Atacama Desert

After the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the Atacama is the next driest desert on earth. Mostly in the northern region of Chile, it stretches into Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. It is home to a large collection of volcanos, extreme altitude and one of the largest deposits of lithium salt in the world, which is a primary industry in the region. It is also home to one of the most varied arid landscapes on the planet. Dunes, glaciers salt lakes, rock formations are all within a days trip away from the town of San Pedro De Atacama.

The brutal effects of altitude are common occurrences here, with San Pedro De Atacama having an average elevation of 2,400m quickly escalating to elevations of over 5000m a short drive from the town. Attempting to visit these locations before your body has acclimatised brings on a multitude of ill feelings, nausea, headaches, tiredness, and general aches are not uncommon, and the only solution is to simply get to lower altitude as quickly as possible. It is quite literally your body asphyxiating.

Once you have become used to the altitude though, an entirely magical location starts to open up to you. Within days you can journey to 4,000-4,500m and within a week you can usually do stints at 5,000m. It’s there that you can start to really journey to some of the magical locations… Heading across the borders into Bolivia for example takes you to Salar de Uyuni, a world heritage listed salt lake.

All Atacama images here are available in limited edition prints of six.