Adventures in the Atacama Desert

To say there’s nothing to see for miles in the Atacama Desert is an insult to one of the world’s most geologically phenomenal regions.

This high-altitude plateau once lay at the bottom of the ocean. Its maritime legacy lingers in the the Moon Valley’s abandoned salt mines and in the saline lagoons of the Salar de Atacama. It’s no safe harbour for the shrimps who reside in the salty water: these lakes are the feasting ground of Chilean, Andean, and James flamingoes who spend their entire days snacking their way through the shallows (oh, to be reincarnated as a flamingo).

A pancake-flat desert basin stretches roughly 600 miles before rising into the Chilean Coastal Range and Andean Cordillera Domeyko. Láscar simmers among these ranges, just one of Chile’s 2,000 volcanoes, a quarter of which are active. Mini tornadoes known as dust devils dance across the plains while wild vicunas and guanacos evade predatorial pumas and foxes. Other areas of the Atacama are Martian with canyons. So Martian in fact that NASA uses them to test out gear for missions to Mars. Out of the middle of nowhere, a forest sits on the side of Chile Route 27. 

There is so much to see, taste, smell, hear, and feel in the Atacama Desert; it’s one of my most sensory travel experiences to date. It was also physically draining. I’ve been back home less than a week and my throat is still hoarse, my limbs ache, and I have a dint in my scalp.

I knew it would be dry (every travel article chimes the Atacama is indeed the driest non-polar desert). I was warned it would be cold at night (wear proper pyjamas, my Spanish teacher barked as we revised the imperative as though I was planning to sleep in a negligee). I suspected the altitude would be bothersome (chew coca leaves, chorused voices on Facebook groups, igniting heated debates about their efficiency). I feared indulging in a token glass of wine with dinner could have dire consequences (you don’t need to be Wikipedia to know dehydration and high elevation are alcohol’s foe).

Despite spending the trip feeling pretty uncomfortable, the Atacama was a Real Adventure: the kind I dreamed off while boxing up my life in London.

Humans that go bump in the night

That dint in my head? Things got off to a bumpy start in the Atacama Desert (and a turbulent end). For the first time in over a decade, I fainted. Proper fainting – as in, crash, bang, wallop: hole in the scalp, burning pain in the head, bruised spine, and partner Googling the nearest clinic.

Altitude sickness plagued my holiday in Mexico City back in 2014 and it struck again while recently exploring Salta and Jujuy in Argentina. Knowing that San Pedro de Atacama and the surrounding desertlands sit upwards of 8,000 feet, I tactically picked up some medication that reduces the side effects.

Despite taking the remedy a couple of days before travel, I felt the impact of the altitude within hours of arriving. I had dreadful nausea and light-headedness. After we ate dinner in town our first night (for me a healthy-hipster quinoa salad mix full of greens) I honestly felt like I would throw up in the street.

On top of that, the atmosphere was ludicrously dry and drinking water seemed to make me thirstier. We’d switched off the light and I must have nodded off at some point. Without any memory of leaving the bed, I woke up on a heap near the door – we think I might have been on a sleepwalking quest to find water.

 San Pedro de Atacama:

Gateway to the desert

After that rocky start and limited sleep, we took it easy the first morning and wandered around San Pedro. It’s a small adobe town – more a village – with most of the action centred around Caracoles. I think this street earned its name due to how slowly everyone shuffles along while adapting to the altitude and blazing midday heat. And by action, that’s restaurants dishing up steaming dishes of cazuela, bars that play music late into the night, and endless tourist offices.

On our first evening as we walked back to our guest house, my partner commented it reminded him of Pai in Northern Thailand. The physical atmosphere couldn’t be any further from the green mountain village but I understood what he meant in terms of vibe-atmosphere. Plus, all the shops stocked hippy clothing that reminded us of our elephant trouser days.

Our research yielded that tours are the best way to travel in the Atacama. The high altitude, parched environment, service blindspots, mammoth distances, and questionable roads in some parts contribute to a fairly gruelling and potentially dangerous driving experience. I usually avoid tours because I love to travel solo or with only my partner for company but tours were absolutely the right decision for us.

In the afternoon, we jumped in with our first guided outing with Layana Travel – by which I mean jumped into the refreshing waters of a swimming hole right in the middle of the Salar de Atacama.

Swimming in the desert

Sliding into Laguna Piedra was bracing but I soon warmed up. This sinkhole – often referred as Laguna Cejar which is adjacent to it – is around 100 metres (330 feet) deep and saltier than the Dead Sea. No effort is required – all you need do is lay back and let the saline do the work. There are pockets of heat at various points but the water generally hovers around 14°C and drops to freezing at night.

