Unearthly Delights

It’s 6.45am, 4,200 metres up in the Andean highlands, and I’m numb with cold despite being swathed in a llama-wool blanket. Daybreak, however, is the best time to visit the El Tatio geyser field – the columns of steam die down as the sun goes up. ‘It’s minus eight degrees,’ says my guide, Sergio, as I gaze longingly at the boiling, bubbling water. I feel like Frodo in The Lord of the Rings.

You don’t go to Chile for its cities. You go for the primeval landscapes: the peaks and glaciers, the lakes and waterfalls – and the geysers and salt flats of the desert. The Atacama is the world’s driest desert, thanks to the icy Humboldt Current to the west, which generates very little precipitation, and the mighty Andes Mountains, which keep most of the rain in the east. Everything else is extreme here, too: the light is more intense; the stars are brighter. And the temperature swings are dramatic – by 8am, the sun streaming through the geysers thaws my fingers.

The presence of so much raw energy is hugely invigorating, but the indifference of the landscape to human endeavour can throw you off balance. A hike through the Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountains) is a visual lesson in geological evolution; as you walk along a ravine and through a canyon, it is clear to see how the mountain range was pushed up by tectonic collision, then modified by volcanic eruptions, water and wind. Some of the volcanoes are still active.

Riding horses through the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), it is hard to believe there is life here at all. But water from the Andes filters down, creating salt flats, which in turn support vegetation and birds. The Salar de Tara (Tara Salt Flat), 4,560 metres above sea level, is spellbinding. Surrounded by the Andes and by surreal rock formations known as Las Catedrales, the landscape is a sea of burnt-orange grass, rock interspersed with obsidian and jasper, and grassy swamp. Llamas graze in the distance, flamingos filter plankton from the water, and a short drive away, vicu?as – a wild relative of the llama – dart, gazelle-like, across the plains.
The biggest salt flat in the area is the Salar de Atacama, outside the oasis town of San Pedro. Hunter-gatherers first settled here 3,000 years ago, and eventually switched from herding and farming to mining. And over the past decade, San Pedro has become Chile’s number-two tourist destination.

There are some 80 hotels here now, but Awasi is unique in offering rustic sophistication on an intimate scale. A few minutes’walk from the central square, it was conceived as a second home by designer Paula Dominguez and her architect husband, Francisco Rencoret. There are eight elegant, spacious rooms, five of which are modelled on the circular adobe houses of nearby Tulor, an ancient settlement half buried in sand. The public areas are made of adobe, too, with grass roofs supported by the twisting branches of local algarrobo and cha?ar trees. An array of cushions in pink, sages, oranges and blues, and baskets of cut wood set around the fire pit and pool, complete the scene. The service is pleasantly attentive: the staff hand you alpaca blankets in the evening, the food is combined with Chilean premium and reserve wines, and each room is allocated its own four-by-four and guide.

It’s a winning formula, and one that the investors plan to replicate in Patagonia and on Easter Island, both of which would combine brilliantly with a visit to the Atacama. But there is another option: the Chilean winelands.
The wines of Chile’s Colchagua Valley owe their success to conditions similar, if less extreme, to those of the desert: poor soil – meaning the vines’ roots have to go deep – a dry climate, and extremes of hot and cold that create a balance of sweetness and acidity in the grapes. One of the most prestigious wineries in Clos Apalta, whose 2005 vintage was voted Wine of the Year 2008 by US wine bible Wine Spectator.

Set in 185 hectares of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmère grapes, the winery is owned by Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle – great-granddaughter of the founder of Grand Marnier. The spectacular design is by Roberto Benavente: dynamited 28 metres down into the granite, it uses natural gravity flow to transfer the wine from the fermentation tanks to the barrels, and its pièce de résistance is a tasting table with a glass top that lifts up to reveal a cellar. It’s all very James Bond, and yet within this high-tech environment, the winemaking process is strictly biodynamic.

If anything, visitors at the winery’s Lapostelle Residence feel even more like house guests than at Awasi. There are just four spacious casitas, the menu is sophisticated but healthy, and the wines are superb, incorporating grape varieties grown on Lapostelle’s other vineyards. Visits to other vineyards are eminently possible, but many guests prefer to stay put, riding through the rows of vines at dusk, or drinking in the peace and quiet.

Ways & means:
Lisa Johnson travelled as a guest of Tim Best Travel (020-7591 0300; www.timbesttravel.com). A 10-day trip to Chile costs from £3,665 per person (based on two sharing), including four nights at Awasi, full board, with excursions; four nights at Clos Apalta, half board; flights and transfers. All trips are bespoke.