I took the early bus on Tuesday morning and gladly left a drizzly Salta for the Atacama desert in northern Chile.

As with previous journeys through Argentina and Chile some of the landscapes we drove through were absolutely staggering.. the seven coloured mountain of Purmamarca (pink, green, grey, purple, orange, brown, white) being the most notable on route out of Salta. Getting my first glimpse of the salt flats in the desert and the surrounding snow-capped volcanoes were also pretty special.

It was a slightly uncomfortable journey as the majority of the 12 hours was spent at high altitude causing a lot of sickness amongst the packed bus, with passengers suffering from nausea and vomiting into sick bags. Other than being a little short of breath at times I've fortunately managed to swerve it so far.

With no other sign of life for miles around I arrived to the very small town of San Pedro around 6.30pm. And it was exactly as expected.. dry, dusty, and the buildings like something you'd see in a third world country - tiny one-storey huts with corrugated metal for roofs.

A five-minute walk from the bus station took me past the towns sandy football pitch, to the La Casa Eco Explor Hostel. It didn't look much from the outside and it didn't particularly look amazing on the inside but all in all for comfort and hospitality this is the best hostel I've stayed at on my travels so far. Certainly wasn't expecting to be able to say that on my first visit to a desert.

After a warm welcome from the staff at the hostel they informed me that the next day was a public holiday and everywhere would be closed. I was due to stay at the hostel for 3 nights but my plans had changed in the days leading up to it so I cancelled my last night, meaning I was only left with one day to get the most out of San Pedro.

There's nothing really worthwhile seeing in the town.. it acts as a starting base for numerous tours on offer in the surrounding area. And if you don't do any tours, you aren't going to see anything.

With arriving late in the day and everything being closed the day after, I literally had a couple of hours to organise something. So I made the short walk through pitch-black streets into the centre.. the centre being a long narrow stretch of dusty rock with a few roads feeding off it. There are restaurants, shops, a few bars, pharmacies etc.. but this place is just cluttered with tour operators, literally every 10 yards, all competing with one another for a piece of the pie. Where do I start?!

After eyeing up which tours I fancied and playing operators up against the next I grabbed myself a good deal booking onto an astronomical tour and a trip to see the geysers.

The public holiday on Wednesday meant I could stick my ear plugs in and treat myself to a long-overdue lie in.. and with nothing to get up for, that's just what I did.

The astronomical tour didn't begin until 10.30pm so I had a whole day to fill in a desert town where everything is closed, but somehow it past by pretty quickly.

So it was time for the astronomical tour.. it had been a beautiful sunny day in San Pedro without a cloud in the sky, paving way for a perfectly clear night to go see the stars.. this is why NASA choose to use this part of the desert for their research.

Most people won't know this about me but I'm a bit of a secret geek when it comes to astronomy so I was seriously looking forward to the tour. And it didn't disappoint, it was incredible!

Just looking up and seeing the millions of bright stars with the naked eye would have been enough for me. Add seeing the constellations of Geminis and Cancer to that, aswell as several shooting stars, I was well made up. But the highlight had to be looking through a super powerful telescope focusing on Jupiter and Saturn.

Jupiter, where you could visibly see its layers of gases aswell as 4 of its over 100 moons. And the rings that surround Saturn. Just amazing!

A pisco sour and snacks helped to distract from the neck ache. It was also fun to have my very own interpreter since the tour was given in Spanish and the rest of the group spoke the native language.

I arrived back to the hostel at 12.30am.. my next tour began at 5.30am! So it was a quick 4-hour pit-stop in bed before I was up again getting ready to go and see the geysers.

As I'd only been in town for a day and the Geysers del Tatio being one of the highest elevated geyser fields in the world at 4321 metres above sea level, I'd been warned that my body wouldn't have had time to acclimatise to the altitude so drinking some Mate de Coca tea would help. I sank a few cups before the minibus picked me up from the hostel and off we went.

I'd also been warned to make sure I wore warm clothing as it gets extremely cold at the summit. Packing light for the year and having very few warm clothes to choose from, I had to layer up.. 5 layers on my top half, combat pants on the bottom half, 2 beanies, 2 pairs of socks, and a scarf. Nice one, sorted. Nope.. still not enough! It was -8.7 degrees when we finally reached the top following an hours climb in absolute darkness. Frickin freezing! Wearing no gloves was a bad move too.

I may have been shivering but it was definitely worth it. The geysers are hot springs in which water intermittently boils, sending a tall column of water and steam into the air.. it was cool to see hundreds of them in action. Watching the sunrise over snow-capped mountains as bright golden rays pierced through the steam from the geysers was pretty damn special.. and delivered some much needed warmth!

A simple breakfast and hot coffee on top of the mountain was just the ticket before we drove 5 minutes down the mountain to a hot spring. On arrival it looked very enticing with steam emanating from the spring while people bathed in it.. the perfect opportunity to warm up!

Getting changed out of 5 layers into swim shorts in still minus conditions was not fun, but it would be worth it...... NOPE!! I lasted literally 15 seconds.. as soon as the shoulders went under I was out of there! Those people bathing in it must have been out of their minds or maybe I'm a soft-ass.. don't care, too cold! The 5 minutes in between getting out the stupid spring and getting my layers back on were easily the most insanely cold I've ever been.. my feet were turning blue, and one particular body part went missing for the next 2 hours. Hot springs? Have a word!

The temperature started to rise as we descended the mountain, stopping off at a nearby village for no apparent reason. Again, the scenery was pretty spectacular as we saw what we failed to see on our ascent in the pure darkness.

I arrived back to a hot sunny San Pedro around midday having really enjoyed the tour and dodging the dreaded altitude sickness.. the Mate de Coca had worked a treat for me, I didn't feel a thing.. and rediscovering my most vital organ again was a bonus too!

I spent the remainder of the afternoon getting my gear together and fuelling up before my next bus ride at 6.45pm. My original plan was to continue north into Bolivia but now I am heading back south on a 15 hour overnight bus to the coastal city of La Serena, where I will be reunited with Ria who has decided to fly back out to South America from Australia.

Caio Caio xx