Why is the atacama desert the driest in the world
The Driest Desert In The World | Atacama Desert
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so we made it to this pretty cool
attraction in the middle of the desert
it's the hand of the desert of the Monod
del desierto I'm telling you this now
because it is so windy outside that you
are not going to be able to hear a thing
once I step outside of this van let's go
check it out v10 see you skills
it's like polished right here from
people trying to climb it
I had my climbing shoes out I could
totally do it convenient excuse
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we have traveled through northern chile
we're actually in a town called San
Pedro de Atacama this is an absolutely
magical place it's a tiny little town in
the middle of the desert it's actually
pretty high in elevation but it's way
more touristy than we thought it was
going to be even though the city isn't
like super developed it's Utah
it's basically Utah we are gonna go into
town and supposedly if you guys remember
from our series through Mexico pani o
was an amazing French bakery in san
miguel de allende they're supposed to be
an amazing French bakery here good
morning guys we just woke up super
excited for some French pastries like
amazing iconic incredible destination in
the middle of Chile we're gonna get some
French pastries this morning
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George is having a dog so it doesn't
look like they have that actual pastries
that we've been craving since Mexico but
it is an authentic looking French bakery
so when in Rome or Chile in a French
bakery we're gonna get some treats
we were young here we were free and
running
never bother back what could be coming
it's pretty crazy all through Central
and South America we always end up
finding the French bakeries and they're
always so good I've been to France one
time however we did not visit a bakery
you leave it or not because we only
cross the border for maybe like an hour
or two and then we came back I think in
our future is a trip to France looks
more some real French bakeries we're
getting so much weight I would have
liked a whole pastry set up for the day
with coffee and pastries at four or five
different locations that sounds like an
excellent day to me maybe if we go back
to mountain biking yeah we're gonna
finish breakfast here and then we were
gonna head out and start exploring the
Atacama Desert
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breakfast was delicious we headed back
to the van grabbed our motorcycle and
took off to go explore this beautiful
desert we had just left town and we're
driving through some of these crazy dirt
roads to go see some of the amazing
ruins around here and all of a sudden
the backpack with all of our camera
equipment in the basket on the back of
the motorcycle fell off so it popped off
the back of the motorcycle bounced a few
times on the dirt road definitely
freaked us out so we pull over
immediately
grab the backpack make sure everything's
okay of course we don't have any zip
ties zip ties are what was holding the
basket to the motorcycle so Trent has
run back over to the van he's back in
town gonna grab some more zip ties
hopefully we're able to easily secure it
back to the motorcycle and we will be on
our way again shortly when I initially
installed the crate I put on these zip
ties they're not super beefy
but I put like seven or eight of them I
tightened them all down as much as I
could now I got this big beefy guy just
look at the size difference I'm gonna
put some more of these small ones around
the perimeter for some extra
stabilization feels super solid now
I laugh in the face of adversity
hahahaha let's go
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we made it to the turbine ek Lagoon in
the salar de atacama an incredible
desert super high up in the Andean
mountains it's like this crazy plateau
at really high elevation we're so close
to the Sun I mean I'm not usually a Sun
burner and I'm burnt I'm getting
flash-fried I can tell but we're up here
and what's crazy about this place is
that it's basically the remnants of what
the earth used to be before it was
inhabited by like animals and humans
thirty-eight million years ago it's
pretty crazy you can actually look it up
the Atacama Desert in Chile is actually
the driest desert in the world
ironically enough it rained a little bit
last night so that was kind of cool but
it's super crazy we rode the Moto all
the way out here we're literally in the
middle of nowhere there's like not even
sound it's literally just absolutely
quiet these extremophiles organisms
thrived in these harsh conditions and
produced oxygen as a sub product of
their metabolic activity which created
the conditions for other living
organisms to live these extreme
environmental conditions are still
present in a few remote parts of the
world like the Andean Highlands and
allows us to gather crucial information
on the origin of life making this desert
a unique place for the study of
astrobiology insane it's crazy to think
that there's probably some place like
this on another planet where there's
these little micro organisms that are
producing oxygen and minerals and maybe
in 38 million years there'll be some
people walking around
you and I maybe Tuesday morning
Sun high in the sky not failed feels
really good to be able to just sit in
the shade outside the van it looked like
it was gonna rain for a minute and it
