(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XIX - Atacama Desert: Our Final Frontier

En route to Atacama, the driest desert on earth, via a flight a 2 hour flight to Calama.  We didn’t know what to expect but felt quite comfortable that the Explora experience would take care of us.  The flight was easy – about 2 hours to Calama – and the transfer to Explora was only about an hour and 15 minutes to San Pedro – the town outside of which the Hotel de Larache is located.

On our shuttle we were joined by a couple from Boston – scientist/academics who had done both Patagonia and Easter Island Explora on this trip and another couple from Germany.  A much different group than we had en route to Patagonia.

We blazed over dirt and paved roads in the middle of nowhere - a crazy desert with mountains, volcanos, salt flats, oases, cacti, and pink flamingos.

Unlike Patagonia where there are set enter and exit days, in Atacama guests come and go daily. 
Being that it was Christmas week there were many families with lots of kids that seemed to range from 4 or 5 years old to college kids.  Many older adults without children and far far fewer Americans than in Patagonia, and almost no NYers.

We toured through the hotel and then to our room, a simply appointed room with picture window views of the largest volcano in the area, Licancabur, straddling the Bolivian-Chilean border.  It was a very unique vantage point as the hotel was actually amidst an oasis, so our surrounding were plush, green via deep underground water access from the andes.

Licancabur...view from our room...

We got settled, had a little snack, nap, and then I hit one of the 4 amazing pools (only one of which was heated) to swim laps – some of the best swimming I had on the trip.  Since the pool was so cold no one else was swimming and I’ll bet the length of the pool was close to 40-50M.  That swim became a daily ritual for me.

After connecting with Max, the excursion leader, he helped us map out the best things to do/see in our short stay.  That afternoon, he put us on the Kari hike, which is an under the radar hike near Valley of the Moon that looks substantively the same, but has nearly no traffic.  We were warned about issues with vertigo and now I know why.  We entered at the top of a canyon that must have been about 700M deep and we trekked along the entire edge until finding a path to steeply travel to its depths into a dried river ravine.  The views were spectacular and surreal and with the added altitude (our base level was about 2200M), and having to climb down faces of former waterfalls, it was a bit of a work out as well.  Fortunately, the late day temperature was not much of an issue nor was the wind.  We were lucky, dusty, tired, and really enjoyed the company of our two hiking companions, Jack and Colleen, visiting from Seattle and our guide Victor who was great and very funny.

Following the path along the cliff...

Victor and I trekking ahead...

Another happy honeymoon shot!

Not a busy hiking trail...

The hiking gang, minus GG, our resident photographer for the hike...

Up close with the salt caves...

Looking up towards the top of the canyon...

 Because of our tight schedule, I also signed us up for the astronomy lecture and observatory visit that evening.  We had to rush through dinner to get to the 930p lecture about which I was excited, while GG was not really.  We were with a family with three kids aged 10, 12, and 14 from Geneva.  The first portion of the evening was a basic primer on astronomy and our skies.  I almost lost GG there - she's not a big fan of lectures on vacation.  What gives?!  Anyway...then we walked outside and took a look at the sky with our naked eye.  In fact, the Atacama Desert is one of the greatest places on earth to look at the sky – Chile regulates light pollution, and our natural height above sea level allows for absolutely unique sky views.  It was amazing to see the vast amount of stars just by looking up in the sky.  In fact, the biggest astronomical project happening in the world right now is called ALMA and is happening just a brief distance away from the hotel.

Then we moved into the observatory, the largest, non-professional telescope in chile.  So he set it up for us to see the Magellanic Galaxy, a cluster of stars the Japanese call Subaru and probably the most exciting thing was seeing Saturn, four of its moons and the faint band around the planet.  Very cool and I was very happy to have had that experience.  I’ve never seen a sky like that before in my life.  I think even GG would admit she enjoyed that little learning lesson as well…

Another day in the desert to come...