Kilometraje arido

Following our 3 day sojourn across Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, we hopped onto an extremely crowded little bus and crossed the border into northern Chile. The change was felt immediately: paved roads, complete with nice cars and signposts, well-kept buildings, and unfortunately, much higher prices. We were searched extensively at customs (I guess that's what happens when you go from somewhere that produces as much cocaine as Bolivia into somewhere more developed like Chile), and arrived at the little oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama. I can honestly say we have yet to find somewhere as pleasant as San Pedro on our travels. However, it's a little bit stranded in the middle of the Atacama, the world's most inhospitable and arid desert. The scorching temperatures and zero levels of humidity mean that absolutely nothing will grow out here. So of course, Steve and I hired some bikes to check out the nothing, and rode across the desert highway for a bit, happening on the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), an area of astounding moonscapes. We explored a little bit, finding a cave and crawling through it, climbing on rocks and getting lost, before getting far too hot and tired (this is a desert afterall) and scrambling back up the sand dunes and onto the highway for a downhill return to San Pedro.

This afternoon: sandboarding on a 300m high sand dune.