Colonies of flamingos in a sea of salt, Inca fortresses, and lunar landscapes await the visitor in a place that does not compare to any other on the planet. Upon first observing the Atacama Desert, Charles Darwin wrote in his notebook: "It is a far worse obstacle than the most turbulent of oceans".

Almost two centuries later, traveling to Chile's Norte Grande is an intense and surprising adventure. The sunrises are imposing, the skies seem to catch fire at sunset, and monumental geoglyphs amaze the visitor. It is a journey that also portends a powerful inner change.

 

There is no shortage of people who maintain that it is the most beautiful region of the country. At least, the most surprising. Impossible to visit in a single trip, the Norte Grande extends between the cities of Arica and Antofagasta and includes precisely the regions of Arica - Parinacota, Tarapacá, and Antofagasta. Its main attractions are the extensive coastline of the Pacific Ocean, the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, and the high plateau that holds some wonders such as the Salar de Surire and San Pedro de Atacama.

It is undoubtedly a land of contrasts. Endless lonely beaches coexist with the aridity of the desert; however, if someone thinks that he will only find dust, gray pampas, and blind horizons, the Norte Grande is there to disprove and amaze him.

In that boundless immensity, the visitor will find colonies of beautiful pink flamingos in a sea of salt, vast lunar landscapes, museums that preserve mummies even more ancient than those of Egypt, volcanoes and geysers that explode from the earth, ghost cities that speak of mining riches of another time, geoglyphs, Inca fortresses, and animal species adapted to the environment such as guanacos and vicuñas, pumas and chinchillas.