Night Photography, Los Flamencos National Preserve, & Piedras Rojas
Days Six & Seven - Chile & Bolivia - 2017
Crossing back into Chile, I visited an observatory, and Los Flamencos National Reserve to close out a great trip.
Map Credit: OpenStreetMap
Map Credit: OpenStreetMap
1. The Magellanic Clouds
The Magellanic Clouds are two dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are 200,000 and 160,000 light years away, respectively, and themselves orbit the Milky Way Galaxy.
After leaving Villamar Mallcu early in the morning, we traveled along along a dirt road until we met up with the more traveled route to Hito Cajon near Laguna Colorada. After border formalities (during which I returned my passport-substituting stamped paper without incident), we returned to San Pedro de Atacama around mid-day. After making my way back to my hotel (and after a nap and another delicious steak dinner), I took a night photography tour which traveled to the darker skies just south of San Pedro de Atacama. As I am rarely in the Southern Hemisphere, the hour-long lecture by a fantastically funny and engaging amateur astronomer was a welcome orientation to their night sky, We then had a chance to look through a dozen or so telescopes at various objects of note. During the après-astronomic hot drink session, I snuck back outside and took some long-exposure photographs, including this one of the Magellanic Clouds, which I never see where I live.
2. One Very Large Telescope
This telescope is the largest for-public-use telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
You can see in this photograph some light pollution to the south of the observatory. This is from a planned (as of 2017) power plant construction site which threatens the pristine night sky around San Pedro de Atacama. At the time, many in the town were seeking to have the project relocated to minimize its impact.
3. Laguna Chaxa #1
Laguna Chaxa is a large lake which is part of Los Flamencos National Reserve, a 740 square kilometer (285 square mile) natural preserve divided into seven sections just south of San Pedro de Atacama.
The following morning, I took a day trip to see some sights just south of San Pedro de Atacama. Our first stop was Laguna Chaxa, which is a well laid-out natural preserve complete with a nice visitor’s / learning center. Laguna Chaxa is home to a large population of Andean flamingos, who are featured in the next two photographs.
4. Laguna Chaxa #2
5. Laguna Chaxa #3
6. Atacama Wildflowers
This part of the Atacama experienced a brief, out-of-season rainstorm in October, 2017, which caused wildflowers to bloom for a second time that year.
What a pleasure it was to see some colorful foliage! Interestingly, this rainstorm affected only a very small area of the Atacama, which meant these flowers were an isolated phenomenon - only a little ways down the road the flowers had gone.
7. Looking Down at the Atacama
The Atacama is surrounded on all sides by mountains, creating a rain shadow which gives the Atacama its extreme weather.
From where the wildflowers were, we had a pretty good vantage down into the Salar de Atacama. Far in the distance you could see the large lithium fields which are now being mined to meet an ever-increasing demand for rechargeable batteries.
8. Piedras Rojas
Piedras Rojas (Red Rocks) is a site near the Chile-Argentina border known for deep desert-colored rock.
Making the quick morning ascent from San Pedro de Atacama (2400 meters / 7900 feet) to Piedras Rojas (4100 meters / 13500 feet) took a toll on many in my group. Fortunately for me, I was already acclimated from my journey to Salar de Uyuni, so I explored more liberally than most.
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9. Cerro Medano
The 4660 meter (15305 foot) peak of Cerro Medano is reflected in the waters of Salar de Talar.
I had a lot of time to try and get this mountain reflection photograph to work out right. The wind was calm and the lake was almost perfectly still - in fact, I think the small movements you see in the water are from people dipping into the water out-of-frame.
10. Salar de Talar
Salar de Talar is a 46 square kilometer (17 square mile) salt flat featuring a small, milky-colored lake.
Interestingly, the water at Salar de Talar would change color depending on where you were standing and how the light was hitting it. You can see this if you compare this photograph to the last one; the two were taken maybe 100 meters (330 feet) apart.
11. Fun With Miniature Mode
A tour bus heads up the road away from Piedras Rojas.
I almost never use the miniature mode on my camera, but when I saw this truck traveling up this dirt road against the red background, I figured I’d give it a go.
12. Another Viscacha Encounter
Viscacha’s often live in burrows in rock, escaping only to feed or to catch the mid-day sun.
Our driver spotted this viscacha on the side of the road, and let us stop to take some photographs. Some of my travelers firmly believed it was a rabbit; I chose not to ruin the illusion.
13. Culpeo
The culpeo is a South American fox species, slightly larger than a red fox but smaller than a coyote.
We passed this culpeo on the road back to San Pedro de Atacama. It became very quickly distressed by our truck and scurried off rather quickly, but not before I got this on-the-move photograph.
14. Laguna Miñiques
Laguna Miñiques is a lake in Los Flamencos National Reserve, and is fed underground by its larger neighbor, Laguna Miscanti. The two were once connected, but became cut-off by a lava flow.
On the way back to San Pedro de Atacama, we made a quick stop at Lagunas Miñiques and Miscanti. Not much in terms of wildlife at Miñiques, but a picturesque locale all the same.
15. Laguna Miscanti
Laguna Miscanti features a walking path from which you can get a variety of views of the lake.
Laguna Miscanti is another amazing location beautifully framed by the surrounding mountains. Try as I might, I could not get the entire lake in frame with my wide-angle lens; probably as a result of being tired from stargazing the night before, I didn’t think to try a panorama. After a brief stop in the village of Socaire, we headed back to San Pedro de Atacama, and the sightseeing portion of my trip came to an end…but not before one last steak dinner, of course!
