Deserts, Stars and Cultures

Santiago

Arrive in Santiago, with a short walk with your guide to get to know the neighbourhood near your hotel.

Your guide collects you for a trip to a winery in the nearby countryside. You explore vineyards, view the production, visit the cellars and conclude with a tasting before returning to your hotel.

Atacama

You are driven to the airport to fly to Calama where you are taken to your lodge in San Pedro de Atacama. You visit the stark Moon Valley and continue to Death Valley before a sunset at Kari viewpoint and return to your lodge in the early evening.

A full day in the Atacama, visiting Pukará de Quitor, Tulor, San Pedro’s church and return to your lodge. Out again in mid-afternoon to Toconao and down to Atacama Salt Flat where you should see flocks of flamingos at Chaxa Lagoon.

Pick up is at a daunting 4am for your drive into the Andes to Tatio Geysers, one of the world’s most important geothermal fields, at 4320m. It is a primordial sight, lit by the dawn sun and in the early morning chill, as bubbling, spurting fumaroles and geysers throw steam into the clear mountain air. Pause on the way back at Putana’s wetlands, below Colorado Volcano. Back in San Pedro by early afternoon, you are free until evening when you visit SPACE (San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations) under the clearest skies on Earth. Experts guide you through the heavens and the night’s planets, star clouds, and galaxies, as you try each telescope in the largest public telescope park in South America.

Iquique

You are taken to Calama bus station for your bus trip (6h) to Iquique. You are met and taken to your hotel for 2 nights at this cosmopolitan town between giant sand dunes and the Pacific.

Humberstone ghost town and Route of the Geoglyphs

Stopping at a monument to saltpetre workers you continue to the ghost town of Humberstone, and to Pozo Almonte which supplied water to the saltpetre trains. Passing a huge forest of prosopis tamarugo, a flowering tree that needs no rain, you drive to Cerros Pintados where over 400 geoglyphs of humans, animals and geometric shapes are drawn on the desert hillsides.

To Arica

Today you travel overland to Arica. The public bus departs in the morning, and you are dropped off at the bus station with your tickets for this journey of over 300km up the Chilean coast. When you arrive in Arica, you are met from the bus station and taken to your hotel in this city just 18 km south of Peru. This part of the Chilean coastline is in between the green and lush Azapa and Lluta valleys, and the pleasant sunny climate makes this an excellent base for exploring the Azapa region and the nearby National Park.

Azapa

Arica lies between the fertile valleys of Azapa and Lluta, rich in archaeological treasures and local cultures. They were key agricultural areas for the Tiwanaku and the Incas, whose traces are seen in numerous geoglyphs, petroglyphs and Incan colca grain silos. At San Miguel de Azapa you visit an archaeological museum with an excellent collection of pre-Columbian artefacts and the ‘Chinchorro Mummies’ from around 5000BC

Lauca NP

Driving up to the altiplano you stop at the 12th century fort of Pukara de Copaquilla and historic Parinacota en route to Lauca NP, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, where Chungará Lake, one of the world’s highest lakes at 4570m, is set beneath apu (sacred mountains) and payachata (twin volcanoes). Super wildlife includes alpacas, vicuñas, llamas, viscachas and a notable selection of birds. You stay 2 nights in Putre.

Surire Salt Flat and Aymara villages

The Surire reserve protects salt flats and high altitude ecosystems south-east of Putre at 4200m. Flamingos nest here, and the rheas gave their Aymara name of suri to the area. You pass through the Vicuñas altiplano reserve and visit stone villages of Ancuta, Guallatire and Viluvio where Aymara communities maintain ancestral traditions.

From Putre you visit the Aymara villages of Chapiquiña, Belén, Tignamar and Pachama connected by ancient paths to the Inca’s network, and return to Arica for the night.

Santiago

Fly to Santiago to stay at an airport hotel.

Easter Island

Fly to Easter Island, a 5 hour flight. You are met at the airport and taken to your hotel in Hanga Roa with the rest of the day free to explore the town and sites around it.

Three days exploring Easter Island, as described for days 8-10 of ‘Atacama, Patagonia, Easter Island and Uyuni’ on p30-31.

Santiago

You may have time for an extra excursion before you fly to Santiago.

Fly back to the UK, onwards in South America, or take an extra day or two to relax and explore the Central Valley.