It was Thursday evening when I left the Atacama desert for La Serena. The 15 hour overnight bus took me south down the west coast of Chile to the city known for its beautiful beaches.

I'd arranged to meet up with Ria again after she decided to come back out to South America. It had been 3 weeks since she left for home after we had an awesome time together in Brazil and Argentina, so I was looking forward to catching up with her again. For the next 6 weeks we'll travel north together through Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

Having arrived at 10am on a sunny Friday morning, I grabbed my bags and decided to hike a few k's down the freeway to the accommodation - yep.. I was that random fella you see walking down the motorway with a backpack wondering where the hell he's going!

Half an hour later I was checked in to the Stellamar Apartments for the next 3 nights.. a lovely, peaceful spot with lush green gardens and swimming pool, close to the beach. Perfect!

Ria flew out from Brisbane via Auckland to arrive in Santiago, before catching the bus to La Serena where I met her at the bus terminal early afternoon. It was wicked to see her again and she even brought me over a new beard trimmer to replace the one I had stolen in Salta.. legend!

The next 3 days were pretty lazy, but just what I needed. It was so good to finally be able to chill and relax after constantly being on the move, travelling from place to place, one long distance bus journey after another.. it gets tiring.

That evening we took a stroll down to the beautiful white sandy beach which stretches for as far as the eye can see, aligned with palm trees adjacent to the sea front. We sat in the sand on an almost deserted beach and watched a most amazing sunset.. magical!

While we were tucking into some empanadas later on, as tasty as they were, I was drooling in jealousy at the thought of my ma and Mark enjoying a tasting menu at one of the best restaurants in the UK, L'Enclume.. where I would have been had I not decided to see the world! Big-time jealous!

The next few days were spent relaxing on the beach, shopping at the mall, eating good food and planning our next move. The next move being, straight back where I'd just came from.. the desert!

As I'd cancelled a day there previously and with there being so much to see we decided it would be cool to stop in San Pedro for a few days before crossing the border to Bolivia. So Monday afternoon I was back on that overnight bus, with Ria, heading north back to the desert.

We arrived to San Pedro at the crack of dawn, happy to be back after having an awesome time just 4 days previously.

The accommodation we checked in to was more like a home stay.. seemingly the only ones there on a massive plot of land it was super comfortable, and the owners were great and very kind to us.

Similar to my previous visit, we only had a couple of hours to arrange a few tours over a day and a half period, so we marched ourselves down to the centre of town to strike up a deal with the operators.

A little later that afternoon we joined a tour to visit Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), where over time enormous mineral sculptures have been shaped by wind and rain. We squeezed our way through claustrophobic salt caves, saw various rock formations as well as other geological rubbish.

The tour got a whole lot more interesting when we visited the Mirador, Death Valley, Coyote Stone, and then Moon Valley where we saw the three Mary's, the Great Dune, and a huge red oblong 'canyon looking' rock named the amphitheater which looked mightily impressive below a hovering sun.

The tour came to a close as we watched the sun setting over panoramic views of Moon Valley causing the mountains and skies to change various shades of colour.

Around 7.00am the following morning another minibus picked us up for our next tour.. the landscapes of the Altiplano where throughout the day we gradually climbed to over 4000m in altitude stopping off at various highlights.

Starting off in a small town called Toconao we visited a church which was pointless and boring and seemed to be more of a tour filler. Then the main attractions followed.. Salar de Tara, Salar de Atacama (to see two types of flamingos), Salar del Carmen and the Piedras Rojas.. basically a load of big lakes, up a few mountains, with some funny looking rocks.

I'm doing these places an injustice by saying this because they really were absolutely stunning, especially the majestic volcanoes and lagoons of Miscanti, Miñiques and del Carmen. These places just didn't seem real sat there under a pure blue sky.. they looked more like a flawless animated picture on an ultra HD screen. Even when I look back at the pictures now they look fake, or as if they've been filtered.. but they haven't.

I don't know whether it's because I've been spoilt for choice of late with some of the landscapes and scenery I've witnessed but it can all start to look a bit samey to me. Don't get me wrong.. what I saw today was nature of insane beauty but often when you have too much of something good it becomes less special and you appreciate it less. Nevertheless, it was still a good day.

We arrived back in San Pedro around tea time but we didn't do much with the remainder of the evening, it has been a long tiring day and we need an early night. We will be setting our alarms for 2.00am to catch the 3.00am bus to cross over the border to Bolivia where the Salt Flats of Uyuni is our next destination.

Caio Caio xx