Chile: The Atacama Desert
View of the Milky Way with a full moon in play. Picture taken over our hotel in San Pedro de Atacama
Valle de La Luna
Look out below! Overlooking Valle de La Luna (Valley of the Moon)
Valle de la Muerte with volcan Lincancabur looming over
More photos below hiking through Valle de La Muerte (Mars Valley or Valley of Death). That sand dune was steep!
Salar de Tara. Huge salt flat that sits about 4800m above sea level. You can definitely feel the altitude here.
More photos on the way to Salar de Tara. Notice the crazy rock formations in what seems like a vast desert... but actually a caldera of an extinct super volcano. Also, the ALMA observatory (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) is located here in Atacama. We wanted to visit and see the telescopes but unfortunately, because they are located at 5000m above sea level, access is not allowed. HOWEVER... as you can see from the photos... that blip of white are the arrays seen from the highway (yes, we were driving around 4900m) and the next photo is cropped to where you can make out the arrays (barely).
