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Published: August 29th 2023
The driest desert at the highest altitude in Chile where some places have not seen rain in hundreds of years! Yes, that’s Atacama our next destination!
Our flight from Punta Arenas to San Pedro, Atacama was scheduled to depart in the wee hours – close to 3 am. We didn’t have much choice. Punta Arenas is in the deep south of Chile – it is the gateway to Patagonia. And Atacama Desert is in the north of Chile. One needs to cross over 3000 km in the middle. One of my friends who has spent considerable time in Chile told me, “Are you crazy that you wanted to cover everything in Chile in one go – Patagonia to Atacama? Just in 10 days?” I just smiled...”Yup, ‘Crazy’ is my middle name”. So, there we were, sitting in our taxi being driven through the cold, deserted and windswept roads of Punta Arenas heading to the airport. Not only that! We have booked an afternoon tour from our hotel in San Pedro so as to maximize our stay in Atacama. And Our hotel in San Pedro was over 100 km from Calama airport in Atacama! Now you know why we needed to
fly out from Punta Arenas in the wee hours. Yup, ‘Crazy' is my middle name alright! Even the coffee shops in the airport were closed that hour of the night.
It was not a direct flight to Calama from Punta Arenas. We needed a transfer in Santiago. That went without a hassle. And we had roughly one and half hour for the connection. The flight to Calama took off on time, and I was relaxed – finally we were heading to Atacama! Truly, I loved Punta Arenas and Patagonia, don’t get me wrong. But desert has an added attraction to me. It is in complete contrast with the mountain beauty. It has its own charm, - a rugged landscape, a climate so desolate, so ruthless, that one wonders how certain species can survive there. To me, mountains are close to my heart, I love them, adore them and I can look at them all day and never get tired. But a desert looks like a different planet. I feel myself an alien there, as if I have landed there by an accident and observing the unique beauty around me which lays all the way to the horizon. It is
unaware of its own elegance, but silently conveys the eternal truth – ‘survival of the fittest’. It reminds me of Ica desert in Peru where we went to see the Nazca Lines. Sandunes and oasis were so desolate, the streets were so much windswept with occasional sand storms, deserted even at 10 am that fills one with a state of bleak and emptiness. I wondered how people do survive there. I suppose, it is only human who can adjust in all adverse climates. You pick a tiger from the delta forest in India and let her go in a desert, the poor animal doesn’t stand a chance. But we, the human do fit in. That’s the difference we have with the animals.
The flight from Santiago to Calama took off on time. Gone was the lush green Los Lagos or the snow covered peaks of Patagonia. I looked through the window. The landscape below was the ruthless peaks of brown mountains. There was no signs of greenery; that once again reminded me it is indeed a place where fittest only survive.
It was just a couple of hours flight from Santiago to Calama. Latam Airlines flight made a
smooth touchdown in a bright morning in Calama Airport. I looked out the window; it was brown everywhere beyond the perimeter of the airport as far as I could see. Lovely! Welcome to the desert land Atacama - what a contrast arriving from Punta Arenas!
San Pedro is 100 km away from Calama Airport, roughly 1 hour 30 minutes journey. And we have booked a tour in the early afternoon. No, we didn’t want to take a chance of missing our tour. Daniela from Ckoi Lodge booked us a pickup through Travel Mapu from the airport earlier and we went straight to their desk on the arrival level. I checked my watch. It was 10 am. We still had plenty of time for the tour pick up at 2:00 pm. I relaxed in the mini bus which was almost full once the passenger pick up was complete and we soon hit the highway heading to San Pedro. Once outside the airport perimeter, I could feel the vastness of the desert. Everything around was brown; a bleak, rugged land extended all the way up to the horizon. There was not even a touch of green pasture anywhere that I could
see. Windmills were jutting out in some section of the desert. I was impressed with the effort from the Chilean government to supplement the conventional energy with the renewable generation. Sometimes I wonder why some of our own politicians burry their faces in the sand thus denying the climate change. They should take some lessons from these countries.
