3159m
After breakfast, we went down and checked out of our hotel to find our driver waiting for us. Being the weekend the traffic was certainly lighter than before and we arrived at the airport fairly quickly. Check in wasn’t a problem but as we were early, Fran and I wanted a coffee. Charlie wanted to go through the security check first. The line was huge and we were 90 mins before our flight. This time I sided with Fran and we grabbed a coffee first. Security was then quickly followed by a long walk to the end of the terminal to our gate.
While there an announcement came over the PA and about half of the people stood up and walked off. Seeing as it was in Spanish we had no idea what was happening. Luckily someone told us that it had stated that our gate had changed. No English message was ever announced so we were thankful to the gentleman who had helped us. We then found that our flight had been delayed for 1 1/2 hours. The flight, when it eventuated was only 2 hours in duration, however there was a lot of turbulence and we arrived a bit shaken.
On our drive from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama we passed a number of wind farms and solar panel arrays, however all of these are for the benefit of the mining companies. The hotel we are in is at 2437 m in altitude, putting us 200 m above the highest point in Australia. Nice hotel, and we were given a ‘welcoming’ ceremony and a bracelet, however when we arrived for dinner the prices were excessive. Most of the wines were over $100 per bottle. From now on we are eating our meals in the local town.