Surrounded on one side by the snow covered crests of the Andes and on the other by coastal ranges of the Pacific, the desert is a group of salt pans where almost no vegetation survives. Yet the avian and vertebrate species here are highly active and hardy creatures. Animals like vicunas, llamas, huemel deer, alpacas, a tiny mouse, viscacha, which is the largest member of the chinchilla family and a fox make up the mammalian section while side winder snakes and a few lizards are the representatives of reptilian section.
The birds are also pretty numerous Puna miner, tamarugo conebill, giant hummingbird, Andean swallow, lesser rhea, black-throated flower-piercer, and the three species of flamingo. However the rare endemic birds like the drab seed eater, white-throated earth creeper, slender-billed finch, thick-billed miner, Chilean wood star, and the coastal miner can still be seen here. This coastal desert also boasts a significant sea bird population, boobies, oyster catchers, cormorants, gulls, pelicans, penguins and terns all find a place.
A place of rare and fierce beauty this mining area has also given rise to the various legends of Yastay, Alicanto and the Atacama Giant. ALMA, the new radio astronomy observatory, is being jointly built astronomers from Europe, Japan, and North America, while another radio astronomy observatory, ACT, is being built on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert. The La Silla Observatory and The Paranal Observatory are the two other feathers in the cap of Atacama desert.
About 1300km from Santiago, Atacama Desert is in the north of Chile, which can be accessed by organized tours or hiring mountain bike at San Pedro which is reachable by bus from Antofagasta. From Santiago, Antofagasta can be reached by flight or by bus.
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