By By Patricia Bianca S. Taculao
Featured photo from High Perspectives
The Atacama Desert found in Chile is one of the driest deserts on the Earth. It once went for more than 170 months without a single drop of rain.
Unknown to many, there are dormant bulbs of the rare malva flowers resting beneath the desert’s surface. Once per decade, the Atacama gets enough rain to bring them to life. And that’s what happened after a recent rainfall in the area.
The rain, which turned the desert into a sea of pink, was a result from a strong El Niño in the Pacific.
More than 200 species of flora are currently in bloom in Atacama but the malva is said to be the most stunning.
Daniel Diaz, the director of National Tourism Services in Atacama, told High Perspectives that the intensity of the blooms has no criteria, but the occurrence of the flowers blooming twice in the same year has never been recorded in their country’s history.
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