After a blustery walk from the lakeside to the changing facilities for a quick shower and a sunscreen top-up, we bundled back into the van. Swimming was not on the agenda at Laguna Tebinquinche but the story behind this hypersaline lake was just exhilarating as the desert dip. It’s chock-full of salt and rare microbial ecosystems from ancient times with a thick crust of salt floating on the surface. As this biosphere is fragile and undergoing research, it’s not permitted to get too close to the largest lake in the largest Atacama salt flat.

This tour also included a stop at the Ojos del Salar – the Eyes of the Desert – a pair of side-by-side freshwater pools. These are outlets for subterranean rivers flowing beneath the Salar de Atacama. Salt density is around 20% although these deep basins are for “seeing” only, not swimming.

Tips for Lagunas Cejar and Tebinquinche

• Maximum altitude: 2,500 masl/762 fasl.
• This is an ideal starter tour while acclimatising to the environment and high altitude.
• It’s mandatory to shower after a dip as the salt and minerals can irritate the skin. However, the water is ice-cold and you’ll need to be hasty as water is so scarce in the desert.
• Avoid the mistake I made by not taking flip-flops. It was a gritty walk from the lagoon to the shower and putting my hiking boots on seemed like too much of a commitment.

Meteorite Museum

Despite being exhausted after salty swimming and a science lesson on Laguna Tebinquinche, we squeezed in a trip to the Museo del Meteorito in San Pedro. This museum has limited opening hours and we didn’t want to miss out on the chance to see meteorites.

It’s a small museum with a huge collection of achondrites, chondrites, mesosiderites, and pallasites plucked from the desert by the collector, Rodrigo Martinez. The exhibit is displayed through relics and signage in Spanish and English but most of the information is delivered via audio guide. The final stage is a sensory experience where we handled meteorites and regular rocks and learned how to detect the celestial material.

After visiting the museum, I couldn’t resist keeping one eye peeled for a meteorite while out and about. Not that I’d have the equipment to crack them apart.

Tips for the Meteorite Museum

• The Meteorite Museum is open Tuesday until Sunday, 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
• It’s a teeny space so you might have to wait 15/20 minutes.
• Allow 45/60 minutes in total for the visit.

Falling in Love with the Valle del Arcoiris

The Rainbow Valley (Valle del Arcoiris) was an absolute highlight for me. This was an early (but not unbearably so) start and a beautiful scenic drive that culminated in the valley where a herd of domestic llamas were enjoying a morning stroll with their crias. Once our driver turned off the main highway, our guide cheerily pointed out all the hotspots where tourists tend to come off the road and crash their rentals.

This valley in the Cordillera Domeyko is named for the mountains striped with rusty red, earthy beige, shamrock green, mustard yellow, and snow white. A cobalt blue sky with not a cloud in sight set off the palette. These colours correspond to the minerals, sulphur, and salt.

I suspect some travellers turn their noses up and scoff that Peru’s Vinicunca is “better” but I found the landscape and the peacefulness of the valley completely intoxicating. Our guide led us through the canyons and explained how volcanic activity and erosion had sculpted them. He also pointed out how so many of the rocks resemble animals residing in the desert. I was happy that a gigantic formation of Chilean rose tarantula wasn’t among them.

Hierbas Buenas was the second stop on this tour. A sequence of petroglyphs carved by the indigenous Atacameno people took us back 10,000 years to a time without MAPS.me. Our guide explained how the ancient residents of the desert carved vicuñas and guanacos into the rocks not to show off their talent but for navigational purposes. These etchings and detailing on the animals mirror the surroundings and would have worked as maps. We also spotted carvings of birds, wolves, and monkeys. The presence of monkeys is curious as it was thought that monkeys weren’t introduced to Chile until around the time of the Spanish invasion.  

On the drive back to town, we encountered our first – and one of many – twister in the Atacama.

Tips for the Rainbow Valley

• Maximum altitude: 3,600 masl/11,811 fasl.
• There are bathrooms at the entrance of Rainbow Valley and Hierbas Buenas.
• 10,000 CLP is payable in cash before walking in the Rainbow Valley in addition to the tour price.
• Rainbow Valley is ideal for escaping the more crowded sites in the Atacama. Speaking of…

Walking on the Moon

After the serenity of the Rainbow Valley, the Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) was the opposite. The tours typically include a stop at a trio of rocks called Las Tres Marias, an abandoned salt mine, and the Duna Mayor. These sites are a couple of miles apart fro, one another and so the driver ferried us from one to the next.

