The Driest Place on Earth

We arrived at Calama Airport in northern Chile on a beautiful evening and were driven across the Atacama Desert to San Pedro, a small village which is growing thanks to the influx of tourists since it was connected by a tarred road for the first time a few years ago.

The desert is apparently the driest place on earth with around an inch of rain a year and some areas often record zero humidity.  It is mining country with the world's largest open-cast copper mine near to Calama and of course the now famous site of this years mining rescue a few hundred kms to the south.


Moon Valley just before sunset

The geology is extraordinary.  The desert has been created in a basin formed between the surrounding  mountain ranges and volcanos which have been pushed up as a result of the fault that runs all along Chile's coast. The mountains take what little rain and snow there is and the water has evaporated from the basin leaving the world's third largest salt flat. San Pedro sits in an Oasis in the middle as a result of underground water draining from the mountains so it has water and vegetation. For a dry town it has its fair share of bars too!
So far we have been on a tour of the salt flats and seen the flamingos that live in the protected area and visited the lakes that have been created by volcanic activity at over 4200m above sea level - the highest we have ever been. We have also visited Death Valley and Moon Valley which lie within a mountain range created entirely from salt. We explored a cave, learned about the rock formations and watched the sun set over the Arizona style landscape.

Flamingos on the Atacama salt flats

The human history of the area is also fascinating and the local museum charts human development here over 11,000 years through the archaeological finds that have been made in the area. The dryness preserves things superbly (including human bodies, which alas are no longer on show).  We went to two of the main local ruins and heard about the development of the Andean culture, the peaceful conquest by the Incas in the 15th century and the rather more bloody arrival of the Spanish a century later.

It is here in San Pedro that we are seeing out the old year. 2010 has been good to us - especially for the chance we have had to see some more of the world. In the last four weeks of 2010 we have seen Rio, Buenos Aires, the huge falls at Iguazu, glaciers, volcanos, lakes, forests and had the unforgettable experience of Torres del Paine.

We hope for an even better 2011 and wish everyone reading this a happy and prosperous new year.