We left Pucon on the evening of the 14th December for a 10 hour overnight bus to Santiago, the Chilean capital. We had a 5 hour break there then boarded a 24 hour bus to San Pedro de Attacama. Yes, a 39 hour journey! It wasn't so bad as it goes as we booked on the cama (executive class) buses so it was pretty comfortable and the journey from Santiago was interesting as we went up the coast taking in the rugged coastline and watching the terrain get more and more arid as we entered desert territory. We arrived on the 16th to San Pedro de Attacama, a well known town for travellers in this part of the world. It's a cool little town, 2600m above sea level, on the edge of the worlds driest desert and totally different to anything we've experienced. Our hostel was clean enough with decent hot showers which is a bit of a bonus in these parts for obvious reasons. We spent our first day sorting out trips for our time here and getting into Bolivia. On the afternoon of the 17th we went on a trip to see the surrounding desert and mountain area which was utterly spectacular. This included running down 150 foot sand dunes and seeing the sun set at the Valle de Lunar (see photo above). The next morning we got up at the ungodly hour of 3.30am for a trip to see the El Tatio geysers, around 2 1/2 hours drive away. At 4300m this was our first real exposure to altitude. Stuart coped fine with it but Jo was distinctly dizzy for a couple of hours which is fairly common we understand. Later on she acclimatised a little better and was able to enjoy the trip. The geysers are at their most active early hence our pre-dawn start which also meant that when we arrived when it was bloody freezing, around minus 5!! The geysers were plentiful and most impressive. Not the 30 foot high spouts of water that you get in places like Iceland but a whole series of smaller geysers and columns of steam which spead over a whole field. There was also some hot springs to bath in which we duely did once the sun came up and the air temperature rapidly increased. Later we visited a remote Chilean mountain village inhabited by all of 20 people! We really enjoyed San Pedro de Attacama, a whole new ball game in terms of scenery and atmosphere which set us up superbly for Bolivia. It also marked (bar one night in Santiago when we fly out of South America) our last port of call in Chile. Like Argentina, we loved the place for it's incredible scenery and range of activities. Never a dull moment here for sure!!