Breakfast at 05:45am after arriving back from our night out in Salta at 03.00am, it was a tough start to the day and the bus ride would be 12 hours, climbing to the highest altitude we had yet experienced. After an hour or so we passed the village of Purmamarca at the foot of the La Cuesta de Lipan. Purmamarca is a green oasis with many holiday homes and fruit orchards but it is most famous as the site of the Cerro de Siete Colores (Mountain of Seven Colours). As we passed the famous multi-coloured mountain, we struggled to count up to seven but even so it was impressive and the huge slopes that surround this area all feature vivid coloured stripes. The bus then climbed sharply through the La Cuesta de Lipan which is famous throughout the country…..The road was built to navigate this "slope" and is considered an engineering marvel. The road cut its way through the dramatic slopes in a series of hair-raising curves, giving us unbelievable views of the massive mountains with their incredible variety of colours and shades. Absolutely stunning stuff! Far below us, we spotted green valleys and little adobe buildings.

We all had to get off the bus at the border near Chile, this was about 5000 metres ABS and we felt quite dizzy as did most of the other passengers - one guy collapsed and needed oxygen, many were gasping for air and a few had headaches …..Altitude may prove to be a problem.

As we gradually descended from the peak the scenery began to change, though no less dramatic and as we neared the Atacama desert we witnessed lunar landscapes, multi-coloured rock faces, gigantic volcanoes, dark blue lagoons, green oases and towering sand dunes. The landscapes became surreal, unearthly and at times looking out the window we thought that we had reached another planet or tapped in on someone's imagination - or maybe we were hallucinating after our previous night's excess, so different was the passing scene.

We finally arrived into SP de Atacama, checked into our accommodation and did a brief recce of the town which seemed a bit touristy but essentially nice, though our breathing was noticeably more difficult. We did a few trips "out of town" including the ominously named "Valley of Death" but the best trip was to the Geysers. They were spectacular and at over 4000 metres and at sunrise it was freezing (sub-zero) but that did not deter us from casting aside our layers of clothing and leaping into the hot pools - How often do you have a chance to swim at over 12,000 feet? …… Totally exhilarating.

We were in the middle of the desert, there was no light pollution and the stars were unbelievable, so we visited the local observatory. It had ten large telescopes and a very knowledgeable astronomer who brought the night sky to life with a very entertaining explanation of the stars and their origins….. Saturn is now our favourite planet.

Final day we hired mountain bikes, our breathing had improved and we cycled into the nearby countryside, visiting Inca Temples and exploring the mountainside. The narrow mountain track made Heather a bit nervous but with much help from her brakes she continued gallantly.

Our time in the desert was coming to an end and as we were booking the next leg of our journey. We met Jo again and she decided to join us on our expedition in to Bolivia.