Atacama Desert in North Chile - what an area! Great to go a short week there
Jan 10, 2015, 5:42 am
#1
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Atacama Desert in North Chile - what an area! Great to go a short week there
Hi,
Last December I was for business in Sao Paulo and had a 6-7 days after in South America and decided go to Atamca Desert in North Chile. Flew Sao Paulo to Santiago in the evening; next day to Calama and went to San Pedro to stay at the Alto Atacama Desert Lodge and SPA, what a luxury in that hotel; i can recommend it!
The hotel gives full board, and also all excursions were included. From early morning Geysers at 4300 meters high to a lunch at the Tara Salt Flats at 4300 meters; that's so cool to have a 5 star lunch there.
Anyhow, for any one there, take 3 full days from San Pedro the Atacama do explore the region. If you have more time like me, in Calama visit the Chucuicamata mine, the deepds open pit mine in the world.
From Calama you can drive to Iquique, to visit Humberstone Saltpeters mines, UNESCO heritage and enjoy the great beaches in Iquique.
From there you can easily fly back to Santiago.
A great itinerary to see this part of Chile.....
read some more in my recent post and a bunch of great photo's.
Geysers El Tatio and Moon Valley Sunset
Cactuses , Rainbow valley and more
Alto Atacama
Last December I was for business in Sao Paulo and had a 6-7 days after in South America and decided go to Atamca Desert in North Chile. Flew Sao Paulo to Santiago in the evening; next day to Calama and went to San Pedro to stay at the Alto Atacama Desert Lodge and SPA, what a luxury in that hotel; i can recommend it!
The hotel gives full board, and also all excursions were included. From early morning Geysers at 4300 meters high to a lunch at the Tara Salt Flats at 4300 meters; that's so cool to have a 5 star lunch there.
Anyhow, for any one there, take 3 full days from San Pedro the Atacama do explore the region. If you have more time like me, in Calama visit the Chucuicamata mine, the deepds open pit mine in the world.
From Calama you can drive to Iquique, to visit Humberstone Saltpeters mines, UNESCO heritage and enjoy the great beaches in Iquique.
From there you can easily fly back to Santiago.
A great itinerary to see this part of Chile.....
read some more in my recent post and a bunch of great photo's.
Geysers El Tatio and Moon Valley Sunset
Cactuses , Rainbow valley and more
Alto Atacama
Jan 16, 2015, 6:16 pm
#2
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I've never been there, but my Chilean seatmate ATL-SCL a week ago couldn't praise that area highly enough. He recommended combining it with Peru (Macchu Pichu or other) and possibly Bolivia, depending on how much time one has.
Jan 31, 2015, 5:02 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Thanks, I'm headed to Atacama in a few weeks. Sounds like you took the tour buses to all the places. I was going to rent a car. Do you think it'll be easy enough to find all the sights?