The Atacama Desert in northern Chile holds the record for being the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Some parts of it go decades without a single drop of rain. It looks, for most of the year, like a place where nothing could survive. And then, every few years, something extraordinary happens. The rains come, and within weeks, the cracked, dusty ground transforms into a carpet of colour stretching for kilometres in every direction. Yellows, purples, pinks, and whites cover the hills and valleys where nothing grew before. Locals call it the desierto florido, the flowering desert, and scientists call it one of the most dramatic ecological events on the planet.
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