In the Atacama Desert are happening strange, exceptional things. First the Laskar volcano began to puff, threatening to resume its eruptive activity. Then "El Niño", with its rains, makes the desert bloom in a rainbow of colors, filling with fragrance the air around San Pedro. Could La Venta not be there? For months, in fact, the La Venta Association is organizing, together with the Cave Commission Eugenio Boegan of Trieste, an expedition in the Cordillera de la Sal. Are more than fifteen years that our friends from Trieste explore the caves in the salt in this remote piece of desert, and this year the forces and potential documentative La Venta joined speleologists from Trieste to put on photographs and films these wonders in salt.

While Triestines will continue their "salted" explorations in the largest caves in Chile, the La Venta team will follow their every step to better document these unique environments. In addition, the large group of scientists and explorers will conduct a series of surveys with laser scanner, as well as geological samplings, to try to understand better the mechanisms of formation and evolution of these caves in the salt, and especially their paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental meaning. Studies, this ones initiates, always with the help of the friends of Trieste, by researchers at of the University of Bologna. The discovery of other karst systems in the salt, even greater than those studied eight years ago, will expand the knowledge of these caves with fast evolution. Jo De Waele
The expedition is sponsored by the Italian Speleological Society, and has the support of the Gruppo Servizi Topografici (GST snc) of Reggio Emilia (laser scanner), and of Intermatica (Satellite telephony), Ferrino (Clothing and outdoor equipment), Dolomite (mountain shoes), Amphibious (Dry bags), Scurion (lighting LEDs), Tiberino (freeze-dried foods ready to cook). Participate for La Venta: Jo De Waele, Riccardo De Luca, Umberto Del Vecchio, Marco Mecchia, Fulvio Iorio, Alfredo Brunetti, Laura Sanna, Andrea Cabras, Roberto Ferrara, Norma Damiano, Marco Vattano.