We were the last passengers to be dropped off at Ckoi Lodge. It was close to noon. The outside was hot with blazing sun. The lodge is spread out in a typical barren land – stone chips were used to cover pathways to minimize the dust, trees those grow in dry weather were scattered here and there, an outdoor swimming pool which was deserted at that time of the day. Our room was nothing luxurious but it was decent and clean. The part I liked, it was spacious. Once checked in, we just wanted to grab a quick lunch somewhere. We were told that choices are available in the City Center, a merely twenty minutes walk from the lodge. The roads were dusty just like in a desert town. It reminded me of the Ica Desert in Peru. We took a
walk down the unpaved road towards the City Center. Desert shrubs have grown up on both sides of the road, some street dogs were resting in shade, an unkempt property by the roadside has seen better days. When we neared City Center, shops started appearing on both sides of the road. A guy was walking with a couple of Llama, probably to attract some tourist. The City Center looked like a desert town from Western cowboy movies, - shops with tin shades, people just hanging around there as if we took one wrong move and cowboys will come out with guns from one of the shades. Only thing missing was horse and horse buggies! It is in total contrast from any of the town that I am used to seeing in my daily life, let alone in Chile. I found the ambience very interesting and I blended well with the surrounding and felt comfortable. We grabbed a quick lunch from one of the roadside eateries and headed for the lodge.
I was hell-bent to visit the Salt Lake, Laguna Cejar. I have had troubled encounters with water all my life. Yes, I admit that I cannot swim. I took
a number of lessons from time to time, but with no luck. In all my lessons, I started with lots of motivation and enthusiasm. But I always found at the end of the lessons that all the newbie who joined with me were comfortably swimming in the pool and I am still near the hand rail trying to learn of how to float. It’s pathetic, I know. I had a disastrous snorkelling experience in Phuket, Thailand. Even worst, I nearly drowned a crew grabbing his leg in a panic in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. My main problem is I couldn’t float, - I just sink like a stone. My fear factor because of my repeated failures also does not help. Only, I had a limited success in Bali after a lot of try. So, I wanted to try in salt lake in Atacama where people float automatically due to the density of salt water. I just wanted to float once in my life without any fear!
The pickup was around 2 pm and we headed straight for the lagoon. We got out of the bus when we arrived near the lagoon and we needed to walk for
fifteen minutes to go to the lagoon. We made a single file walking through the pathway. There I was, with Ryan and the rest of the tourists following me in the trail I was proudly leading the platoon,- bare body, excited and ready to jump in the lagoon so that I could float first time in all these years! I tiptoed to the water with my heart pumping. And guess what! To my surprise, I floated without a hassle. So I can, I can! I was in the seventh heaven! But then came the downside. I started to panic when I was being drifted away from the shore. The next thought came to my mind – how the hell do I get back to the shore? The easy answer is one has to swim to reach the shore – clear and simple. Damn! I don’t know how to swim. Oh My God! The fear factor came back to again and I started scrambling – as desperate as before! Somehow I got back to the shore before being drifted away to a distance. Needless to say, I was disappointed with my inability. Totally! I was watching the tourists floating peacefully,- some
reading books while floating, some enjoying weightlessness! Damn! I was so looking forward to conquer the water-phobia and enjoy a peaceful float! I sighed. Well, ‘Man proposes, God disposes’. However, slowly I came back to my mood, made some friends on our way back and ended the day with happy ending – a small gathering organized by the tour opertor over a drink of pisco-sour cocktail in the backdrop of Licancabur volcano. Way to go!
The next is Salt Plain of Piedras Rojas. Stay tuned!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
The clarity and angle is amazing
I find photos a challenge from planes. With what and how did you get such a clear photo as if you are looking vertically straight down over the subject, when presumably you would have been sitting at least close to horizontal? Quite an extraordinary image!