.: San Pedro de Atacama

The church in San Pedro de Atacama

This morning I woke up early. Ali was still in bed when I began my search for the nearest coffee shop and it wasn't long before I found one. I sat down, ordered a cappuccino and started writing. The walls in the cafe were painted terracotta and cracked with age. The sand floor was complimented by an exposed straw and clay roof. The tables and chairs were constructed using tree branches. All kinds of local art and ceramics where strewn everywhere. I remember thinking how funny it was that the only item that looked out of place in the coffee shop was the coffee machine. The very object that caught my attention and beckoned me in from the street.

San Pedro de Atacama is a small town, village really, that consists of a church, post office, atm, a small supermarket and a surprisingly large variety of very stylish restaurants. Well, stylish in a sort of Chilean deserty kind of way. Unfortunately there are many tourists that litter the beautiful town because it's the gateway to a miriad of amazing sights and activities. Both in Atacama and just accross the border in Bolivia. For that reason alone there are lots of tour agencies, hostels and horrid shops selling hidiously patterned clothing to anyone with bad taste. It´s outrageously expensive here because it can be. Having looked at the many tempting tours available I get the impression our time here will require much restraint. However, for the first time in a very long while I feel like a traveler again. It could be the fact that we are in the middle of a desert. The most arid desert in the world where the air is dry and the sky is a constant cloudless bright blue. There's no traffic. No pollution. All of the buildings here are made of clay and have straw roofs. The unsurfaced roads are covered in sand and dirt. At night, the stars are so bright and clear that you can even see galaxies. At last, my sense of adventure has been rejeuvenated and I intend to make the most of it!

After breakfast Ali and I signed ourselves up for an afternoon tour of Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley). We left San Pedro at 3:00pm in a mini bus with 15 other tourists. We departered San Pedro and simultaneously entered nothing but 360 degrees of arid landscape. All devoid of any signs of life. Rain is almost unknown and in some places it has never rained at all. There are no plants. There are no insects. It was an amazing sight. Even more impressive was the string of volcanoes along the Andes which never left our sight. My particular favorite was Licancabur which rises a staggering 5,900 metres above sea-level. According to experts licancabur means "the town in the sky" (in the Kunza language) which suggests that people were actually crazy enough to live up there.

We hadn´t even arrived at Moon Valley and already it started to look like we were on another planet. The landscape was incredible. So incredible in fact that Audi, the luxury car manufacturer, are shooting their latest commercial there. We passed the film crew on route where I watched about 5 people vigerously polish two of the latest models. The cars had been delicately positioned on the moon-like terrain and were presumably just about ready for another take. I admired their choice of location.

Volcan Licancabur and Death Valley

It wasn't long before we arrived at our first destination, Death Valley. It´s unusual forms and strange colours reminded me of nothing I have ever seen before. The bizzare formations in the land are due to several contributing factors according to our guide. He explained (in broken English) that the land is made up of salt, gypsum and clay and has been subjected to the folding of the Earth´s crust and heavy pounding from water and wind from thousands of years ago. The fun part was when we got to take off our shoes and run all the way down a huge sand dune to the bottom of the valley. It was here where our bus awaited our return and took us to the second and final attraction.

The sand dunes at Death Valley

Moon Valley is located 2,250 meters above sea-level at the side of the Atacama Salt Flats in the middle of the Salt Mountain Range. The valley is famous for its resemblance to the surface of the moon. Its different stratifications and salt formations were created by several environmental factors and proved to be the perfect place for the USA to test their lunar vehicles. The salt that covered much of the land could almost be mistaken for frost or even snow in some areas. We walked along the ridge of a mountain for about 30 minutes until we reached the end. It was perfectly timed so that we could watch the sun set over the Salt Mountain Range. The perfcet end to an incredible day.