Wild life in Atacama- by Amelie

The things we saw in Atacama desert were amazing! There were so many animals that I had never seen and some were quite unexpected. The first animals we saw were flamingos, and they were so different. We stopped at a place where we learned all about them and then went for a walk. The flamingos had the most skinny legs in the world, they were the width of a branch and their necks were so long they didn’t even have to bend over to eat. Most of the birds were pink but the baby ones were grey. When they ate, it looked like they were dancing because they would keep their necks in the same spot, but their legs would walk in circles. The next animals we saw on the walk were lizards, I do not think we would have seen as many if we hadn’t played a game. The game was to see who could find the most lizards, I found ten, Anna found twelve, my dad and Elise found thirteen and my mom found eight. All together we found quite a few. Another animal we saw in Atacama was a fox, and this animal was the most unexpected. Because there are a lot of wild dogs around, we didn’t really take notice of it because we thought it was a dog. The driver in front of us had stopped to take a photo and that was when we noticed there was a fox right beside the car! It was adorable! On our way to the next stop there were more flamingos, so my dad got out of the car to take a photo and we stayed in the car. I was looking out the window when a huge line of llama-like animals called guanacos walked by. There were about 30 of them! We also saw a herd of vicuñas (an animal that looks like a deer and a llama mixed together) on the side of the road and a lot of different birds that I had never seen before. On our trip to Atacama, I think we did a good job trying to find enough animals to see and I REALLY enjoyed it!!