A journey through the Atacama Desert Part II

Amazing Views!

On the first day at the Atacama Desert, I took a tour to the Valle de La Luna (Moon Valley) and it was absolutely incredible. I think it was the very first time in my whole life that I’ve walk so much. The sun was shining bright, my skin was burning because the sunscreen wasn’t working, and the dryness of the place almost made me want to turn around and go back to where we started. But the adrenaline of going all the way up, and the amazing views of the place made me keep going. 

 FUN FACT: When we were hiking through the valley, out of nowhere it started to RAIN!! Yess! We were lucky enough to see drops of water in one of the driest places on earth. 

On that same day, I took another tour to the Valle de los Cactus (Cactus Valley) which are mountains with big cactus that have over 30 years there. And, it was the perfect place to watch the sunset because all the cactus changes their color to red due to the mixture of colors with the sun. 

On the second day, I took another tour to the lagoons on the bottom of volcanos. It took us almost three hours to get there because they are located near the border of Chile with Argentina. But, the views along the way and the views when we got there were definitely worth it. You can’t go in to the lagoons because they’re protected by the government. The dark blue contrasting with the snow on the volcanos was definitely a great peaceful view.

On the third day, I took a tour to another lagoon where flamingos live. It is about an hour and a half to get there. It is next to the Cejar Lagoon, which is a lagoon covered completely in salt. Therefore, the environment and the land around it was covered with salt. I tasted it! And indeed, it tasted like salt. The views and the environment were great. It was peaceful to see the flamingos coexist. Unfortunately, they weren’t friendly to come near the tourists for cool pictures. But it was definitely a great experience seeing flamingos on the Atacama Desert.

On my last day, I took my last tour to the Geisers of Tatio. The Atacama Desert and Chile are known to be one of the few places in the world to have the biggest land of geisers. For this tour, I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. They picked me up around 5:30 a.m. They do this because it is better to watch the geisers early in the morning and to enjoy the sunrise with the beautiful mountains that surrounds it. It was crazy to learn about the geisers and its formation. 

They told us that ancient people would cook their eggs there and it would be ready instantly because the water is so hot. That was their stove. 

Overall, it was an amazing experience to travel through one of the driest places on earth. All the sunburns were totally worth it. I definitely would go back before I leave back to the United States because there is still A LOT to see. The variety of environments all in one place is crazy, and even crazier that these environments exist in a place that’s known to be one of the driest places on earth.