October 10, 2025, 10:30 am | Read time: 3 minutes
It is the driest desert in the world—making the natural spectacle currently unfolding in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile all the more remarkable: Lush, purple blooms are suddenly sprouting from the ground. It’s also astonishing that this is happening for the second year in a row. TRAVELBOOK provides an overview.
The Atacama Desert, located between the Chilean cities of Tacna and Copiapó, is considered the driest desert outside the polar regions. The Andes typically prevent rain clouds from reaching the isolated desert. However, on very rare occasions, it does rain. The result can be magnificent fields of flowers, which are usually admired every five to seven years—typically in September or October, when spring arrives in the Southern Hemisphere. Last year, it happened again for the first time, but unusually early in July. The early bloom was triggered by the weather phenomenon El Niño, which brought heavy rainfall.
How Does the Atacama Desert Bloom?
Now, just a year later, the Atacama Desert is blooming again. According to “Geo,” various weather and climate conditions must converge for this to happen. First, there must be unusually heavy rainfall during the Chilean winter, like on August 1, when about 40 millimeters of rain fell in the Huasco Province, which is a deluge for the Atacama. Second, high humidity is needed, ideally with fog, to further moisten the ground and trigger the germination of dormant seeds and bulbs. Third, mild daytime temperatures are important to promote plant growth.
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Visual Spectacle
The phenomenon “Desierto florido” (Spanish for “flowering desert”) is a visual spectacle, not just for travelers on site. When the approximately 1,600-kilometer-long desert strip shines in vibrant violet, it can even be seen from space.
Normally, only cacti bloom in the Atacama Desert. This scarcity of plants has its advantages, as the Austrian daily newspaper “Der Standard” notes. Thanks to this, the U.S. space agency NASA can use Atacama’s “moon landscape” as a training ground.
An Impressive Travel Region Even Without Blooms
Even in the many years when it lacks a colorful sea of flowers, the Atacama Desert is worth a visit. Known as “Valle de la Luna” (“Valley of the Moon”), the region offers plenty for the eyes. It is dotted with hot springs and enormous volcanoes, some reaching up to 6,000 meters into the sky. In this often inhospitable environment, frequently compared to Mars, majestic birds like flamingos inhabit the famous salt flats of Atacama. Visitors to the Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos can observe them from various viewpoints.
A few years ago, researchers found bones of a dinosaur species in the Atacama Desert. They interpreted this as evidence that the “driest desert in the world” once had abundant vegetation millions of years ago. The herbivorous inhabitants of that time apparently found sufficient food.