San Pedro de Atacama (sandboarding and valle de luna)

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San Pedro de Atacama has to be the smallest but coolest place yet. Probably only 3 blocks small, but had a small community outside of it. I stayed in this community in a hostel 20min walk (with no name ran by Miguel and Bridgette - They called it the House of Musicians). He was a funny looking man on a bicycle with the biggest eyes ive ever seen and the glasses enlarged them even further... I had to stay at the place. It was only CH 5000 ($10), or the cheapest possible in Chile... its so expensive! He had a hammock and a kitchen... perfect. On arrival I became sicker and sicker... nausea, headache, runny nose and falling asleep standing (this is to last 4-6 days...). I unfortunately spent 38 of the 48 hours in SP sleeping in my hostel, I managed to muster up enough energy to get a tour of the Valle de Luna (moon valley) and sandboarding. It was one of the funnest things ive done yet, but stupid to try when your sick (ahaha). The guide was definetly a skibum, dreads and raspy voice and loved pisco sour. He gave us a quick lesson on how to board on sand (sort of like powder for everyone at home). Quite complicated i must say! Its really easy to go slow, so its more of a snake weave... but if you try to board like at home you stop and fill your board with so much sand and weight you sink a little. To get to the top of the dune we had to climb up it (OMG), so needless to say in two hours we mightve gotten up 5 or 6 times. If i went in Ica, Peru they have dune buggies who drive you up the hills (much nicer, go there). Another day for me.
Valley De Luna was about 10 km away, we left before nightfall to catch the sunset while we drank endless pisco sours. The valley changed colours by the minute, reds pinks purples, I took pictures of the same thing probably 20x but it just got more and more beautiful. It mightve been the endless pisco... youll have to judge the photos when theyre up
http://s1094.photobucket.com/albums/i448/tlgallin/
After we were able to explore the moon valley (it really did resemble the moon... i think), we walked endless caves in the dark with only a couple flashlights (and again... many piscos!). The pisco kept me awake at least. After half an hour of walking through caves we ended up at the top of it all to view the stars which are just unreal in the desert. I wish i had actually done a star gazing tour by an astrologist (next time again).
I had also successfully booked a bus to Salta... Supposedly (i found out in salta argentina) this shouldn´t have happened as the border north to south Chile-ARg is completely closed. Turns out it opened for one hour and i just happened to be at teh right place at the right time. Thank god!! Being in chile would´ve caused some major problems to get to Brazil. But that night after sandboardnig we had to get our exit stamp and load our large bags into the bus. In the morning we would have to leave at 530am. I didn´t know sleeping on the bus was an option, so returning to the House of Musicians 20 minutes walk I had to find a way to make sure i was up in the morning (i was still sleeping through anything). Miguel actually offered his phone (which he of course could not figure out how to use), i set the alarm for 5 and hoped for the best... or else my bag would be in another country.
Successfully getting up, i walked out my door half asleep dreading the long walk only to find a bus attempting to turn around up ahead "Geminis - Primero Classe".... Thats my BUS!! Catching up to it the bus driver leaned his head out "Hola Seniorita!!! Vamos!". So exciting, first person on the bus... I knew it had to be a good day from here on. We picked up the others at the meeting spot, and flew threw customs. some horror stories include spending the night at the border (as in a whole 24 hours) and getting turned around. Anyways, thank you Geminis, you rock.
Arriving in Salta, slightly dizzy, I found a friend from The Point in Cusco (James from Scotland) who walked with me to the cheapest hostel we could find. On the way we ran into two others from our bus, Z and .... I cant remember, Z being quite good with arguing got the girl to give us the hostel for 30 pesos vs 50. Niiiceee. Budget-esc.

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