Thursday 8 November 2007

San Pedro de Atacama

We crossed the border from Bolivia into Chile. Apart from the Australian coke-heads desperately trying to use up their supplies of Bolivian Marching Powder before we got to the customs shed, it was pretty uneventful....

The first town across the border is San Pedro de Atacama. The town sprang up at the cross-roads between an Argentina-Bolivia-Chile route and the North-South route up Chile. Nowadays its very much a tourist staging post. It´s amazing the difference between the Bolivian side of the border. Chile is very much more developed and is obviously much more afluent. Gone are the bird´s nests of wiring, dodgy drains etc... Prices are now close to European levels, which is a bit of a shock to the wallet after travelling through Peru and especially Bolivia.



The main attraction of the town is the spectacular desert and volcano scenery. The Atacama desert ( most arid in the world supposedly ) starts just south of the town and stretches hundreds of miles into Chile. About 7 miles into the desert ( up a bloody great big hill when you´re on a pushbike ) is a view over the Valley of the Moon. Look at the photo to the left - you can see how it got it´s name !



The other feature that we really enjoyed were the spectacular desert and volcano sunsets. Check this puppy out ! Everywhere you looked on the horizon were the cones of volcanoes. The place is surrounded by them. Hope they stay dormant.

We start a travel marathon shortly. We get a bus from Atacama to Calama, a flight to Santiago, then an overnight bus down to Pucon. Tired already.....

Here´s a sweep of the Valley of the Moon and Atacama

And here´s us cycling down the Valley of the Dead....