The Atacama Desert

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After another day at La Serena we met up with the chilleans for a second, less rawcus night before catching a fairly early night.

We set off the next morning to Vicuna, a quaint little town in the Valle del Elqui. We spent a day there relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere before heading off on a trip to an observatory, for which the town is famous due to very clear skies and low light polution.

The next morning we caught a bus to Pisco Elqui, where we went on a horse trek of the valley. It was the first time on a horse for a long time for all of us, but we soon got to grips with the basics and were even trotting and cantering up the mountains at some points. The views from the valley were spectacular and the whole day was great fun, with pleanty of banter with our guide and his chubby little helper. That evening we bought some food and drink and had a barbeque at our guest house, where our very hospitable land lady made us a jug of pisco sour, which we enjoyed sat around a roaring camp fire.

In the morning it was back to the bus depot at La Serena where we caught a coach for our long journey North. After a surprisingly comfortable 16 hour coach trip we arrived at San Pedro in the Atacama Desert at 10am. We checked into a hostel and had lunch, watching a local sunday league football game. We then rented some rather sketchy mountain bikes and headed off on a 15km open desert road ride to the Valle de la Luna, an array of stone and sand formations that are said to look like the surface of the moon. The difficult bike ride, up hill and into the wind, was well worth while with some of the most spectacular views we have come across this trip, especially as the sun set. Then we were back on the bikes for a mad cycle home, trying to make it back before dark as our bike´s had no lights or reflectors. That evening we went for dinner with some people we met at the Luna, three Americans: Raina, Kendal and Hannah; who were studying spanish in Chile.

Today we went on a day trip to the salt planes of the Atacama and had a dip in a couple of lagoons. Due to the high salt content of the water we were bobbing around on the surface, just like you would in the Dead Sea. The temperature at the surface was freezing, but about 2m below there were boiling hot currents warming our toes, which was a very strange sensation! We then had a bit more of a wander, and came across some flamingos, which Mark managed to snap expertly on his camera. Bueno!

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Photos

Sunset at Valle de la Luna
Mark and Hazh wandering back to their bikes.

Stars in Their Eyes
At the observatory

Banditos
An afternoon on horseback after riding off into the sunset, just like in the movies!

Pisco Factory
Grapes for the production of the national drink of chile, Pisco.

Floating
Enjoying bobbling about in the lagoon.