Gran Salar de Atacama
NileGuide Expert Says:
A unique opportunity to walk on a salt pan, see tiny brine shrimp and watch flamingos take flight in the early morning hours.Address:
NileGuide Expert tip:
Bundle up and bring along your camera to catch the glinting sun off the water and salt as the flamingos wake up for their morning flight.Description:
A crunchy saline walkway awaits you at this, the Gran Salar de Atacama, or the Atacama's great salt lake. It's an otherworldly scene, with crunchy coral-like salt everywhere, and tourists who take pictures of themselves posing on it, or actually licking it. Yes, it is salt, but not table salt like we know it. It's actually a melange of saline minerals left behind when saline waters flow down from the Andes and evaporate here in the large salt pan, leaving behind a salt crust, which is not a brilliant white, but is salt none the same. The salt pan is some 10 km outside of San Pedro, and is best visited in the frigid morning to watch the sun come up over the salar, and the flamingoes take flight. Guided tours will explain the genesis and ecosystem of the lake. Expect cold temperatures in the early morning.Admission ia aporximately 5 dollars (paid to CONAF, Chile's park service), but most visitors will come as part of a tour, which may visit other spots on the salar as well, including Laguna Chaxa, where many flamingoes may often be seen.
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