You could spend years photographing there.... In fact that's what I plan on doing. Setting up a business to take people out for astrophotography. There are heaps of 3-4 hour astronomy tours, but few that give you time to take out your camera and capture scenes like this.

Gets a bit complex as many of the most interesting spots are closed at night (Valle de la luna etc), so I'm negotiating with indigenous leaders to see what can be done.

Plane from Auckland to Santiago to Calama, then rented a car. Underestimated the distances, we did a lot of driving just scouting for photo spots.

I swam

There are still plenty of visible stars, just not the galactic core. You can still get wonderful night photos at this time.

Two things - first the sky was tracked with a benro Polaris, that's why I don't have star trails.

Second - this is one of the darkest places on earth. No light pollution for hundreds of miles. I'm also at an altitude of around 4000 meters so there's little atmosphere to shoot through, and the atmosphere is bone dry. This is why some of the world's largest observatories are in this region.

About 2 hours north of San Pedro de Atacama is Machuca Territory.
The tribe that live here are the only that haven't sold their water rights to the giant mining companies. The result is a literal oasis full of flamingos, cacti, rivers, salt plains, geysers, and astonishing night views like this....

photo is made of 2 frames

60 seconds tracked for the stars (ISO 2000, f/3, 60 seconds)
60 seconds untracked for the land (ISO 5000, f/5.6, 60 seconds)

Lumix S5
Lumix 24-70 pro
Benro Polaris