Dunes and Deserts
Luck is funny. I feel like we’ve found a little at every stop of our trip so far. During our journey to Elqui Valley, we were locked out the Santiago airport, stranded on the tarmac with 100 other angry passengers and guaranteed to miss our transfer connection. Luckily, just in time, we were saved by an ingenious fellow passenger who broke open the door with his credit card. Doesn’t say much about the city’s airport security, but we eventually made our connecting flight.
Luck followed us to the Atacama Desert, too. A remote destination in northern Chile, the town of San Pedro de Atacama was devastated with unexpected storms and floods in the previous month, leading locals and tourists alike to be evacuated. Had we planned the trip for a little earlier, we would have missed the opportunity to experience the deserts. Instead, our timing fortunately gave us clear weather and also a chance to coordinate our trip with a college friend, Anoop, who joined us for the Atacama and Bolivia afterwards.
Dream team hanging in the Atacama
The Atacama Desert was otherworldly. Dubbed as the driest place on Earth by NASA, the region receives less than 1-3mm precipitation a year! This utter lack of rainfall chokes most vegetation and produces its terrestrial landscape, a rocky expanse of brown and red with splashes of white from the abundant nitrate deposits. Not surprisingly, many movie studios film their extraterrestrial scenes in the Atacama, and space agencies like NASA and ESA test prototypes of their land rovers in the region. We found the Atacama’s extreme landscape to be matched by its extreme temperatures, which fluctuated 30-40 degrees within a day. If you’re planning a trip here, pack for both cool nights and unforgiving afternoon sun.
Earth or Mars?
San Pedro de Atacama is a small town, a simple checkerboard of dusty streets and single-story adobe buildings that hide its young and slightly punk culture. The main street of Caracoles is packed with bars and restaurants (don’t miss the thin-crust pizza at Pizzeria El Charrúa and live music at Barros), as well as many tour agencies selling desert adventures.
Carcoles Street just oozing cool
One of our first ones was Laguna Cejar, a swimmable salt lagoon (and natural spa) about 20 minutes outside of town. We went early and found ourselves almost alone, surrounded by fields of dragonflies, dry salt beds, and clear views of the region’s volcanoes. With my self-proclaimed negative buoyancy (someone please teach me how to float), I was estatic to jump into the lagoon and get a chance to finally float with ease. It was magical, like a 5-year old finds card tricks magical, and I had more fun than I probably should have.
Laguna Cejar, a small oasis saltier than the Dead Sea
Our favorite experience in the Atacama was Valle del Luna (Moon Valley) and Valle de Marte (Mars Valley). Both desert valleys are a short distance outside the town, and give you a chance to fully appreciate the geography of the Atacama. Running through down the sand dunes on the red hills of Mars Valley was exhilarating, and we ended our day watching a quiet sunset over Moon Valley. Most tour agencies will combine both valleys on a single day trip and stop at a few lookout points on the way. We booked our tour through Cosmo Andino Expediciones and would definitely recommended them.
Exploring Valle de Luna and Valle de Marte
More than its deserts, the Atacama is renown for its skies. Some of world’s best stargazing is found here, which of course we missed with the full moon 😑. Instead, we took advantage of the bright skies, grabbed a liter of wine, and went sandboarding under the midnight moon. Nothing but moonlight guided our vision on the sand dunes, making every ride feel like I was launching down towards a completely different planet. After a few fun runs down the dunes (and a couple brutal climbs back up), the night turned into a desert party with our instructors and other riders. With beer flowing, music blasting, and stories being shared from travelers all around the world, we felt a wave of gratitude for our time in South America and on our world trip. As luck would have it (again), the Atacama was a great place to be, with or without stars.
Sandboarding the dunes in the Atacama. Not pictured: eating pounds of sand every fall.
And unbelievably, that was our final stop in Chile. Bolivia is up next!
