Argentina & Chile November 2008 Day 6-Taltal - Antofagasta 300km

[David_L]

Hi Everyone

Just to let you know that Mike and I have started the Day 6 thread of our Argentina and Chile travelogue over in that section. This was the longest day of the entire trip. We were up and on the road shortly after 7.00am and didn't get to bed in Antofogasta until about 1.30am the next day! Not only did we have our longest walk of the trip, a lengthy yomp up the Valle San Ramon to the habitat of Copiapoa krainziana, but we also had some 200km of bad to very bad road from Paposo to Antofagasta to negotiate, with Copiapoa stops on the way. Willy subsequently confided that he had allocated two days to this section on previous trips, spending an extra night at Taltal. I don't think he'll do it as a one day section again in the future. Driving over the (very high) hills back from the coast to the main road on rough tracks in the dark was distinctly hairy.