Nine days · Atacama

The driest place that still has a sky.

The route

Three valleys, one salt flat, no coaches

Small vehicles, local guides, and the kind of pace that lets you stop when the light does something. Two nights in the same bed twice, so it is not nine days of packing.

Nights

Two of them outside

At four thousand metres with no town for eighty kilometres, which is the entire reason to come. Proper tents, proper bedding, and someone who has done this two hundred times.

The altitude

We go up slowly on purpose

The first three days sit below three thousand metres because that is what makes the last three enjoyable. Nobody is asked to push through a headache to keep a schedule.

Who guides it

People from the valleys we cross

Guides are hired locally, paid a day rate rather than commission, and know which road washed out last week. They are not reading from a script we wrote in another country.

Fitness

Walking, not trekking

Nothing longer than eleven kilometres in a day and nothing technical. If you can manage a long day on your feet at home you will manage this, altitude allowing.

Eight travellers per departure

Four departures a year, timed to the new moon so the two nights outside are worth the cold. Deposits are refundable up to ninety days out.