Tag Archives: latam-2026

(Atacama – pt. 1: Rainbow Valley and petroglyphs)

The Atacama Desert is all about multicolored mountain landscapes, vast lifeless expanses, and volcanoes lining the horizon. In this post, there’s more of all that – especially the multicolored mountain landscapes bit – but with a difference; where? Devil’s Throat, or in Spanish – Garganta del Diablo!…

Devil’s Throat is a narrow canyon carved into relatively soft rock by water. It winds left and right, sometimes doubling back on itself before twisting again. At some sharp bends, the rock has eroded into overhangs – almost like little grottoes. The trail along it is about 2.5–3km one way, so with photo stops and breaks, it’s roughly an hour-and-a-half to two-hour walk. Most people do it by bike, but we decided to hoof it.

Here’s where we’re headed ->

Entering the Throat! ->

Read on…

Ola folks!

Getting to Atacama – sweet. Staying the night in Atacama – neat! Next up – Atacama proper…

Our to-do list had a full nine items:

1) Rainbow Valley
2) petroglyphs at a place called Yerbas Buenas (which turned out meh)
3) Devil’s Throat Gorge (curiously, there’s a Devil’s Throat at Iguazu Falls – though it’s not a gorge but a waterfall)
4) Moon Valley
5) Death Valley
6) Lake Chaxa (with flamingos)
7) the stunning Miscanti and Miñiques lagoons
8) the El Tatio geyser field
9) stargazing through telescopes

Off we go!…

Read on…

Our South American road-trip early this year was a belter – as regular readers already know. As per, thousands of photos are still being sorted to be turned into (hopefully interesting) photo-based stories, with videos getting uploaded too. As usual, I’m sharing practical info along the way: the routes we took, where things are on the map, where we stayed, what the comfort levels were like – that kind of thing. And on today’s menu: where we stayed in Chile’s Atacama Desert in the town of San Pedro de Atacama (here)…

It was a hotel called Our Habitas. It belongs to a chain of stylish hotels in cool locations around the world (Latin America, the Middle East, Namibia…). But this isn’t an ad for the chain or this particular hotel. There are other solid options here too – including simpler and cheaper ones. We just happened to stay here, so that’s what I’ll be writing about. Let’s go!…

Read on…

I’ve been sorting through photos for upcoming posts about our LatAm-2026 road trip. Next up: Chile’s high-altitude Atacama Desert. Spoiler (no, these can never be spoiled): the views are jaw-droppingly oh-my-grandiosely-gorgeous-gradients!…

And while I was sifting, sorting, and editing the pics of South American roads – an idea came to me…

Read on…

In my previous post I promised to show you some roads and the views to be had therefrom in Latin America, right? Today – that promise: fulfilled. Get ready for picturesque, vast arid landscapes, seemingly painted mountains, and ribbons of road winding through it all:

Not much to say here – I’ll let the photos do the talking:

Read on…

I was a little too hasty in my last post when I ended it with “that’s a wrap on Argentina“, for there were the traditional post-scriptum posts I’d forgotten about. All about Argentina’s roads – in the next post; in today’s – all a few words and pics about eats and sleeps in Argentina…

For the most part, things were as we expected. Down south in Patagonia we found plenty of comfortable little hotels and decent campsites. But when we got to the Jujuy Province, we landed in what felt, by local standards, like the lap of luxury!

Case in point: the Hotel Huacalera. A wonderful hotel! We saw online that it has a pool, but we weren’t really in the mood for that kind of relaxation. All we needed were showers and a good night’s sleep, and to get moving again the next morning. But hey, when a little extra comfort is on offer, why not? ->

Read on…

The colorful mountains, rocks, and canyons of Argentina’s Jujuy province have been explored, adored, and thoroughly photographed. Time to continue our South American adventure!…

And there are still plenty of must-sees, including: the Salinas Grandes salt flats:

These vast salt flats are seriously impressive.

Read on: Salt, salt, salt! And mirages…

Colors No. 1
Colors No. 2

In Argentina’s northern region of Jujuy there’s another multicolored spot that’s simply must-see: the Quebrada de las Señoritas valley. Here it is on Google Maps, and on Yandex Maps. The whole valley is made up of brightly colored rocks, and it also boasts… expressive cacti. But the main attraction for sure is an impossibly bright red canyon about half a kilometer long:

“Welcome to the Señoritas!” ->

There not much walking to be done here, though the altitude would suit hikes perfectly at just 2500 meters instead of the 4400 meters at the previous Jujuy-colors spot.

The cacti look like they’re… gesturing to the tourists wandering around. Or maybe they’re trying to warn them about something?…

The views: woah!

Here’s the entrance to the “main course” – the canyon:

Oh my gawdy-gorgeous! Mind-blowing! And we certainly didn’t expect something like it here…

The canyon winds this way and that, and with every turn a new scene emerges:

Then, suddenly, we see a ribbon strung across the canyon. What?! Our guide told us there’d been rain and landslides posing a risk to tourists. Or could it be a ruse of the guides – so they don’t have to take groups all the way to the end of the canyon?!…

// I was still reeling (and still am today if reminded!) that they close the Mountain of 14 Colors to visitors at 6pm and don’t let you enjoy the sunset. WHY? It makes no sense! Could it be that they’re just too lazy?!..

On the way back, we heard excited shouts from a nearby tour group. They noticed that one of my travel companions had a telephoto lens on his camera, and started pointing excitedly at the mountains. Their gestures were accompanied by cries of “Viscacha! Viscacha!” So said travel companion zoomed in and…you guessed it: Viscacha! ->

In closing, a few colorful shots from my ever-present travel companion, DZ ->

Hi-res photos from LatAm-2026 are here.

// If anyone missed Jujuy №1 – here it is.

The undisputed highlight of our trip to northern Argentina was the Mountain of 14 Colors, aka the Serranía de Hornocal, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca region – a World Heritage Site. And it (rather – they, but in Spanish the name’s in the singular) really is (are) multicolored! Through some geological miracle, the sedimentary rock here ended up layered in different colors. Then erosion ground some of it down (over millennia) and washed it away, and what we’re left with today is this:

Look closer and it gets even more OMG! ->

And if you grab the binoculars or crank up the zoom on a telephoto lens – it’s all just fantastic! ->

Read on…

Our trip to and around South America early this year had taken us to the north of Argentina and the mountains of the Jujuy province – famous for its bright red (and other colors) mountains. And I just love staring at views like this: the distances, the scale, the colors – it all just blows your mind! We checked out several different locations with these colorful mountains, and now I’m wondering which to start off telling you about. Unlike my usual “at the beginning”, today I’ll go for “in ascending order of awesomeness”: from the modest to the monumental!…

First: where? Here. Also here ->

Read on…