DESERT NORTH.

One of our favorite tours in South America. Nature tourism in the most beautiful places, with emphasis on the observation of birds and wild animals.

 

With our history in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we love the desert.  Northern Argentina from Salta offers some of the best scenery and birding, with some mammals on the continent.  From the 14 Color Mountain Range to the Saguaro-like cacti, the salt flats with the flamingos and geyser fields, vicuna, alpaca and lama, and red rock ranges that are spectacular, there is so much to see.  Touring in a double cab 4X4 is the best way to see this, based in excellent hotels, and with back roads for getting to areas rarely seen, we can show you this region with a number of different routes etc., as we have been working in these regions since 1981.  

 

Northern Chile offers the scenic town of San Pedro de Atacama, on the high plateau in the desert Andes.  The dramatic surrounding scenery includes salt flats, volcanos, hot springs and geysers.  The Valle de la Luna and the Los Flamencos National Reserve hosts flamingo in a stunning region of strange rock formations, colorful mountains and sand dunes.  In another area, the rocks on the ground are mainly agates and crystals.  The El Tatio Geyser Fields offer a chance to experience several geysers up close, with vicunas and other wildlife frequently seen.  One can also do a loop expedition on the back roads from Arica and Lauca National Park then south through several other parks to San Pedro.  This requires a number of vehicles and camping, in this fantastic region, so is offered on request.

 

We recommend touring northern Argentina and northern Chile separately, as border crossings are complicated at times and best to avoid.  There is more than enough to do on both sides of the border, and we would be happy to discuss these areas with you.

 

The high season is the southern winter, when clouds are not a problem, but crowds can be. We enjoy all times of year and the warmer temperatures of December through March are good too.  The videos of Northern Argentina elsewhere in this site were filmed in January 2020.

See the remote and beautiful scenery of these deserts together with high Andean geysers and wildlife.