Once Upon A Time in Latin America (25) the driest place in the world. You are from the stars

Arriving in Calama, at the airport I found a nonstop shuttle to San Pedro de Atacama. The desolate Gobi stretched infinitely along the way. The distant mountains wore white hats. The shuttle stopped halfway at a salt mountain to allow us to take pictures. There was somewhat like a backward forest full of bumps and hollows that I thought it was a large mine at first.

The shuttle arrived at San Pedro Atacama and took the passengers to the hotels one by one. After opening the trunk, my backpack dropped out. It scared me a lot since my electric appliances like camera, Camcorder, were inside. Fortunately, there was no damage.

I entered the hotel, which was during the offseason and a little girl of about Indian descent was on duty. She spoke Chilean Spanish while I spoke English which was so difficult just like a chicken talking to a duck (apples to oranges). I had to use google translator to barely express my meaning. Then I was led to a small single room with a public restroom opposite.

I had not eaten for a day except some cookies in the morning, so I simply cleaned up and hurried out. First, I had to book an itinerary for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, then to fill my empty stomach.

The small town was so dry that even air could catch fire. I lived on the edge of the town center, and behind it was a conical snow mountain like Mount Fuji. The small town's buildings were made of yellow sand and clay bricks. The buildings were very native American characteristics. Some roofs were not afraid of blustery at all that only shaded with bamboo strips.

The town had a population of about 5,000 people, which was approximately equal to the population of Easter Island. The altitude was about 2000 meters above sea level, similar to that of Kalama City which I mentioned before. So I had to be careful of the altitude reaction.

There are many unique scenic spots around the town. There is a Moon Valley of which the view is the closest to the moon on the earth. There was once an ocean a million years ago. After tens of thousands of years of crustal movement, the seafloor crustal fractured and rose out of sea level. Now it has dried up into a desert. So now walking in this valley is the same as walking on the seabed millions of years ago. The surrounding scenery is also the seabed surface scenery. It, therefore, is somewhat similar to the moon surface that it is called "the closest view to the moon on the earth" by scientists and hence the name.

There is desolate Valley of Death (Valle de La Muerte), the Salar de Tara at an altitude of 4,300 meters in the Andes, the Geyser del Tatio, the highest elevation (of 4,300 meters) in the world, the geothermal hot springs (Piscina Termal), the beautiful "Dead Sea" Laguna Cejar in the Atacama Desert (well-known for its beautiful blue lakes and one of the new oasis in the desert), the small mirror of the sky (Ojos del Salar), Laguna Tebinquinche, LagunasAltiplánicas, Salar de Atacama (Laguna Chaxa)(one of a few flamingo breeding areas in Chile, where visitors are able to see three of the five kinds of flamingos in the world (Andean, James, and Chilean)), Rainbow Valley (Valle del Arcoiris), etc.. Well, most people regard here as a transfer to the mirror of the sky in Bolivia. But the season I visited was dry season so I didn't consider Bolivia. What I focused on was the Moon Valley, Death Valley, flamingo highland lakes, as well as the most famous desert observatory.

Because of dry air and high altitude, the San Pedro de Atacama region is recognized as having the clearest sky. "Stargazing in the Atacama Desert" is well-known by Chinese most possibly because of a popular Korean TV play "You from the Stars". The hero Professor Du in the TV play loved stargazing, and he once said his favorite place in the world is the Atacama Desert in Chile. But the stargazing in the Atacama Desert was not a recent activity. The largest astronomical observatory in South America is here because of the incomparable visibility. Here has already been a travel destination for stargazers all over the world. The Atacama Desert Stargazing Tour generally departs from 21:00 to 23:00 at night and returns to San Pedro de Atacama town at 1:00 or 2:00 at midnight.