Eden Atacameno San Pedro de Atacama

Atacama will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. While it is a beautiful, small and what you'd call a typical American west/Mexican outpost town it won't stay in my memory that way.

I'd originally wanted to do a star gazing tour but due to a full moon the tours were cancelled. The next best thing? A rave in the desert. Of course.

We drank at the hostel and headed out in large vans driven by locals. We drank and drank. A bottle of rum each to be precise. There were two ...

... 1502;יי 04;ו הסתוב 89;ות בעיר רפאים, אתם ושלדי המבני 01; באמצע המדבר.
באיקי
511;ה גם ראינו מופע שלם ...

... is quite something in this eerie land. We were guided by a pony tailed, Humphrey Bogart sounding, joker. Or at least he seemed to be quite amusing- I canīt work out a word spoken in Chile- they seem to eat their words so even the few words I did know I now struggle with.

It was a nice enough start to Chile but I found the town a bit aloof and pricey but a 24 hour bus ride was about to transport us to the coast and a goodbye to altitude.

... br>
We headed to the Valle de la Luna and Valle del Muerte on the first day - 10 kms of hiking in 37 degree heat but it was amazing. the landscape is incredible - sand dunes, multicoloured rock formations and dried up river beds - it is the Atacama Desert after all!

The next day we headed to the Lagunas - advertised as a swimming trip/ chance to have a couple of Pisco ...

... for Geyser Tatio at 4 am they were just stumbling in.
We sat through a loooong drive to the geysers but the stars were incredible and the old Chilean driver was good entertainment rapping along to "Gangsta's Paradise", complete with gestures and some sassy head-bobbing)
We got up to 4320 meters of altitude and were FREEZING outside next to the steaming and gurgling geysers. We were able to walk right up to them and stand over them and study how the ...

... de rentrer, lhomme de lentrere ns offre lombre de son prefabrique et un peu deau
allez on y retourn eet la des ouvriers ns emmemnt a toconao l ville ou etait la veille, et a mon grd bonheur, je monte ds la benne de la cmionnette
je suis trop heureuse!!!!!!
on mange a toconao et on entreprd de fre a nvo du stop pour san pedro, fo quon se bouge, mon bus est a 7h30. juste le momt que je choisis pour aller ...

It was late in the morning by the time we crossed the border into Chile. This is where we said goodbye to Dara as she hopped straight onto another bus for Salta in northern Argentina. We found a hostel with little hassle - one complete with the luxury of a hot shower! So, after our first warm showers in 3 days we headed into town to explore the delights of San Pedro.

San Pedro de Atacama is a small town consisting of white adobe single-story buildings set ...

... struck up a conversation with the two men who live outside of the hostel in tents, they are both from Santiago and are only here to make money. One is a chef, the other is one of the guys who is supposed to get you into the restaurant, they called him a "hunter" meaning someone who preys on tourists! They were amazing.

They invited us to come with them to their friends house, it was a mud hut with tarps ...

... though and didn`t break anything. We will however be finding sand in random places for at least the next month! After sandboarding we headed off to watch the sun set, we climbed a smallest mountain and had views over two mountain ranges. As the sun set the mountains looked pink and purple.

We also wanted to try our hand a some star gazing but we were unable to book, so we have spent the rest of our time catching up on sleep and contact with home.

... the pitch black. Occasionally the bus went off road to make a short cut. Maybe it was better to not be able to see!

The road wound up and up as the sky got slowly lighter outside. Dawn was just breaking as we got off the bus. The air was cold outside and our bums were numb after the trip! We were very glad we wrapped up as it was below freezing.

The guide gave us a short tour round whilst breakfast cooked in the ...