Things to Do in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Quick facts: Rain falls on average only a few millimeters per year, and some measuring stations in the desert landscape have never recorded a single drop. NASA has test-driven Mars rovers here because the soil is surprisingly similar to the surface of the red planet.

Highlights: Astronaut Neil Armstrong reportedly said the landscape reminded him of the moon's surface, and the name stuck after his visit. Stay seated on a salt ridge as the sun goes down, and the rock walls slowly shift from gold to pink to deep purple.

Quick facts: The field sits at an altitude of 4,320 meters, so boiling water spouts at just 86 degrees in the thin air. Around 80 active geysers get a chance to show off in the early morning hours before the sun warms things up and the steam disappears.

Highlights: The name tatio means "grandfather" in Kunza, the language of the people who lived here long before the Incas arrived. At dawn, the steam jets reach up to three meters in the freezing air, but just an hour later the field lies almost silent.

Quick facts: Nearly 3,000 square kilometers of white salt crystal gleams here, one of the saltiest places on the planet. Beneath the surface lies one of the world's richest lithium sources, while three flamingo species thrive in the lagoons around.

Highlights: The salt forms perfect hexagonal crack patterns that crunch under your shoes, like giant porcelain dried in the sun. As the heat rises, the crystals' reflection makes the surrounding mountains seem to float, and the sound of your steps bounces strangely far across the surface.

Quick facts: The lagoons are fed by meltwater from the two volcanoes and shimmer at over 4,100 meters above sea level. The color shifts from turquoise to deep blue as the light changes, while Andean flamingo species often feed at the water's edge.

Highlights: At eight in the morning the ice lies like fragile glass over the shallow water, and every step on the gravel sounds like a crunch in the total silence. A caracara often glides along the ridge while you have Miñiques' 5,910-meter peak right beside you.

Quick facts: At an altitude of 4,500 meters, the oxygen-thin air makes every step an effort, while the shallow lagoon shifts between turquoise and emerald depending on the sun. The iron oxides that color the rocks red stand in sharp contrast to the white salt crystals that have formed over thousands of years.

Highlights: Small Andean flamingos wade through the icy, mirror-still water and their reflections double the explosion of color against the blood-red stone. When the wind dies down, the surface becomes as silent as glass and the salt crystals crunch under your boots as you follow the trail across the chalk-white deposits.

Quick facts: Eight natural pools are constantly filled with 33-degree water that bubbles out of the mountain in a narrow canyon. The spring sits at an altitude of 3,475 meters and has been used by the desert's indigenous peoples for hundreds of years.

Highlights: The water holds a constant 33 degrees and flows in a gentle waterfall from pool to pool, while steam rises toward the cactus-covered canyon wall. Lying still in the warm, clear-blue spring while the desert wind cools your face is an experience few places can match.

Quick facts: The rock formations are made of salt and clay that wind and water have carved out over millions of years, and the humidity here is sometimes measured below five percent. The salt and clay layer stretches like a long spine through the desert, while the dune at the valley's edge attracts sandboarders from all over South America.

Highlights: On the valley floor, the salt crystals crunch underfoot like dry snow, while the afternoon sun makes the clay formations glow in pink, orange, and deep red. When the heat rises, the shimmering heat can create a mirage that makes the entire valley floor glisten like a water surface, even though rain here is a rarity in most years.

Quick facts: Around 15 stone structures lie scattered across a rocky height, a defensive fortress raised by the Atacameño people during the Middle Ages. A bloody battle in 1540 forced the defenders to leave the height, and the remains of the wall still stand today.

Highlights: A single narrow opening in the wall served as a gate, a defense so effective that a few could keep an entire army outside. Up on the crest, just over 100 meters above the river, you get the whole valley and the 5,916-meter-high Licancabur volcano in the same view.

Quick facts: With a salt content of around 28 percent, the water is almost ten times saltier than the sea, so your body floats without the slightest effort. The green-blue color comes from microscopic algae that thrive in the extreme environment, while the temperature stays around 20 degrees all year round.

Highlights: The water is so dense that nobody can dive, your body is pushed back up to the surface as if invisible hands carried it. Lie stretched out and hear the salt crystals crunch against your ears while the Andes' five-thousand-meter peaks reflect all around you.

Quick facts: The water holds nearly ten times the sea's salinity, yet it teems with life on the shallow bottom surfaces. Here at 2,300 meters above sea level, in the middle of the world's third-largest salt flat, up to 40,000 flamingos from three species gather when the season is at its best.

Highlights: A single flock eats itself pink: the flamingos' color comes from the tiny brine shrimp Artemia salina that swarm in the saltwater, and the more prey, the stronger the plumage. Walk out onto the crust when the wind dies down and hear how every step crunches like broken glass while mirror-still lagoons double the mountains.