You might just wonder what is worth seeing in the Atacama desert; we did. Our three days and nights spent around the wonderful Oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama were, however, truly uplifting.
San Pedro de Atacama - Wikipedia
Aside from absorbing the fascinating history of the place and its origin (see link), we took tours to the Valley of the Moon, the Atacama Salt Lakes and, setting off at 5am, the geysers of El Tatio at some 4250m above sea level.
The world's largest interferometer (clever radio telescope) is just getting up to speed on this area and the worlds's largest opencast copper mine operates here, together with lithium mines. It's easy to decry the effect of mining on the environment which is significant, but, OK, that smartphone with its lithium battery you are using depends on this mining. Yin-yang again.
To share one emotional and fascinating moment: we stand in the desert, watching the sunset on the Andes as we accept a glass of wonderful Chilean wine. Before imbibing, though, we first give a small amount to Pachamama our right hand and likwise to our ancestors (who are part of the earth now) with our left. Now we are at one with our world. It really did feel like that, you know.
Flying in... It's 90km along that road from Malmo airport to San Pedro
And it's pretty straight for most of the way
Moon Valley
That pachamama moment
The Salt Pan near San Pedro
Geysers at over 4000m
Wonderful San Pedro de Atacama
Flying out on LanAir's latest airbus A320
San Pedro de Atacama - Wikipedia
Aside from absorbing the fascinating history of the place and its origin (see link), we took tours to the Valley of the Moon, the Atacama Salt Lakes and, setting off at 5am, the geysers of El Tatio at some 4250m above sea level.
The world's largest interferometer (clever radio telescope) is just getting up to speed on this area and the worlds's largest opencast copper mine operates here, together with lithium mines. It's easy to decry the effect of mining on the environment which is significant, but, OK, that smartphone with its lithium battery you are using depends on this mining. Yin-yang again.
To share one emotional and fascinating moment: we stand in the desert, watching the sunset on the Andes as we accept a glass of wonderful Chilean wine. Before imbibing, though, we first give a small amount to Pachamama our right hand and likwise to our ancestors (who are part of the earth now) with our left. Now we are at one with our world. It really did feel like that, you know.
Flying in... It's 90km along that road from Malmo airport to San Pedro
And it's pretty straight for most of the way
Moon Valley
That pachamama moment
The Salt Pan near San Pedro
Geysers at over 4000m
Wonderful San Pedro de Atacama
Flying out on LanAir's latest airbus A320
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