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Published: January 20th 2009
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In San Pedro its difficult to get bored (at least during first days of stay). All that you do, is marked by 3 things. Heat, lots of driving and early departures.
And of course, as any other tourist, after an arrival to San Pedro, you start contemplating different options and trips in and around. On the top of the list of all agencies is a trip to Valle de la Luna, which includes sidetrip to Valle de la muerte. So, i decided to join... my own way...
As a big fan of cycling, I wanted to check local bicycles and paths around San Pedro. And I got myself a Trek bicycle. Not bad, just heavy as it was made of lead. At 15:00 I hit the road, when my temperature sensor was showing 36C... nice 😊 Vamos...
My first destination was so called Valle de la muerte. Valley of death. Incredibly inhospitable place, with huge dunes, where people go sandboarding and sightseeing. After a few km I catch up with some guys (from Germany, Belgium and US), better lunatics, with same places. Therefore, more the merrier, and we we off together. Path towards Valle de la muerte goes
Start of the ascent...
again... this time to Valle de la Luna up, and the sand on the road is going deeper and deeper. But we still keep on pushing. And life in this valley is really impossible. Hot, sand, and no water. But we still keep on pushing, and people we meet on the path just keep on nodding, with disbelief. When we reach the first "summit" we are thrilled. Great views over the valley, and its really an incredible scenery. But for us, its no time to rest. We have to go on, as this is just a start.
We descend a bit and join a road towards Calama... 15km to go towards the start of Valle da Luna. Almost 15km of torture. Why? Headwind... Incredibly strong. What could have been done in almost half an hour, or just a bit more, takes us one hour and a half... Damn...
But eventually we reach the start of the valley... which, only by "chance" starts with steep ascent... but, we can do it. And then we reach it... its incredibly similar to lunar scenery (ok, i could be biased, as i haven't been on moon yet). After some grueling ups and downs we come to the sunset viewing point.
Together with all other tourists, who managed to get to the same point without any physical activity. And it was still nice...
Sunset itself was... as any other sunset... Not necessarily the most beautiful in the world, but still... Scenery was interesting enough, and the best came after the sunset. Especially, how the vulcanoes changed their colours during the sunset, and turned bright red...
Afterwards one for physical activity. Going back to San Pedro. Darkness already set over us, but fortunately we were saved by the "soon to be" full moon, as it was almost completely bright. We had an artificial lighthouse on the sky, but, i have to admit that it was extremly pleasant ride for another 15km... Again, strong headwind, and it was cold...
When we came back, it was already past 21h. In the agency where i rented my bicycle, the lady was nervously smoking and waiting for me, as i was the last custumer, and she really wanted to close "the store".
She said for the end... "I told you..."
She was right... in was difficult. But the experience was great...
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