Chile’s Atacama Desert made for a dramatic backdrop for this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, which hits newsstands this week.
Four of the models — Julie Henderson, Daniella Sarahyba, Irina Shayk, and Zoe Duchesne — traveled to the Atacama Desert and posed at the Alta Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa. Photos were made on guest room terraces as well as natural settings like the world’s highest active geysers at Tatio.
On hand to cover the photo shoot was CNBC’s Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell, who flew to Chile to interview SI editors and models on location at the Alto Atacama Desert Lodge for his special “A Model Business: Inside the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.” The CNBC Original Series provides a behind-the-scenes look at the scouting, set-up, and inner-workings of the Atacama photo shoot and Sports Illustrated’s much-anticipated franchise that is the most profitable magazine single issue in the world. The show premieres Tuesday, February 9 at 9pm ET.
The 32-room Alto Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa, located 1.8 miles from the village of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile’s northern desert and two hours by plane from Santiago, provides guests with more than just an opportunity to sleep where the models slept. The property offers 20 excursions throughout the Atacama Desert, including mountain biking, archeology-oriented tours, visits with local Atacama people and trekking around volcanoes. The hotel also has a spa, swimming pools, and outdoor lounge areas lit at night by crackling fires.
For a look at behind-the-scenes photos of the models at the Alto Atacama, visit the SI Vault.