Oh my god I love this little town of San Pedro de Atacama. It's got the cutest streets made up of one story mud built buildings, lots of awesome shops, bars, restaurants and it even has footpaths! It's super touristy but I don't care, it's just nice to be somewhere where the buildings are finished and there's just so much to look at and enjoy. It comes at a price though, our first day here and not knowing the exchange rate we spent $36 on a sandwich, burger and two drinks, I couldn't believe it when we worked it out, it's like being back in Australia! Then it was on to find our hostel but when we got there they couldn't find our booking so they took us to another hostel which was seriously more upmarket than anything we've stayed in for a while, so needless to say we made the most of our luxury surroundings. Unfortunately they sorted out our booking and the next day we had to go back to the hostel we'd originally booked into, which wasn't half as nice!

There are lots of awesome things to do around this little town, you could easily spend a couple of weeks here and not be bored, however with the hike in prices and our budget straining we had to be conservative but with a little negotiating we managed to get a pretty good deal on two tours; Valle de la Luna and Laguna Cejar.

In the driest desert on earth is the Valle de la Luna, or the valley of the moon to you and me. Having never been in a desert in my life until this trip I'd always just imagined places filled with lots of sand and maybe the odd cactus, but that's not what we found here. Enormous sand dunes, volcanic peaks, salt pillars that you can hear cracking as the temperature changes and rocky formations that go on as far as the eye can see make up this incredible desert. At every turn there was something to see, rocks to climb and 'take your breath away' moments. The only word I can really think of to describe it is incredible, but that doesn't do it justice so I'm hoping our pictures will give you a better sense of how mind-blowing this place is. At the end of the day we watched the sun set over this astounding valley from a cliff edge and all I kept thinking was just how lucky I was to be there.

In what feels like the middle of nowhere is the Laguna Cejar, which is a lagoon that is eight times saltier than the sea so you can float on it! And it was awesome, if a little strange and with the back drop of the Andes behind us I can think of worse ways to spend an evening. The only problem being that when you come out you are covered in salt and when your skin dries you're left with white streaks all over you and it felt horrible, but luckily just up the road is a freezing but salt free water hole that you jump into to rinse yourself off. We were then brought to a beautiful spot under the only tree for miles around to watch the stunning sunset with a pisco sour in our hands, it was perfect. The beautiful town of San Pedro and its surrounding landscape has drawn me in and will forever be a highpoint in our trip, I loved it.

It's hard to believe that we've only been in South America for just over a month; it honestly feels like longer, although finally I feel like I'm getting into the flow of it. It definitely took some getting used to though. It's a beautiful continent but you've definitely got to hunt out the nice things, they don't fall into your lap like in Europe, but then that's no bad thing because it just makes you appreciate it all the more.

Clare