Atacama Desert: Chile's Otherworldly High-Altitude Plateau

The Atacama Desert stretches for 1,000 kilometres along the Pacific coast of South America, between the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, and is the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Some parts of the Atacama have never recorded rainfall in human history, and the combination of the extreme aridity, the high altitude, and the clear skies has made it one of the most extraordinary landscapes on the planet — and the site of the world's most powerful astronomical observatories.

San Pedro de Atacama, the small town at the heart of the desert, is the base for most visitors — a place of adobe houses, dusty streets, and an extraordinary concentration of natural wonders within a few hours' drive. The Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), 15 kilometres from town, is a landscape of salt formations, sand dunes, and eroded rock that resembles the surface of another planet, particularly at sunset when the colours shift from white to gold to deep red.

The El Tatio geysers, at 4,320 metres in the Andes above San Pedro, are the highest geysers in the world and the third largest geyser field on Earth. The geysers are most active at dawn, when the cold air causes the steam to rise dramatically from the vents, and the combination of the geysers, the flamingos in the nearby lagoons, and the Andean peaks in the background makes for one of the finest dawn experiences in South America.

The Salar de Atacama, the largest salt flat in Chile, is home to three species of flamingo — the Chilean, Andean, and James's flamingo — that feed on the algae in the salt lakes. The Laguna Chaxa, in the centre of the salt flat, is the finest flamingo-watching spot in the Atacama, and the combination of the pink birds, the white salt, and the blue sky of the altiplano is one of the most beautiful natural images in South America.

The stargazing in the Atacama is the finest in the world — the combination of the altitude, the aridity, and the distance from light pollution produces skies of extraordinary clarity. The ALMA Observatory, the world's most powerful radio telescope array, is located in the Atacama, and the ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal is visible from the road between Antofagasta and San Pedro. The tour operators in San Pedro offer stargazing tours that use powerful telescopes to show the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and the planets in extraordinary detail.

The Atacama Crossing, a 250-kilometre ultramarathon through the desert, is one of the world's most extreme endurance events — seven days of running through salt flats, sand dunes, and volcanic landscapes at altitude. For those who prefer a less demanding engagement with the desert, the cycling routes between San Pedro and the surrounding attractions are excellent, and the mountain biking on the volcanic slopes above the town is some of the finest in South America.

The best time to visit the Atacama is from April to October, when the weather is dry and the temperatures are manageable. The summer months (December to March) bring the Bolivian winter — afternoon thunderstorms that can make the roads impassable and the geysers inaccessible. The winter months (June to August) are cold at night — temperatures can drop to -10°C — but the days are warm and sunny and the skies are at their clearest.