Pachamama by bus - part II

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From Bahia Inglesa the tour continued to Antofagasta through one of the driest places on earth. There has been any rain in over 50 years!

Antofagasta is the second biggest city in Chile with about 350 thousand people living there. Quite a gap to Santiago with over 6 million people. Antofagasta is the main port of Chile's mining industry and is not a very interesting place. La Portada - a cliff formation in the ocean - is one of the few scenic places in Antofagasta.

From Antofagasta we drove through desert and salt flat into San Pedro de Atacama. We stopped in Baquedano about an hour away from Antofagasta. There we went to see some old trains, which were abandoned in the beginning of the century. The trains haven't started rusting because there is hardly any rain and no humidity in the air.

We stopped on the way over the salt flat and in the small oasis town of Peine on the edge of the salt flat and had a cooling dip in the natural pools. The water comes from the Andes and the river creates a green oasis in the middle of the desert.

In the middle of the salt flats we stopped on the Laguna Chaxa to see some flamingoes and watching a stunning desert sunset.

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Photos

Cemetary in the desert
Cemetary is all that there is left from an abandoned mining town.

Two hands in the desert
There is a huge sculpture called Hand in the desert in the middle of nowhere

Group
People from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain and USA. Lots of fun!!

Happy, happy , joy, joy!!
We made unexpected discovery in Antofagasta where we found proper rye bread from local supermercado. Damn it tasted good!

Looking over the Atacama salt flat
Third biggest salt flat in the world with area of 3200 square km.

Church in the old town
Peine is an oasis in the middle of the desert

House for small people
They built a small entrance to keep the heat in during the cold nights. Apparently no one told them about doors.

Flamingoes on Laguna Chaxa
There are six types of flamingoes in the world, here you can find three of those: Andean, Chilean and James flamingoes.

Flamingoes on Laguna Chaxa
The lagoon is situated in the middle of the salt flat. The flamingoes feed on some type of algae growing in the salty water.

Got it!
Stunning red sunset on the salt flats.

Comments

[Sean]

Hi guys
So here I am searching the web for the name of a place I visited in Chile. This big hand in the desert. I clicked on a link and what do I see but a group photo and I am in it!! Hope the rest of your trip was great. Sean

[Charles Gilliam]

Great photos
Great photos. The road less traveled as it were. Thank you for sharing.