Tag Archives: latam-2026

Bye-bye, Atacama Desert!…

We pile into the cars, double-check we haven’t forgotten any suitcases or bags, and hit the road. Where to? The airport, of course!…

The nearest airport is in the small city of Calama, about 100km from our cozy digs in San Pedro de Atacama:

Read on…

I’d heard a lot about the thermal fields and geysers in Chile, and figured it was time to go see them for myself since the photos online were kind of underwhelming.

// Let me say this right away: Atacama does have thermal fields – but geysers? None. That’s why the “geyser” photos from there look so unimpressive. But whatever – onward to the El Tatio geothermal fields!…

All as per for thermal fields: much hissing, gurgling, bubbling, rumbling, and spraying of boiling water:

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Atacama – pt. 1
Atacama – pt. 2
Atacama – pt. 3

So, shall we keep moving across the majestic mountain expanses of Chile’s Atacama? Of course we shall! How could there be a different answer? We didn’t come here for boredom, relaxation, assorted sybaritism, or spiritual languishing. We’re contemplative tourists. Show us the views – lots of them! :)

The next installment of entertainment to calm our restless tourist souls was catching a sunset in the Valley of Death (here) (Valle de la Muerte / Valle de Marte), which, curiously, doesn’t have a Wikipedia page)…

Beautiful – insanely so. The rock formations are painted in totally fantastic colors. But there’s a catch: the sun setting behind us, who were looking east. The shadow kept creeping over the landscapes around us, more and more relentlessly…

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Atacama – pt. 1
Atacama – pt. 2

The next must-see stop on our winter trip through South America was Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) (here). It’s the usual Atacama deal: unreal mountain scenery and intense colors, and meditative raptures while beholding the same. Today I’ll be showing you photos of it all, but you really need to see it for yourself!…

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(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! ->

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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!…

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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…

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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:

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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…