Back to Chile

I left Argentina on Tues 12th June, and took a 9 hour bus ride up and over the Andes into Chile; an awesome route into the Atacama desert, passing through desolate plains and mountains, salt flats and crossing the border at 5000m.

Collecting salt

We arrived into San Pedro de Atacama at around 5pm. Going for a stroll after settling in the hostel I got a bit of a shock when engulfed by multitudes of tourists and tour companies. I wasn't prepared for how touristy it is but it's only a town of 2000 people but with probably the same number of tourists to match.

Fortunately though there are a few things you can do on your own and after spending the morning sorting out a few chores i hired a bike and pedalled off into the valle de muerta.... Death Valley. The main feature of death valley is a massive sand dune, popular for sand boarding. I had considered doing it but was put off after watching people make the long slog up the dune for a 1 minute ride back down!

Valle de Muerta

After death valley I cycled over to the much bigger Valle de Luna with its impressive ridges and rock formations.
I watched the sun set from the top of a small hill and while the sunset didnt offer much the red glow across the volcanic peaks on the horizon was lovely to see. The cycle back in the dark as the stars came out was great too so i had a quick turn around back in San Pedro and left town again on a star gazing tour. 

Valle de Luna

 

 

Our guide didn't offer too much insight beyond the names of what we were looking at but it was worth it just to be out in the dark to admire the night sky in all its glory. Great star gazing here due to the dry air and clear skies. We had a 12" Dobsonian telescope and looked at various galaxies, clusters (and other starry things!) and then the planets Jupiter and Saturn. All of which were mightily impressive.

Keen to get flying I spurned the rest of the many tours on offer and got on a bus go Iquique the next day.