Atacama desert (30/Mar-2/Apr/06)

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

To the South of San Pedro de Atacama is the Atacama Desert, driest desert in the world. To the North is a village called Quillagua, officially the driest spot in the world. Guess what happened yesterday and today in San Pedro? Yup, rain! Well, a small patter for about 5 minutes, but still, what a con.

We headed over from Argentina by bus, probably the most amazing journey I've been on. If you are going to suddenly jump from 2400m to 4800m don't read chapter 15 of a book called "Medicina para montañeros" (medicine for mountaineers). I got every single symptom for acute mountain sickness. In the end I came to the conclusion it was due to hyperventilation rather than lack of oxygen. The route crosses over a serious part of the Andes, with a steep climb, a long plain bordering salt flats and high peaks, and finishing with a long downhill through volcanoes down to San Pedro.

San Pedro is, for some reason, backpacker capital of South America. Don't know why as it's bloody expensive, much more than Chilean Patagonia. Ridiculously expensive in fact, and we still don't see the justification for this - at least in Patagonia you can say lack of local produce and bad transport links push up the prices. We found the cheapest hostel in the place (camping prices were over the top) and, after working out the girl at the tourist information was useless, went to a travel agency to see what the fuss was all about.

Friday we rented some bikes to check out the "Death Valley". Pretty hard going in the midday sun. Got a pretty good idea of why it got that name. Rode through a rock canyon, not a plant in sight, until we got to a massive dune we just had to climb up. And down again. Then cycled back, deciding to get a tour to the Moon Valley and ditch the idea of cycling there. As it turned out the tour included the Death Valley as well, so we got a view of the bit after the dune we hadn't seen before. And then went to the Moon Valley, covered in salt (not cheese), to see the sunset.

Saturday we went to a nearby town, which has a canyon with a stream, which is used to feed a massive orchard. Quite bizarre walking beneath figs, grapes, pomegranates and quince in the middle of a dessert. Then we had a vegetarian non-alcoholic dinner and an early night (as advised by the agency, to deal with the height) for the visit to the Tatio Geysers, starting at 4am.

Arrived today at el Tatio just before dawn (best then, as the temperature difference is at a maximum and you see more steam), and it was spectacular. We even had a quick dip in a thermal pool. But the best part was the journey back, which we hadn't seen on the way there as it was pitch black. The scenery was probably even more amazing than the crossing from Argentina.

Got back just before noon, and we are spending the day chilling at the hostel while we wait for our bus up North to Arica...