Flying from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

My Sky Airlines plane at Santiago's International Airport

Taking off from Santiago was the only time in five days that I had this good a view of the snow-capped mountains surrounding the Chilean capital

My first flight landed halfway between Santiago and Calama, at the Chamonate Airport which services the city of Copiapo

The airport terminal's roof is shaped like waves, or perhaps they're meant to mimic sand dunes, as we were clearly in the desert by this point. A yellow sign toward the right spells “Atacama.”

Passing a snow-capped volcano as we near Calama in northern Chile

As our plane descended, along with the sun, the ground glowed a brilliant orange-red. It felt as though we were about to land on Mars.

The otherworldly Atacama desert landscape

As we approached the runway at Calama's El Loa Airport, the wings and engines transformed in a way I'd never seen before

Passengers walk off the Sky Airlines plane on the tarmac at El Loa Airport at sunset

My first sunset over the Atacama Desert, as seen from the tarmac at El Loa Airport in Calama