The landscapes were beautiful and I particularly enjoyed listening to the salt cracking in the old mine and surveying the mountain landscapes from the dune.

I did find Moon Valley to be a little claustrophobic as it’s such a popular destination and I spent a lot of time ducking out of the way of photos. It’s always nice to see so many people enjoying the scenery but it’s good to note that this is one of the places where crowds may dampen the experience.

Tips for Moon Valley

• Maximum altitude: 2,500 masl/8,202 fasl.
• Moon Valley is one of the busiest sites in the Atacama Desert. It’s impossible to visit and not find crowds.
• It’s extremely exposed to the elements – take a hat and wear high-factor sunscreen.
• Take a scarf to protect against sandstorms.
• The valley is no longer open for sunset visits or tours. The nearby Mirador de Kari/Piedra del Coyote overlooks part of the Moon Valley and is where most Valle de la Luna tours conclude.

Breakfast at the Tropics

Eating pan con palta and sipping hot coffee at the Tropic of Capricorn was one of my highlights of the Atacama Desert. I didn’t even know that the Southern Tropic crossed through this part of Chile and was confused when the guide informed us that would be where we’d eat breakfast.

Tour vans and private cars can pull over in the space next to the sign, there is lots of parking. Part of the Inca Trail runs through the same site.

The journey between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Piedras Rojas was special as spotted so much wildlife from the van. We have our eagle-eyed driver to thank for that. We spotted dozens of vicuñas and guanacos, several viscacha, and rheas.

Blasting around Piedras Rojas

Our guide urged us to pick up the pace to beat the next round of minivans as we followed the trail to the main lookout over the Piedras Rojas – the Red Rocks. But not too much, or you’ll faint, he said. Been there, done that.

The Red Rocks are prone to fierce winds and glacial temperatures. I was so grateful for my thermals, chunky Superdry parka (that I almost didn’t bring), and my winter woollies from Chiloè Island. I wish I’d thought to carry tissues as my nose ran like a tap the entire time.

The scenery at the Piedras Rojas was superlative, it did take the biscuit. Tinted by oxidised iron, the rocks aren’t quite crimson but rather a blushed red, speckled with salty deposits. They hover over the turquoise Salar de Aguas Calientes – a surreal site perfectly complemented by a stop at the Lagunas Altiplánicas – a duo of high-altitude lakes. We were fortunate to see a herd of vicuñas at Laguna Miñiques which made that one particularly special. This is also a good area for birdwatching – it’s handy to carry binoculars – and for seeing the plant from which Viagra is made. 

Nature called so I multi-tasked enjoying Laguna Miscanti while queuing to use the facilities.

Tips for Piedras Rojas and Lagunas Altiplánicas

• Maximum altitude: 4,200 masl/13,780 fasl.
• Visit the Piedras Rojas later in your itinerary to help avoid altitude sickness.
• Be prepared for ferocious winds and icy temperatures at both sites. Wear thermals and winter accessories.
• Piedras Rojas is a longish walk (but by no stretch of the imagination is it a hike). Walk slowly to avoid getting light-headed.

One flamingo, two flamingo, three…

The Piedras Rojas and Lagunas Altiplánicas tour concluded with a spot to see the flamingos in Laguna Chaxa. It’s another component of the Atacama Salt Flat and home to Chilean, Andean, and James flamingoes as well as other birds and lizards. We were fortunare to spy all three species during our visit. 

The drive from the Lagunas Altiplánicas was accompanied by an orchestra of hiking pants being unzipped, beanies flung into backpacks and replaced with baseball caps, and the slap of sunscreen. All except for me – so fearful of getting sunburn I decided to keep my thermal (!) long-sleeved top on and I think even the lizards were concerned.

This is a fairly popular part of the Atacama Desert although it’s beautifully peaceful. Binoculars come in handy as the flamingoes and other birds aren’t necessarily going to roam too close to the shore. We got lucky and had a couple of Andean flamingoes come relatively closeby. 

Tips for Laguna Chaxa:

• Maximum altitude: 2,300 masl/7,545 fasl.
• After the nippy conditions, the heat at the Laguna Chaxa is dizzying. Shed the cold-weather layers but also cover up against the intense heat.
• Drink lots of water here to avoid dehydration. 

Stargazing in the Atacama

We thought it would be fun to test our relationship by planning the longest, toughest day trip on the same day as an evening astronomical tour that concluded way past our usual bedtime. This tour picked us up at 9 p.m. – the hour of the pyjama – but that’s the only way to see the stars!

In our case, the full moon. A lot of operators cancel their stargazing tours on the evening of a full moon but I’m really happy we went ahead with one who simply switched to a lunar astronomy tour.

