Atacama: Flowers Bloom in the World’s Driest Desert

[Judi Lynn]

Atacama: Flowers Bloom in the World’s Driest Desert

September 29 17:16 2015
👤by Jillian Dara

Chile’s National Tourism Service, Sernatur, promotes a trip to see a field of flowers blooming in the middle of the Atacama desert.

SANTIAGO — When you think of deserts, sand dunes and barren land typically come to mind. With the only pop of color being green cacti standing tall among the shades of beige, it makes it hard to imagine that a desert can come to life.

However, in Chile’s Atacama desert, this is a phenomenon that is rare but a reality. Every five to ten years, in early October, the desert area of Copiapó becomes unrecognizable under a carpet of color with 200 types of flowers sprouting from the sands, from the mountains to the ocean.

The Desert in Bloom is possible because of the weather leading up to the early spring; there has to be rainfall but not in excess. Since the Atacama is the driest desert in the world, annual rainfall is limited, however, every five or ten years there is an increase in rain, which coincides with the natural and climatic phenomenon of el Desierto Florido.

This year, there was soft, steady rainfall in June, July and the beginning of September, which awakened the dormant vines in this part of the desert for the first time in five years.

The flowers range from yellow, to purple, to red, but all have one thing in common: they only grow in this region of the desert. Copiapó is the only place in the world where this happens.

More:
http://www.ilovechile.cl/atacama-flowers-bloom-worlds-driest-desert/

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[Warpy]

1. That is absolutely gorgeous

both close up and from a distance.

When desert plants bloom, they go all out. They do here in NM, too, although we're downright soggy compared to the Atacama.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Good candidates for Mars colonization. nt

[Vincardog]

3. Breathtaking pictures

[yardwork]

4. Wow. Thank you.

[Chakaconcarne]

5. Be there in 30 days

Can't wait.

[passiveporcupine]

6. OMG, this is just amazing.

I would love to see this. I do love deserts, but a desert in bloom would be a special treat.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. K & R for the combustion of color!

Thanks Judi Lynn. Your Latin America posts are a high point!

[Judi Lynn]

8. I'm not sure it would be possible to keep tears from one's eyes witnessing this event in person.

I used to get deeply lost in thought walking along beaches in Florida, finding tiny, tiny shells with the most exquisite pastel colors inside, wondering what on earth it's all about. Why the incredibly beautiful colors? Why are they there at all? What does it mean?
In the midst of so much suffering, so many nightmares, unfathomable cruelty, brutality, evil, and the constant specter of death everywhere, what purpose does it have to introduce indescribable, almost other-worldly beauty at all?

Seeing these flowers immediately reminded me of how much I don't know yet, and are unable to understand. I hope it means that no matter how loud, and monstrous the darkness is, how great one's fear can be, there is still reason to hold out hope the answer is bigger and more powerfully better than what I fear.

I know it sounds stupid, but I had to take the chance of being mocked by the cluster of right-wing trolls, as they often do, and write this down, anyway, to respond to such kind comments. Thank you.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Anyone who would mock such a perceptive sensibility as yours is

a boorish barbarian, pure and simple.

The blinkered and narrow arrogance occasionally on display on this 'progressive' board is truly a sobering spectacle to behold.

But, then, I find a radiant jewel like yours:

"...there is still reason to hold out hope the answer is bigger and more powerfully better than what I fear."