Today was going to be the most complex day in the Atacama desert. First off, the main area we are visiting today, Socaire, has by far the strangest set of logistical rules of any in the area. Secondly, we have a tasting menu dinner that is a complete wild card on how good it will be, and it will end sometime in the neighborhood of 11pm, with today being December 31st. That left the final wild card, which is what to do for New Years at midnight - from everything we read, this tourist town with tons of hostel-ites will be crazy. In the end, none of these were problems on what was probably the most fulfilling day in Atacama yet - as I always like to do, we very much saved the best for last.
The day started with us having to triangulate timings. We had booked a 10:30 entry into the Socaire area of sites, an expanse of the Atacama that starts at the town of Socaire and runs through to the border with Argentina. In bright letters we are told you have to arrive at the Socaire check-in facility in the town at least an hour before your assigned entry time. Along with that, you have to pick either starting with the piedras rojas (also known as Aguas Calientes) site first, or the dual lakes of Miscanti and Miniques first. We chose to start with teh piedras rojas, which is further out and allows us to then basically drive as far as we will in the day and that start traversing backwards.
The "be there an hour early" thing was creating a bit of a damper, because after the late night of the stargazing tour, we now had to leave by 8am to ensure we reached Socaire check-in by 9:30. I had looked up online how rigid this one hour thing is, and it seemed clear it was real. Of course, we ended up reaching the check-in at 9:15 (my Dad drove faster than he has in years!), and the lax, reserved nature of the check-in people has me really questioning if that one hour early thing actually had any meat to it. The issue of all this was we had to leave too early to pick up breakfast (or emapanadas for lunch) in San Pedro, and other than machine coffee and snacks (chips, candy, bars), Socaire had nothing. Luckily we had some leftover empanadas from the prior day, but food was going to be scarce.
Anyway, after the check-in we were off, and the land behind Socaire is just beautiful in a very different way than any of the sites we've seen so far. This is probably the most "in the andes" of any of the main site areas in the Atacama, as you get far more mountainous terrain with hills and peaks all around you, including the mountain collective that houses the two altiplano (high plains) lakes that are omnipresent around the winding road. The land more close to the cars was desert but also reminded a lot of Patagonia, with low shrubs of this bright yellow color, heightened by the sun. It was mesmerizing - I stopped to take photos way too many times.
Our first stop was actually beyond the piedras rojas, to Lake Tuyalto, which is at the very end of the area. It's not really a well advertised stop, and because of this had no real parking lot, or trail to get any closer to the lake than the main road, but it was glorious - just a large expanse with regal mountains behind it, fields of all types of colors, and the best part was some solitary flamingos in the lake and vicuna grazing. Chile is super serious about not letting human visitors interrupt wildlife in their natural habitat, and I guess that is one of the reasons we are not allowed anywhere near the actual lake. Still, I'm getting better at contorting the phone camera through the binocular lens to get some nice close ups of the fauna. As a way to start your time in Socaire, Tuyalto is a steady choice.
It doesn't prepare you for Piedras Rojas though, because taht is something special. Another lake on a large salt flat, you are able to approach quite close starting from the parking lot off the road (which was packed) through about 1km of trail to an expanse of red rocks (hence the piedras rojas name) that you can climb on, walk on, pose for photos on, etc. The lake behind you has some moderate sized mountain peaks behind it. On the other side (to the back of you as you look outwards to the lake) are larger more imposing peaks. The walk down adn back is not too easy because of the roughly 14,500 ft elevation you are at, but that's even nice in a way because the frequent stops to catch a second breath allow for continued views of this incredible scene.
**quick aside: I should note hear that I know I can't really describe the beauty of any of these locations well. It's probably why I will fully admit I write better trip diaries when the trip in question is about cities and more tangible (man-made) sites. Anyway, back to trying to describe natural beauty**
For a whole site experience, the piedras rojas is probably the best of Socaire, so in taht way we didn't save the best for last when limited to the actual Socaire tour, but doing the most strenuous one in the middle was probably the way to go. At this point we shared our leftover empanadas and just tried to take in this moment, sitting in the expanse of the Atacama, with these world-bending sights in front of you. I've felt lucky and awestruck many times on this tour, but add this one to the list as well.
Add the two lakes as well, because even if the piedras rojas is arguably the best part, the reason it is arguably and not "unquestionably" is because the twin Lagunas Miscanti and Miniques are pretty damn incredible as well. First, you have to drive about 20 minutes up over many switchbacks from the main road to get to this higher plateau than the already usper high plateau that is the natural Socaire level. From there, you get this little home diorama type show by a park ranger on how to drive through the site. The cute little diaroma makes them all seem clsoe by, but in reality the lakes are large, and the drive is definiteyl a drive.
