Chile was the first country I visited in South America, and I explored the capital Santiago, the remote Rapa Nui island, the landscapes of Patagonia (those blogs are saved for another day), and the stunning Atacama desert located in the northern part of the endless latitudinal expanse of the country. This blog covers the latter, so read on to see what the driest nonpolar desert in the world has in store.

Although the borders of the Atacama Desert aren’t unambiguously defined, it's save to say that it stretches over at least 1600km along the western coastline of Chile. That makes visiting all of it essentially impossible in a single trip, so I started with the common destination of San Pedro de Atacama, somewhat in the centre of much of it.

It’s a small town that today is the base for many tourists, but has been occupied for over 500 years at an oasis in the Puna de Atacama plateau around 2500m above sea level. The first people occupied this area as early as 10,000 BC.

Many of the mud brick walls here are remnants of the past, built with the local adobe earthy construction material, and can still be found all around the city, separating the individual plots of land and roads. The walls of the church above for instance date back to 1744, from the Spanish colonial period.

Into the Moon Valley

Despite the quaint beauty of the town, it’s the landscape that attracts most people to the Atacama region. One such landscape is the so-called Valle de la Luna, an area of interesting stone and sand structures with colorful patterns, and dry, salty, rock formations.

Fun fact: from what can be read online, a prototype for the ESA Mars rover was tested somewhere in this area. Easy to see why.

One of the many beautiful rock formations, but beware of the winds - we were close to being blown off this ledge a few times. Generally, it is said that summer (southern hemisphere) is the windier time, but we did get a couple of days of heavy gusts with some dust in the air. On the other hand, the temperature is more pleasant (albeit a little cold at night) and there are a lot less people around.

The Magic Bus 🚌 🪄

One of the man-made attractions in this area is this abandoned graffiti-decorated bus, that is said to have been left here when mining operations were abandoned decades ago.

We had it the entire evening to ourselves, as most of the excursions that make it to this area leave by late afternoon. The story goes the bus was a commuter vehicle for the workers, but I still can’t shake the feeling that it was left here for tourists 😄. I was assured by my awesome guide, friend, and fellow photographer Mauro (check him out if you want to visit Atacama!) it was not - which makes it all the more interesting.

Either way it makes for a very special kind of setting, and was going to be the spot to wait for darkness on the first day…

… so that we could get the Milky Way rising above it. The dark skies with no light pollution at a high elevation with almost no humidity make this part of the world one of the best stargazing regions on earth - it’s not a surprise some of the most important telescopes for scientific research, such as ALMA, have been set up here.

The area also has a few interesting eroded rock formations that provide more astrophotography opportunities.

We did not have a lot of time to enjoy the darkness though, as the moon rose shortly after. Unfortunately I could not time my trip differently, but moonlit landscapes have their own appeal. Can you spot my shadow?

Valle del Arcoiris 🌈

The other reason to not stay too long was that we had an early morning planned elsewhere - more specifically, the rainbow valley, where the moon was now setting…

This region is somewhat similar to the moon valley, but some parts of it feature different minerals causing incredibly colorful variations in the rock formations - see the layers below, with a close up on the right.

Living in the Shadows

People are often dismissive of barren landscapes and deserts, complaining about the lack of greenery - but this kind of scenery is equally beautiful to me.

Standing Out

It generally does not get very busy here, and our early morning arrival meant very few people around. Nevertheless, sometimes having one or the other person in the frame (not usually my speciality) can add a sense of scale to the landscapes: spot the couple in this photo!

The end of this small path leads to a canyon, with a few beautiful spots featuring deep red and purple rock colors.

Nature’s Shapes

The wind, sand, and occasional water (yes, even in the driest areas in the world flash floods happen) have done their job here and created beautiful rock formations all around.

Petroglyphs of Yerbas Buenas

Just outside the mars valley is this rather inconspicuous rock formation, which is filled with beautifully preserved Pre-Hispanic rock carvings.

The petroglyphs were created by the Atacameno people and are said to date back approximately 10,000 years. Many of them show llamas / alpacas (the domesticated versions of the vicuñas and guanacos you can find here - although the difference remains a little elusive to me), but of course I couldn’t help but focusing on the cat. An oddity is the presence of monkeys in some carvings, which never actually lived in this area.

