This is the driest place on planet earth.

The soil looks wrinkled and some minerals of copper/sulphur break the surface of earth and come to the top. This gives a unique look to the Atacama landscape and it feels like the surface of Mars or Moon. Even the air is free of moisture and this gives an excellent opportunity for star gazing. Many countries have built their astronomical observatories at Atacama.   The nearest airport is Calama and you have frequent domestic flights flying from Santiago to this airport. The town of San Pedro De Atacama is around 90 minutes drive from Calama and it costs around $ 20 for a one way trip. It’s a pretty little town and every evening you can just walk to different bars, enjoy the delicious south American food & music and shop from the street markets. It felt like a town from the western cowboy movies. The seemingly endless roads between Calama and San Pedro De Atacama.  

  The town.

  A typical restaurant.

People usually book short trips through the various available tour operators to cover the places of interest around the town. They have a driver, an expert guide and includes food/water during the trip. The picnic lunch/breakfast offered during the trip are fun and everyone in our group thoroughly enjoyed it. In total you need 3-4 days to explore the areas around San Pedro De Atacama. Valle de la Luna (Lunar Valley): This is usually an afternoon trip and people watch sunset from there. The formation of the surface gives it the name of Moon Valley.  

We also explored some caves.

There is also one place where they have sand desert and some people do sandboarding in that place.

The other part of Atacama is visiting the mineral lagoons cruising through the desert. The lagoons are pink/blue in color because of the high mineral content. In one place we also saw a lot of Flamingos. After many years we saw such clear blue sky and infinite number of stars at night.   Some pics from that trip:

  The picnic lunch:

  Based on above the additional advice will be:

-Take a lot of very good quality sunscreen lotion.
-Stay hydrated
-Book in advance