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Published: December 21st 2010
Salar de Atacama
Salt flat area surrounded by active volcanoes and lagoons fed by underground freshwater streams.Heading to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), we had heard from many other travellers that it was an over-crowded and over-priced tourist trap with not much to do... As for the first two descriptions, it is true that the streets of the small city of San Pedro de Atacama, with a population of merely 3,200 locals, are lined with an innumerable amount of tour companies and are overrun with tourists from all over the world. That being said, as with any area that attracts visitors, prices will be slightly elevated. I think that coming from a ski resort town like Steamboat Springs, where peak season visitor numbers can increase the town population three-fold, this didn't really phase us too much. In regards to being told that there was not much to do in San Pedro de Atacama, this could not be farther from the truth. As I said, every other store front in the small city was selling both self-guided and guided tours. San Pedro de Atacama is a small oasis situated at about 8,000 feet of elevation in northern Chile, and is just a stone's throw from Bolivia lying in the middle of the most arid desert in the world,
Not So Flat Salt Flat
The unique topography of the Salar de Atacama. the Atacama. There are salt flats, flamingos, salt lakes, fresh lakes, volcanoes, thermal pools, geysers, incredible geography, and you can see all of this via jeep tours, biking, guided van rides, and even sandboarding! In fact, we found the town to be so incredibly "tranquilo" with so many activity options that we quickly extended our planned three night stay into four nights, making it the longest we have stayed in one place up to this point.
In San Pedro de Atacama, we stayed at Hotel Takha Takha, which is located at the end of the town's main street and includes camping options, hostel style rooms with shared outdoor bathrooms, and more luxury cabana style suites. While the adobe cabanas did look very nice, we decided to go with a more economic option. Being that getting a soft bed in a private room would only cost five US dollars more per night than camping, we figured the comfort was more than worth the investment in an area where daytime temps are incredibly hot and nighttime lows are extremely cold. The room was located just off the hotel's impressive garden and we were still able to utilize their wonderful swimming pool.
Flying Flamingos
The lagoons in the Salar de Atacama are home to 3 different species of flamingo. The only thing our room did not come with was the free morning breakfast, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed us to venture out and find Café de la Esquina. This was a small corner coffee shop with, hands down, the best breakfast we have found thus far. Fresh blended mixed fruit juices (apple, pear and kiwi was the weekly special), granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, and amazing coffee.
Fully satisfied, we set out on our first full day in San Pedro de Atacama really just trying to figure out which of the many activity options we found most interesting and how we could fit it all in to our limited time. We went from tour office to tour office comparing prices, activities, level of professionalism, and so much more. We had met many travellers who had spoken very highly of the Bolivian Salares de Uyuni (blinding white salt flats) tours that can be organized out of San Pedro. Everyone told us it was unlike anything they had ever seen in the world and that it was a must-do if you were in the area. Bolivia was not originally on our travel radar, but
with such glowing reviews, we figured we would have to at least inquire. We soon came to realize that, solely because we are American citizens, a Bolivian side-trip would have cost us quite a bit extra in visa fees and that US-Bolivian political relations are so poor that, for us, even just a short guided 3-day trip could turn into a travel nightmare. One of the tour companies we spoke with really talked us out of going more than tried to sell the trip to us. Looking back, we started to realize that we hadn't spoken to any Americans who had done this tour, but instead all of the glowing reviews had come from Australians, Europeans, and Canadians. Much to our parent's delight, we decided to put Bolivia on our "future travels" list as somewhere we hope to visit when the political climate is much less volatile. With the Bolivia trip ruled out, we were able to plan the rest of our stay in San Pedro de Atacama.
After a full day of scheduling and planning a full load of activities, it was time for dinner. Feeling that we need to take every available chance to eat healthy, we
were drawn directly to a restaurant named Todo Natural, a small, funky and friendly restaurant that serves up a wide-array of options from salads to pizzas, empanadas and full entrees made with, you guessed it, all natural ingredients. While the entire menu was mouth-watering just reading it, the most food for the best price was the menu of the day, which included a starter of multi-grain biscuits, then a soup or salad course, followed by a salmon, beef, or vegetarian entree, and topped off with dessert. From a culinary perspective, with our amazing fresh fruit breakfast and our naturally prepared dinner, day one in San Pedro de Atacama spoiled us.
Our first chosen activity that would take us outside of the town of San Pedro de Atacama was a full day journey to the Salar de Atacama and surrounding high-elevation lakes. We boarded the tour bus just after 9am and travelled 67km to the south, mostly on bumpy, dirt roads. The Salar de Atacama is unlike any other salt flat in the world in that it's not entirely flat. If you've ever driven west of Salt Lake City, you've past by land that is so flat you can see
the curvature of the earth. In your first glance at Salar de Atacama from a distance, it appears to be similar. However, once you get closer you realize the salt flat is marbled by small, uneven stalagmite type of salt formations. This is the only place in the world where you will find a salt flat that is not truly flat. It's also one of the only that is not a pure white color. Instead, there are many different types of calcium deposits in this area, so you find browns, whites, greys, and everything in between. The Salar de Atacama is also home to three different species of flamingos that live in shallow lagoons formed from underground water that travels from the surrounding Andean peaks and surfaces in the salt flat. The amount of water depends on the previous years snow depths, and the constantly changing water level, followed by the subsequent evaporation of the water, is what cause the unique salt formations in this area.
