Atacama Desert - Chile

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Atacama Desert - Chile

 South America » Chile » San Pedro de Atacama By theKirton
March 24th 2007
Matt Kirton San Pedro

The border difference here was more marked than when crossing from Peru into Bolivia. The biggest difference upon entering Chile was the huge amount of American trucks and cars driving round, in decent states of repair! San Pedro de Atacamar itself has a really laid back, resorty kind of feel to it. We stayed in a chalet amongst a camp site, and the weather was true sweltering holiday weather! The town caters mainly to the tourists and only consists of one shortish main street. Still there were a couple of decent bars, one of which we managed two nights running to run up astronomical tabs (the alcohol, and even prices in general .. are almost comparable to UK prices).

Valley of the Moon

We took a bus out into the edge of the Atacama and made numerous stops at crazy rock formations and caves. We then headed to the valley itself .. two relatively short spines of rock running parallel and joined at one end by a huge sand dune. We walked precariously down the left most spine as far as we could and then sat and waited for sunset.

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Photos

Drinking!
The ever popular Mojito, in San Pedro de Atacamar

More rocks
These don't look natural to me! ;-)

Rock formation
Atacama desert

Sand dunes
At the valley of the moon

Waiting for sunset
At the valley of the moon