Sabbatikos

Leaving Santiago behind we headed to the airport bright and early and caught a flight to Calama, Chile. Upon landing a driver and guide were waiting to whisk us to San Pedro De Atacama where we’d base ourselves for the next few days while exploring the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth.

We drove past the wind turbines we’d seen from the air, and out into the desert where it wasn’t long before we spotted our first guanaco! In the distance we could see the Andes mountains and the Licancabur volcano. The mountain is revered by those in San Pedro De Atacama who reflect and honor this sacred mountain by using triangles in their architecture.

We checked into our hotel, the Noi Casa Atacama, with time to unpack and have a delicious lunch before our late afternoon and sunset hike in the Atacama.

Our driver and guide from Gato Andino Turismo picked us up at 4:30 pm for a drive and several short treks in Vallecito (Little Valley) exploring Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountains) where we explored an extraordinary geology (a mix of salt, gypsum, chalk, and reddish-clay) of what was once an ancient lake shaped by tectonic activity, earthquakes, volcanic activity, and erosion by wind and infrequent rain.

We drove about 30 minutes out into the desert on what couldn’t quite pass for a road. It was more like rough and bumpy tracks in the sand. Eventually, in the middle of seemingly nowhere and all alone, we made our first stop at the bottom of the Cordillera de la Sal range to take in the views and experience the unusual shiny and reflective gypsum landscape glinting in the afternoon sun.

We drove a little further, up into the hills, to a view point. From here we could look across the “little valley” with stunning views of all kinds of geographic phenomena, including a very large salt flat off in the distance.

After a short hike and huff (8400 feet in elevation) we drove a little further on to visit a massive mound of salt. The mass of salt is actively still cleaving off large slabs of salt. As we stood in silence and listened we could hear the salt slabs creaking and popping in the wind and the heat. At one time this salt had been mined, evidence of which is only seen in the dried metal frame of a broken down and left behind “magic bus”.

Further along we passed a windswept rock formation known as “the world’s cup trophy” where we did a little more hiking and took some time for photos as the sun lowered herself on the horizon.

As the our shadows drew long we drove to a popular sunset destination with sweeping views across the whole of the Cordillera de la Sal. Here our guide and driver prepared a lovely picnic and a pisco sour for us to enjoy as the sun set across the Atacama. As the sun dropped, the temperature did too, and we drove back to San Pedro de Atacama to explore the town a little before heading to bed with an early start ahead of us for Day 2.