Atacama Desert

Posted on by Valneufeld
While waiting for permits Dylan and I decided to rent a car and drive into the Atacama Desert to San Pedro de Atacama
Beautiful desert drive
Along our drive there we saw lots of sand, copper mines- and – crosses and altars. These are placed here in memory of those who have died on the road. It’s a dangerous road at night we were told
One of the many mining operations along the drive
It is hard to display the size of the mines through pictures- but I will share a few. The colours were remarkable

In the Atacama Desert there is evidence of mining as far back as the 6th century and modern mining began in 1910. There are 992 mining mines in Atacama desert – copper, gold, silver,lead and zinc. 801 are copper mines. Chile is a world’s top copper producer.

Chuquicamata Mine is one of the deepest open pits mine in the world. The largest pit at the site reaches a depth of approximately 1000 meters. It would have been incredible to fly over!

Dylan comes from a family who work in the road construction business and as a result they have moved a lot of dirt in their lives. Dylan’s dad ( if he was still alive) his brother Donald and nephews Adrian and Andrew and great nephew Luca would have an incredible appreciation as to the work involved in the creation of these massive sand piles in the desert!

It always surprises me the changing geography of a desert. This is close to San Pedro de Atacama – about 100 km from Antofagasta
We hiked in an area close to San Pedro- Valley de La Luna
It is called valley of the moon – however it looks a lot like Mars! ( here is a picture of Mars that I found on line)
Atacama
A couple more shots
Surprising to see the green in the desert. From dry sand and rock to green. San Pedro does get a little rain and as well water comes to the desert by rivers coming down from the Andes and underground water. In the background is the Licancabur volcano- 19,409 ft on the Chilean/Bolivian border. On the top is a summit crater – one of the highest lakes in the world
We ended our day in Chaxa Lagoon part of Los Flamingos National Reserve. We learned a few things. Flamingos eat 18 hours a day and they only eat brine shrimp (Sea Monkey’s as us of a certain era would remember and who most also carry a little disappointment about- they looked far different in those comic book advertisements!).
This morning we were back in Antofagasta and we flew further north to Arica. Here are at the airplane with our very helpful handler, Juan FCO Nunez
Leaving the coast line
Arica
Our flight was routed primarily 10 to 20 miles from the coast today so we saw the coast line only from a distance until we were close to Arica.
Flying into the Arica airport. Just after we landed we received our flight permit to Peru!
Fuelling in Arica and tomorrow morning we carry on to Peru

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