Chile's magnificent Atacama Desert

Valley del Muerte just before sunset, looking across the Atacama at its many volcanoes

After our flight from Easter Island back to Santiago, we stayed at the Holiday Inn at the Santiago airport, so convenient as it is directly across the street from the terminal and we had an early flight yesterday.
We arrived in Calama, the largest city in this part of the Atacama, where we rented a car and drove the 90 km to San Pedro de Atacama, a small, picturesque town in the desert with so much to see and do and dozens of volcanoes overlooking it to the east, many 18,000 to nearly 20,000 feet high.  More about San Pedro in another blog.

large dune at Valle de Luna

Yesterday afternoon, we drove to see some of the beautiful desert valleys.  First, to the Valley of the Moon.  On the way, we passed two young women hitchhiking, so we picked them up and spent the rest of the day with them. 

gorge in the Valle de Luna

They are French and spending over a year hitchhiking through South America.  I asked one of them what she did if she ended up in a car with a scary (as in threatening) driver.  She said she screamed as loud as she could and he would let her out.

The Valley of the Moon is hard to describe, so craggy and weathered and filled with dunes and color and beauty.  We first went to a gorge that required some maneuvering

Valle de Luna dunes

through very tight places, several only about 24 inches high.  I would not want to be there in a flash flood.
Next to a wide valley where gray dunes have piled up against the orange, yellow and purple cliffs.  We climbed one of the dunes for a fantastic view of the valley below, wide, surrounded by cliffs and dunes, rugged.

dunes and cliffs at Valle de Luna

We wanted to end the day at the Valley del Muerte (which should be the Valley del Marte), a deep and extremely jagged valley, where we could watch the sunset.  One guide book said to stay until after the sun had actually set as the glow and the colors were particularly beautiful then.  So, we did.

panorama of sunset at Valle del Muerte

We scrambled up a steep trail to a plateau overlooking the desert below and across to the high peaks, the volcanoes lining the Atacama.  As the sun set, the wind came up, chilling us enough to put on our jackets, but it was too pretty to leave.
I am adding a number of photos to show you how gorgeous this particular desert was on this particular night.  But, I think this is the norm, not a surprise.

sunset view from plateau above Valle del Muerte