First Hike and Sunset Photo in Atacama Desert
Orion had a cheerful morning running around the front yard of our solar powered desert hut in a remote indigenous village, just outside a small town called San Pedro de Atacama.
Our Airbnb host, Martin, was originally from Switzerland. Nearly 30 years ago, when tourism in South America was still at embryo stage, he visited Atacama desert and literally pioneered the tourism, particularly mountain climbing, in the area. He was very knowledgeable, and gave us valuable travel tips.
As you know, my requirement was a little particular. Before I had kids, I would most likely avoid mid-day travel. Rather, sunset hours were the most important.
With the kids, I am no longer the decision maker - we had to accommodate their schedule (see How To Photograph Landscape While Traveling With Young Children). That often means little or no landscape photography during my favorite sunset hours. I had to come up with different scenarios to photograph landscape (for example, milky way)
Fortunately, the best hours to see the desert valley is mid afternoon when the sun is high. There wouldn’t be shadows, and the photos wouldn’t look too contrasty. Martin suggested us to check out Devil’s Throat and El Tunel in the mid afternoon. And we did.
The road was pretty rough. Without 4-wheel drive, we had to drive slowly. Both of our boys dosed off during the ride. The area had no crowd. In fact, we only saw two other tourists.
By the time we reached the closest parking area to the “tunnel” trail, Orion was still sleeping. Moon and I had to split our time babysitting.
Apollo ventured into our first desert hike with me. The poor boy kept telling me his legs hurt. Even I tried my best to encourage him along our mile long walk in the rocky path, we had to return before reaching the mountain top tunnel.
Nevertheless, he agreed to pose a couple of pictures for me so I could prove to him later how brave he was.
We swapped with Moon, who did his solo hike all the way through the tunnel. He said the view was breathtaking, and the silence was pure. Following image was taken by him. This is one of the very few moments he actually took pictures on our trip. We are both glad he captured what I didn’t see.
We rushed to the park entrance just one minute before it was closed. By the time we got back to our desert hut, it was exactly sunset. I quickly set up my tripod, and took the following picture in our front yard.
It’s not the best landscape composition, but is the best I could get at that time.
When the kids fell asleep, I took another milky way shot in our front yard, standing almost at the exact location, facing the opposite side.
That concluded another day for me, slightly tired but completely satisfied…
We were told our clothes could dry within 30 minutes after hanging outside - something I'm keen to try tomorrow as we are all covered by dust, with joy.
See more posts about our family trip in Chile.