San Pedro de Atacama - sandboarding at Obi Wan's house and a little bit of nudity

---

---

The day we left Salta was a silly start with a bus leaving at 6.30am. I don’t know who scheduled this but I don’t like them! The day itself started out well with a bit of a sleep, and then improved with some stunning views during the drive. The altitude changes here are amazing, and as a result there is a lot of zig zagging road that we had to cover. Some great views and exceptionally narrow stretches of road! We managed to get a little bit of excitement on this trip as when we were going through immigration to leave Argentina (at some silly altitude) it seemed that I had illegally entered the country… No record of an Aaron Michael with my passport number. Fortunately for me, Catherine was there and her stamps matched mine… The most interesting part was when they ran off with my passport and I had no idea where it is (so if someone called Aaron Michael from Brisbane does something illegal, it will obviously be someone on a cloned passport). As this was our first experience at any significant altitude, the running to and from the office led to some serious light headedness. One girl actually fainted and then proceeded to violently vomit on the bus….she was sitting in the seat behind us. We were offered ponchos by many travelers!!

Once they agreed that I could leave the country, we made the long slow drive into San Pedro de Atacama (which means San Pedro in the Atacama desert). The country in this area is very barren (as you would expect being the desert…) and when we arrived into the Chilean Immigration control point at San Pedro, we were not sure if we had arrived in San Pedro or were at some remote outlying town. The buildings were no more than shacks and everything was sand. It turns out that this was San Pedro and it didn’t get much more developed. Our hostel was an old mud brick building with rooms wide enough to fit two sets of three high bunks. As Catherine sleep walks, it was deemed appropriate for me to sleep on the top bunk. Luckily I don’t suffer from vertigo… It was a very cool experience though. Unfortunately for me I was too high and asleep when one of our room mates (a young female) stripped completely naked ½ a meter from Catherine’s head. As opposed to my natural instinct, she rolled away.

We only stayed in San Pedro for a few days and during that time we visited Obi Wan Kenobi’s place (from the original star wars) when we went sand boarding in the Death Valley, and watched the sun set over the valle de luna. The sand boarding was the first time either Catherine or I had put a snow/sand board to our feet. It was great fun with some huge dunes to board down, and we both ended up with plenty of sand in our underwear. Something everyone needs to try once.

The next day we took off on our tour of the desert and the salt flats in Bolivia, but that’s another story. Hopefully the pictures show you just how cool this place is, and make you jealous!

Ciao ciao as they say here!

Aaron and Catherine

---

Photos

San Pedro de Atacama
beautiful little sandy desert town

Death Valley
Obi Wan lives here!! (original Star Wars)

Death Valley
amatuer sand boarders.....

Valley de Luna
hazy horizon

Death Valley
as always, a complete natural :)

Death Valley
the trek up the big sandy hill....this was tough

Valley de Luna
this was a hard walk at high altitude with wobbly legs fron sandboarding

Death Valley
you go son!

Valley de Luna
the happy couple at sunset

Comments

[KLH]

clarify
'something everyone should try once' - you referring to sandboarding or sand in yer pants!! wasn't sure!! looks like fun - the skiing lessons came in handy - following along on your holiday (almost like being the sherpa - Ha!) lots more places to go, lots more to see, love KLH

[Uncle David]

Great Trip
Hello to you both, I've been following your progress with a certain amount of envy, you are certainly enjoying a fabulous journey. Lots of memories in your photos, some stunning views. I trust you've offloaded your Kodak shares, film would have cost you a mint. Talking of photos Aaron, where was the camera when it was most needed ? ("a young female stripped completely naked ½ a meter from Catherine’s head"). I thought you'd been a Boy Scout, "Be Prepared" ! Mmmm. I know you'll continue to enjoy yourselves and I look forward to keeping up with your progress. Best regards from The Amors.

[aaroncatherine]

Hola! yep lost and lots of fun being had......sandboarding was certainly and interesting experience and i really enjoyed a shower afetrwards!! Looking forward to catching up properly in Oz :=) CLE xx

[aaroncatherine]

Not nice...
OK David, I feel bad enough that I missed it, no need to make me feel anyworse... Trip is awesome, but we are looking forward to getting home now. Only just over a month left of the trip now. But don;t worry - when it comes time to come home, we probably won't want to come home. See you all in a month or two...