Stillness has a way of finding you when you least expect it. For me, it arrived somewhere between exhaustion and awe — after nearly 24 hours of travel and months of movement — in the vast quiet of Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Over six days with Trekking Aymara, I met people whose lives are woven into this wild landscape: a winemaker in Codpa, a 79-year-old shepherd in Lauca, and guides who carry centuries of Aymara tradition in every step. I learned about El Temple — the strength within to do hard things — and was reminded that travel’s greatest gift is humility.
The Atacama taught me that stillness isn’t the absence of movement — it’s the presence of awareness.











