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Published: July 28th 2009
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2nd May 2009 Although the buses in Chilie are really comfy they strangely decided to stop at 4am so we could get off the bus to have our bags checked (I say checked they merely just poked our bags). Once herded back on the bus we continued on to San Pedro. We were greeted off the bus by the usual hotel touts and as we had no where to stay and too tired to bother looking we went with the first one that came along. This turned out to be very nice and cheap too. The rest of the day was spent sleeping thanks to the annoying bus and when we had recovered we searched for some tours.
3rd May 2009 Today was a very early start. We were off to see the Tatio Geysers, which only go off early in the morning as the sun rises. The trip started at 5.45am and the minibus shakely wound its way up the mountain road until we finally made it too the geysers. With the layers packed on we ventured outside of the minibus. As it was -10 to -15 outside we both spent a lot of the time wishing
we had worn more clothes and trying not to slip on the very icy ground - this lasted only 2minutes as Alex (or Mr Clumsy) hit the floor. The sight was spectacular as they geysers started to explode, with water gushing up as high as 15m. During the morning we discovered that in 2004 two French men died when they fell into "the killer" geyser, although both of us can't quite understand how stupid you would have to be to let this happen as the big holes in the ground are pretty obvious. As time went on the cold set in and Elaine's circulation decided to stop working, causing a sudden onset of altitude sickness. After a good cup of coca tea, she was right as rain and even managed to eat some of the free chocolate. The minibus then headed back to our hostel where we grabbed some lunch just in time to be picked up for our next adventure to the Valle de Luna. On our way to the Valle we stopped of at a huge sand dune for a spot of sand boarding. It may not exactly be our forte but we certainly looked cool in the
photos. Just as well it only takes a second to take a photo because otherwise there would be a lot of us looking like we are playing in the sand. With our shoes and pockets full of sand we soon wrapped it up with a final glorious run down the dune (we both managed to stay up for more than 2 seconds!!!) we headed on to Valle de Luna. A short climb up some rocks got us to our spectacular viewing point over the valley and here we awaited sunset. When this arrived we saw the mountains surrounding the valley change through a spectrum of beautiful colours. It was, just like the rest of our day, spectacular!
4th May 2009 Yesterday was a tiring day so we had a mini-lie in and then decided that it would be a nice day for a Bike ride. Our plan was to go to an Oasis about 3km away from the village however we were told that this wasn't open today. They suggested an alternative of a salt lagoon where we could also swim which was a little further away. We followed the 16km route which at first was on
perfectly smooth road. However, the last 10km was on a bumpy, sandy track that wound through the desert. Relieved when we finally reached the lagoon we took a dip to rest our sore bums. It was so salty that you could float without having to do any work to stay above water. As time was pressing on we decided to dash back. Unfortunately the sun was beginning to set and we still had the 10km of bumpy unlit track to contend with. Too make Elaine ride faster Alex added a little encouragement by saying that he thought there might be dogs around here and that it would probably be a good idea to pedal faster to avoid them. Strangely this did not impress Elaine. Finally after 2 hours riding we made it back to San Pedro (with only one dog chasing us) to have so much need food, drink and sleep
5th May 2009 On to Santiago 20hours on a bus!!!
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