Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. It’s also a traveler’s delight with rock canyons, snow-capped volcanoes, geysers and turquoise lakes.

Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert takes the prize for being the world’s driest, as well as one of earth’s most surreal adventure destinations. From lunar landscapes that NASA used for testing ...

The town of San Pedro de Atacama sits at almost 8,000 feet above sea level, which is partially why it’s so dry. Other visitable parts of the desert go up to 17,000 feet—about the same altitude ...

Church at Machuca near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. On view are shamanic pipes, old stone axes, lapis lazuli necklaces, anthropomorphic pottery, wicker baskets and wooden flutes.

Growing up in Chile’s Atacama Desert, Paulina Villalobos thought the Milky Way’s presence in the pristine starry skies was a given. Her father, an amateur astronomer, would wake her when a ...