La Atacama

We went camping in the Atacama desert which is right on the other side of the mountain from Iquique, in between the coast and the Andes mountains. It is the driest desert in the world and the temperature change is one day is super radical - from about 40 degrees to 90. It was just rolling hills of sand, dryness and blue skies.

You can faintly see the Andes mountains below the clouds in the background. One day I'll get there!

This is a ghost town along the way to La Tirana called Humberstone. It was a mining town that was deserted for some reason and apparently it's really scary at night...I'd rather check it out in the daytime.

Every so often on the road there would be a little house with a cross and maybe some flags and lots of candles and flowers. They are basically shrines for different saints scattered along the highway.

On the way back down the hill into Iquique you can see the whole town and the shoreline and it's just beautiful. It gets really cloudy in Iquique in the winter though, so it's hard to get a good view and picture. I'll have to come back on a better day.