Chile-Atacama

The driest region of the planet

The Atacama desert is an exceptional place with its eery landscapes and extreme climate. The emptiness and silence you can experience on the Altiplano is absolutely unique! But despite the harsh conditions the desert has a vivid wildlife and the most impressive is, that there are even isolated villages in the mountains!

Cacti everywhere you look!

Sweating during the day and freezing up in the night… Welcome to the Atacama!

You can start exploring the region from Calama or from San Pedro de Atacama. Both towns are easy to reach, we arrived there hitchhiking all the way from Santiago, which is over 1500 km and the journey was easy, pleasant, and fast compared to the distance. But for visiting the villages in the Altiplano or exploring the national parks in the area, I would definitely NOT recommend hitchhiking. It is one of the places where it really makes sense investing in a rental car! The roads are scary empty and it is a challenge to find drinking water on the way! Besides that, the temperature changes during are huge! During the day it can climb over 20-25 °Celsius and during the night it can drop well below the freezing point! Another aspect to consider is the altitude! A big part of the region lies over 3500-4000 meters, so altitude sickness can be an issue!

You also don’t want to get stuck hitchhiking on empty roads on 4000 meters…

Explore the desert villages!

The settlements on the Altiplano were built by the indigenous people of Atacama in the rare areas with water sources. These used to be oasis-like valleys with small streams, where it was possible to sustain agriculture. Due to the massive amount of mines in the region, most water sources were diverted to supply these mines in the last years. Further, the effects of climate change are also not sparing this region. So in the end water is becoming less and less in this area, making agriculture not sustainable, so it is a big question, how long these communities can survive?

Capilla de Santiago in Toconce

The medical service point in Caspana. Looks inviting, doesnt it?

The village center of Cupo

The three most interesting ones I would like to recommend visiting are Toconce at 3350 , Caspana at 3300 m, and Cupo at 3660 m altitude. The biggest of these is Caspana with around 400 inhabitants. The other two are much smaller with 40-50 inhabitants.

Living conditions are harsh in these villages, and when talking to the locals it became clear that more and more residents decided to move to bigger towns or to mining communities, especially after the decrease in water sources, that I mentioned previously. So, unfortunately, the probability is high that these settlements will convert into abandoned museum-villages in a couple of decades.

Me at the village gate in Cupo

The emphty central street in Cupo

Alpacas enjoying the little oasis in Toconce

Visit El Tatio!

El Tatio is a geothermal area close to the Bolivian border. It is located at the (literally ) breathtaking elevation of 4320 m and with that it is the highest geyser field in the world! You can see 80 geysers in the area and even more fumaroles and boiling mud pools. The best time to visit the area is early morning or sunset when the temperatures are low and the smoke from the geysers is well visible. This is also the best time to soak in the hot springs that can be found in the area!