We left Bolivia and almost immediately we noticed the
difference between the 2 countries, we hit a perfectly good tarred road
(something that doesn’t exist in Bolivia) and we cruised down into San Pedro de
Atacama clearing customs as we entered the town.
The first priority was to get some cash and so we changed
the Bolivianos we had and then couldn’t find an ATM with any cash, so we
changed some dollars just so we had enough for some lunch. I was panicking a
bit because we had an expensive bus to pay for that was leaving the next day
and we couldn’t get any cash, luckily Veronika (who we travelled with in the
salt flats) helped us find the one ATM that was working and we loaded up some
cash, crisis averted!
Tess was still not feeling that great and needed to be close
to a toilet and so I headed off to find a trip to the Valley of the Moon on my
own. Along the way we started overlooking 3 sets of mountain ranges, which was
pretty amazing considering the diversity of the 3 ranges. We then headed to the
Valley of the Dead, so named as nothing grows there at all, it’s pretty
incredible. The tour saved the best for last as we headed to the Valley of the
Moon, and it really is like that! Well I haven’t been to the moon so can’t say
for sure J. The
landscape is really strange and nothing like I had seen before. I hope the
pictures do it justice. |
| The aptly named Valley of the Dead |
I had planned ahead and bought myself a large beer to enjoy
as a sundowner. I think a few people were jealous of me as I sipped my now not
so cold lager watching the sunset over the Valley of the Moon and the great
sand dune, what an awesome experience.
 |
| The Valley of the Moon Great Sand Dune and Plateau |
Tess had booked us a star gazing experience for the night
that we had heard good things about from friends. We only got picked up at 11pm
and it was going to last for 3 hours or so. After waking up at 4am this was
going to be a long day! Anyway we headed off in good spirits to the star gazing
and were net by a Canadian astrologer. The evening was divided into 3 parts: a
small lesson about the history of astronomy and the constellations, a session
looking through the 10 telescopes they had on offer and then a question and
answer session at the end. The first and thirds part were pretty boring and we
were tired, Tess had 40 winks during the Q & A session. But it was cool to
look at the moon, the various stars and constellations through the telescopes. We
got to bed very late, but we had had a good day, our one and only day in Chile.
The next day we headed off to catch our bus to Argentina.
Tess was so excited to be heading for Argentina, this was her dream destination
and she was determined to make the most of it. I think just the thought of
Argentina made her feel better. This was our first experience of Argentinian
buses that we had heard so much about, Andesmar did not disappoint. We also got
our first English movies of the trip so we were excited about that! The scenery
on the journey was also magnificent, we passed a small salt flat and went over
one of the most impressive passes we had seen on the journey thus far. The
journey was a very pleasant one. We were
both just very happy to arrive in Salta in Argentina, this was to be the start
of a full month in Argentina. Exciting stuff!!!!
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