From the Salar de Atacama, we traveled another 80km south to Lagunas Miscanti and Miniques, which sit at over 14,000 feet in elevation. Even at this altitude, the lakes are a refuge for
Feeding Time
The flamingos feed on minute crustaceans that live in the lagoons. llamas, alpacas, flamingos, and many other birds. Surrounding the lakes are four volcanoes that range between 18,000-20,000 feet in elevation and are still very much alive with the capability for any of them to erupt in the relatively near future. From the lagunas, we drove back down to a comfortable eating altitude of just over 10,000 feet where we were treated to an authentic local meal of llama meat stew (a first for me, Erin of course chose the veggie egg-quinoa option) and quinoa , a very nutritious and highly regarded grain in South America.
The following day's adventures had us waking up at 3:30am to catch a 4 o'clock van heading again to over 14,000 feet in elevation and the El Tatio Geysers, the world's highest geyser field. Why the early departure? The geyser field is approximately two hours from San Pedro de Atacama and it is most active at sunrise. In this special area, there is a field of magnetic energy almost three miles down into the earth's crust that creates heat vapors to rise. Much closer to the surface is an underground cold water stream coming down from the Andean peaks. When the heat vapors hit
Raven-Looking Flamingo
With one leg up, this flamingo reminded us of our precious puppy Raven, awww! the cold water stream, it forces the water spew through the earth's crust. You find hundreds of geysers in a small area, some of which spew water and some only heat vapor. None of these geysers alone are nearly as impressive as Old Faithful in Yellowstone, but the whole field together is pretty incredible.
After a quick breakfast that included geyser heated hot chocolate, it was time to put on our bathing suits and hop in the thermal pool. If you're thinking anything along the lines of the Strawberry Park Hot Springs, it wasn't really that kind of thermal pool. Instead, it was a body of luke warm water about the size of your average swimming pool. However, there were moving pockets of super-heated vapor that would come up from underneath. Literally, you could be sitting in one spot where it wasn't even warm enough to be comfortable, and then you'd move about two inches to the left and nearly burn a hole in your swim suit.
Following the less-than-relaxing thermal baths, it was time to hop back into the van and take a tour of a small shepherd’s village that consists of only twelve families. This sounded
like it was going to be a great cultural experience and a chance to learn more about how the people of the Atacama had survived for so long living in the most arid desert in the world. Instead, it was a huge tourist-trap. As I said, the town itself is comprised of twelve families, but every morning is overrun by hundreds, if not into the thousands, of visitors. What we thought was going to be a cultural experience was more like watching a side-show at a carnival in which tourists literally had to pay to take pictures of the locals posing in the traditional clothing next to baby llamas. It was almost depressing to see how this small village had lost it’s identity like this, but at the same time, it is hard to blame them for trying to profit off of the thousands of people who treat them more like animals in a zoo, just something to gawk at, than as people just trying to live their lives.
We made it back to San Pedro de Atacama in time for a quick lunch and a brief nap before heading out on our next adventure – sandboarding and a
2 Different Species
Notice the different colored hind feathers... Pink is Chilean, black is Andean. sunset tour of Valle de Luna. After doing two very organized tours in which we were driven from one viewing spot to the next in a van, we were very excited to get out and do something active. About fifteen minutes outside of town along a dusty road lays a canyon valley full of sand dunes. As a group, we walked about half-way up a 300+ foot dune, at which point our guide asked if there were any snowboarders in the group. According to our guide, sandboarding is similar to snowboarding in heavy powder. Now we come from Steamboat Springs, home of the light and fluffy Champagne powder, and for me specifically, if it’s a powder day, I’m out on my skis while my snowboard collects dust in the garage waiting for a groomer day. Nevertheless, we both lied a bit, saying that we were certainly used riding in heavy powder and therefore we wouldn’t need to wait for his instructions. While the guide stayed behind to teach the rest of the group the finer points of sandboarding, Erin and I walked the rest of the way up our wind-groomed sand dune. Being the gentleman I am, and being that
Toconao Iglesia
Quick stop in a small town plaza before heading to Lagunas Miscanti and Miniques. Erin is the more experienced snowboarder, I decided to let her go first and see how well she was able to adjust from snow to sand. About two turns in, Erin caught a heel edge and started tumbling, coming up with a face full of sand. Watching this (and seeing that she was unhurt), I couldn’t help but laugh while at the same time feel a little nervous that since my snowboarding skills are barely even half of what Erin’s are, I would probably be about to suffer the same embarrassing fate. As it turns out, being an intermediate (at best) snowboarder actually worked to my advantage. In sandboarding, the key is to lean back as much as possible and to pivot your turns with a flat board as opposed to trying to carve them using the edge. When you actually tried to make a nice snowboard turn, well, you’d catch an edge and end up with a dirt sandwich in your mouth… something Erin learned the hard way quite a few times. All said, we hiked up about six times, earning over 2,000 vertical feet of sandy turns. Erin was finally able to get the hang of it, making
Laguna Miscanti Polarized
Taken through the lens of Erin's Kaenon sunglasses. two beautiful fall-free runs near the end of the day, which eased her frustration that her skier husband had a wobble-free day of sandboarding.
