Who would have thought a desert could be so incredible beautiful.. We were here for mountaineering activities and in spite of unusually hostile snowy weather yes in We had a tour guided by Ramon. The sights were fantastic, the highlights of which were the Ojos Volcano and Laguna Verde. Some people that reviewed complained about altitude sickness. The highest we reached was m above sea level, and we were fine. Anyone that struggles ain't real.
Ramon, on the other hand, is real. A good driver, with dece English and overall a great chap. Both are spectacular sights. There were a number of flamingos at Laguna de Santa Rosa site and we also saw numerous vicuna and a couple of foxes. There are so few tourists that get to this area that you practically have the area to yourself.
It is an awesome experience. The roads aren't the easiest to drive and it is quite a long day trip from Copiapo, but definitely worth it! Amazing views of the candy cane mountains no other way to describe them! Took about 3 hours to get to laguna Santa Rosa from Copiapo on gravel roads - no need for a 4WD we had a Chevy Cruze that did just fine , but obviously a larger car would be more comfortable and less bumpy.
Why 4 stars? No infrastructure whatsoever - very unusual for Chilean parks: no staff at the lagoon to give advice or directions, the "toilet" was disgusting. Be prepared for Patagonian-like winds once you get to the top. Scenery was fantastic and literally no other tourists! The park is remote with wonderful landscapes in every direction.
We particularly loved the Salar de Maracunga, which was like a huge mirror when we arrived early in the morning no wind , reflecting the pastel coloured mountains surrounding the salar in the distance. Absolutely stunning! The place was totally deserted - only ever saw construction crews working on the roads. No tourists and no traffic as it was the weekend. The solitary Atacama at it's best!!! We did a three day round trip from Copiapo and back to Ruta 5 to see both lagunas in our 2x4 rented pick-up, camping for the first night at about 3,m to accustom ourselves to the altitude not entirely effective for one of us - longer would have been less risky and staying at the Negro Francisco refugio the second night it's much colder at 4,m!
