The coast of northern Chile is a place where almost nothing happens, and that is its character. The Camarones river rises in the high Andes and runs west through one of the driest landscapes on Earth, cutting a narrow green valley through the Atacama before it reaches the Pacific at a small mouth south of Arica. In dry years the water gives out before it reaches the sea, and the final stretch is a mixture of reeds, sand and salt pans, a patch of green on a coast of brown and grey. Birds congregate here: gulls, pelicans, terns and, in the right season, waders that come all the way from the northern hemisphere.
The land around is hard, dry desert. The coastal range falls straight to the sea in cliffs and slopes of crumbling rock, with fog, the camanchaca, rolling in from the Pacific on many mornings and condensing into a fine mist that supports the thin plants on the hills. Rain is almost unknown, and the sky is often grey and low in the morning and brilliant by midday. The Humboldt current keeps the sea cold and rich with fish, and fishermen from small coves work the coast in open boats.
The road along this coast is Ruta 5, the Pan-American Highway, which runs inland of the shore across the desert pampa, and the side roads that reach the coast are dirt or poorly kept asphalt. Distances are long, nothing is signed in English, and services are almost non-existent. The ride is a lesson in emptiness: straight roads, enormous skies, and occasional trucks heading for the mines or the border. Winds can be strong in the afternoon, and the light at the end of the day, low and golden on the cliffs, is a good reason to be out.
Treat the area seriously. Arica, the nearest city, is the place for fuel, and the next reliable station may be a long way off, so fill up and carry water and a spare bottle of fuel if you plan to head off the main road. There is no phone signal in many places. Spring and autumn are the mildest seasons, and midsummer can be hot inland. Take food with you, because nothing is waiting at the river mouth, and respect the nesting birds and the fragile vegetation.