San Pedro de Atacama

[sury]

The outpost of Atacama desert from which all Atacama tours/activities take place.
This is the main street of the town San Pedro de Atacama



[url=https://flic.kr/p/QuNoPF]

Though Atacama is the driest place on earth, this part of Atacama does receive about 100mm of rain a year as you can see
the channels created by rain water.

[aster]

Desert colours of Atacama are beautiful, Sury.

The walls and the dirt road of the desert city as well as the rain water channels are very intriguing. The channels are gigantic and must have taken a long time to be sculpted by the running water.
Weather looks warm.

Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

[sury]

Yes, indeed. Both wind and water erosion are very prevalent in this part of the world. The "gully" gets narrower as we move along
and certainly not for those suffering claustrophobia. That's why my wife did not join.



The striations (right word?) are created by rain and wind.





And we are out of that "tunnel".

[aster]

.

Honestly, Sury, the last shots are almost extra-terrestrial.
Enigmatic, ashy geological formations that would make any sci-fi movie much more interesting. Like looking at the surface of Mars or the the like. The tunnels do look discouraging.

Thanks for sharing.
Yildiz

[sury]

Now that you mentioned Mars, here are the shots from the Valley of Mars. I think the locals misunderstood the word "Mars" as "marte" and also call it Death Valley or Valley of the dead. NASA test drove their Mars rover here, they said.





I found this very interesting. Stumbled upon it in the Valley of Mars. Spiral pattern of parched earth.

[jbtaylor]

Ever observant.
Thank you.
JT

[aster]

Now that you mentioned Mars, here are the shots from the Valley of Mars. I think the locals misunderstood the word "Mars" as "marte" and also call it Death Valley or Valley of the dead. NASA test drove their Mars rover here, they said.
……...
I found this very interesting. Stumbled upon it in the Valley of Mars. Spiral pattern of parched earth.

Mars detail is most interesting, Sury. It looks right to have tested the rover here indeed. Conditions look alike...
Maybe the spiral formed from an extra pool of water, who knows but love how it pops to our attention among other shapes.

Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

[ValeryD]

Nice again!

[sury]

Thank you Valery.
Yildiz, indeed. Everyone in our tour missed it. I was lucky to spot it and capture it.
When I chimped and showed to the tour guide, he went back to the spot and took
a picture on his cell phone. He was totally ecstatic. As it were, 30 minutes earlier
we were talking about Fibonacci numbers with the tour guide.

Sury

[david antony]

Really good shots sury, fascinating.

Thanks for sharing.

[sury]

Thank you DA. It was a fascinating place indeed.

Sury

[UrsaMajor]

30 minutes earlier we were talking about Fibonacci numbers with the tour guide.
Sury

My parents were dedicated travelers who visited out-of-the-way place all over the world.

One of their comments that the remark above brought to my mind was that they were continually being surprised by people they met. I think that a tour guide in this location who can discuss Fibonacci numbers would qualify as such an event.

- Tom -

[sury]

Tom,
Indeed. One of the pleasures of such trips which seldom spoken about is the gamut of interesting people we come across.
I was wearing a t-shirt with Himalayan Hikers logo (our local hiking team shirt). There were this couple, who must be in their
late sixties and they excitedly asked me if I went to Himalayas. I sheepishly explained the story behind logo and found out that
few years ago they went to Mt. Everest Base Camp, scaled Annapurna in Himalayas, Kilimanjaro and couple of other mountains.
And that point I thought I was an intrepid traveler. Talk about eating humble pie. It turned out he was also in couple of wars and we drifted into talking about planes and airshows with a fellow swede who was in his early seventies but carrying two camera bodies sporting a WA and a zoom lens. Of course I regained a bit of my hubris when I flashed 70-400G.

With best regards,
Sury