It's the driest desert in the world, yet I couldn't get a bus going north from La Serena for four days due to the backlog of people who had been waiting for the heavy rains to stop in Atacama. It's an unusual phenomenon, but there are some occasions when Bolivia's rainy season spills over the mountains to the other side. When I finally did get here, elderly locals were reminiscing about their youth when they once remembered more than one day of rain before.

In the lush green oasis of San Pedro there was more waiting to be done as the road to El Tatio had been washed away. Only today did I finally make the trip there to see bubbling natural cauldrons near the Bolivian border. At 4320m these geysers represent the highest geothermal activity in the world (if you don't count volcano eruptions), and are best seen at dawn when they spray steam-like plumes into the atmosphere. Ice and colourful mineral deposits paint patterns on the ground between holes filled with boiling water. I didn't want to miss this surreal environment, and have certainly never seen anything quite like it before.

From the highest and driest to the biggest (well not quite), the copper mine at Chuquicamata is one of the biggest in the world; and big is the only word that really fits what I saw on my visit there - big trucks, big hole in the ground, and big numbers. The big trucks cost five million dollars each and last only 8 years; they use 3 litres of diesel a minute, and take one hour to carry 400 tonnes of ore from the bottom of the mine to the top; the mine has 140 of them, and 18,000 employees. The big hole was started about 90 years ago, and is now 5km by 3km. It wouldn't be difficult to find it on Google Earth for those with too much time on their hands.

I also managed to get out into the desert by bike, exploring other-worldly landscapes such as Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), Valle de Muerte (Valley of the Dead) and the Cordillera de Sal (salt hills). But my best wildlife sightings were up in the foot-hills of the Andes - lots of vicuñas, which seemed to come much closer than the ones in Argentina; and vizcachas, which are peculiar long-tailed rabbits that hop from rock to rock like kangaroos. The Atacama Desert certainly seems like it belongs on another planet.

Posted from Putre, 29th February 2012