As you make your way through the endless landscapes you can’t help notice the shrines to the side of the road, sometimes simple, sometimes quite elaborate. It’s easy to see that traffic deaths can be common here: large trucks, buses, vast distances, monotonous landscapes, straight two-lane roads with lots of overtaking are all part of the daily driving routine.

Cañon de Guatín

After a small rest break we were on our way to another different kind of landscape - the cactus canyon of Guatin.
Within a few hours drive around San Pedro de Atacama, the region offers very diverse types of geology and flora - the definition of “desert” is really much broader than what one’s imagination would prescribe.

The area stretches for a few kilometers on the slopes left and right of a small river, the Rio Puritama, which gradually cut its path into the rock for thousands of years.

As the sun sets, one side of the canyon remains illuminated and the light slowly fades away over the tall cacti, some of which are up to 100 years old and reach 7 meters in height.

Once again, we waited for the sun to set and the stars to shine to capture the different cactus species with the Milky Way rising.

**Nightly Waterfall**

A small waterfall in the canyon where nature strategically placed a cactus made for this nice composition.

**Southern Trails**

I had also set up another camera to capture some star trails with one of the cacti on the other side of the canyon, but we had another early start planned for the next morning, so 2 hours of trails is all I got for this image - the early start was worth it though…

Geysers Del Tatio

…because we went to the geysers of Tatio, around 2h drive to an elevation of almost 4500 metres, heading north and close to the Bolivian border. And of course wanted to be there for sunrise.

A short stop on the way at the Atacamenian village of Machuca, with less than 50 inhabitants and a small church that was established in the early 18th century overlooking the houses.

Smoky Fields

Shortly after, we started to see the rising puffs of smoke in the distance: The largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere, and the highest altitude field in the world. Spot the humans in the mist…

**Extraterrestrial**

El Tatio has been studied as an analogue for early Earth, and past life on Mars, owing to its extreme conditions where only the most robust of microorganisms could survive. Humans have been exploring the area for centuries - the old Inca trail from San Pedro de Atacama to Siloli crossed the geyser field.

The geothermal area covers around 30 square kilometres and is filled with hot springs and steaming vents - although only a smaller section is easily accessible by car or on foot.

**Spectrum**

Organic compounds and bacteria colour the sinter on the ground with orange-brown and greenish hues.

A vent and geyser cone - most of them only reach less than a meter in height, but occasionally fountains can grow to more than 10 meters.

Relics

Over most of the 1900s the site was considered for geothermal energy generation, but attempts were abandoned in the early 2000s over political and ecological controversy.

Landscapes

The region is part of a large volcanic complex with dozens of stratovolcanoes, many of which are still active, and some reach over 5000m in height.

Despite the barren appearance and altitude, many vicuñas call this area home, and even puma can be spotted here occasionally. The Andean gull on the right has gotten used to tourists and came a little close during lunch break, making for a rather unique bird-in-flight photo.

The way back took us past the small lagoon of the Rio Putana, full of birdlife and with an abandoned mining operation just beside. Further down, a few spots offer beautiful views into the salt fields and the snowcapped Andean mountains.

Salar de Atacama 🦩

Our afternoon destination was one of several salt flats that are part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve.

The Chaxa lagoon is a beautiful landscape, with its main attraction being the large flocks of flamingos - depending on the season - enjoying the food in the shallow salty ponds, with the surrounding volcanoes casting their reflections in the water.

This ecosystem is home to rich birdlife, such as sandpipers or the Andean Avocet with its bent bill, but there are also mammals such as foxes and different types of rodents to be found here (not by me though…).

The Mars Valley

My last morning was spent at probably my favorite spot of the trip, the so-called Mars Valley, or Cornices. Some off-roading not too far from San Pedro leads to an elevated platform along the deep canyon ridges, with beautiful patterns and earthy tones. Take a look at the drone video below…

Orange and red hues start to glow over the landscape before sunrise.

First sun rays hitting the distant rock formations. The Atacama desert may be the oldest desert on earth, and has remained extremely arid for 150 million years.

Breakfast Spot

Not many better places for a nice start to the day.

The erosion has created some interesting patterns of jagged rocks in the valley along the steep canyon ridge - the upper left image below is a top down view.