MARS?! The deserts of Bolivia and Northern Chile

I have just returned from a weeklong vacation to el Norte Grande de Chile (the Great North of Chile) or Atacama, which is the driest desert in the world, and also from a 4-day excursion into the Bolivian desert. My lips are still chapped, and my nose still hurts from the dryness! But, luckily, and surprisingly, I did NOT have the least bit of altitude sickness.

My friend Robin and I took a short two-hour plane ride from Santiago to a city called Calama, and spent the night in a hostel there. The next day we bused to the tourist town of San Pedro de Atacama. After sifting through multiple expensive and beautiful adobe hotels, we found a cute hostel at just $5mil (10 bucks) a night. That day we first found a tourist center for the Bolivian excursion I will talk about in a bit. Then we rented bikes and set off for Quebrada de Diablo (or the Devil’s Crevice), Pukara de Quitor (Mayan ruins), and Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) for sunset.  The canyon at Devil’s Crevice was beautiful, and got narrower and narrower until we had to ditch our bikes and hike over and under rocks. 

The ruins were also wonderful, but I was surprised there weren’t pathways, and instead, we could walk over everything. I tried to be respectful and watch my step.  The last part of the day we biked to Moon Valley and watched the sunset. It was crawling with tourists so we hiked up a cliff and watched the sunset over the mountains in blissful solitude.  Then we had to bike back in the dark, but it was a nice paved road and we rode through a ton of heat waves, which felt great after the sun went down. 

The next day we woke up early for our Bolivian adventure! We went through a company called “Colque Tours” that I had read about on LonelyPlanet.com.  We signed up for a 4 day, 3 night 4×4 SUV tour through the Bolivian Desert, stopping at famous lagoons and viewpoints.  The entire trip cost about $130, and covered the transportation, entrance to national parks, 3 meals a day, and accommodation for the 3 nights.  There were 7 of us total in my group, including Robin and I, and our 22 year old, 5 ft. 3in. tall tour guide named Sirvio, and the other 4 tourists.  My tour-mates included: two incredibly attractive 27-year old Australian men named John and Sully, a sweet girl named Katie from England, and a gal named Lida from Holland.  Nobody of my group could really speak Spanish, so I got to be the translator for everyone. I got some great practice, and my Spanish is definitely improving a lot! The first day we visited Laguna Blanca (White Lagoon – White from salt and Ice) at the base of the Licancabur Volcanoe.  We also saw Laguna Verde (Green Lake, the color is from the copper deposits from the same volcanoe. Anyone who knows chemistry knows that Cu+H2O = GREEN!)

We saw other various lagoons before stopping at our first hostel for a great lunch at the side of Laguna Colorada (a Red Lake, redness coming from the bacteria on the bottom of the lake). This lake was spotted with flamingoes and made a great site for a very red sunset. We had dinner and spent a chilly night there playing cards and sharing a few beers and stories.

The next day, we visited hot springs! Katie, Lida, the Aussies and I went for a nice warm dip and met some other travelers from Europe. Then we saw Arbol de Piedra (Rock Tree) which was smaller than we thought it would be, but still very pretty with the Andes backdrop.  We visited a geyser site at 4900 m, full of boiling grey goop that stunk, but was still beautiful all the same.

We also stopped at llama fields and got really close to them. There was a bit more driving on this day, and if I haven’t mentioned it yet, there is no pavement – solely sand dunes, rocky roads, and grasslands.  Sirvio was pro though, and I opted to get my money’s worth of thrill and sit in the back of our 4×4!

Our hostel that night was on the edge of our greatest destination, the Uyuni salt flat! We opted to get to bed early and wake up for sunrise. Sunrise was totally worth it, as I’ve never seen such rich purples and reds. 


Sirvio drove us all over the flat that day.  It looks, and is cold enough to be a large ocean of snow, but after being dared to taste it, I found it was DEFINITELY SALT! We visited the Salt Hotel (made entirely from salt bricks) which is now a museum due to contamination issues. We ended the day in the city of Uyuni, Bolivia, where Robin and I spent a few hours.  We had a lovely lunch (paid for by Colque), and shopped around at artesanias for a while. When we heard our 4×4 back to San Pedro was delayed longer, we bought a bottle of wine and read books and played cards in the plaza. There’s not much else to do in Uyuni.  That evening, Sirvio drove us a ways back towards San Pedro.  Driving throught the Bolivan desert, listening to traditional Bolivian music (beautiful and calming) under an incredibly starry sky is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  Plus, instead of avoiding deer crossings, we almost hit wild donkeys and llamas instead! A very cultural experience. We finally made it back to San Pedro and only had one day left in Atacama. We decided to go horseback riding through the dunes to the Valley of the Dead.  My horse’s name was Bon-Bon, and though she was as sweet as her name implies, she had dominance issues and had to be in the front the whole time. I liked her attitude.

We decided to splurge for dinner, but ended up only spending $5mil for a 4-course meal at one of the coolest restaurants I’ve ever been to.  I had a Pisco Sour (special Chilean drink), caprece salad, Spanish rice and veggies, cranberry salmon, and chocolate mousse at Milogne, an outdoor thatch-roofed place where seating surrounded a giant firepit. It was warm, and there was great music to go along with fantastic, fantastically cheap food. 

We flew back this morning to rainy Vina del Mar, and as I was bustling home with my luggage, so excited to tell my family all about my trip, a bus hit a huge puddle next to me, and I kid you not, just like the movies, a huge tidal wave of water hit me and drenched me from head to foot. I stood there for a while, dripping wet in disbelief.  If I had had a bad vacation, I probably would have cried. But I was still on a high from a great trip with great people and was able to laugh it off and face my host mother’s horrified face when I walked through the door.