San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a very chill place. Surrounded by mountains over 5000m high, you can go mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, attend an astronomy lecture, eat good food, enjoy the warmth, and much more here. We are here for too short to do all these activities. We decide to do a bike tour to a pre-Inca ruin and a cross on a hill (in the morning) and a trip to Valle de Luna - the sunset there is a must-have.

Last year, we drove through bigger streams and rivers in a big car - this year it's the bike's turn. It's good that we have open trekking shoes and that it's so warm. The dirt roads are very bumpy, you definitely need a mountain bike. The next day, I have muscle soreness in my shoulders ;-)

Valle de Luna has some attractions: caves, rock formations, and sand dunes. Contrary to the information on the internet, the Atacama Desert is not the driest desert in the world, but with only a few mm of rain per year, it is still very dry here. In the rock formations, you can discover traces of the Atlantic, in a rock niche, you can still hear a fine cracking sound (evaporation of water), and salt and gypsum deposits can be seen.

Overall, a great place. Unfortunately, the flight to Santiago de Chile is already booked. But, as we already found out yesterday: Santiago is also great. And how one can be happy about a decent hotel after almost 2 weeks of underground, very basic, and simple accommodations is amazing.

We will explore Santiago for the next 3 days, maybe with a side trip to Valparaiso.