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The streets of San Pedro de Atacama
now, this was more like the South America we were expecting! Adios Argentina......Hola Chile (again!)
Leaving Argentina behind for the last time, we crossed over the Andes again, this time reaching heights that must´ve been close to 4,000m above sea level.
Having gone through border control on the Argentine side we drove for absolutely miles in a South American no man´s land, before finally reaching the Chilean border guard and 2 minutes later we were in San Pedro de Atacama´s bus terminal¨ (an open bit of land at the edge of town!).
Having succesfully dodged the hostal touts at the terminal we headed off to find a hostal and after a tour of the town finally managed to get a room in a rather nice place with a small, tranquil river running along the edge of the complex.
With the altitude now at 2,438m above sea level it had started to take its toll on Suzz who had a headache and was starting to feel a bit sick so we decided to extend our stay to a couple of nights in order to acclimatise.
Rucksacks dropped off, we headed straight into the town centre and the tourist office for advice on the best way to get
to the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia. We were told where to find the different tour operators in town and shown a book they keep of people´s comments on the various tours available. Looking through it was easy to see which company we should book with (Estrella del Sur - for those who´re interested) and who to avoid like the plague (Colque Tours). With this info in mind we headed straight to the Estrella tour office and booked ourselves on a 3 day tour from San Pedro to Uyuni, leaving on 5th May.
In the evening we ate at a restaurant named the Adobe, which although had a lively atmosphere with an open fire and live band, did not impress us by serving us half-cooked chicken!
The following day we decided, as a time filler, to take an evening trip out to Valle de la Luna to see the sunset which turned out to be quite a cool evening.
The tour started with a visit to a place which was under water 45 million years ago, in the form of a huge lake. Subsequent tectonic movement caused the lake to evaporate and eventually disappear. The place is
now aptly named Moon valley and what remains is a barren landscape with scattered rock formations in different sizes and colours. Leaving Moon Valley behind we took a short trek along a narrow canyon and then on to the sand dunes where we saw sand-boarders having a great time - definitely having a go if we get a chance some place else!
On route to the sand dunes we came across a mini obelisk, no more than 4ft in height. The guide explained that this is an archeological find and was used by the natives to indicate a particular route or to provide directions. Apparently, you must throw a stone at the "obelisk" for good luck on your journey.
Next stop we tried caving through a small complex of caves. With torches at front and rear we negotiated the tricky paths, some crevices narrower than 2 ft wide and no more than 3ft high. Inside the caves the the guide explained that because of a certain mineral content in the cave walls the rock is translucent - we tried to nick a bit but trying to hack off a bit of rock with your bare hands is quite
difficult!
Just outside the caves we stopped to listen to a mountain of rock "clicking" away. This is caused by the expansion of the salt within the rock and when listened to in total silence sounds quite eery!
From here we jumped back on the bus for the highlight of the tour - the sunset in Death Valley. A little while later we arrived and the guide explained that there are three vantage points and as always the best is the most difficult to get to - a trek along the peak of a sand dune which in places is no wider than 3 feet with steep drops each side, although a soft landing is guaranteed this would come at the expense of travelling some 200 metres in a few seconds. Anyway, we made it across in one piece and sat awaiting the sunset. As the sun descended it bathed the mountain range, including a volcano behind us with a warm orange colour making the whole range glow.
At 18.10 the inevitable sunset came and what a spectacle - the sun illuminated the sky and clouds in a vivid orangey-red and as the back drop to the
beautiful mountains and sand dunes was absolutely stunning.
With the sun now gone a chilly wind picked up which signalled time to go, so we made our way back to the bus and a while later were back in San Pedro.
With our 3 day trip to Uyuni in the morning we decided to pop in the "supermarket" to grap some more snacks - a simple task you may say, but whilst paying for our stuff Av decided to buy some chocolate and in the process of deciding which one to buy knocked down a whole shelf of Mother´s day chocolate box sets, scattering them everywhere . Luckily, the shop assistant only asked us to buy him some glue to fix a wooden bowl which was broken during the incident. We obviously agreed and left the scene pronto!
For our last evening we went to another typical restaurant and had a slightly better meal than the night before (although Suzz´s steak was still a bit too close to the rare side) followed by a few Caiprinhias (first sampled in Rio, Brazil), for acclimatisation purposes only, of course!!
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