San Pedro de Atacama - Valle de Muerte & Valle de la Luna

Thursday August 23

Breakfast was a desultory affair. A few items would appear - a handful of rolls, some bananas, etc. - but not be replenished when consumed. Luckily we rose earlier than many of the guests to secure our fill.

I could not eat another piece of their dry, crusty bread. I had purchased a loaf of Fuchs whole grain bread in a supermarket. I brought some slices to breakfast, toasted them and then spread on a layer of peanut butter - also purchased at the supermarket.

At breakfast we met a woman from Spain, Begonia, who was traveling around south America for several months. She worked for Proctor and Gamble in Madrid. She had just crossed over from Bolivia via Uyuni. The three night trip was torturous but one of the highlights of her trip. It piqued our interest. Could we survive an Uyuni trip?

Another young woman from Canada staying at the hostel was also planning to book a trip across Uyuni from San Pedro to Bolivia.

We booked a trip to Valle de la Luna for that evening and also reserved a spot in the Tatio geyser tour for the next morning. Both trips were booked through Anna Marie at the hostel.

We then set out to see if a Uyuni trip was possible. We sat down a very informative woman at Corillera Traveler. Her no nonsense description of the tour suffocated any hopes of us actually enduring the journey. Uyuni continues to elude us.

After our meeting with the tour agent, we had time that morning for the English language tour at the San Pedro museum. Our guide was Leah. She gave us an incredibly detailed tour of the museum in just end hour. She was able to summarize the history of the local indigenous people using the artifacts in display. Unfortunately, Miss Chile - an unearthed mummy - is n longer on display. She was taken out of public display at the request of repose natives of the local indigenous people.

We ate lunch at a vegetarian cafe Estrella Negra on Caracoles 362. They offered a three course set lunch for less than 4000 pesos.

We leave at 3:00 pm for the tour to Valle de Muerte and a sunset trip to Valle de la Luna. The tour was through Layana Tours but booked through our hostel. The tour cost 7000 per person.




 These two sites are only about 15 minute drive outside the town.

 The lunar landscape reveals its broadest spectrum of colors as the sun sets. We hike up to the largest dune in Valle de la Luna to witness