much higher.
There are nice photos of the Dakar Rally available at The Atlantic
This is the saline lake near the security check, the rally should have blown by this as well.
I knew sand didn’t come in just one color, but I didn’t really get it until this trip. Also, who knew those swirly sand art things were based on a natural phenomena.
Here you can see how the underlying rock determines the color.
I never knew sand came in lavender.
Next post….shades of grey…..
cheech 297 