It is the driest desert on the planet. So much so that NASA conducts tests there for its expeditions to Mars! Another surprise, the drought is such that we do not sweat. The Atacama also offers one of the purest skies in the world where I was able to spot the “llamas” of the Milky Way, observed by the Incas centuries ago. Everything happens in San Pedro, an oasis perched at 2,500 m and the starting point for excursions. Better to take your time to get your body used to it. I was so bad and so weak that I had to stay a whole day at the hotel drinking “rica rica” herbal tea, a local herb against altitude sickness. A good excuse for siestas by the swimming pools of the Alto Atacama hotel (altoatacama.com).
The snow appears like a mirage in the Luna Valley, in the middle of the Atacama Desert. During a hike in the Kari canyon, facing the jagged mountains, I passed by an ocher sand dune, a red plain and a gut of deep red gorges… There, under the blazing sun, a white carpet creaked and crunched under my feet like frost in the middle of the mountains:salt! Shock of sensations, landscapes and colors. In some places, the ground was covered with bouquets of flowers and lace, natural salt formations of rare beauty. I will never forget this little music of the earth, when, in the silence, the crystallized salt of the rock expands under the heat. Like imaginary raindrops falling on sheet metal.
