Mar 18 - Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert  18 March 2017

The road to Moon Valley and its active volcanoes

Today we headed out to the so called "Moon Valley" again after breakfast. This time we went right into the valley and walked through from one end to the other. 

Recrystallised salt over many millions
of years creates weird textures

This strange and wonderful landscape was named moon valley as a result of all the Selenite covering the ground interspersed with a dusting of salt which blows in from the Salt flats or has been recrystallized with the volcanic activity. Selenite comes from the moon god hence the name Moon  valley.

Gypsum cavern

First, we walked through a huge cavern carved out by the harsh weather and mother nature.

Very beautiful but totally alien, baking hot and already a 2 mile walk was about as much as we could muster and even that was with about 4 pints of water between the two of us.  Paul and Mandy had a different car and guide and were coming from a different direction.  

Gypsum and salt cover the landscape by
earth movement and by swirling around

The Atacama Desert - red sand and forbidding...
"DO NOT PASS".....as if!!

After 2 miles, the driver picked us up
we were tired!

Scenery was stunning but the geology was more fascinating.  It was becoming clear to us that the Andes provides everything to Chile, climate, water, scenery, agriculture, mineral wealth, tourism and not to forget the hundreds of great wines.

In the afternoon, we had a wander round the town which is all preserved as “adobe” type mud buildings with straw panel doors, including our hotel. The town is a busy bustling tourist centre as this area is very popular with South American tourists as well as foreigners. More like a back-packing centre with precious little to buy other than tours, water bottles  and tee shirts, nevertheless, very pretty and a Unesco world heritage site obviously.

Later this afternoon, we headed out to Rainbow Valley which had the most amazing geology giving the hills their distinctive and very different colours hence the name. 

Rainbow Valley - Mix of geology

We saw green hills from copper oxide, white glass sheets of gypsum, sparkling crystals of calcite, calcium carbonate powder, granited of every colour and mica glistening for hundred of yards around (from the ones Steve could identify). 

Our two big trucks for heavy
duty exploring

We had a walk through the valley  and then headed off to another area which had very early petroglyphs mainly featuring lamas…not generally in short supply in central Chile!

Petroglyphs - 12,000 years old and still in
the open in this bone dry desert

Now, the heat and altitude are becoming an issue and we are realising our limitations especially as the temperature is touching 35 degrees and even with factor 50 sun block we are getting a bit of a colour. Steve was searching for the vultures at this point and walking was really very slow.

We headed back to the hotel for a relaxing evening in the very pretty outdoor living room complete with comfy sofas and roaring fires. Much needed !

The temperature here soars through the day even at high altitude and the sun is extremely strong but at night it drops to minus temperatures and is very cold.

Off to bed early as we had (foolishly) opted for a sunrise session the next day while Paul and Mandy much more sensibly had negotiated a 9.30 start !!