The desolation that gives the Atacama desert
sight could scarcely be compared with others. Perhaps, it is possible to make a
comparison with the description of Ray Bradubury in Martian Chronicles. This unusual place on Earth looks from every
angle like another planet. One where it would be more logical to see the
descent of a couple of spacecraft that the arrival of a group of tourists by
car.
However, the Atacama desert is in the north of
Chile as one of the most original tourist destinations that anyone can visit in
his life, and the gateway is a town of fewer than 6,000 inhabitants whose
extraordinary possibilities we will relate in this text.
This is San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest
places on Earth but not the aridest of the desert of the same name. A locality
that appears in the news when it rains, but always is subject to reports,
chronicles and reviews for its terrifying attractions.
For decades only backpackers knew San Pedro,
but today there are millions of tourists who come to see first-hand what they
tell.
And, if the days can make us doubt of being on
the same planet as always, the nights are able to confuse people completely
because they assume that in this world there is no sky with so many stars. But
you know first-hand what we have to tell you about this charming town that
seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but close up is in the middle of
everything.
Valley of the Moon
Going to San Pedro and not visiting the Valley
of the Moon is like staying at home. The name already anticipates the type of
landscape, rocks modified by erosion, amazing mantles of salt, and a sense of
being seriously in the natural satellite of the Earth.
The most emblematic rock formations of the
Valley of the Moon are the Tres Marías, the Cañón, the Anfiteatro and the
Piedra del Coyote. But the best part of the walk is the sunset, an
unprecedented chromatic waste for any view. For this reason, tours are at 3:00
and at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Lake Cejar and Lake
Piedra
The Salar de Atacama desert is, of course, the
largest in Chile. The trip consists of visiting a series of lakes crowned by
the Cejar Lake and Piedra Lake, where bathers can experience the same floating
effect that the Dead Sea offers given the enormous amount of salt that the
waters have.
Generally, the same tour includes a walk along
the shore of the Tebinquinche Lake, where the horizon is lost because of the
union between sky, salt, and water. This view goes beyond the possibilities of
the human eye.
Salar de Atacama
It is also key to visit the Salar de Atacama
separately, as a tour through it allows you to know the trails of the Chaxa
Lake, where three species of flamingos inhabit. But the same tour leads to the
Quebrada de Jerez, a place full of ancient petroglyphs from previous
civilizations where the current inhabitants of the town of San Pedro can
develop their agricultural production of fruit trees.
Rainbow Valley
Those who have been amazed by the petroglyphs
in the Quebrada de Jeréz must know the Rainbow Valley. This place receives that
name due to the enormous amount of minerals that color their soils in a very
different way. There, the amount of petroglyphs is unique. Ancient Indians left
evidence on the rocks of coexisting with monkeys, camelids, and dogs.
The astronomical tour
From San Pedro, there is a tour for visitors
which offer the opportunity to see the sky like never before. The night
experience always offers a pre-class of 20 minutes for tourists to become
familiar with astronomical concepts and identify the constellations.
The Puritana Hot Springs
At 30 kilometers from San Pedro de Atacama is
the Puritana Hot Springs, a place with thermal waters of 30 degrees coming from
the Cordillera de los Andes due to its contact with the volcanic material.
These waters fill up to eight pools of the Puritana River and every second that
manages to stay submerged is unforgettably pleasant.
In the end, the conclusion of a trip to San
Pedro de Atacama will not be extraplanetary in real terms, but it will be
beyond the limits of what we thought possible on our beloved planet Earth.