The Atacama Desert

In the north of Chile is the small dusty town of San Pedro de Atacama, the starting point for my 3 day desert trip across the Atacama desert in Chile and Bolivia. My day started at 8am with a 3 hour wait in the freezing cold at the Chile and Bolivia borders. I boarded a jeep with 5 other people that I would be spending the next 72hours with, isolated in the vast Atacama desert.

As we drove over the Bolivia border we soon reached heights of 4800metres above sea level, hitting everyone in our little jeep with extreme altitude sickness. It was difficult to breathe in the thin air and every 5 metres that we walked left us feeling as if we had sprinted 5 miles. We were all furiously chewing on cocoa leaves and cocoa sweets to help the headaches and dizziness. However, the headaches, dizziness and breathlessness were forgotten as we approached the incredible Lagoona Blanca.

A beautiful ice blue lagoon surrounded by snow-topped mountains. Not far from the Lagoona Blanca was the equally impressive Lagoona Verde.

We continued through the snowy mountains, along multi-coloured sand hills, past iced lagoons and steamy geysers until we reached our home for the night, a little stone house isolated in the middle of the desert overlooking the incredibly beautiful Lagoona Colorida.

After lunch in our cold little house, we went down to explore the lagoon. I was amazed to find that the water in the lagoon was bright red and inhabited by hundreds of wild flamingoes. It was such a peaceful sight, with the only sounds being the fierce wind and the faint sound of flamingoes grazing in the red lagoon. It was truely incredible.

We returned to the house to watch the sunset over the white mountains and prepared ourselves for a very cold night in the middle of the desert. Despite wearing practiacally all of the clothes that I currently own, plus a sleeping bag and 6 blankets, I was still unable to combat the below freezing conditions.

After very little sleep and still suffering with altitude sickness, we all jumped in the jeep wrapped up and ready for another spectacular day in the cold and windy desert. Our first stop was the hot springs, at 35 degrees they were a nice temperature to swim in if you were brave enough to strip to your swimsuit in the freezing cold conditions. Surrounding the hot springs was a huge blue lagoon filled with flamingoes. A perfect spot to relax!

We drove onwards and upwards stopping at more frozen lagoons and brightly coloured lakes. The most spectacular being an ice blue lake filled with illuminous coloured flamingos, circled with snowy mountains. It was amazing to be so close to these graceful creatures who were unaware of us as we sat amongst them, completely overwhelmed by the surrounding beauty.

We spent that evening in a small 'hotel' completely made from salt. And whilst sitting at the salt table on the salt chairs, next to the salt bar with our feet on the salt grain floor, I had my first taste of llama steak.

After a slightly warmer night but still suffering from the altitude, we set off across the worlds largest salt flats, Salar de Uyuni. There was nothing but blindingly white, sparkling salt for over 12,000 km, and just 6 metres below the salty surface is the sea. We came across a small cactus covered island which looked completely out if place amongst the bright white salt flats. The island was made of coral caves and cactus and home to a few alpacars and llamas, it was a perfect place to explore. As we crawled through coral caves and breathlessly made our way to the top of the island, we were greeted with stunning views.

Aftrewards, we had lots of fun playing around in the salt flats.

It was an incredible trip and I have seen so many amazingly beautiful, and rather surreal natural wonders!