San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

In early December we spent four nights in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, about a two hour flight from where we were staying in Santiago. In addition to being the driest desert in the world, it also lies at a very high altitude (the main town, which is one of the lowest points in the area, is at 7,900ft.). The area is filled with volcanoes, salt lakes, and Mars-like terrain, making it extremely beautiful and unique. The flight was fairly easy minus the fact that we were delayed and then boarded the plane only to find that there were 26 rows on the plane and we were seated in row 28 (luckily they found seats for us and we learned why it may be a good idea to pick your seat in advance). Nevertheless, we made it to Atacama and got in late on a Thursday evening.

We stayed in a small guesthouse on the property of a lovely woman named Ana. The place was a 10 minute drive from the town of San Pedro de Atacama and was located right next to Valle de la Luna, which is a very popular park. The place was very simple but the location was amazing, and we were able to sit in the desert every evening and watch the sunset. Another bonus was that Ana took in stray dogs, got them their shots, and got them adopted, so there were 7-8 doggos on the property while we were there! Four of the doggos in particular became our posse, and they followed Davy on a run through the desert and escorted us to the desert every evening to watch the sunset (miss you Bowie).

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On our first full day we went to Salar de Atacama, which is the largest salt flat in Chile. The salt flat was beautiful and gave us our first glimpse of the flamingos which can be seen at various locations in this region. Afterwards we drove to Piedras Rojas (“Red Rocks”), which was not as much a single destination as it was a general area with beautiful colorful mountains and green salt lakes. There were some groups of tourists at the main lookout points, but once we went a little past them we were pretty much on our own. We also got our first taste of real altitude here, since it got up to 14,500 feet in this area. On our way home, we stopped at another beautiful lake called Laguna Menique then headed back to relax since we were fairly pooped from driving/altitude.

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The following day we were initially planning on waking up super early to drive nearly two hours to see the sunrise at El Tatio, a large geyser near the Bolivian border and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area (there is the most smoke/geyser activity at sunrise which is why everyone goes then). However we read that there are usually tons of people there at this time and that the drive is not great (and would be entirely in the dark). Given that we have both seen geysers before and did not like the idea of driving two hours in the dark to be surrounded by people, we went rogue as tourists and opted for an alternate sunrise plan. Instead of driving to El Tatio, we drove approximately 5 minutes to Valle de la Luna, a beautiful desert valley that’s named for its resemblance to the moon. Most people come here at sunset, so we were very pleased to find that we were literally the only people in the entire park when we arrived closed to sunrise. We were super pleased we chose this option, since exploring the park at this time of day with no one around was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

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Afterwards, feeling like superior tourists, we thought, “I bet you can go to El Tatio after sunrise and it’s still great!” So of course we drove the long distance to El Tatio, realized there was no one there and not much to see, did not want to pay the entry fee, and turned around (tourist superiority reduced). Even though we didn’t actually go to El Tatio, the drive there was beautiful, and on the way back we stopped at a small town called Machuca and went on a short hike (a longer or more difficult hike would have been pretty unpleasant with the altitude). We stopped at a place called Ojos de Salar on the way back, which consists of two natural swimming pools in the middle of the desert. At night we put on all the clothing we had (desert nights in Atacama are quite cold) and headed to a stargazing tour at a local observatory, as Atacama is famous for stargazing. The first half consisted of “naked eye observations”/learning about astronomy, and during the second half we got to look through telescopes. Some of the astronomy was lost on us, and we both agreed the tour could have been about half the length, but it was cool to look through the telescopes and see all the stars.

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On our last day we drove to Los Flamencos National Reserve, which is an area with (surprise surprise) more beautiful salt lagoons and landscapes as well as some flamingos. This was our highest altitude day, and we got up to 15,800 feet at one point. The area was pretty beautiful, although we did not see a ton of flamingos. On our way back we stopped at Laguna Baltinache, which is a series of three salt lagoons in the desert. It was somewhat like a tiny dead sea with less (no) mud and more Brazilian tourists. It was quite beautiful and pretty cool to swim in for a little bit. Unfortunately Baltinache was down a pretty long dirt road, and we got a flat tire about halfway down the road on our way back (by flat tire, we actually mean shredded tire). Davy saved the day by changing the tire and providing an important tire-changing lesson, and we were then on our way.

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The following morning we had to wake up super early to drive to the airport and return to Santiago. Atacama was definitely one of our favorite weekend trips and one of the coolest places we have been. Two thumbs up for Atacama!!

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