Middle of Nowhere ⛺ Camping Next to Giant Hand ATACAMA DESERT Ep.37

Situations have changed, emotions have changed.
Welcome to this Mars-like land on Earth.

And today’s camping is also going to be in a very special place.

Friends, welcome to the Pan-American Highway.

Good morning, friends!

I have woken up. This was my room. I only used one small corner to sleep, and kept all my luggage on the side.

This was the hotel, and from here you can see the view of the town.

Right now it is 8:00 a.m., and there is already good traffic on the road, probably because there is a small port nearby.

That is the fort up there, and over there is a church. Here is the police station.

From there we will take a turn and go a little ahead, and then we will ride on the other side of these mountains.

For the next 150 kilometres, we will be riding on the other side, away from the sea.

Now everything is ready.

This is the common guest area of the hotel. Honestly, paying $40 for a night in a place like this feels a bit strange.

They even charge separately for coffee.

Look at this machine — everything is measured here.

And this old television… who knows how many people have used it.

I have seen typewriters before, but this one feels even older.
We are people from the old generation, you know! (laughs)

Alright, it is now 9:00 a.m..

The fog is still there, just like yesterday. But once we go a little ahead, it will clear.

Our next target is Antofagasta.

We are heading towards Antofagasta, which is about 300 kilometres from here.

There is nothing in between, just desert.

If I go via Taltal, then there are some places. Otherwise, if I go straight on Route 5, there is almost nothing.

Yesterday I could have gone via Taltal, but today I am not in the mood.

If my mood is good, I can just push Dhanno (my bicycle) and cover long distances.

Near the coast, there is a bit of humidity, which I don’t like.

But once we move ahead, that sticky feeling will disappear. Maybe we will face humidity again near Ecuador.

Look — this is the town, and that is the river.

But the river only has dirty water, because everything around is dry.

This is a petrol pump, and after this, the next ones will be near Antofagasta.

There is also an airport here, built between the mountains.

As soon as you leave the city, you see 2–3 petrol pumps.

Here comes a small town in between.

There are probably 20–50 houses here.

I bought some water and fruits from a small shop.

I have now climbed up from below.

Now just a little more distance remains, and after that, the downhill will begin.

I have reached around 1400 metres elevation.

The sun is very strong here, it really drains your energy.

But the good thing is — the winds are very strong and in my favour.

I have climbed around 1100 metres, and I did not even have to walk the bicycle.

The roads are very smooth, and because the wind is pushing from behind, I can keep moving.

The speed is not very high, but I am still moving steadily.

Now I feel like I should skip Taltal and go directly to Antofagasta.

If I go along the coast, it might feel easier, but:

• It becomes 40 kilometres longer
• And there is a very steep climb — from sea level to about 2200–2300 metres in just 20 kilometres

I don’t want to do that.

So it is better to stay on Route 5.

Soon there will be a turn for Taltal, but I will continue straight.

There is a Copec petrol pump ahead, and I plan to stay there tonight.

It will be around 180 kilometres for the day.

There is just one more climb — not too big — I will go from 700 metres to 1500 metres.

Here you can see — the road to Taltal goes down towards the sea, and then comes back up again after 100 kilometres.

So instead, I will just continue straight and cover 150–200 kilometres directly.

After around 80 kilometres, there is a petrol pump where I will stop for the night.

I have now reached the last petrol pump.

The next one could be 100 or even 200 kilometres away — I don’t know.

Now it is just mountains all around.

Finally, I have reached the top — around 2173 metres elevation.

Now it will be all downhill from here.

Even at this height, I am already breathing heavily, so I wonder what it will be like further ahead.

I haven’t seen any trees or greenery today — only yesterday in the town.

After about 100 kilometres, I will show you something very special.

Now it is all downhill, and Dhanno will run like a horse.

Just wait till the end of the video — you will really enjoy it.

And today’s camping will also be at a very special place.

I stopped here for a while.

You can see — whenever someone passes away, people build these small memorials.

There is even a tree planted here, and a place to sit and rest.

Usually, you don’t find places to sit in such areas, but here we have one.

There are also incense sticks placed here.

I will rest here for a while.

This place reminds me completely of Ladakh.

The only difference is that it is hotter here.

Far away, I can see wind turbines — thousands of them.

It almost feels like they are calling me, and the wind is pushing me in that direction.

Let’s rest for a while.

The road is becoming smoother, and I am riding steadily.

My speed is around 30 km/h, but the sun is very harsh.

The winds feel strong, almost like they are hitting me, but still I keep going.

After 40 kilometres, I will show you something special.

I will try to reach there before sunset, so I can fly my drone and show you properly.

Look — there is a small restaurant here.

I am not sure if I will get anything here.

Usually, menus are written outside.

But the problem is — there is nothing vegetarian.

This is the biggest problem for a vegetarian traveller.

I managed to find a coffee without milk.

One interesting thing I noticed here is that people use stevia instead of sugar.

I don’t know the exact reason for that.

