Fly me to the moon

Whoops, I seem to be 10 days behind… I am truly not sure where the time has gone, but lots of stories and pix to update you with!

First thing’s first; San pedro de atacama… It’s a tourists paradise, a tiny wee town, made up of a few clay roads paved with tour operators and gift shops.

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As per my previous post, my first impressions of the town weren’t great; no power, soggy roads and the whole place in disarray due to inclement weather. however, the hostel I ended up in, by change, was fab!

Hostal rural reminded me a wee bit of my stay in Montevideo, however, it was spotlessly clean! So what if we did not have any power on our arrival, it all added to the romance of the place. Plus, it was super quirky.

In addition, it had the added extra of Enrique; one of the chaps who worked there who had the most English accent a non-Englishman could possibly possess and a heart of gold. But, San pedro de Atacama is all about the desert, a trip to salar de atacama and Valle de la lunar – moon valley to you and me. The place is so reminiscent of the moon, it’s where NASA sends astronauts to climatise. Enough said, here’s some pix.

We also visited ‘death valley’, the scale of this place was unbelievable; it’s also a haunt for the fool hardy sand borders!

Pretty cool, eh? Well next stop Bolivia – I was really excited for my 4×4 journey thought the desert!

On the road to Chile

Made my 7am bus journey from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama just in the nick of time, this was one occasion that I was glad that the buses were running late. It was supposed to be an 11 hour journey, however I had my first taste of border control and getting out of argentina saw us stuck there for three hours! We therefore arrived in San pedro de atacama at 9pm and guess what it was bucketing down… Here I am in the middle of the desert and it’s raining cats and dogs! Luckily, Arnica who I had met en route to salta was also arriving, and we also hooked up with Simone from Germany, so there was the three of us in the pitch black dark (there was a power cut with the rain) rucksacks on our backs negotiating the roads that had turned into rivers.

We were directed to the Police Station, as I had to get a taxi as my hostel was out of town. Although very friendly, helpful and young, they were unable to order a taxi!!! Plan b, Arnica’s hostel was not far from the police station so I headed there with her and hooray there was room at the inn! Hola Hostal Rural! More to say about this place in my next post.

I digress, the bus journey. What with the 7am start I had a wee snooze on the bus and when I woke up I was surrounded by cacti.

Where was I? Im still not sure what mountain range we were crossing but the landscapes were phenomenal, I was quite gutted I had slept through the beginning of the journey as this was one occasion where a book was not needed!

I also got my first glimpse of a salt plain on the horizon…

Close up was more amazing! Ive lots of pix, but I won’t spoil my post about the salt flats, but I need to at least show you this one pix.

Heading towards Chile, the landscapes were ever changing and the colours were amazing, it made me wish I had my paints with me.

So, here I am in Chile, country number four so far in South America. I have trip to moon valley to see sunset tomorrow (yep, expect some more pix) and a day chilling before I head of in a 4×4 for a three day expedition to Boliva. Ciao ciao xx