The Atacama Desert

Eléonore Marchand soaks in the natural marvels of the striking desert in Chile.

Endless hues of beige and pink surround the quiet highway that crosses the Atacama, a thin 1,600-kilometres strip of desert in the northern half of Chile, located between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Andes mountain range, bordering Bolivia and Argentina, to the east.

From a striking distance, tips of snow covering the mountains emerge as a surreal landscape amidst the arid heat of the desert. A few llamas grazing on dry shrubs and bushes seem to be the sole sign of life in this harsh surrounding. Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, some parts of the Atacama only experience rainfall every 20 to 100 years.

NASA, which likens it to Mars on Earth due to its barren soil, has been using the location to test instruments for future missions to Mars, researching techniques for how to detect life in a seemingly sterile environment.

Its otherworldly appearance has been used as a location for various movies such as Space Odyssey. And its extreme topography with vast salt flats and soaring volcanoes including the highest active one on Earth) has been a dreamland for geologists and archeologists. Just last August, scientists unearthed an ancient cemetery of flying reptiles that roamed the country more than 100 million years ago, living alongside dinosaurs. This very part of Chile also reported findings of mummies 2,000 years older than those in Egypt.

Beyond the enigmatic appeal of the Atacama Desert, there is the pure beauty of its overwhelming vastness, which fuels a desire to explore.

Following an hour’s drive from El Loa Airport in Calama, Chile—the best entry point to the Atacama Desert and an easy connection from the country’s capital,

Santiago—signs of life and greenery appear by a faint stream of water known as the San Pedro River.