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Desert Memories: Journeys Through the Chilean North
“All of us, living in ghost towns though we do not know it.With the illusion that what we leave behind will not be swept away by the wind, that something will remain against the corrosion of time.Hand by hand, hand in handGloriously making believe we will outlast the desert” Ariel Dorfman, Chilean novelist, playwright, poet and human rights activist writes about his journey through northern Chile through San Pedro de Atacama, along the Panamerican highway and the nitrate corridor, and up to Arica. Along the way he stops in Pisagua to remember his close friend Freddy Taberna who was executed […]
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Gasoline
To truly immerse yourself in the landscape of northern Chile, it is essential to have your own vehicle, ideally one with high clearance and four-wheel drive. Driving in Chile does have its challenges–the distances are vast and the roads are often in poor condition. But then the only way to really comprehend the vast emptiness of the northern desert is to spend several hours driving through it, uninterrupted by signs of civilization. I picked up a Suzuki Gran Vitara at the Calama airport and returned it at the end of my trip in Arica, a few kilometers from the Pervuian […]
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Miscanti and Miniques
The trip to the alpine lakes Miscanti and Miniques was 154 miles round trip at an average speed of 18 miles per hour, as much of the route is on a dirt road climbing from 7,800 feet to 13,800 feet. Miscanti and Miniques | GPS Map | My GPS Route Data from San Pedro View from Toconao Bridge Labels: Chile
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The Moon from the Southern Hemisphere
San Pedro is bustling with tour agencies hawking their services, offering guided trips to salt flats, geysers, flamingo reserves and mountain peaks. One of the more unique offerings is a night time tour of the skies, led by french astronomer Alain Maury and his wife Alejandra. Their home and laboratory in the desert is surrounded by telescopes through which visitors can take a close up look at the moon, planets, and instellar phenomena. Northern Chile is the site of numerous observatories, including the world’s largest, because of the clear sky, minimal interference and high altitude. I took this photo through […]
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Valle de la Muerte
A few kilometers from the Valle de la Luna is the Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death). A trail winds its way between steep cliffs and strange rock formations. Halfway through the trail opens to an enormous sand dune, which attracts a handful of sandboarders. Otherwise the trail is usually empty and eerily silent, particularly in the late afternoon when the rocks turn colors and odd shadows appear and then fade away. A good pair of sunglasses is a necessity in this environment, even in winter, due to the clear skies and the sun’s intensity at higher altitudes.Valle de […]
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Atacama Desert
The Atacama desert is the driest place on the planet. Hemmed in by the Andes to the east and coastal mountains to the west, some parts of the region have never recorded a single drop of rain. Spanish explorers referred to it as the “despoblado de Atacama,” suggesting it was uninhabitable. Charles Darwin described it simply as “a complete and utter desert” in the Voyage of the Beagle. Traversing the landscape, he reported, “I saw only one other vegetable production, and that was a most minute yellow lichen, growing […]
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