Travel Chile

In November we had the amazing opportunity to travel to Chile for the wedding of Jenny and Dominic.  We of course took the time to make a holiday out of the trip and traveled mostly in the North of Chile and the wine regions (with the exception of a few days in Buenos Aires).  We first stayed in Valparaiso, a small colourful city along the coast, and did a half-day wine tour in the Casablanca Valley followed by spending the afternoon on a beach in Vina del mar.

We then boarded a flight to Calama and spent 5 days in the Atacama Desert staying in San Pedro de Atacama at Hotel Altiplanico.

Our first tour in the Desert took us to the Rainbow Valley – hills of varied colours that account for the composition of minerals and volcanic rock formations.

In the afternoon we visited the Moon Valley, which you can view here.

We then visited the Cejar Lagoon located in the middle of the Atacama Salt Flat where we were able to float (not swim) due to the high concentration of salt and lithium. The waters have a flotation level higher than the Dead Sea.

We then visited the Chaxa Lagoon in the Atacama Salt Flat which has an important number of flamingoes that made their favourite nesting place here feeding on tiny shrimps. This entire area is surrounded by salt.

The day followed on as we visited the two Altiplanics Lagoons: Miscanti and Miniques.   They are located at 4.220 meters above sea level and are part of a National Reserve.  The eruption of the Miniques volcano 1 million years ago caused the damming of the water that used to flow into the salt flat.

On our last day we visited the Tatio Geysers, a geothermal center with geysers that are only observed early in the morning. We arrived at around 7am after a 2 hour drive and with the geysers being over 4500 meteres above sea level it was approximately -8°C that morning! We then drove back down through a wetland until we reached a small abandoned village called Machuca where one can occasionally sample llama meat.

The Atacama Desert was the highlight of our trip and I can recommend everyone to visit this beautiful part of the world. We ended our stay in Santiago for the wedding before flying home.  Next time we plan to visit Patagonia for its forests and glaciers!