Desierto Florido 2017

Only 2 years ago, we visited the Atacama Desert to see it was covered in flowers in what is known as Desierto Florido, This typically occurs in El Niño years when it is more likely to rain in the area between La Serena and Copiapo (you can click here for a map).

San Pedro de Atacama

Back at the end of June we treated ourselves to a long weekend in San Pedro de Atacama. This was the third time in six years we made it up there, and June is a great time to visit, with plenty of sun and pleasant temperatures. It's also a nice time to escape from the wintery Santiago, which this year has been fairly wet (for Santiago standards, all you UK folks would laugh).

A mix of solstice celebrations: We tripantu, Wintersonnenwende Feuerzangenbowle

In many countries of the northern hemisphere, autumns and winters can be very cold, dark and miserable. We think that as a result of that, it was useful to have something like Christmas to break this part of the year down a bit and give people something to celebrate in the deepest and darkest winter.

Pica, an oasis named "the flower of the sand"

We recently took a 3000 km road trip from La Serena to Iquique for work. The Atacama Desert is an incredible landscape and it is also very diverse. At this year we have had some rain in the desert, it is likely that we will have blooms again in September. In fact, some areas, were already starting to be covered in green patches with plants.