San Pedro de Atacama
After renting a 4×4 pickup truck in Antofagasta, we’ve spent the last week camping and touring in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, based around the oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama.
Our first stop was the famous Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), an interesting geological area full of weird salt-rock formations. The highlight of our afternoon visit here was a fantastic little hike through a strange slot-canyon-cave-tunnel. The rock here is really interesting – it looks like mud, but it’s really super hard salt-infused rock.
We forgot to bring our headlamps on this hike, but pressed ahead in the darkness of the cave anyways using Claudia’s camera light to guide the way. Luckily the cave/tunnel wasn’t too terribly long and we popped out the other end pretty soon.
The next day we drove up and up and up above the desert to the Salar de Aguas Calientes, a high lake and salt flat at about 13,000 ft. elevation with a series of hot springs along the edge (not great for bathing, unfortunately, due to lots of green muck and bitterly cold winds).
Surreal landscape of Salar de Aguas Calientes, high above the Atacama desert near San Pedro de Atacama - October.
Surreal forms of Salar de Aguas Calientes.
Frozen turqoise waters of Salar de Aguas Calientes, high above the Atacama Desert.
A lone vicuña stands in the surreal landscape of Salar de Aguas Calientes.
A barren and windy landscape high above the Atacama Desert.
A vicuña strolls through the surreal landscape of Salar de Aguas Calientes.
At this high elevation, it was super windy and terribly cold – in fact it even snowed a bit and the entire salty lake froze over during the night. Fortunately we found a pretty good shelter from the wind beneath a leeward-facing cliff. There’s me above in our caveman kitchen, hiding from the wind.
Next, we headed to Laguna Lejia, another high remote lake accessed via a series of rough, high passes. Here’s our rented HiLux truck amongst some penitentes at around the 15,000-foot mark.
Volcán Simba o Aguas Calientes (5831m / 19131 ft.) and Cerro Acamarachi o Pili (6045m / 19833 ft.) as seen at sunset from Laguna Lejia, Chile.
One of the most interesting things about the Andes around the Atacama is the sheer number of volcanoes – they’re lined up one after another as far as the eye can see. Laguna Lejia is situated in a particularly nice spot to view a number of these volcanoes, and I was stoked to catch a nice sunset and sunrise during our brief stay there.
This lake is at a lofty height of 4500m (almost 14,800 ft.) elevation, and was even colder and windier than the night before! Even worse, there was no shelter whatsoever, so we decided that our only choice was to sleep in the truck. Sleeping in a car is usually a sign of desperation, but this actually turned out quite nice – the truck was warmer than the tent and the fully reclined seats were surprisingly comfortable!
Dawn light on Volcan Lascar (5510m), Volcan Simba o Aguas Calientes (5831m) and Cerro Acamarachi o Pili (6045m) as seen from Laguna Lejia.
Though we had wanted to hike up Vulcan Lascar, it was simply too windy and cold to even think about attempting that!
One night at Laguna Lejia was enough suffering for us, so we headed back down to the town of San Pedro de Atacama for a nice dinner and a real bed for a change.
The adobe town of San Pedro de Atacama is super touristy, but easily seduced us with its lazy relaxed atmosphere and tasty food options. We ended up staying for a couple nights so that we could have more time to chill out and soak in the atmosphere of this cozy desert town.
The next day, we heard a report that the wind was dying down. That was great news, since we were thinking that it was just always totally windy around here. So in the afternoon we spontaneously decided to go for a hike up Cerro Toco, which is regarded as a “novice” hike around here, even though it rises to 18,504 ft.! Well, it was actually a pretty easy hike, especially since we were able to drive up to 16,400 ft.!
Sunset from the 5640m/18,504 ft. summit of Cerro Toco, high above the Atacama desert in northern Chile.
Of course, being the nutjob photographer that I am, I had to stay up on the summit for sunset! Well, although I was getting a bit chilly by then, it was worth it. I made it back down to the truck by dusk, and we were back in town by dinnertime.
Soaking in Termas de Puritama near San Pedro de Atacama.
A short drive from San Pedro are the Termas de Puritama, a hot spring river set in a deep canyon in the middle of the driest desert in the world. There’s a series of eight or so pools with clear hot water flowing through them all. A true oasis paradise! This was one of the most amazing and memorable hot springs I’ve ever visited, and we stayed there for hours until they finally kicked us out at closing time. Definite a highlight of the trip so far.
Sunset light on Volcán Licancabur (5960m / 19554 ft.) as seen from Valle de la Muerte near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile.
That evening we camped again in our favorite spot just outside of town – the Valle de la Muerte. A canyon winds its way through surreal eroded formations until you get to a martian landscape of sand dunes amongst more eerie salt-rock formations.
Surreal landscape of Valle de la Muerte near San Pedro de Atacama.
Moonlit martian landscape in Valle de la Muerte near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile.
Why not hang out in San Pedro some more? Here I am playing Rummy at a coffeeshop.
Flamingos at Laguna Chaxa in the Salar de Atacama giant salt flat near San Pedro de Atacama.
Our next stop: Laguna Chaxa, in Los Flamencos National Reserve, in the center of the Salar de Atacama, the huge salt flat south of town. Three species of flamingos live here year-round.
We stayed at Laguna Chaxa until sunset, scoring some unexpectedly fantastic sunset and dusk photos there.
A mellow sunset at Laguna Chaxa in the Salar de Atacama giant salt flat near San Pedro de Atacama.
The endless expanse of rugged salt formations in the Salar de Atacama near San Pedro de Atacama.