Before moving on to the sunset portion of this our tour, both Erin and I want to extend a special thanks to the Newell family. When living in Steamboat Springs, many people often say they are “Livin’ the Dream!”, especially Drew Newell (Erin’s good friend) during the winter of 2006-2007, prior to his untimely death. After our wedding, we were pleasantly surprised and touched to receive a monetary gift from the Newell family, which both Erin and I decided we would put towards doing something Drew would have loved to do himself. So, it is with great appreciation to the Newell family that Erin and I were able to continue “Livin’ the Dream!” in Drew’s honor while riding the sandy Atacama!
After about two hours of sandboarding, and with half the desert in our ears, hair and shoes, we were met by a second guide who would take us to the Valle de Luna (which translates to Moon Valley). It is named such because of its unique geographic features that make the area appear
to be other-worldly. We started the trip with a short fifteen minute hike through a canyon made solely of salt deposits, which also included a small portion through a very narrow, very dark salt cave. From here we hiked to the highest point to enjoy the sunset with a couple of Pisco Sours (alcoholic drinks famous in Chile and Peru made primarily with Pisco, a liquor that is derived from a grape but is quite a bit stronger than wine). As I said, the area looks like another planet, and especially at sunset with the reds and oranges highlighting the canyon walls, it looks quite Martian. We were told that the name Valle de Luna comes from the scenery at night during a full moon, during which everything turns a whitish color and literally looks like the surface of the moon. Unfortunately, we were there on a new moon, so we were unable to witness this. Instead, we went back to the hotel, showered, went through a few dozen q-tips, and enjoyed a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants that feature court-yard bonfires in the town of San Pedro de Atacama.
On our final day in the
Volcanoes
3 of the 4 active volcanoes that surround Lagunas Miscanti & Miniques. Atacama Desert, we didn’t need to catch our overnight bus to Arica until 8pm. This gave us one more chance at a great breakfast from Café de la Esquina before giving South American mountain biking one more try. If you’ve read our previous blogs, you know that we’ve attempted mountain biking twice before, but both times have been disappointed with what Argentineans and Chileans deem as “mountain biking.” However, we were more hopeful with the results from San Pedro de Atacama for quite a few reasons, first of which was a description in Lonely Planet of a trail 3km outside of town called Quedabra del Diablo – “a serpentine single-track that mountain bikers dream of.” We got even more optimistic when we found a shop that rented high-quality dual-suspension Kona mountain bikes. If you’re going to offer a bike like that, there must be a trail worth riding it on. Plus, the guy renting the bike was wearing a Monster Energy drink hat and a DC United tall tee. He must know what he’s talking about. Of course, we should have been a little weary when the map was hand drawn and we were told there would be no signs
for the trail we were looking for. After a couple of hours of riding up a dirt road, down a sketchy sand-pit of a trail, through a backyard, and over a river, we finally found someone who pointed us in the right direction of the trail we were looking for. We rode through a very cool canyon for about twenty more minutes before we both decided we were tired, hungry, and quite simply over trying to mountain bike in South America, so we headed back to town. It’s very possible that there could be great mountain biking in the area, especially after seeing the terrain, but we just weren’t able to find it without a proper map and no signage.
Though we were a bit frustrated about our biking experience, we were happy to be moving on from San Pedro de Atacama. It is an absolutely wonderful little town, but the touristy aspect of it does start to wane on you quite a bit after a few days. The only thing that might have kept us there longer would have been the amazing food… speaking of which, of course we had to make one last stop at Todo Natural
Laguna Miniques
Guanaco and Flamingos living in harmony at over 13,000ft in elevation. before our overnight journey to the coastal border town of Arica, from which we will leave Chile and cross-over into Peru for our final two weeks in South America.
Ciao for now,
e squared everywhere (written by Eli)
P.S. - Be sure to click through to page 2 to see the rest of our photos, including sandboarding!
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MomC
non-member comment
This was an amazing recount of a terrific experince. You both write so well, but I can always tell, without the obvious who is doing the writing. I so love keeping up with your adventures and you both look terrific! XXOO Mom C