Last weekend Becca, Meera, and I went to the Atacama desert in Northern Chile. The Atacama is the driest desert in the world! We left our apartments at 5am and caught the sunrise just before take-off. The view out of the plane was spectacular.
Day 1 in San Pedro we went to Valle de La Luna and Valle de La Muerte. The valleys were bathed in scorching sun and had panoramic views of the desert. We hiked through a canyon with salt covered walls and then went through a narrow cave. We climbed up a sand dune to watch the sunset and the colors reflecting on a volcano across the valley.
Day 2 we went to one of the world's largest salt flats and watched flamingos walk around the salt mounds. Then we headed up up up (to more than 14,000ft) to visit the high plains lakes. The road into the mountains was one of the bumpiest roads I have ever experienced. The lakes were a spectacular bright blue and contrasted with the desert sand and snow peaked volcanoes.
Day 3 we woke up at 3:45am and drove 2 hours on another of the bumpiest roads I have ever seen. It was impossible to sleep so I stared out the window at the stars and the blackest sky I have ever seen. We went back up to 14,000ft to visit El Tatio Geysers at sunrise. We were standing in the sub-freezing geyser field when the sun came up and illuminated the steam and boiling water that was spewing out of the ground. We bathed in a hot spring near the geysers then visited a desert village and ate llama on the way back to San Pedro.
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