{"id":96880,"date":"2023-10-13T20:15:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T00:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/?p=96880"},"modified":"2023-12-15T20:53:46","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T01:53:46","slug":"remain-in-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/2023\/10\/remain-in-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Remain in Light"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Explora
Explora Atacama \u2014 San Pedro de Atacama, Chile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patagonia gets the bulk of the attention, but Chile\u2019s Atacama desert is growing in popularity thanks to its equally riveting scenery, history, and hotels.<\/h4>\n

For the first few miles out of northern Chile’s Calama airport, trash lines the side of the road. Que lastima<\/em>, muttered my driver when I asked about it in my broken Spanish. What a shame.<\/em> As we continued \u2014 straight and straight and straight \u2014 past only sand and the occasional desert bush, towards the ever looming Andes, the basura<\/em> disappeared and we passed half a dozen roadside memorials instead, crosses and wooden altars forlorn in the desert. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s long been tradition in Chile\u2019s massive Atacama Desert to mark the resting places of the dead. For decades, that meant makeshift memorials when a miner died extracting what was at one point over 65 percent of government income, the sodium nitrate culled from the salt-strewn earth. In 1879, a war between Chile, on one side, and Bolivia and Peru, on the other, defined today\u2019s borders in Chile\u2019s favor, stripping Bolivia of its only access to the sea. <\/p>\n

The Atacama hasn\u2019t always been a place of tourism. It has been, for centuries, the backbone of the country\u2019s industry. Perhaps that\u2019s why I was here almost by mistake. I\u2019d booked my round trip to the capital city of Santiago thinking I’d visit the more well known Patagonia. But with limited time, I chose the more manageable Atacama instead, a place I knew only from the reputation of its top hotels, particularly Tierra Atacama<\/a> and Explora Atacama<\/a>. <\/p>\n

By the fourth day of my trip here, I\u2019d already walked through ghostly white mists of mountaintop geysers at dawn. I hiked a thin, rushing river, its banks dressed on both sides by lush greenery and man-sized cacti. I even slipped into a thermal hot spring bubbling on the mountainside. Now I had begun to simmer. I almost missed out on this.<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Mitchells\"<\/p>\n

\"Mitchells\"
Scenes from the Atacama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I approached the guide of our morning expedition, who handed his binoculars to another guest, pointing to an Incan rock shelter on a plateau below, and switched to English for the only American on the trip. A Bolivian man named Chris, he wore his straight black hair pushed back with a bandana and led us with the confidence of a local expert. So I asked what he thought. Why does Patagonia get so much attention in North America, while the Atacama is virtually unknown?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe when people hear the word desert, they think about a flat, sand landscape with a few cactus,\u201d he offered, in the same serious tone with which he\u2019d shown us the centuries-old glyphs carved into the rockside. \u201cThey don\u2019t picture this.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the moment, we were in a desert scene more or less lifted from Lawrence of Arabia, but I knew what he meant. The Atacama\u2019s informal moniker \u2014 the driest desert in the world \u2014 is a misnomer. It almost never rains, but rivers flow down from the Andes both above and below the sands. There are typical desert scenes here, but a thousand others, many of them historic, alive, even wet. <\/p>\n

A visit to the Atacama is like a visit to a dozen different national parks, with a volatile geology reminiscent of sites as different as Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much salt it stains the desert in sparkling white deposits. But nitrate mining has gone largely extinct. Tourism has rushed to fill some of the void \u2014 and if its reputation has yet to fully reach the United States, it has completely saturated nearby Brazil. The Atacama is massive, but its tourism centers on the small backpacking haven of San Pedro de Atacama. Guides here give it the cheeky nickname S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em> de Atacama. <\/p>\n

Natural tourism filled my days here to the brim, amiable Brazilians with excellent English often by my side. We saw salt flats home to pink flamingos and their almost microscopic shrimp prey. We ran down sand dunes and marveled at canyons of tricolored rock. We ate kebabs of charred llama in a tiny town, and spotted small herds on the road. Every one of these sites lay no more than an hour or two from my hotels in San Pedro. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s what makes this place one of Chile\u2019s three most important centers of tourism, along with Patagonia and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The little village is a carnival of souvenir shops on streets yellow with dust and sand. Students and recent grads swarm the narrow road outside their hostels in the center of town. <\/p>\n

Down the street, luxury resorts meet the needs of a pickier kind of traveler. These \u2014 among them my stops, Tierra<\/a> and Explora<\/a> \u2014 are known for their curated explorations. Each has several bases across South America\u2019s most awesome natural landscapes. <\/p>\n

\"Tierra<\/p>\n

\"Tierra<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

\"Tierra<\/p>\n

\"Explora<\/p>\n

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\"Explora
Tierra Atacama (top four) and Explora Atacama (bottom four)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Atacama, a stay at either can cost over a thousand a night \u2014 at Tierra, sometimes over two (both hotels are all-inclusive of food, drink, and explorations). But the convenience is staggering. Arrive and your first stop is on a couch, drink in hand, to meet the hotel\u2019s head of exploration. In town, you walk by dozens of tour operators. Here, you have a personalized service on site. <\/p>\n

At Tierra<\/a>, where I stayed just a couple nights, we planned my activities up front. At Explora, we met in the lobby each evening to discuss my dreams for the following day. If you\u2019re choosing between the two hotels, Tierra is smaller, more of a high-style boutique hotel. Excellent modern design centers natural wood and phenomenal views out to the Andes. The pool can’t be described with mere words \u2014 it has to be seen. <\/p>\n

Explora<\/a> is a more expansive property, with larger public spaces and a rooftop terrace that\u2019s the highest in town. The design, more inspired by traditional architecture, emulates the feeling of an extremely well-considered ranch or hacienda. They\u2019re known especially for their explorations, almost any of which you can choose to undertake by car, bike, or horseback. Beautiful stallions and mares traipse along the stables at the edge of the resort. <\/p>\n

Nayara Alto<\/a> and Awasi<\/a> round out our favorite accommodations for the region. Each hotel has access to a giant telescope to take full advantage of the Atacama\u2019s famously dark, unblemished sky. I saw the rings of Saturn on two successive nights. On the others, with just the naked eye, I considered the unnaturalness of my hometown New York City. Compared to the Atacama \u2014 with its tapestry in the sky \u2014 we hardly have night. <\/p>\n

When I finally left the desert, windswept and sunburned, I made for Santiago with a wistful feeling. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever see a place as miraculous again, or experience it with such unrivaled luxury. I entered the Castillo Rojo<\/a>, a wonderful \u201920s-era mansion-turned-boutique hotel in the heart of the city, and sipped a glass of red wine. It was Chile\u2019s independence day, and they had much to celebrate and more to remember. The day I\u2019d arrived in the country, one week earlier, had marked precisely 50 years since Pinochet\u2019s coup. <\/p>\n

Los desaparecidos<\/em>, they called the victims who disappeared throughout his reign. Many had been buried in the secret vastness of the Atacama. I thought of the crosses I\u2019d seen on my way to the town \u2014 and how little I\u2019d known of the place. I’ve returned determined to proselytize it. And to make Charles Darwin look like a fool. \u201cI am tired of repeating the epithets barren and sterile,\u201d he\u2019d written on his 1839 voyage across South America, when he found the Atacama. <\/p>\n

He could have used a better guide. <\/p>\n

 
\nBook Tierra Atacama<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em>
\nBook Explora Atacama<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em>
\nBook Nayara Alto Atacama<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em>
\nBook Awasi Atacama<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em>
\nBook Castillo Rojo<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tierra<\/p>\n

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