San Pedro de Atacama

In an oasis on the Rio San Pedro sits the historic town of San Pedro de Atacama. An obvious tourist hub, the dusty streets surrounding the quaint main Plaza are packed with tour agencies, restaurants and internet cafe's, whilst the stray dogs are in such an abundance that each tourist could easily take one home. The town itself takes on a more Spanish-Indian feel than is apparently usual in Chile and the climate ranges from scalding hot in the peak of daytime, to below zero during the night.

The long bus journey and thorough bag search at the Chilean border had really taken it out of us, and arriving at our accommodation was sweet relief until we discovered that the tour company hadn´t booked us in and we´d consequently rolled up to the wrong hostel. Tails firmly between our legs, we trudged wearily across town to what we were told was our alternative accommodation.

On arrival at Eden Atacameno, the very first thing that struck us was that it was a hell-hole, but after all the confusion, we didn´t really have the energy to argue, and so we decided to lump it for a couple of nights. After a quiet night, we awoke early, mainly due to the fact that our exposed heads were being dive-bombed by a dozen or so overly exciteable bluebottles.

Two luke-warm showers later and we made our way into town and our first trip to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Caused some 23 million years ago when they were pushed and folded by movements in the earths core, the wind and minimal rain erosion (20mm per annum) received here has since that time scuplted the rocks to create some truly amazing landscapes. Driving through Dinosaur Valley and its carved peaks, and walking down through the Valley of Death with its deep canyon and gigantic sand dunes was a surreal and awe-inducing experience. Not the kind of terrain you see on an average stroll around town.

Lastly, it was off to the Valle de la Luna itself, declared a Sanctuary of Nature and named because of its apparent similarity to the landscapes of our only moon. Here, the absence of animal and vegetable life, combined with the lack of humidity, make this the most inhospitable corner of the earth. We were shown the randomly named Three Maria's rock formation (and it´s Dinosaur head), and were finally advised to walk up the steep sand-dune path to watch the setting sun.

Not something that usually rocks our boat, but a beautiful sight none-the-less, and complimented nicely with the full moon rising in the east with almost precision timing. After the short drive back to town and a quick dinner, it was off to bed for an early 4am start of our tour to the Geysers del Tatio.

Dressed for arctic conditions, we awaited our coach pick-up outside the hostel and it was here that we were fortunate enough to participate in our first ever earthquake. The ground shook beneath our feet and the gates we were standing next to rattled violently. Harrowing times, where our survival depended solely on staying upright and not falling and cracking our heads on a conveniently placed rock. We later discovered that these 'minor tremors' are quite a common occurance, and that the centre had been in Santiago, some 600 miles south. What the people felt there we can only imagine, although the locals didn´t seem particularly concerned for their fellow countrymen.

Our journey to the geothermic national park at around 13,000ft above sea level took just over an hour, delivering us to the gates at just after 05:30 for an 06:10 sunrise. This is when the Geysers are at their raunchiest, with many of vapour flows steaming some thirty or forty feet into the cold morning air. Caused by the reaction between the hot rocks from nearby vocanoes and frozen underground river, the near-boiling water is pushed to the surface where the vapour can be released via some 40 geysers, 60 springs and 70 "Fumerolas" that extend over 3 square kilometres. The below-fifteen degree temperature makes for a refreshing experience, and we made a point of standing next to the bubbling pools of eighty-five degree water, braving the toxic fumes in an effort to keep mildly warm. It has been known for people to fall through some thinner layers of rock around the geisers so we took care with each step.

Once the natural spectacle had subsided a little, our guide arranged breakfast using a neat trick of boiling eggs and heating chocolate milk in one of the nearby Geyser pools before driving us over to the natural thermal pool. It was a toss-up as whether to brave the cold (which by this point had risen to a reasonable minus-five) and bathe in the hot murky water or stay dry and remotely warm , but in the end curiosity got the better of me and I took a quick dip, whilst Sarah waited usefully with a towel and a smirk at my stupidity. Unfortunately, not all it´s cracked up to be, with the hot water from the flowing geiser scalding you in one breath, then the slightest move away in the opposite direction freezing you to the bone in the next.

Once dried, it was time to take our tour back through the route we had come in the pitch black some three hours earlier. Skirting mountain lagoons with flocks of pink Flamingo's, Llama´s grazing idly in their hilly pastures and various rocky terrains, we stopped in a small village called Machuca, where we had a very disjointed chat with a local woman knitting woolen garments outside her tiny abode and tasted some Llama meat. Arranged and prepared nicely in Kebab format, the meat itself has a very chewy consistency and strong taste, although this apparently depends on whether the slaughtered animal was a youngster or reaching retirement. Either way, it´s no fillet steak, and in future I´ll be sticking to snapping rather than eating...

Returned to our hostel in one piece, we later went for a dinner with a couple from North London who had unwittingly made a mistake of staying in the same dirty hostel. There were many more tours to take around the area, but we weren´t too displeased to leave as our next adventure would hopefully see us take a trip, culminating in the Uyuni Salt Flats, which was to be one of the many highlights of our South American journey...

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