Desert of Atacama (2) - Valle Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley) and Yerbas Buenas Petroglyphs

The first day was really fantastic and we were excited by the prospect of another great day on the Atacama desert.On day 2, we went to the rainbow valley (valle Arcoiris) and stopped to see the Yerbas Buenas petroglyphs. The Rainbow valley is beasutiful,with magnificent colors...copper greens, deep reds, purples, and  bright white. Each mountain is colored brightly and differently from the one beside it! In this part of the desert, there are numerous layers of multi-colored rocks from various elements that form the rainbow like colors. The predominant green are concentrated oxidized copper. The other elements are magnesium, arsenic, chalk, clay.....

Valle Arcoiris

     The stone tortuga - a distant cousin of our aquatic turtles!

Beautiful ears!

Black heads...they must be guanacos.

Yerbas Buenas Petroglyphs

These petroglyphs were carved in the volcanic stone thousand of years ago. Some might be 5000 years old. They are large and beautiful.They represent aspects of daily life like llamas, fox, or people, and are located at the crossroads of several major transit roads in the Atacama desert.

Our great guide Jorge

This concluded another terrific day in the desert.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"

Marcel Proust