Atacama Desert has dunes, volcanoes and geysers – 03/13/2024 – Tourism

From above, the asphalt of the road cuts through the afternoon and puts nothingness on the map. A curtain of dust separates the eyes from the landscape. The sky in the Atacama Desert is pumpkin, and the sun’s rays illuminate the Andes mountain range, the volcanoes, and its salt flats.

The truck speeds down the highway: the stony earth now crumbles into sand, while the mineral soil mirrors the changing sky. This is how the days end in the northern region of Chile, with iridescent skies.

It is not uncommon for those who have an accident to remain on the road forever, buried under small houses built by family members. Inside them, we saw crosses on the shoulder. One of them glows, surrounded by a flashing chain.

Death conditions life in the desert. The sea currents of the Pacific Ocean do not exceed the wall of the Andes mountain range. Rain only arrives between the months of January and March. At a thousand kilometers long, the Atacama is the driest desert in the world.

It is also the highest, reaching 4,000 meters above sea level. The local vegetation is limited to bushes and cacti and, with luck, you can find wild donkeys, llamas and similar species: guanacos and also vicuñas.

Altitude causes vertigo, nausea and even shortness of breath. The aridity dries everything out: nose, lips, skin.
On the roads, tourists’ pickup trucks share space with buses full of men, heading to work in the mines. There is a portrait of the Chilean economy, based on tourism and copper.

On the outskirts of San Pedro do Atacama, a city that is often used as a base for exploring the region, there is a five-star hotel. The airport serving the city, 1,600 km from Santiago, is Calama.

The common areas of Tierra Atacama, where daily rates can cost around R$5,000, are located inside a mansion. The decor is rustic, with modern architecture. The fireplace comforts and soothes. Addictive, the welcome drink is a tasty lemonade with ayrampo, a desert fruit. Drinks and wines are available at the bar.

Brazilians are everywhere. At the restaurant, tourists, especially those from São Paulo, feast on ossobuco pastry, goat cheese and guanaco meat. The ice creams are made with local ingredients, such as rica rica, mesquite and chañar.

The hotel staff are very friendly. The smiles are welcoming, the greetings are effusive. The chalet overlooks one of the volcanoes.

Like the sea, the desert landscape is abstract. It looks like a movie screen or a blank sheet of paper. The red land of the Andes makes you imagine classic bang-bang movies, and the mounds of clay remind you of the roads in the video game “GTA San Andreas”.

Activities in Atacama take place in the immense open space, and it is the hotel itself that promotes tours in the middle of nowhere. To the west of the desert is Vallecito, the salt mountain range. The morning sun shines through a giant crystal. Silence. The desert makes music. The heat contracts and expands the crystal, emitting sounds. An abandoned bus makes up the painting. It is a trace of the explorers of the salt mines.

Go ahead, scoundrel. We fell off a huge dune. The truck accelerates. Along the road, volcanoes follow one another. Lascar is the most active of them. In 1993, smoke closed São Paulo airport. According to experts, the next eruption should occur in two years.

The afternoon falls. Flamingos gather in the Chaxa lagoon. The animals are also found in groups in the Salar de Atacama, where they feed. The pink tone of flamingos joins the sky. We headed south of the desert. The highland lagoons are whitish blue.

More than 4,000 meters above sea level, the lagoons of Miscanti, Meñiques and Piedras Rojas are miraculous. Sebástian Bravo, 34, is the hotel guide. He hosts a banquet in the middle of the desert. On the way back, we visited San Pedro do Atacama, the main city in the region. Esotericists from all over the world walk the dirt streets, seeking Andean mysticism.

The houses in the little town are made of adobe, a mixture of clay and straw. The hippies pass straight past the church of San Pedro do Atacama, built by the Jesuits in 1774. Outside, an evangelical girl exhorts her testimony. The Reformation arrived in the desert.

At 6 am the next day, we visited the famous Del Tatio Geysers. It’s -10 ºC. From the geothermal field, jets of water, almost 80ºC, erupt. By studying the bacteria in that environment, scientists are looking for clues about life on Mars.

Meanwhile, the daytime temperature rises. The sun peeks out from behind the columns of vapor. There are many stories in the press about tragedies in the geysers. Once, a Chinese tourist, says Bravo, was walking there and suddenly disappeared. In another accident, a Spaniard fell and died. In Atacama, life is a celebration.

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Tierra Hotels