We left Argentina for the last time, the tenth time we have crossed the Argentine border, and entered Chile at the Paso de Jama mountain pass. The border post is at 4,200 metres above sea level and the road itself reaches some 4,810 metres with significant stretches above 4,000 metres, a rapid introduction to the high altitude to follow.
San Pedro de Atacama sits at a mere 2,400 metres and is a small oasis in the middle of the Atacama Desert. The small town can be seen for a long way away as the dusty greens of the vegetation stand out from the reds, yellows and browns of the surrounding desert. The green however is deceptive as the desert and its dust makes its presence felt all over the town.
Today San Pedro exists principally to service the tourist business as it is firmly on the gringo trial and while the trial exists all over Argentina and Chile, pretty much everywhere else the tourists and their associated supporting industry was nowhere near so obvious. Most of the buildings in the town are made up of adobe and the town has a dark reddish brown colouring throughout.
The big draws of San Pedro are both the surrounding desert landscape and its near cloudless skies that make the Atacama one of the best places to observe the night sky. Also dominating the skyline are a number of the Andean volcanoes including the dramatic 5,920 metres Volcan Licancabur which changes colour as the day progresses.
Much of the desert landscape is how one imagines the moon and planets to look like, none more so than the Valle de Luna, a massive wind eroded landscape with protruding outcrops of hard weathered rocks standing out in the valley. The most famous of which are the Tres Marias which look like rough humans, though unfortunately one of the Marias was damaged by a tourist trying to take a photograph – many of the rock formations being very delicate being made up of soft rocks and clays.
Nearby the Valle de Luna is the Valle de la Muerte another dramatic landscape of weathered rock. Here the valley floor is significantly eroded with many crevices, making it virtually impossible to walk on. The Valle de Luna is much flatter.
The night sky is every bit as dramatic as the guidebooks say. The Milky Way is prominent as are the stars. Indeed with San Pedro’s location both the Southern Cross and the Great Bear can both be seen in the sky. Particularly clear were the stars in Orion’s belt and some of dying red stars including Orion’s Betelgeuse and Scorpio’s heart, Antares. Jupiter and its Galilean Moons were also prominent.
Date: 01/05/2018 to 04/05/2018