The Yareta Plant: The Remarkable Green Jewel of the desert
Deep within the high-altitude regions of Bolivia and parts of northern Chile, thrives a strange botanical specimen known as the yareta (Azorella compacta). This extraordinary plant is sometimes called “moss lettuce” or “stone lettuce,” and even called a living boulder or green slime by…
Atacama: A Symphony of Extremes
It was early morning, and the sun would soon be beating down relentlessly, its piercing stare never softened even from a passing cloud. But before it gained strength, since this place was high altitude, we were actually quite cold. At night, temperatures dropped to…