Lake Miscanti is first, a giant set of blue, with incredible green, brown and gray mountains behind it, and tons of vicuna and flamingos on its edge. It's truly a stunning sight. It doesn't feel as "earned" in a way as piedras rojas because you can see it all from your car, but there's no denying how mesmerizing it is. The only downside is again the fact that the walkway still leaves you quite far away from the lake, so pictures aren't as pretty as they could be because they include a great deal of lakeshore, but you know what? I can't fault Chile for this because the reason is they do not want humans upsetting the natural order here, and I can't at all say that is incorrect.
Lake Miniques is much like Miscanti other than there is even more wildlife in teh lake - it's almsot like visiting say Lake Louise and seeing instead of people canoeing and wading in the lake, you replace people with vicunas, flamingos and dozens of these cute, fluffy little brown/gray birds. It is quite a sight. For Miniques, we are high up with the lake below, the mountain peaks again providing this imposing backdrop. It is all so magical. It is Lake Louise, the Atacama version, and while if I'm being honest nothing will match the sheer beauty of Lake Louise, these two Altiplanic lakes come damn close.
So ended our time in Socaire, a fulfilling full day of sites, gasps and pictures. In a few days I think I'll have a better sense of how all these sites stack up to each other, but suffice it to say, they are all excellent. The town of San Pedro is as well, in more ways than you would expect as we would soon find out. I first went to Chelacabur to get a couple small beer pours - again this place is just the weirdest combination of a place that works (and seemingly attracts locals, many of whom I assume work for tour companies, as much as tourists) with its metal, posters, and beers. It isn't some great beer bar - neither here nor Saint Peter will make my top Beers Bar list, but still it is effective for what it offers.
The shopping is equally effective, though I mistakenly felt today would work better for shopping, not realizing quite a few stores closed up for new year's eve early. Anyway, it gave me time to not have to rush my beers, and gear up for a truly shocking meal.
I found Ephedra when I did a "tasting menus in Atacama" google and this is basically the only one that showed up. Food in Atacama is tourist focused, if still generally good. It's odd to think a tasting menu place can exist, but my God does chef Sergio Armella have somethign amazing cooking. It's about 15 minutes from downtown San Pedro through some gnarly roads, but suddenly you get to this upscale ranch type building, with sparse tables around an open kitchen with amazing sunset views of the mountains. Ephedra serves tasting menus of various lengths but mostly a 7/8 course version as they would today, with two added initial snacks (odd that those don't count towards the course number, but the palate cleanser does...). To say this is refined is a huge understatement. I'll cover the courses later but let's just say I'm having an internal battle on how high this should go on my list. There are far more reputed restaurants I've enjoyed less. I can't say enough good things about Sergio Armella, a truly unassuming head chef, and his team and their creativity and refinement in this setting. I wish them the best (to be fair, I may be underrating the appeal here, all the tables were full) and wouldn't be surprised if Sergio Armell makes his way back to Santiago at some point.
Dinner ended actually earlier than I would've thought (Ephedra had clockwork efficiency), and after stopping at the AirBNB to change, we ventured down to the main area to experience an Atacama New Year's, and my word was it an experience. Many restaurants set-up the old "burning of the old man" puppets during the day, and we were wondering if they would actually burn them (lighting a series of fires is this arid ass place seemed concerning) and man did they ever light them. The key two blocks of the main road were basically shoulder to shoulder traffic from 11pm onwards. Most restaurants in teh town having some sort of New Year's special that invovled allowing patrons to take drinks out into the street. It was a joyous time, if a bit too wild (even as someone that goes to nightclubs and stuff, I'm not a New Year's person).
It was just a burst of energy seeing that crowd those last 15 minutes, if in a bit too tight of quarters. It makes sense in a way - most of the people we were celebrating with are tourists coming to this random patch of desert in the middle of nowhere, and why not celebrate together. I've had some random New Year's locations over the years, from Italy, to Aqaba, Jordan, to a very similar one in Patagonia in 2017-18, but this was maybe the most memorable. At the very least, it gave me enough energy to come back home to the AirBNB and watch the Stranger Things finale to a bottle of beer from Rio de Janeiro (I will have many thoughts on that show soon), a weird way to end what had been a pretty perfect December 31st.
