Thursday, January 21, 2010
Atacama desert and surroundings, North Chile
The Atacama region is home to a wide range of incredible views, lunar landscapes and natural formations.
To the south of the town of Atacama lies a virtually rainless plateau in South America, called the Atacama desert. It covers a 1,000 square km strip of land locked between the Pacific coast and the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is considered the driest desert in the world.
From Atacama one can also easily reach lagunas, strange rock formations, volcanoes and other saltflats...
El Tatio Geysers, North Chile
El Tatio is a geyser field located within theAndes Mountains of northern Chile at 4,200 meters above sea level.
The best time to see them is at sunrise, which explains why we woke up at 3 in the morning to drive our rented truck up the 130 km dirt road. At this point in time each geyser is surmounted by a column of steam that condenses in the bitterly cold morning air. Together with the sunrise and the altitude dizzy feeling this provides a magic touch to this incredible place.
More on this on Wikipedia: click here!
Chuquicamata Copper Mines, Calama, North Chile
Chuquicamata, or "Chuqui" as it is more familiarly known, is a large open pit mine in the North of Chile. It is more than 1km deep, 3km wide and 4.7km long. As Such it is the most important source of income in Chilenean exports.
No surprise than that it needs those huge massive trucks to operate 24h a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. It is said that the only reason that can stop the mine to be exploited is the rain... Ok well it didn t rain there for the last three years!
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