Atacama Desert: in pictures!

17 July 2012

Less talk, more pictures.

Iconic church in the central plaza of small town San Pedro de Atacama (my base for my day trips). Roof is made from cactus wood and leather straps were used instead of nails - folks are pretty resourceful out in the desert.

Valle de la Muerte

Who feels salty!? This whole area is full of salt deposits, in some cases just layered onto the rocks.

Here I am just one of the many dazzled (and burnt) by the sun setting over Valle de la Luna

Salar de Atacama, an immense and gorgeous salt flat in the middle of the desert where natural springs created an incredible ecosystem, with three species of flamingos (in the background) and a nimble avocet in the foreground.

Same day, same tour, just a few hundred meters up in the Andes and we come across a pack of vicuna, awesome creatures related to llamas that were never domesticated.

I was running out of poses, here in one of the altiplano lakes, a body of half-frozen water trapped where volcanic flows blocked the snowmelt and retained it high in the mountains, a breeding ground for rare birds (way in the distance).

Domesticated members of the camelid family (in case you couldn't tell by their technicolor earings), I'm going to say these are alpacas. Their wool is beautiful and famously cozy, as my new sweater can attest to.

My last day (barely), around 6am anticipating sun rise over the geysers at Tatio.

A nice shot of our noble tour guide and the brave members of our expedition, as we braved minus 14 degree (Celsius!) weather to experience the glory of these high-altitude geysers when the sun broke overhead

Steampunk.

Steampunk.

Driving back from the geysers, we passed this herd of alpacas (or llamas?) in the desert

On my bus ride out of the Atacama Desert, I took this "parting shot"

It was hard to trim my 500+ photos down to a dozen for this blog. I've featured about 60 total that chronicle all the highlights of the trip and have posted them on picasa. If you'd like to see more and want the link, send me a message.

Thanks!