For the full complement of photos
corresponding to this blog entry, use the following address for the set of
photos in my Flickr pages:
Parts of the Atacama Desert are the
driest places on earth, fortunately, the small town of San Pedro de Atacama
receives its water from irrigation channels fed by aquifers from nearby mountains. The
area is a large salt flat (like Salar de Uyuni), however, the surface is
covered with earth and volcanic ash. Furthermore, it is not a perfect plain so
one can forget that you are on a salt flat. In many places just below the dust
is halite (sedimentary salt) which is very hard. This area (as well as the Salar
de Uyuni area) used to be under the sea. When the Andes were pushed up by the
slow collision of tectonic plates, in some places the sea water was trapped in
a depression between mountain cordilleras. Slowly, the trapped sea water was
evaporated by the sun – leaving behind salt flats and sedimentary salt.
 |
| Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) |
 |
Stripes of Sedimentary Rock
in Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley) |
On crossing the border from Bolivia
to Chile, the difference between the two countries was stark – immediately things
were more presentable and organised. San Pedro de Atacama is a pleasant little
town with most of the buildings constructed from adobe. It is a good base from
where to take some tours, in the cooler late afternoon and evening, to local
sights such as Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), Valle de la Muerte (Death
Valley), Laguna Sejar and Laguna Tebinquiche. The sunset at the latter lake was
stunning, while the water in Laguna Sejar is so salty, one can float very
easily – in fact the buoyancy is so high that one has to tread water to hold
one´s legs underwater, and when you relax they immediately pop to the surface.
 |
| Floating on the Very Salty Laguna Sejar |
 |
| Salt Flat Nest to Laguna Tebinquiche |
 |
| Sunset at Laguna Tebinquiche |
 |
| Sunset at Laguna Tebinquiche |
 |
| Sunset at Laguna Tebinquiche |
No comments:
Post a Comment