El Niño brings rain and blooms to the Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert, considered the driest desert on Earth, has undergone an extraordinary metamorphosis this year. The rocky, brown dunes, which create a harsh, almost lunar landscape for most of the year, are covered with a colorful carpet of wild flowers. This is the result of exceptionally heavy rainfall brought by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Between July and August, Chile recorded record amounts of rain - in some places, up to 190 millimeters of rainfall was recorded, which is - as César Pizarro, head of the biodiversity protection section at CONAF Atacama emphasizes - "never recorded before."

Explosion of life in Chile. Over 200 species of plants in the desert

Thanks to the abundance of water, millions of seeds and bulbs that had remained hidden under the ground for decades sprouted and flowered. The result is a real spectacle of nature, during which over 200 species of plants appeared in an area of ​​approximately 17,000 square kilometers. The colorful carpet stretches from the coast to the horizon, changing the previously harsh landscape of the Atacama.

According to experts, this may be the most impressive flowering since 1997. There are hills and mountain ranges where neither greenery nor flowers have been seen for 30 or 40 years, notes César Pizarro in an interview with AFP.

A tourist hit. The whole world wants to see the Atacama blooming

The phenomenon of a blooming desert has not gone unnoticed by tourists. Both residents of the country and guests from abroad come to northern Chile to see this extraordinary phenomenon with their own eyes.