Trips Chile

19 Day Ojos Del Salado
- The highest volcano in the world

The Atacama Desert, one of the wonders of the world, is a rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. It is the driest desert in the world with spectacular landscapes of many ochre colours ranging from white, yellow to orange or red. A visit to the Atacama, whether to climb a volcano, see hot water sprouting geysers, admire the flamingoes in the salt lake, visit native villages or forts set among the oases is almost a must for the visitor to Chile.

Ojos del Salado (6900m), the highest volcano in the world, is located in the Atacama Desert, about 900 km north of Santiago, near Copiapo City in Chile. This impressive volcano in the heart of a high plateau (altiplano) is surrounded by salt lakes, and many other high peaks and more volcanoes.

Highlights

Much of the desert extends up into the Andes mountains and is very high in elevation. Unlike more familiar deserts, like the Sahara desert in Africa, the Atacama is actually a pretty cold place, with average daily temperatures ranging between 0°C and 25°C. In the higher elevations when precipitation comes to Atacama snow falls instead of rain. There are small patches of unmelted snow in the mountain tops where it never gets warm enough to melt the snow. On this trek, be prepared to experience high altitude and extreme cold temperatures.