Here is the English (UK) translation of your text, keeping the natural travel-vlog storytelling style:

The TV is playing loudly. Some truck drivers are sitting here watching it.

I have had my coffee. Look, there is also a gas stove here. I’ll put it away now. There are some clouds now, so I don’t need it anymore. Anyway, we have already reached the top.

Now I am putting in full effort to reach that special place.

It is already 8:10, and the sunset is at 8:16. Only 1.5 kilometres are left.

I wanted to show you that unique place, but even after pushing hard, I feel I might miss it by a few minutes.

The whole day I kept rushing just for this.

Finally, I have taken the turn.

I will reach before sunset, but I won’t get the perfect view I was hoping for.

Let me show you — I still need to go about half a kilometre off-road.

And yes… I missed the sunset.

Today I rode 175 kilometres, just to reach here before sunset.

Anyway, today I have decorated my camp nicely, like decorating a home with lights.

I have set up my camp in a very special place.

I have taken out my camera. Tonight, around 2:00 a.m., I will do some stargazing and try to capture photos of the stars.

If I get good shots, I will show you. If not, then not.

Right now it is 11:00 p.m., and people are still coming and going for photography.

The nearest city is about 80–90 kilometres away, yet people come all the way just to take photos here.

You can hear the bikes — these bikers have come here just to hang out and drink beer, like how people in India go to Murthal, not just for food but to chill.

I just want to get some rest, but after riding 175 kilometres, my body is exhausted.

There is a lot of wind, so I decided to stay properly inside for safety.

I haven’t even taken out my sleeping bag yet.

Let’s see how the night goes.

Good morning!

I woke up well — I slept very peacefully.

At night, it even felt like someone had placed a hand over me, protecting me.

People kept coming here till 2:00 a.m., and even now vehicles are passing.

This place is like a point of hope in the middle of the desert.

For 200 kilometres in one direction, there is nothing.
For 150 kilometres in another direction, nothing again.
After 175 kilometres, there is a petrol pump on one side.
And on this side, after 80–90 kilometres, there is another one.

So this place feels like a signal of hope, like someone is saying:
“I am here. Keep going.”

I slept right here last night.

Now I will pack my gear and leave.

It is 8:00 a.m., and today the sun is shining brightly.

For the past few days, I could not even see the sun properly, but today it feels like it is right in front of my eyes.

It feels good after a proper night’s sleep.

Now I will pack my tent.

Packing becomes difficult because of the strong winds.

Last night I had to place three stones to secure the tent, as the ground is very hard.

Look — it almost flew away!

So first, I lower the tent so that wind cannot enter inside.

Then I place a stone on it to hold it down.

Now it won’t fly away.

Now I remove everything piece by piece.

I am using the wind to my advantage by folding the tent in the same direction as the wind.

It’s not perfectly folded, but it will do.

I set up my tent behind this structure, not in front.

If I had placed it in front, it would have disturbed people, because most people come there for photography.

Why disturb anyone?

Now everything is packed.

This bottle is important, I always carry it.

I had some oranges last night.

All done.

Now I will fly my drone once more, take some cinematic shots, and then leave.

Say bye-bye with coffee!
Gracias… thank you so much!

So friends, once again welcome to this beautiful place.

Right now I am about 80 kilometres away from Antofagasta, and just before that, there is this famous structure.

This is located on Route 5, and for the past 400 kilometres, there has been almost nothing here.

So this structure gives people a sense of hope — like even in the desert, someone is there for you.

This structure is called “Mano del Desierto” (Hand of the Desert).

It is very famous.

There are stickers and markings all over it from travellers.

It was built in 1992 by an artist named Mario.

Its height is about 11 metres, and you can see it from almost 10 kilometres away.

From the side I came, it is less visible because of the mountains blocking the view, but from the other side, it is visible from far away.

It looks like a giant hand rising from the ground, as if someone is asking for help or offering help.

I spent around 12–14 hours at this place, and it felt amazing.

There is also a vehicle parked here — these people are from Colombia.

They are travelling from Ushuaia to Alaska, selling items along the way.

Their vehicle is covered with stickers from different places.

Last night I asked them if I could camp here, and they helped me.

They were sleeping near their vehicle, and suggested I camp near them.

But I made a mistake — I should have listened to them.

I camped a bit away, where more people were coming for photos.

In the morning, we asked them for some hot water, and had coffee together.

Now it’s time to move.

After a short distance, there are two route options:

• One goes towards Antofagasta
• The other goes directly to Calama

My main target is Calama.

I could have come via the coastal route, but that involves a very steep climb of 20–25 kilometres, which is difficult.

Now I have two choices:

• Go to Antofagasta and then take a longer route
• Or go directly to Calama

Antofagasta is at sea level, then I would have to climb again to 800 metres.

So I am thinking of going directly to Calama.

Also, I have limited time left.

My visa is about to expire, so I need to move faster.

I also want to spend 4–5 days near San Pedro de Atacama, close to Calama.

So it is better to skip Antofagasta and move ahead quickly.

