The 2000-square-km Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the most arid in the world. Each year thousands of tourists flock to San Pedro de Atacama, from where they set out to explore some of Chile’s surreal landscapes of the Atacama Desert with natural phenomena and ancient settlements.
Here 5 recommended places to visit in the surrounding Atacama Desert, but first let’s get an impression of this colonial town itself.
It may not come close to Africa, but South America is a fantastic continent to see wildlife. Not only can you see animals often and at many different locations, at some places you can touch them, caress them, connect with them (in a responsible way!).
In fact, one of South America’s great travel attractions is wildlife.
After 2,5 years of Amazon Coen and I are happy to have returned to the colder and drier climate of South America, the Andes Mountains.
We are cold-weather people.
“Shark!”
I was face down in the water, mesmerized by schools of surgeon fish weaving their way among the rocks, yet the word registered loud and clear.
Tiger footprints. We stop in our tracks. Excitement rises. Our guide kneels and studies them, and concludes they are old ones. Disillusion comes with a hidden sense of relief.
There is a gun-carrying guard with us, but still.
Living-root bridges? Bridges made of natural materials that last hundreds of years?
Yes, they exist!
It was Sunday, late afternoon. The weekend vacationers from Manaus had returned home and peace reigned once more over the small tourist town of Novo Airão. I was the only one to go swimming with dolphins.
What a stroke of luck!
Amidst the flooded forest of Anavilhanas-Archipel, I am looking up at a meters wide trunk of a tree. It splits into three immensely thick branches that reach high into the sky, as if they are on their way to heaven.
I feel as if I am looking at a scene in the cartoon of Jack and the Beanstalk.
“Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breaths away.”
After more than a year of living and traveling in the Amazonian Rainforest in the Guianas and Brazil, the contrast with the landscape we encountered in Lençois Maranhenses (Northeast Brazil) couldn’t have been bigger:
1500 square kilometers of dunes.
It was almost like a dance, seven rambunctious Andean Condors hopping around chunks of mule and calf. On other days the carrion might be alpaca, sheep, or rabbit. Males generally have the first go but Awu is a female that is able to stand up for herself and makes sure she gets the piece she wants to have.
When two condors wanted the same piece they each tore on a side of it as if it were a game of tug-of-war.
Hexagonal tiles of salt stretch to the horizon hemmed in by bluish mountains. The crunching of salt crystals beneath my feet sounds like stepping on fresh snow. I’m encompassed by total silence in an otherworldly spectacle that is largely devoid of life.
Salar de Uyuni is beyond magic!
“If you turn around you will see the entire row of pyramids,” Alice said. I pulled lightly on the reins and Esthela immediately reacted, at which I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Truth be said, I was not so sure that she would listen to me.
“Look at that! Am I seeing what I am seeing? A white baby whale?!”
Truly, Peninsula Valdes did not disappoint.
