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Why travelling with Randocheval ?

CHILE / ATACAMA : HORSE RIDING ADVENTURE IN ATACAMA DESERT...

Itinerary - Extensions - Horses and required riding level
Guiding - Accommodation - Dates and rates - More infos / booking

Special offer on 2008 winter and spring ride : - 100 euros

ITINERARY

The Complete Atacama

Day 1
On your arrival, we are picked up to Calama airport, and transfered to the hotel for your diner and you first night. You'll meet the group for dinner and will discuss about the horsebacktrekking programme.

Day 2
Departuretime. At the ranch, you come to know your horse for the forthcoming days.
You'll leave southly, your destination is Lagoon Tebinquiche (2 400 m), which is situated in the Atacama Salt Flat. At the lagoon you can have a bath, and occasionally you canobserve flamingo-colonies. After dinner at the bonfire, the clear and cloudless sky invites you to become absorbed in it.

Day 3
You cross the Salt Flat westwards to arrive to the Salt Mountain Range which its fascinating rocks, built of salt and clay. Through canyon and narrow tracks you cross the Salt Mountains in its whole width and arrive at "the plain of Patience", situated in between the Salt Mountain Range and the Domeyko Mountains. Looking on the Peak Quimal (4 200m) you enjoy the peace and silence of the place.

Day 4
Your track leads back to the Salt Mountains Range, through the breathtaking Moon Valley with its dunes and caves of salt. After this you pass the Death Valley, where you a marvellous view over the oasises of San Pedro and highlands of the Andes. Continuing westwards you arrive at the "Piedra de la Coca", an indigenious ceremonyplace where they spat coca as an intercession for a safe journey. Rock engravings invites you to study them and think about the long story of the tribes who lived there for centuries.

Day 5
You start nothly and cross a depopulated plain. You reach the "Valley of the Rainbow", here the Salt Mountain Range changes ots appearance to a green and vegetationous scenery. A settlement of the XIXth century proofs the copper boom on Chile.

Day 6
Rio Grande appears eastwards, it is an atacamenan village, where you start your climbing into the andean highlands. We take paths of the lama-caravans, in use by the highlands peasants for cattledrives towards the lowlands. You follow a curved little river, and observe the slow change of the scenery ti the terrasses of the Andean Highlands. The river opens to the "Boffedal" (lama habitat) of Machuca, a village situated at an altitude of 4 015m, owning a huge lamaherd. You camp aside a shallow lagoon.

Day 7
Because the high altitude charges its fee of human and animal, you continue slower southeastwards after an extensive breakfast and a good sleep. Also the Highlands invite you to contemplate its vastness, the grasslands and abruptly appearing canyons. The aime of todays trekk is Guatin, a river oasis at 3 200m, offering you a refreshing bath and relaxing in the soft sand.

Day 8
Time to say "goodbye" to the Andean Highlands. You have lunch ashore a sweetwater river, forming natural pools in the rocks. Early afternoon you reach the "Valley of the Devil", a narrow canyon inside the Salt Mountain Range. At its end you arrive to the river of San Pedro and the settlement Catarpe, our last camp. You can take a bath in the river or walk to an archeologic site, an inkan administration. One last time you sit around the bonfire having dinner.

Day 9
The "Paso de los Toros", an ancient pass in the Salt Mountain Range had been in use for cattledrives from Argentina and winds high in the Salt Mountain. To finnish our trekk you visit the Pukara of Quitor, a prehispanic fortress of the local tribe. Around midday we reach the ranch, time to leave your four-leg partner of the last days. Farewell dinner and night at the hotel.

Day 10
Transfer to Calama airport after breakfast or you continue your stay in Chile according to your programme.

EXTEND YOUR TRIP

Travel Extension Santiago - Valparaiso : 4 days / 3 nights

We suggest you a short stop to Santiago del Chile to discover the beautiful capital of Chile located in the heart of the Andes.
Created in 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia, Santiago is crossed by the Rio Mapocho. Santiago is a very touristic city with lot of cultural monuments to visit : Palazio Real Audiencia, Santo Domingo church, palazio Real Casa de la Aduana....
We recommand you to stay 2 nights to Santiago and next drive to Valparaiso with a rental car to visit the famous house of Pablo Neruda or the beautiful precolombian arts museum.

See price details in our "rates & dates" chapter.

HORSES AND REQUIRED RIDING LEVEL

YOUR GUIDES

Juan, who com with you for horse ridding, is an atacaman, he is proud of his origin and likes saying it!He is also a real "huaso" (Gaucho chilien), he knows exactly the horses and desert, indeed he knows all the secrets taught by his father and grand fathers. He will get you to know the legends of the local region and of the Atacaman People who hold out against the Spanish invadors.

ACCOMMODATION

We can offer you different accommodation's option for each itinerary: hotel in San Pedro, bivouac, or "bivouac /hotel".

The itinerary will be the same, San Pedro is a central place in the desert. The days will be longer if you stay at the hotel than a bivouac accommodation, because you will have to come back in San Pedro on the evening.

DATES AND RATES

Options (price per person)

Included:
- 2 nights in a 3 or 4 star hotel in Santigao city centre
- 1 night in a 3* hotel to Valparaiso or Vina del Mar
- breaksfasts
- 3 days rental car (cat B), based on 2 people sharing.

To add:
- Personal expenses: meals, drinks, oil...

RATE INCLUDING

- The horse trekking as detailled on a full board basis,
- Transfers from and to Calama airport

- Spanish-speaking equestrian guide
- The financial guarantee of the deposits you send to Randocheval

RATE NOT INCLUDING

- Transportation to Chile, please contact us to check the best available rate from your country,
- Tips,
- Drinks,
- Personal expenses,
- Extensions organised before or after you trekking (please contact us).
- Optional insurance - more information

BOOKING - INFORMATION

Contact Claire, the specialist for this destination

PRATICAL INFORMATIONS

COUNTRY

Chile

LENGTH

LANGUAGE

GROUP SIZE

ACCESS

CLIMATE

The season are opposite to the North hemisphere. The weather in San Pedro de Atacama is very changing and unpredictable: radiant sun, cold weather below 0°C some nights, wind and sand storms, rain storms (during january, february and march, bolivian winter). In winter you could have a big thermal range, temperatures of -7ªC or -10ªC below 0ªC during the night and 20ªC during the day.

Formalities
Check with your local Embassy according to your nationality.

Vaccines-Health
No specific vaccination, we recommend you to be up to date concerning your usual vaccinations, in particular for the tetanus vaccine.
Remember that a repatriation travel insurrance is compulsory.

REFERENCE :CH52_ATACAMA