San Pedro de Atacama

I was desperate to meet some people after I had not met a single person who spoke English in either Arica or Iquique, so luckily San Pedro was full of tourists. I had another interesting bus ride to the town, because at 3.45am we were all ordered off the bus into the freezing night, and had to unload all our bags. Both the bus and the bags were thoroughly inspected, whilst we stood in the freezing cold.

It was worth it however, as San Pedro is lovely. The downside is that the streets are covered in dust. Dust got in my hair, dust in my clothes, dust in my eyes, everywhere. Also, as it is in the desert it is boiling hot in the day and freezing at night. There are lots of nice cafes & restaurants to escape in though, and the surrounding landscape is incredible.

I went on a short tour to the ´valle de la luna´ (valley of the moon). It was beautiful, just acres of golden rocky shapes. I felt like I was on a different planet (hence the name). We walked through a small canyon, and if we were all quiet we could hear the rocks making cracking noises, as they expanded with the heat. We sat on top of a sand dune and watched the sunset, too amazing to describe.

On the tour I met two lovely Italian girls, and I went out to dinner with them and their Austrian friends. It was great having company for dinner, as I´m a bit bored of eating alone.

The next day I went on another tour, to see the Salar de Atacama (salt flats). This was incredible too, just miles & miles of volcanic-looking rocks which were wholly comprised of salt. The salt flats used to be part of a large inland sea, but has since dried up, leaving the salt behind. Surrounding this landscape were beautiful volcanoes, perfectly shaped cones. Apparently they are active, but haven´t erupted for years. I did see one with steam rising out of it though.

After the salt flats we visited a village for lunch, which just happened to be celebrating its annual festival. The whole village (about 150 people) were out in the streets in brightly coloured clothes, and they paraded around the village enthusiastically dancing and playing music which can only be described as uncoordinated and untuneful, but fun.

Then we visited brilliant-blue coloured lakes, which were picture-postcard perfect. The lakes were surrounded by some of the most beautiful volcanoes I have ever seen, and on these lakes lived a colony of flamingos. It was so nice it didn´t look real, like someone had painted a picture.

That night I had another multi-cultural night out at dinner, and the next day was spent relaxing, reading my book, and going for lunch with the Italian girls. It was great.