Desert Speaks

Host David Yetman, historian Bill Beezley and Archeologist María Jos Figuerero travel around the Puna, the high-elevation plains of Chile’s Atacama Desert, a harsh environment that is home to traditional villages as well as unusual plants and animals. The first stop is in a small village recently depopulated by crop failures that have forced many natives to depart for the coast. Not far away the travelers pause among the rocks to catch a glimpse of vizcachas, rodents that resemble long-tailed rabbits. Next, visit a zone of active volcanoes four miles high where steaming hot lakes meet sub-freezing air. While there, the travelers spy on flamingos foraging among these steaming lakes and pools as they feed on tiny aquatic animals. The trip concludes at the rainless ocean port of Iquique, which features one of the world’s finest parapent (hang gliding) sites and a popular grassless golf course fashioned entirely from dirt.