Desert Routes in Chile

Chile’s most spectacular scenery is in its southern half. However, that fact does not mean that the northern section lacks things worthy of sightseeing. There are several standout drives up north, starting from the desert coastline in Bahía Inglesa and Playa La Virgen (west of Copiapó), on up the coast to El Morro de Arica. But some of the best scenes are high (let me emphasize really high) up in the Chilean Altiplano. The first set of images below are from the northernmost tip of Chile, a high tropical desert between Putre and Visviri.

The road up from Putre to Visviri and back down to Lago Chungará offers plenty of vivid scenery. We were definitely up very high in the next image, with the raod sign indicating a road surface altitude of 5.250 meters (17,224 feet), but the GPS altimeter put us just shy of 4,900 meters (16,076 feet). Have you ever