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The quickest and most comfortable way of getting a first hand experience of the Atacama Desert is to fly over it.

Fly north from Santiago to the Pacific coastal cities of Antafagasta, Iquique, and to Arica on the Peruvian border and you will see a vast expanse of arid brown landscape stretching from the coast to the high Andes. You need to be on the right hand side of the plane, but coming south be on the left hand side. Flights from these coastal Chilean cities to La Paz, Bolivia also cross over the desert, from east to west.

How big is it? As an "eco-region" it takes in most of northern Chile from the Peru border at Arica down south to about Copiapo, or a coastal strip of about 1000 kms. This is the really dry part where yearly rainfall recorded can be 1 mm or less! To the east the desert extends to the less arid central Andean plateau at 4000 or more meters in altitude. All told, the Atacama desert covers over 180,000 sq. kms consisting of barren sand, volcanic rock and salt pans.

What's it like close up? It's the nearest you will get to walking on the Moon or Mars! In most places there is not a sign of vegetation anywhere.

There are various ways that the tourist can venture by land into the Atacama desert region.

You could take a deluxe air-conditioned bus from Santiago to Arica and traverse the entire desert which takes 28 hours nonstop for the journey of almost 2000 kms. Much better is to stop off a few days at places en route, such as at La Serena, Copiapo, Antofagasta, Calama, Iquique and to finally reach Arica after having 2 weeks of unhurried sightseeing and exploration. More on this later.

Alternatively you could enter Chile from neighboring Bolivia by two (or more) fascinating routes. The far north bus and rail route from La Paz to Arica is a great day trip where you can experience the amazing scenery of the altiplano and desert landscape while skirting Lago Chungara and the snowy volcanoes of the Lauca National Park. In the old days one could travel by a quaint antiquated rail car which provided added excitement particularly when traversing the often dodgy Bolivian railway system.

The most exciting and astounding way to come is to take the 3 day excursion from Uyuni, Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, which is an oasis in the middle of the Atacama Desert. These 4-wheel drive organized tours more or less follow a "road" across salt pans and the desert altiplano crossing a pass at 5000 meters altitude. The route winds its way around

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