The only snag was that the tour we booked usually would have a bilingual translator alongside the Spanish-speaking astronomer. The translator had recently left the post and this wasn’t communicated and the entire activity was delivered in Spanish. We had specifically double-checked that this tour would have Spanish and English commentary and felt disappointed that the tour agency confirmed that to be so.

My partner helped translate but I ended up recording the audio and transcribing it afterwards. The narration was far more technical than either of us had anticipated (and that’s not a bad thing at all – I find astronomy fascinating) and it was tricky for my partner to even understand half of it in Spanish.

Even so, I enjoyed the experience and can see why the stargazing in the Atacama Desert is so highly regarded. The stargazing camp had two Azimuth Mount telescopes of differing sizes and we took it in turns to view the night sky through both. Our guide talked briefly about using them but he would handle that for us. I was surprised by how quickly celestial objects orbited out of the frame – he had to realign the telescope for the next person.

In addition to a close-up of the moon, we saw four of Jupiter’s moons, a nebula, and a dwarf galaxy. We did see more stars than I had expected on account of gloomy reviews claiming they hadn’t seen “anything” on the night of the full moon. While sipping wine at the end I used my Stellarium app to locate other stars and a couple of constellations. Faded, yes, but still beautiful. I even spotted a couple of shooting stars in between my turns on the telescopes.

Tips for Atacama Desert stargazing

• If you’re longing to see a sky heaving with stars, avoid visiting the Atacama Desert in the days leading up to and just after a full moon. If you’re happy to fiddle with a telescope and see the craters of the moon up close – book the lunar tour but be prepared to see fewer constellations.
• Dress warmly as nights in the desert can fall into single figures and it’s better to strip off a layer rather than lose a toe to frostbite.
• The best astronomical tours include wine (and stronger stuff) at the end. Go easy if this is your first night in the desert.
• Double-check that there will be an English translator, if necessary. Some tours also offer other languages alongside Spanish.

A hot springs oasis

After three intense days of fumbling around the desert, being battered by 50 mph gusts, feeling woozy after pulling off my hiking boots, only washing one side of my head, and avoiding my one true love (carmenere wine), splashing around in the Termas de Puritama was the perfect way to complete the Atacama experience.

By this point, my insides were crying out for hydration and it was such a treat to bob around in semi-hot water surrounded by greenery. We’re wading into cliche territory here but these hot springs truly are a little oasis in the desert. They’re located in a remote canyon 3,600 metres above sea level and trickle down from the Cordillera.

I wouldn’t call them hot hot. More like, warm hot. Our driver tipped us off that pools two and five of the eight are the hottest. I absolutely loved Pool Five for its waterfall and strong current and regret upping sticks and heading to Pool Two too quickly. Both were warm but not scorching. I could have handled another degree or two but I suppose it’s nice not to emerge looking like a lobster.

It was kind of mad that so many people had their mobile phones in the water. We had to keep ducking out of photoshoots. It was lovely to discard our phones and simply enjoy being in water rather than documenting every second on film but maybe that’s me showing my age.

Tips for the Puritama Hot Springs

• Maximum altitude: 3,600 masl/ 11,811 fasl.
• There are changing rooms (separated by gender) and bathrooms at the hot springs but no lockers.
• As such, belongings are left on the side of the pools. I suggest just taking a bit of cash and no valuables other than a mobile phone, if absolutely necessary. You can also leave items in the tour minivan/rental car. Theft is a risk but it’s so remote that it’s not crazy high.
• The short walk out of the canyon can be quite tiring due to the elevation. I didn’t have any issues but I noticed people around me struggling.

¡Hasta pronto, Atacama!

The whole time I was in the Atacama Desert, I was counting down until my flight home to coastal Viña del Mar. Yet, I wanted to stay longer, travel higher. We’d skipped the geysers due to a) the ridonkulous early start b) the high altitude, and c) the grapevine. Next time, I will make sure they feature on my travel itinerary. 

It’s such a contradictory place. You’ll be shivering in your thermals while the sun barbecues your nose to a crisp. It’s impossible to pick up the pace without feeling faint but you’re gripped by so much anticipation to see what’s around the corner that you can’t not hurry.

And that turbulent end to the trip?

Not only is Chile world-renowned for its wine produce but it’s also an earthquake hotbed. Ten minutes from touchdown at Santiago Airport, our plane suddenly snapped into ascent followed by an announcement that announced a large earthquake had struck. The pilot had been advised to stay airborne while they checked for disruption. Strangely, the epicentre was located right off the coast of the Antofagasta Region only a few miles from San Pedro.