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Journey to Another Planet

Chile's Atacama Desert

By Leah Kemp

Planning a trip to the interior of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile is a bit like plotting to go to another planet. To leave the realm of human existence and explore the dry, silent reaches of the altiplano, it is necessary to carry life itself in a knapsack along with more than a little adventurous spirit.

There is a 300-mile loop through the Atacama from Copiapó to El Salvador. The dirt road passes the salt flats of Pedernales and Maricunga, skirts the edge of Ojos del Salado (the highest active volcano in the world) and reaches Laguna Verde, near the Argentine border.  

The trip includes glimpses of all the Atacama is famous for--salt flats, high peaks, bone-dry hills, flamingos, guanacos and more--without the tourist influx of San Pedro de Atacama.

My parents, my partner and I began in El Salvador, a mining company town obviously designed by engineers of the 1950s, with a meticulous amphitheater street plan and block houses. The town has the feel of a frontier, result no doubt of living life on the edge of the world’s driest desert. Food, gas and hotels are expensive. But the Residencial Limari has clean, comfortable rooms for 3,000 pesos (US$7.50 at the time). At Restaurant Quiscón, on the main plaza, a substantial meal and great service run about 2,000 pesos (US$5). 

We spent the evening stocking up on extra gas, food and water for our trek into the desert. We notified the local police department of our plans for the following day—a ten-hour loop through the mountains for a glimpse of the fabled Laguna Verde.  Although it is not required that tourists notify police, it is recommended, due to the vastness and emptiness of the desert highlands.

We left El Salvador at 7 am and I at least had butterflies in my stomach. The first leg of the road was a stretch of dirt compacted by heavy mining trucks. Row upon row of light yellow and red mountains stretched off into the distance, tinged by the rising sun. There was not a bird or bush in sight

Once we finally crossed the Domeyko range, we began to see a bit of brush here and there.  We were in the high plain between the Domeyko and Claudio Gay ranges--a long, silent expanse stitched in by mountains. Following the Turistel map, we veered to the left on an old mining road and found the Pedernales salt flat 5 km to the north, passing a small group of guanacos grazing on the way.  

We parked near the ruins of an abandoned borax mine and walked 1/2 km to the edge of the salt flat where flamingos strutted in still water.

The absolute quiet felt heavy. There was no purr of motors in the distance, no evidence of modern human life. Two white mules appeared out of nowhere to stand like ghosts above the mine, looking at us as if we were the ghosts.

We returned to the main road to continue south towards Maricunga. There is a police outpost hunched in the hills near the salt flat. There, we asked for explicit directions to both the Laguna Verde and Copiapó. Taking a wrong turn in the desert is not an appealing idea.

Laguna Verde is an hour and half from the police outpost. To reach it, the road climbs the Claudio Gay Range, reaching 4,500 meters--between 13,000 and 14,000 feet. Altitude sickness is common and the locals in El Salvador had warned us to drive and move slowly, eat little and suck lemons if we felt sick. Much to our surprise, the lemons helped immensely, perhaps distracting our listless bodies with their sour sting.

The drive to Laguna Verde is a bit agonizing. All traces of life slip away as the trail climbs to the peak. The kilometer markers are not to be trusted, since one was marked 195 and the following claimed 245--to what or from where was not specified. After an hour and forty minutes, we were tired, sick and convinced that we were lost. My mother lay limp in the back seat as we passed her lemon after lemon. The muted desert colors had lost their attraction and the mountains all looked the same.  

But finally, we turned a bend near a bed of wind-carved snow and the dense turquoise of Laguna Verde was revealed.

The name “Green Lagoon” hardly fits the indescribable beauty of the lake.

When we stopped and clambered out of the truck, we found that the bitter wind was incredibly strong, although the water hardly seemed to move. The lake gave the impression of being filled with a more viscous substance, as if someone had poured gallons of undiluted paint into an indentation between the gray volcanoes. The shores were of light yellow pebbles, the sky a high-altitude deep blue, and the lake an incomparable shade of blue-green.

The absence of life in and around the lake, the tremendous quiet and rushing wind made me feel out of place, like a visitor to different, inhospitable world. We rushed to spend our remaining rolls of film, anxious to retrace our tracks back over the pass to the Maricunga salt flat, returning to lower altitudes and warmer temperatures.

We beat a fast retreat west, making one wrong turn back on the salt flat.  We discovered our error when the road literally disappeared from beneath us.  The last leg, back over the Domeyko range to Copiapó, was the worst, with fine yellow sand sucking at the wheels like mud, coating the truck and clogging our eyes. 

As we finally closed in on the city, the green of the irrigated fields seemed over-rich, false somehow after a day of desert colors.  It was both a disappointment and a relief to return to civilization. 

Since the circuit is not famous, there are no tour groups to provide transportation. We made the trip in a pick-up, without four-wheel drive or high-altitude tuning. The truck chugged along at about 50 km per hour, on average. We used a full tank of gas plus 20 extra liters we had brought in cans.

The entire circle took about eleven hours, including numerous stops for pictures. Before beginning the desert trail, make sure to bring extra gas, water and food. Also, it is a good idea to register your plans with the police in El Salvador. If you do not appear in Copiapó as planned, they will know to look for you.

For More Information: Buy a Turistel (Spanish or English) guide book at any kiosk in downtown Santiago. Or visit the Turistel website (Spanish only) at http//www.turistel.cl 

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