This Desert’s Become a Psychedelic Wonderland
Chile’s Atacama Desert comes alive with a sea of pink blooms. (All photos: EPA/Mario Ruiz)
Chile’s Atacama Desert, known as one of the planet’s driest places, received a battering dose of rain this March, which caused mudslides, floods, nearly 30 deaths and homelessness.
Despite the tragedies, plus more rains in August, the severe weather has since transformed the desert into a lush landscape of pink-tone mallow flowers — a stunning display of color, not to mention a powerful symbol of rebirth ― which travelers can now visit.
Related: How to Spend the Perfect 48 Hours in the Atacama Desert
Lovely scenery driving through Atacama desert.
The first posse of blossoms cropped up in March and April, autumn for the South American country. Now they’re back for Chile’s springtime.
“The intensity of blooms this year has no precedent,” Daniel Diaz, National Tourism Service director in Atacama, told Spanish news agency EFE. “And the fact that it has happened twice in the same year has never been recorded in the country’s history. We are surprised.”
Miles of pink mallow flowers.
Some 20,000 tourists are expected to come visit the desert’s flower-filled fields, which will remain picture-perfect through November.
It’s a rare event, given that there are only two other countries in the world where deserts can give way to such lush sights: the United States and Australia.
Related: The Best Ski Resort You’ve Never Heard of is in Chile
Flowers made for Instagram.
It’s not just the pink mallow flowers — the rains also gave rise to over 200 other native plant species that pepper the land with additional hues and scents.
Perhaps it’s no wonder Lonely Planet named Atacama one of the 10 major destinations for 2015.
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