We’ve spent the last few days relaxing in Iquique, a city in northern Chile. Along with it’s renowned beaches, Iquique is famous for its perfect paragliding winds, especially this time of year (spring) when the winds blow consistently off the ocean and up the enormous hills that loom above the city. We met a Chilean paraglider in our hostel who a few days before had flown 160 km down the coast from Iquique to Tocopilla!

Iquique and Cerro Dragon : Prints Available

Driving into Iquique from the east was spectacular. You don’t really realize that you’re driving in along a high plateau until the road gets to the edge, and all of the sudden you see the city and the ocean thousands of feet directly below! If that wasn’t enough, there’s a gigantic dune called Cerro Dragon that totally dwarfs the city. Of course, we had to hike up that dune one evening for sunset! I know I’ve used the word “surreal” way too much on this blog the last few weeks in northern Chile, but how else can you describe a scene like this, with an enormous dune towering over a city?! This planet seems to hold endless surprises.

Speaking of surprises, our plan to spend the next few days camping on the beaches down the coast is probably thwarted since somebody broke into our truck last night! Fortunately the vast majority of our important stuff was in our hostel room, but now we’ll have to try to replace the things we did lose and then probably just go back to Antofagasta and return the truck asap. Anyhow, once this headache passes we’ll catch a night bus back down south past Santiago to continue our journey! We’re excited to see trees again!

To be honest, I expected the drive back from the altiplano highlands of Salar de Surire towards the coastal city of Iquique to be a barren, boring affair. So we were surprised when about 50-100 km west of Colchane we started seeing a plethora of incredible rock formations along the sides of the highway!

Some of more fantastic looking of these eroded geological sites proved to be inaccessible by roads and would have required a backpacking trek, along with leaving our truck unattended on the side of the highway – both of which we weren’t willing to do at the time. But finally we came upon a section of surreal formations that we were able to access with the truck.

After finding a nice spot to hide the truck and camp, we went on a scouting mission on foot through the convoluted canyon network. With lots of fun scrambling around over rock ridges and through little slots, we eventually found a particularly fantastic area full of surreal formations and even a number of arches!

We stayed around there until sunset, having a blast climbing around and photographing the formations. This unknown, unsigned geological wonder would probably be a designated national monument back home in the States, but here it’s just a bunch of rocks and canyons along the highway. I love these kinds of surprises that you sometimes stumble upon when traveling!

Stocked up with spare tanks of gas and plenty of water, we headed south from Lauca National Park through Las Vicuñas National Reserve, which gets its name from the many herds of wild vicuñas that roam the desolate landscape. Vicuñas are related to guanacos, llamas, and alpacas, though they are smaller and much cuter!

The scenery along the bumpy dirt road through Las Vicuñas National Reserve is constantly exciting, with colorful mountains, steaming volcanoes, isolated sun-baked villages, oasis riverbeds, and the ever present herds of vicuñas everywhere you look.

We drove to the Salar de Surire, a large salt flat sitting in a broad basin surrounded by colorful but barren peaks. The first thing we did was to go straight to the Polloquere hot springs at the far end of the salar. This hot spring is a nearly scalding hot sulfur-smelling turquoise lake, which we enjoyed for as long as we could bear!

Surire Dusk : Prints Available

Intense dusk colors in the sky over Salar de Surire.

Icy Flamingo Sunrise : Prints Available

Salar de Surire is a wildlife photographer’s paradise, with large herds of vicuñas and huge flocks of flamingos. One thing I realized for sure, however, is that I am not much of a wildlife photographer! First of all, I need a longer lens – 200mm just doesn’t cut it! Secondly, I think I’m too lazy to properly stalk the animals, and I usually just end up scaring them away and then feeling bad about that.

Flamingos are especially difficult to photograph, as they are very wary of humans and must have good eyesight because they fly away when you even begin to approach them hundreds of meters away. I quickly gave up trying that – until the next morning at sunrise when I found them standing with their legs frozen into the lake! Since they were trapped in the ice I finally had a chance to get within suitable photo range from the side of the lake. They must have still been sleepy – or resigned to their predicament – because they didn’t seem to mind my presence then. Once the sun rises higher and the air warms up enough, they are able to kick their legs out of the ice and continue on with their day.

Isluga Iglesia : Prints Available

Though the wildlife is surprisingly abundant in this desolate high altitude region, people are hard to find. We passed through a number of old villages along the way, including the village of Isluga which has a particularly photogenic 16th or 17th century iglesia. We stopped for a while to admire it and take some photos, but we didn’t see a soul there. Desolate…