Crescent-shaped sand dunes rise and fall steeply, some up to 100 metres (330 feet) high. The sun beats down on this part of northern Chile and it is exhausting to walk. Your boots sink deep into the golden sand.
But it is worth it, when you reach the ridges of the sand mountains near Copiapó and are rewarded with the sight of a dune landscape that never seems to end. South America’s answer to the Sahara, the southern part of the Atacama Desert is known as the Sea of Dunes (“Mar de Dunas”), with those dunes spanning 335 square kilometres (129 square miles). At 550 metres, El Medanoso is one of the highest dunes on the continent.
People snowboard down its steep slopes, while adrenaline junkies race through the sandy mountains in four-wheel-drive cars. But our desert hike is quiet. We are silent, solemn, in awe of the natural beauty.
The wind-sculpted wave patterns in the dunes could hardly be more perfect. Most Atacama tourists are drawn to the north of the desert, to San Pedro de Atacama, but it is much quieter some 800 kilometres (500 miles) further south. Tour guide Roberto Vergara shows us traces of scorpions, snakes and lizards in the sand as we walk some three hours to our destination.
High up on a broad dune, Gabriela Torres has set up a small table with local specialities in front of an off-road vehicle. Torres is a well-known cook in the Atacama region, famed for bringing many lost recipes from ancient desert tribes out of oblivion. She has raised indigenous re.