The Cordillera de la Sal in the Cordillera Domeyko Range of Chile

The Cordillera de la Sal in the Cordillera Domeyko Range of Chile

This subrange of the Andes runs north-south, parallel with the Chilean coast. Pictured here is Cordillera de la Sal or 'Salt Range’ in English, which doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the way the Spanish name does. Going a little further west towards the Pacific coast puts travellers in the Atacama Desert, a region so dry and at such a high elevation that NASA has used it to simulate Mars.