San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

I’ve had minimal problems with weather in the last few weeks – I’ve been lucky.  You’d think that I’d be fine in the driest desert in the world.  Well, turns out that there’ve been record-breaking rains and floods here.  (In the meantime, southern Chile, which usually has a lot of rain, is suffering from drought.)

The floods have subsided a little, but there are now new rivers and new bridges must be built.  Also, some attractions are not viable in rain, and it still rains here occasionally – odd for a city that usually never sees a single cloud.  As a result, many attractions here are inaccessible for tours – including Laguna Cejar, which I wanted to see: a lake like the Dead Sea in that you float because of the salinity.  When the attractions do open, the tours fill up almost immediately. Continue reading →