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The Atacama Desert & Altiplano of Chile

Friday - October 23, 2009 at 7:00 PM - Ferry Building Gallery, West Vancouver

Seen in the pages of an atlas, Chile's outline seems aberrant, even fantastical: almost 4000km in length and with an average width of just 180km, the very idea of it seems absurd. Once on Chilean soil, however, you'll be impressed by the country as a physical geographic entity. While the formidable barrier of rock and ice formed by the Andes cuts the country off from Argentina and Bolivia, the Atacama Desert, a thousand-kilometre stretch of parched wasteland, separates it from Peru to the north.

 

The Altiplano and the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, are located between the cities of Arica and Copiapo. Made up of rocks, sands, salt flats, lagoons and fuming geysers, the myriad of colours and forms will take your breath away.

The barren Atacama Desert, stretching over 1000km into southern Peru, presents an unforgettable, if forbidding, landscape, whose sights number ancient petroglyphs (indigenous rock art), abandoned nitrate ghost towns and a scattering of fertile, fruit-filled oases. Up in the Andes, the vast plateau known as the altiplano, as high and remote as Tibet, encompasses snow-capped volcanoes, bleached-white salt flats, lakes speckled pink with flamingoes, grazing llamas, alpacas and vicuñas, tiny whitewashed churches and native Aymara and Atacameño communities.

San Pedro de Atacama (elevation 2440m) is a precordillera oasis village in northern Chile and lies in the heart of some of northern Chile's most spectacular scenery. A short drive away lies the country's largest salt flat, spotted pink with flamingos and its edges crinkled by volcanoes (symmetrical Licancábur, at 5916m, looms closest to the village). Here too are fields of steaming geysers, a host of otherworldly rock formations and weird layer-cake landscapes.

Tthe desert and craggy mountains and wide open spaces are a "must" for the real traveller.


Spring 2010 Series - Travels through Historic Lands at the Crossroads

Join us for
an in-depth look at lands were once great civilizations flourished that are facing contemporary challenges, based on Peter Langer's extensive journeys.

On the Silk Road

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


Impressions of Pakistan

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


Impressions of India

Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


Impressions of Sri Lanka

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


Impressions of Egypt

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


On the Road to Timbuktu

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Ferry Building - West Vancouver


 

All photographs & materials © Peter Langer