Day 4-Atacama - Moon Valley

A morning flight to Calama after checking out of the hotel landed us in "the great north," as Chileans call it. The smooth, two-hour flight took us up into the high plains to the west of the Andes and over a huge expanse of barren uplands. The denuded hills presented no vegetation and only an occasional road. A few (huge) open-pit mines broke the monotony. These are copper mines - once Chile's biggest industry but more recently affected by the fluctuations in world copper prices. Also recent are a few lithium mines. Approaching Calama, we began to see more evidence of mining with arrow-straight dirt access roads leading to drilling pads (?) or some type of exploration work. From Calama it is a bit more than an hour by bus to Pedro de Atacama.

If we thought it looked barren from the air, from the ground it is stark! The Atacama is the world's driest desert and there is NOTHING on the ground except wind-blown dark sand and small gravel. There are no plants, not even grass and the terrain is gently rolling with a gully every once in a while. The road to San Pedro is good and our bus was comfortable.

San Pedro is a oasis, both literally and figuratively, in this empty plain. It sits at just below 8,000 feet and you can feel the thinness of the air after taking only a few steps. The small town has the only trees and commercial operations around. The bowl of the Atacama exists because it is ringed and all sides by mountain ranges - the 15,000-foot Andes to the east and lower ranges on the other sides. One of these ranges is the Salt Range, which we traversed on the way to San Pedro. Twenty million years ago, the area was a large sea until tectonic forces lifted the Andes and drained the sea, leaving huge salt pans. The Andes here are a series of mostly dormant volcanoes rising to 19,000 feet peaks. These ranges block any rain from all directions, creating the dry conditions. The absence of rain has allowed what little does fall and the wind to sculpt an otherworldly landscape of salt and gypsum deposits into fantastic shapes. The same tectonic forces that lifted the Andes also pushed up blocks of the ancient seafood, allowing a look at the sedimentary layers of different formations.

San Pedro is one of Chile's greatest tourist attractions and the town has over 100 accommodation options and dozens of restaurants. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (quoting the guidebook) since there is noting else like it on earth. Attractions include high-altitude climbing, sand hoarding, mountain biking, horseback riding, blue salt lakes dotted with flamingos, salt-encrusted valleys, geysers and hot springs. The cloudless skies and isolation from light pollution offer some of the best star gazing in the world and one of the world's biggest astronomic observatories. Lots to do, in spite of it's remoteness.

We had a tour booked for the afternoon so we hurriedly checked in to the Hotel Diego de Almagro and went looking for the tour bus company. Our tour of the Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) was great!. The name comes from the stark, barren landscape. There is nothing living here - no vegetation, no birds, no insects, not even tiny lizards scampering across the rocks. Our bi-lingual guide explained what we were looking at and led us on different, usually short treks to see particular sites. The rocks here are conglomerates of sediment, volcanic materials, alluvial deposits, salt and gypsum. At one spot she had us stop and be quiet long enough to hear the snapping and popping of the rocks, caused by the expansion and contraction of the salt in the sun and shade. We walked up to the top of one of the sand dunes to look over the lunar-like landscape. I sure felt the altitude and Gail didn't do the dune climb. The tour concluded with a sunset view from one of the higher cliffs.

Back at the hotel, we found the dinner was by reservation only and we hadn't made them. The town was packed with tourists (it's New Year's Eve, after all and we'd had a bit of trouble getting a hotel). We were tired, hot, sweaty and hungry - not having eaten since breakfast. We searched out a restaurant but found them all asking for reservations. We settled for some cheese, crackers, meat and yoghurt from a tiny mom-and-pop store near the hotel and ate in the room. It was just about midnight by then and we started to hear the fireworks and revelers as we went to bed. Gail said the revelry went on until three in the morning but I was passed out by then. Happy New Year.Read more