When I pictured Chile’s desert, stark dusty scenes sprung to mind. I expected a vast panorama of sprawling nothing. I could not have been more wrong…

Geysers, salt flats, llamas, lagoons and flamingos… Did Chile’s Atacam desert exceed all of my expectations? You betcha.

We left early in the morning, setting out for the mountain range that separates Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. Without crossing any borders we headed deeper and higher through spectacular the most desertscapes I had ever laid eyes on.

Our first stop was for the most important meal of the day. Just like real champions we ate our breakfast by a vega originated by the rio Quepiaco, where we had our morning coffee beside the beautiful contrast between the mountain range and the vegetation that turns the area into an habitat of different birds as flamencos, Taguas and Ducks.

We hit the road again only to be stopped by some crossing llama’s…

But soon the real adventure came -we headed off road, passing the spectacular formations of Pecan Monks – the remains of volcanic sediment eroded by the wind and the water are the faithful testimony of large eruptions over millions of years ago, and a lost 4×4 who had taken a wrong turn and found themselves stranded below a high cliff face.

We did stop to help but unfortunately a grumpy group of tourists below were not going to make it to the main attraction that evening.

We ventured on and eventually arrived. The Salar de Tara (Salt Flat Tara) blew all of my lifetime desert expectations away. It is a spectacular scene of rocky desert, turquoise water and bright pink flamingos. It is an absolute oasis. We wandered around in awe and eventually our stomachs dragged us back to our van where our guide had prepared a wonderful on road picnic (featuring my favourite South American veggie – palm hearts).

Our visit to Salar de Tara was a spontaneous ‘we have one day left – what should we do?’ decision but it turned out to be one of the most spectacular days to date. Do not miss a day to Salar de Tara if you are visiting the Atacama desert.

The region around Salar de Tara is not only the second driest desert on earth (after Antarctica), but also the highest so prepare to deal with some high altitudes (a whopping 5,000m above sea level). Drink plenty of water and try and spend a few dys in San Pedro to get used to the altitude before getting even higher…

We booked our day with: DESERT ADVENTURE

Tocopilla esquina Caracoles

Tel: (+56) 55 2851067 (+56) 9 9779 7211

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