was super hot so we were like very
welcoming to the rain
however we were in the middle of the
desert so we hightailed it back to the
van so that we could get some shade get
some shelter in case it rained try to
regroup I think we're gonna eat some
lunch and then hopefully we're gonna
head to buy a de la Luna which is the
Valley of the Moon you guys haven't had
caprese or bruschetta the one that's in
our cookbook it is absolutely amazing I
never used to like Tomatoes now I'm just
like feed me tomatoes every single day
which is good because I know tomatoes
are healthy for you so I'm coming up I'm
coming up in the world I'm starting to
eat Tomatoes trying to be a little more
healthy I haven't really been eating
butter cookies lately I had a pastry
this morning but it wasn't a sweet
pastry it was like a savory pastry
trying to be healthy guys
tomatoes Tomatoes her really good he's
come a long way just reading some of
your guys's comments in case you don't
know I literally go through and read
every single comment I respond to as
many as possible somebody also said take
it from an old guy bengay works at our
age the waiter said our age makes me
feel like I'm so I think we mentioned
earlier we're here in the driest desert
in the world so it's not only raining
right now but off in the distance this
direction the sky is basically black
it's very very dark gray there's a lot
of precipitation coming we keep hearing
really loud thunder which means there's
lightning out there somewhere the valley
of the moon is on our on our list we are
trying to get there this afternoon
hopefully this little storm just blows
by we were getting some work done and
hanging out in the van and I was using
the fly swatter to get some flies and I
accidentally seriously electrocuted
myself maybe like 20 minutes ago and
that was nothing as I'm sure you guys
know compared to what lightning would
feel like so definitely trying to avoid
that if at all possible so I guess we'll
just wait out this storm and see what
happens we didn't come all this way do
not see the valley of the moon
we're going even though it looks like
it's gonna rain we're gonna try our best
alright guys so there is a national park
or a little area that you have to pay to
get into called va de la Luna which is
the Valley of the Moon and this is
basically it here behind us but this is
like the bird's eye view it's absolutely
breathtaking we can feel raindrops and
the clouds are definitely coming in so I
know it's about to rain but I'm so glad
we made it here before the storm it's
gorgeous
and we're trying really hard to get this
footage for you we don't even know if
you can hear us because of how windy it
is I was about to launch the drone the
winds picked up it started dumping rain
probably don't even look wet but as soon
as we got on the bike it was like super
gnarly we couldn't even get the GoPro
out to film it so we came back to camp
and a lot of the motorcycle I think that
there's a big storm rolling in so we're
getting ready to button down the hatches
got the moon shade taken down got the
bike loaded up it is still looking
rather precarious but the driest place
on the planet or the driest desert and
the planet
it sure has rained a lot over here which
is just our luck pretty much all through
Central America it was rainy season
everywhere we went as soon as we hit
South America it was like beginning to
be rainy season my life has just been
rainy season for like a year plus in the
world so the girl Cassie that was
traveling solo in the Volkswagen bus she
was actually here last night but she
left this morning she's headed to
Argentina but our friends Elliot and
Seoul in the other Volkswagen bus are
actually over here chillin in the same
camp spot so today has been a lot of
time in the Sun pretty stressful ending
I think we're gonna grab a beer and hang
out Elliot and Sol for a little bit
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really good food well it was nice to
kick back have a beer with friends on
the road now we are actually gonna head
into town and get some food because one
is not a good grocery store in town to
all we have is the broccoli and
mushrooms we love we love but I'm not
trying to make a whole meal out of
broccoli and mushrooms okay I found a
place it's a six minute walk
yeah that's pizza you'd be okay with
that
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what do I believe what makes me feel it
it looks like there's no tables I'm
super busy to go two hours a day five
months early I loved you too
[Applause]
me
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what
it's been such an unexpectedly fun day
today in the San Pedro de Atacama Desert
we avoided a huge thunderstorm we got an
amazing sunset we got to explore some
incredible extremophiles microorganisms
we ate a little bit of rain storm but we
avoided a good portion of it and if I
have to be entirely honest I've had
better pizza but when in Chile you can't
complain but the women jala we have
Italian accidents apparently in his
chili that's supposed to be Italian
anyway we want to thank you guys so much
for coming along to the driest desert in
the world hopefully you guys enjoyed
this video if you did show us by giving
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the channel if you haven't already
we'll catch you guys in a few days
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the future for me
[Applause]
I'm still in this fight I prayed for the
night to go easy on me
