Trip to Chile, Part Three: San Pedro de Atacama

(See Parts One and Two.)

Well, we came home with over seven hundred photos of the Atacama Desert.  It was a huge undertaking to sort through them all, but it also goes to show what a truly remarkable place the Atacama is.

The men get out to discuss whether or not the cars can ford this little stream.



Go Peugeot, go!

 

 

After leaving Antofagasta in our rented Peugeot and Citroën, we drove about six hours northeast into the Atacama Desert to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

The kids showing off their matching copper bracelets.

 

San Pedro is a small oasis town near many of the Atacama's most impressive geological sites.  And because it's an oasis it's also a little less barren than the rest of the desert around it.

A few shots of our hotel:



These hammocks in the hotel courtyard were the highlight of the children's trip.

Dev improvising some pisco sours.

On our first day there we visited Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat containing several lakes filled with flamingoes.  We first arrived at Laguna Chaxa.

Salt on the grass blades

 

Julie exploring

Water pooling underneath the salt layer

James in an action stance

 

Dev's shoe

Paul carries Arthur over the mud.

 

Here you can see water freeze into ice shards and pile up on the surface of the lake:

 

Then we drove a short distance to see The Eyes of God, twin deep salt pools, and to wade into the salty Laguna Cejar.

 



One of "God's eyes"

 

 

Dev and Beatrice

 

The following day we headed to the Baños de Puritama hot springs.

 

An adorable viscacha, a little chinchilla-like mammal

 

 

 

(We also took some great group photos here for a future Christmas card, but Dev is still working on editing the images together.)

 

On our final day in San Pedro, we went to watch the sun set in the Valley of the Moon.

 

 



The little hand is William's.

 

 We also visited the Incan ruins at Pukará de Quitor.

Building some new Incan walls

Dev's shadow

Then on our way back to Antofagasta, we took a detour to see the Chug Chug geoglyphs.

 

 

 

 

And finally, after two weeks in Chile, we headed home.  Due to a ticketing mix-up, Beatrice sat all by herself for the entire flight and did a great job. The children slept almost the entire 15-hour flight, then slept on the drive home from LAX, then slept another 18 hours at home.

 

B reading about Balto on the drive back across the desert.

The rest of the group stayed for another two weeks of adventures and I wish we could have joined them - we had an amazing time! I can't wait to see everybody again at Christmas - and for future adventures next year.