Antofagasta cannot really be called a tourist place, it is more like the capital of this area and the biggest city around here, and after that there are a few cities like Iquique and Arica, but before that there is no major city here, anyway now let’s move ahead and say goodbye to this beautiful place, I really enjoyed being here and talking to these people, they told me many useful things, especially they advised me to be very careful in Ecuador and Colombia and to send my camera and expensive items from here itself and not carry costly things further, so I will keep that in mind and now I am leaving from here, so look friends the hand is now behind me and from here Antofagasta is 71 km away and Arica is the last city of Chile after which Peru starts, but I will go straight because I have to reach Calama, whether I go to Antofagasta or not I will decide later where the road splits because deciding earlier is risky as the mind can change anytime, the traffic over the last two days has been very tough and tiring, the first climb of 2000 metres really pushed me, first I climbed to 1400 then came down to 800 and from 800 I started climbing again and reached 1600 where I stayed at a Copec petrol pump, then in the morning I started again and went up to 2170 and now I have come down again to around 1100 and in the next 40 km I will come down to 400 so it is all downhill from here, this sign you see is of the Pan-American Highway and now we have entered Region 2, when I started from Puerto Montt on Route 5 it was Region 12 and now only one more region will remain after Antofagasta and then it will be the last region, this Route 5 goes all the way to the Peru border, I also got some stickers from there saying Ruta 5 and Pan Americana and Mano del Desierto welcome sign, keep eating dry fruits and keep praising God and keep climbing, thanks to that guy who gave me so many dry fruits, if I had bought them myself I would have taken only 1 kg because of weight but he insisted and gave me more and now they are very useful because there are no big cities in between, I have seen the highest number of red vehicles in my life here, maybe they belong to mining or construction companies, even many trucks are red, I have never seen so many red vehicles before, and there are so many Toyota Hilux vehicles everywhere, they even have antennas which they fold on the road and open in the desert to maintain GPS signals, the colour of the mountains has completely changed here, Antofagasta is 56 km from here and if I go via that it will be longer so I will try to go straight, welcome to the Mars-like land of Earth, the winds are very strong so there is always a fear of falling, here if someone passes away people build small memorials, like here someone born in 1971 passed away in 2024 probably due to a road accident and this is made in their memory, I even sat at such a place for some time, on both sides of the road there are barriers made so that sand does not come onto the road, this has been going on for the last 150 km and it feels like I am riding on Mars, if these wires were not there it would feel completely empty like another planet, these power lines have been with me for the last 250–300 km, there are stones scattered around like on Mars and it feels like my bicycle has just landed here, I am just enjoying the feeling, people say after seeing Earth one should go to Mars but this is Mars on Earth itself, the police have stopped the road because something big is coming, look at this huge mining vehicle and behind it there is a long line of trucks, the only green thing visible in this desert is where someone planted plants in memory of a person, if you plant trees in memory of loved ones and talk to them it feels very good, I have planted trees in different parts of the world and people message me saying that the plant has grown or is bearing fruits which feels amazing, this is the route that comes via Taltal, it is also called Route 1 or B700, but I came via Route 5 and now I am going straight, now Antofagasta is about 40–45 km away and I found a very creatively designed place made entirely from old tyres, even shoes made from tyres and water bottles hanging, it reminds me of old Indian wedding hand-washing setups which are now almost gone, inside there are simple tables and sofas and they burn waste to manage flies, there is a TV as well, I only took juice because there was nothing vegetarian and I was hungry, there are big paintings on cloth and the outside looks like a completely different world, I will drink this juice and move ahead, they have lights outside so it is visible at night and there is a small mechanic shop nearby and of course Spanish music is playing, now the wind direction has changed and is coming from the front because the road has turned, so pedalling has become very hard, the conditions have changed and so have the emotions, I am riding slowly and steadily, if the wind changes direction it affects concentration a lot, it feels like I am still riding on Mars and I don’t even know exactly where I am, I just keep moving forward, I have reached a place called La Negra where there is some industry and a lot of dust because of it, I stopped at a petrol pump but it was not a good place so I moved on, the bus stand condition is even worse than in India, it looks like someone homeless stays there and there are empty beer bottles and dirty surroundings, the northern part of Chile looks quite rough compared to the south, my earlier impression of South America is now becoming clearer that things ahead might be similar, I saw a police station built in old Spanish style and a beautiful church located at a nice spot while the main city is actually above and I came down by mistake so now I will go back up and find a place to stay and book a hotel, my phone battery is almost dead so I will charge it first, finally I have reached a hotel and I met an Indian guy whose shop is nearby so I took a room here, the hotel is not very fancy but it works, I kept my bicycle inside the room because there is a lot of theft here and you cannot leave your cycle alone even for two minutes, I didn’t really want to come here but now that I am here it is fine, I have taken a shower and now I will arrange something to eat and then sleep, I am feeling very tired because I have been camping continuously for two days and also riding at high altitudes, above 2000 metres you feel slight breathlessness and fatigue but that is normal in the desert, so I will rest now.

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