„Norte Grande“ of Chile - Part 2

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- Flight from La Serena to Antofogasta - 900 km

Picking up our big red 4x4 Pickup truck was a piece of cake, finding out how the GPS on my iPhone works was a little more tricky. But soon enough we were on our way into a new and rather unreal world, the desert of the Norte Grande...


- Drive from Anotfagasta to San Pedro de Atacama - 320 km

We both had never seen so much sand, sand and more sand, but soon we learned that this landscape will follow us for the rest of our holidays. We arrived in San Pedro long after sun-set. The pueblo is a small laid back tourist hub for excursions to the plains of the Salar de Atacama, the massive volcanos and the famous El Tatio Geysers.

The next day we started a bit sluggish and didn’t do much which unfortunately turned out as a mistake. But who could have guessed rain in the desert, where - apparently - it only rains once in a 100 years - the Atacama desert belongs to the driest regions in the world. Well it rained almost every day once while we were there!!! And this meant, that we could not drive up the geysers, the police closed the road due to snow – in Switzerland we would have had snow chains (or not, we are talking 4'300 meter above sea level!!!)

But we did drive to the Termas Baños de Puritama which has a series of eight large pools of geothermal spring water located at the bottom of a canyon at an altitude of 3’500 meters above sea-level. It was great to relax in the pools, not so much when we had to run to the next one lower down - the felt temperature was probably around 12 degrees).

Before we stated the long drive to Iquique, we visited the Valle della Luna, a surreal place full of stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water over millions of years. Maybe “we” haven’t been to the moon and it was after all only staged…..

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Photos

4x4 Pick-up Truck
No limits where we can go with our ride

Desert
If you don't like the desert, don't go to northern Chile

Salar de Atacama
Salt lake

Salar de Atacama
only the Flamingos were missing

Super car
we did do a lot of off-road, definitely more comfortable in one of those

San Pedro de Atacama
Relaxed pueblo with roads that turn into mud - but it never rains in the desert...

Our hotel
If only the temperatures would allow a swim in the pool

Our hotel
Cool local design

Our hotel
and some stone sculptures

On the way to the Termas
3'500 meters above see level

Epic landscapes
high up

Canyon
With the Termas de Puritama at the bottom

Where there is water....
... there is live and hot spas

Termas de Puritama
34 km from San Pedro

Termas de Puritama
The temperatures of the spring water is about 33 degrees

Termas de Puritama
Relax on 3'500 meter above sea level

On the way back to San Pedro
Dirt roads are big fun

Volcanoes everywhere
At the altiplano of Atacamo

Pare - Stop
To go up a pass to Argentina

Valle de la Luna
A beautiful and surreal world