San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro does not feel like a town of 2,000 inhabitants at all, it feels more like a town of 5,000 inhabitants and is the tourist center in Chile. For the people here, it's a great opportunity to make a living, but the groundwater level is dangerously decreasing, everything costs an entrance fee, and crime is on the rise (everyone wants a piece of the pie). So for road travelers like us, it's a total horror.

Atacama is located at an altitude of 2,600 meters and San Pedro is at the northern end of the salt flat (Salar de Atacama). Here, the salt flat shimmers more in brown as it still contains a lot of minerals. Atacama is also known for its extreme temperatures, with daytime temperatures reaching 40°C and nighttime temperatures dropping to -17°C. However, since it's now autumn, we had temperatures of around 30°C during the day and 10°C at night, but the sun is still very strong.

Actually, we thought we were in one of the most inhospitable environments, but, as often happens, nature has managed to create life here and there's quite a lot of it: the Salar de Atacama is the greenest spot at this altitude and it's teeming with life!

On the first evening, we met my former colleague who is also traveling in South America with his girlfriend in their own car, Benni and Bettina. We planned the next few days together.

On the first day, we went to Laguna Cejar, a lagoon in the middle of the salt flat of Atacama that has a salt content of 40%. Here, you float on the water like in the Dead Sea. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to apply sunscreen because of the water, so we all came out of the water with sunburns. Then we went to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). Here, the sunset is supposed to reflect in the minerals of the mountains in different colors. Well, maybe with a lot of imagination, or on another evening.

The next day, we went to Valle de Marte (Mars Valley), so from the moon to Mars. You have to admit that the two valleys are really beautiful. We haven't been to Mars or the moon ourselves, but they looked different in pictures, but okay! Benni and Bettina continued on their way, but we still wanted to visit Inca ruins. As the path kept getting narrower, we managed to make it through a sandy field with a lot of momentum, phew, lucky us, now just turn right and we'll be there. But then suddenly there was a river with sand around it, which means it was impassable without four-wheel drive. That was enough for us with San Pedro, so we followed Benni and Bettina.