A landscape like no other: Exploring the surreal southern end of the Atacama Desert
by Mark Johanson, Chicago Tribune
Jul 01, 2019
4 minutes
COPIAPO, Chile - When my plane touches down at the Desierto de Atacama Airport in northern Chile, it feels as if I've been launched out of orbit to some Martian landscape. Aside from the small terminal, there isn't another building in sight amid a panorama of parched earth.
About 15 miles away from the airport, I'm zapped back to reality at the small beach town of Bahia Inglesa, a toothpaste-blue colored bay with pearly white sands, where I enlist the help of local guide Carlos Pizarro, of Chillitrip, to explore the remote southern half of the Atacama Desert.
As we head down roads made of bischofite (a sea salt
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