Chile (Part 1)

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So we landed in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, another stamp on the passport. After getting through immigration and customs, time to get a bed. We checked out the main places to stay but they were over €20 per head. Eventually we got one with a useless cranky landlady but it was cheap. The next problem we had was getting money. When we got to a bank, the manager told us no ATMs were working in the town. We found 3 of them 5 min later that worked.!! We checked the bus time table to Salta in Argentina and realised if we stayed more than 1 night, we’d be stuck there for 3. No way Jose… So we booked the bus for the next morning out of there. We knew that all we wanted to do was the Valle de Luna (Valley of the moons).



We found one tour company on the square that did a half day tour of sand boarding in the valley of death and a tour of valley of the moons to watch the sunset. 12 of us were on the tour. We were abit apprehensive at first as we had never sand boarded before and our guide was a header who looked abit mental. But we ended up being amazing, best time ever. The dune was about 150meters high. At first he told us to take our time and go across the hill at a small angle. With each go, you gain confidence so increase your angle each time. By the end, we were going straight down it. Brilliant adrenaline rush. Jonathan had a little fall on the last run & hurt his ribs but he survived. After that, we walked through caves that had being formed by rivers running through crevices in the rocks over thousands of years. Some really cool caves that we had to crawl through in places. After that, we were off to the valley of moons. He showed us amphitheatre like formations in the rocks. We hiked for 20 min to the highest point in the valley, where we served us pisco sour & ice. There were only 7 of us left from sand boarding at this stage. We watched the sun go down and had a great laugh with the gang. It was incredible to watch the sunset over the valley and all the different colours in the rocks. Then when it was completely gone down, we realised we also had to climb down the mountain. It was difficult going up, in daylight but this was going to be a challenge. After 40min, we reached the bus. Amazing tour but time to go home. Early next morning, we were on the bus out of there, & Chile, just 24 hours after entering the country. Salta, Argentina, here we come…

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