The Atacama Desert

We had made the decision to start this journey in the Atacama and then work broadly anticlockwise round to our end point of Rio de Janiero from there. That meant a 3-leg outbound flight from Heathrow to Sao Paolo, from Sao Paolo to Santiago and from Santiago to Calama. LATAM did us proud - all the flights were on time, we got a good amount of sleep on the first leg and our luggage made it too!

We were picked up at Calama airport by our guide for our stay in the Atacama, and arrived at our lodge at about 5.30pm, around 24 hours from our departure time from Heathrow. We had opted for an all-inclusive stay in San Pedro de Atacama, the main tourist gateway into the desert. Awasi Atacama is a small lodge of 12 rooms and all desert activities are personalised to each group of visitors. A couple of photos of the lodge below.

On arrival we had a chat with our allocated guide about the activities that were available and agreed on a plan for our two full days here. After a good night’s sleep, we left the lodge at 9 to travel to the Laguna Chaxa on the Atacama salt flats. We managed to see all 3 kinds of flamingo that are found in this part of Chile and enjoyed the wonderful views of the mountains all around.

Back to the hotel for lunch and then in the afternoon we had a driver and guide to take us north of the town for a short hike down a gorge filled with cacti. This was a very different experience, which we also very much enjoyed, but it was partly intended as acclimatisation for a day at very high altitude tomorrow. San Pedro is at about 2,300m above sea level and the afternoon hike at about 3,300m. Our driver dropped us at the start and we set off with our guide. After an enjoyable ‘hike’ which mainly turned into a scramble down the gorge, which was narrow and rocky, we rendezvoused with the driver at the bottom of the gorge. He’d set up a lovely snack of melon juice, white wine, charcuterie, cheese and grapes ready for our arrival.

On our second day, we left at 9am, again with a driver and guide to ascend to the El Tatio geysers, the 4th largest geyser field in the world, at about 4,400m above sea level. Most people travel up to see the geysers at sunrise, when the steam is more dramatic in the cold mountain air, but a later start meant they’d all left by the time we arrived and we had the place to ourselves. Amazing to see all the bubbling geysers and the colours of the mineral deposits and bacteria that build up around the edges of the geyser pools were extraordinary.

After leaving the geysers, we drove a short distance to a tranquil, green valley where our driver dropped us off for a short hike. This was stunning, with so much wildlife. Lots of vicuñas (a camelid in the same family as alpacas, llamas and guanacos), a number of viscacha (like a cross between a rabbit and chinchilla), a suri (the local name for a rhea) and lots of birds.

Our driver met us at the end of the hike, with a wonderful late lunch set out for us. We decided against the wine at that elevation!

Back to the hotel late afternoon. We had a wander around the town of San Pedro and visited the church.

We will visit the Cordillera de Sal on the way to the airport tomorrow. Next stop Santiago.