Here's a softer side to the disruptive weather phenomenon known as
El Nino: an enormous blanket of colorful flowers has carpeted
Chile's Atacama desert, the most arid in the world.
The cyclical warming of the central Pacific may be causing droughts
and floods in various parts of the world, but in the vast desert of
northern Chile it has also caused a vibrant explosion of thousands
of species of flowers with an intensity not seen in decades.
Yellows, reds, purples and whites have covered the normally stark
landscapes of the Atacama, where temperatures top 40 degrees
Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this time of year.
From violet-and-white Chilean bell flowers, or "countryside sighs"
(Nolana paradoxa), to red "lion claws" (Bomarea ovallei), to yellow
Rhodophiala rhodolirion, they have filled the normally pale desert
valleys with rivers of color.
"This year has been particularly special, because the amount of
rainfall has made this perhaps the most spectacular of the past 40
or 50 years," said Raul Cespedes, a desert specialist at the
University of Atacama.
- Sleeping beauty -
El Nino, which wreaks havoc on world weather patterns every two to
seven years, has hit particularly hard this year, causing unusually
heavy rainfall in the world's driest desert.
That has caused dormant flower bulbs and rhizomes -- underground
stems that grow horizontally -- to germinate.
"When you think of the desert, you think of total dryness, but
there's a latent ecosystem here just waiting for certain conditions
to arise," said Cespedes.
The desert flowers are perhaps nature's consolation for what has
been a devastating year for Atacama.
They first bloomed in March, after heavy rains that caught the
region by surprise and caused massive floods that killed more than
30 people.
They are now blooming for the second time this year, at the outset
of the southern hemisphere summer.
- Tourist drawcard -
"This is a very unusual phenomenon. Because of the floods in March
there was an exceptional winter bloom, which had never before been
recorded... and then there was another bloom in spring," said
Daniel Diaz, director of the National Tourism Service for Atacama
region.
"Two flowerings a year is very unusual in the most arid desert in
the world, and that's something we've been able to enjoy this
spring, along with people from all over the world. There's a lot of
interest in seeing it," he told AFP.
The region has seen a 40 percent increase in tourists since the
flowers began blooming.
"It is so unusual, yet so real," said British tourist Edward
Zannahand, who made a special stop in Atacama on what he described
as a road trip around the world.
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