The Llama Travel Blog

Beautifully located in the driest desert in the world, San Pedro de Atacama is a small town in northern Chile made up of narrow streets lined with adobe buildings. The town thrives as a tourist hub mainly due to the surrounding area which is full of barren moonscapes, fiery red canyons, vast salt flats, unique rock formations, turquoise thermal lakes and rising geysers. The area is also Chile’s most important archaeological site, with ruins of the pre-Colombian cultures still visible in the desert. Plus, the Atacama Desert is cloudless almost all of the year, sits at a high altitude and lacks light pollution which can interfere with astronomical observations. This makes it one of the best places in the world for star gazing – there are many astronomy tours that can be booked locally. The desert is even helping NASA better understand what life may be like on Mars, as most of the life in the Atacama Desert are microbes, the only living organisms capable of living in such dry conditions. Keep reading to find out how to spend your time in San Pedro de Atacama. 

When you begin planning a trip to Chile, Patagonia may be the destination that springs to mind first, however heading to the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile offers equally picturesque but somewhat contrasting landscapes from the southern experience. Explore expansive desert landscapes, active geysers, diverse wildlife and unique rock formations here in the highest and driest desert on earth. Find out the Top 5 Things to Do in San Pedro de Atacama.

While the Uyuni Salt Flat is a beautiful and extraordinarily extensive destination (and perhaps my favourite place to have visited), the journey I took from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile through to Uyuni was what made the experience that much more memorable. While growing up in New Zealand has provided me with a plethora of beautiful landscapes, visiting the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in southwestern Bolivia exposed me to otherworldly and picturesque settings that were the highlights of my trip to Latin America.

For visitors to Torres del Paine, Llama Travel offers two trekking options. The Las Torres Trek is a full day trek of approximately seven hours, crossing uneven terrain, including rustic rope bridges, while the Hike to Lake Sarmiento option is an easier 3 hour walk with gentle undulations.

In either case, you will be exposed to the unpredictable weather conditions of Chilean Patagonia, and packing the right equipment is key to your enjoyment of either trek.

If you are considering a visit to Latin America for the first time, you might not be fully aware of just what makes this region so wonderful. Numerous travel companies exist purely to show the world Latin America, so it must have something worth writing home about, right?

Indeed. It’s tricky to sum up an entire continent in a couple of points, particularly when that continent is as diverse as South America. However, there are certain threads which run the length and breadth of the region.

Latin America is a beauty - culturally and landscape-wise. Our photo bank is brimming with images of the continent and now seems as good a time as any to showcase some of these photos. These photos reveal just how gorgeous Latin America's landscapes really are. 

Santiago, the capital of Chile, is a cosmopolitan city, and arguably quite underrated. Surrounded by the Andes Mountains and the Chilean Coastal Range, it has a striking setting, fascinating history and a nice, modern feel. 

Latin America captivates travellers for many reasons, one of which being its many natural wonders. Here we showcase the natural beauty to be found in every corner of the region. From the striking peaks of Torres del Paine in Chile, to the serene and photogenic Lake Attitlan in Guatemala, stunning natural features abound. Scroll down to see our top 10 Natural Wonders in Latin America, in no particular order. 

Last December, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in the depths of wild Patagonia, the vast, almost-unpopulated area found in the very southern end of South America. This unique area is known for its varied landscapes, amazing birdlife, and the feeling of being completely cut off from reality. One could easily spend months exploring this part of Chile and Argentina, but here, in no particular order, I have outlined my top five, unmissable Patagonian experiences.

I can’t really explain why I’ve always wanted to visit Easter Island; I guess I just can’t resist a good mystery, and Easter Island holds plenty of these. The big-headed men staring down at the island residents and passing tourists have seen many things in their lifetimes, and I wanted to learn more about who they were, and how on earth they got there.

One of the great benefits of working for Llama Travel is that I am able to visit some of the most beautiful places in the world, and in my opinion there is no place more magnificent than the Torres del Paine National Park, in the south of Chile.

The park is most famous for the Paine Massif, a towering collection of rocks that rise up to the sky, scraping heights of 2,800m and so creating an incredible sight on the horizon. However, this blog is not about the magnificence of the park itself, if it was it would be a lot longer with a lot more superlatives. It is instead about the Rio Serrano hotel, Llama Travel’s choice of hotel and a personal favourite of mine.

Llama Travel’s Travel Consultant Charlotte recently had the pleasure of taking her first trip to Argentina and Chile. It came as no surprise to her that the glaciers were vast and beautiful, Torres del Paine was magnificent and awe-inspiring and that Buenos Aires was elegant and thriving. Something that did come as a surprise to Charlotte was just how much she loved the Chilean Lake District. So much so that she has decided to make it the subject of her first blog from her Patagonia travels. Read on to see why Charlotte thinks the Chilean Lake District is more than worth a visit.