Today’s hike is at Nacimiento Gorge, 90 mins south of Awasi in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. As the name suggests, it is the birth place of the river that runs through the gorge, at the base of a volcano. It is so remote that is the first time that Cristobal has hiked there. It is a brutal 5km hike at 4000m to reach the marker to descend into the canyon, for another 5km back to the ute. Whilst I’m handling the altitude okay, my pace is just too slow to manage 10km in 5 hours. So Cristobal devises an alternative route along the canyon ridge, which should be shorter and easier.
The reward is a sighting of what looks from a distance to be a pair of Adelie penguins perched on a rock about 100m away (maybe I’m not handling the altitude that well after all). The penguins transform as we get closer into a female variable hawk and her juvenile offspring, who treat us to an aerial display as they fly off into the canyon. Shortly afterwards, a curious Peregrine falcon comes to see whether Cristobal is suitable prey or not, given he has taken to lying down on the ground pretending to be dead.
This area of the canyon ridge is peppered with rodent burrows, meaning that the ground underneath collapses underfoot without warning – I have to say I preferred the nicely grippy lava rocks. The ‘mother-in-law’ cactus I stepped backwards into…not so fond of.
