Photos: The Driest Place On Earth Has Been Transformed Into A Sea of Pink Flowers

A gorgeous pop of pink to get you through the midweek slump. The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the driest places in the world, but after several spells of heavy rain this year, the normally barren landscape has been transformed into a vibrant floral wonderland. For the past couple of weeks, the desert has been covered in a stunning 600-mile sea of hundreds of millions of wild pink flowers. Photo credit: EPA/Mario Ruiz According to National Geographic, the phenomenon, known as desierto florido (desert in bloom) happens once every five to seven years, and corresponds with the warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern Chile. The Atacama region normally gets less than 4 millimeters of rain per year, but unusually strong rains in March of this year saw seven years’ worth of rain fall overnight. To put that into perspective, Ireland gets somewhere between 750mm and 1,400mm of rain every year. Photo credit: EPA/Mario Ruiz Sadly, the rainfall caused major flooding that killed at least seven people in the area. If you’d like to experience this extraordinary sight first-hand, you’ll have to win the lotto move fast. The flowers are expected to disappear this month. Return flights from Dublin to Santiago start at around €1,200. From Santiago, it’s a two hour flight to Calama, the nearest airport to Atacama. Below, we've gathered some of the best photos from around the web of the area as it currently looks. #WishWeWereThere [caption id="attachment_263292" align="alignnone" width="789"] Photo credit: La Mula.Pe. (Originally published here)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_263291" align="alignnone" width="789"] Photo credit: EFE/Mario Ruiz[/caption] Photo credit: Carlos Aguilar, AFP Photo credit: Carlos Aguilar, AFP [caption id="attachment_263295" align="alignnone" width="789"] Photo credit: EFE/Mario Ruiz[/caption] Photo via Twitter/toroco_vallenar