Day one of our plans started to come together after our very civilised breakfast at 0800. We met Santiago at 0930,were kitted out with mountain bikes and, half gloves and helmets. I decided to experiment with my new Go Pro camera so fitted that to my helmet and we headed off on the 11.2 mile cycle to the turquoise salt lakes of Cejar.
The first third was on a quite bumpy dirt road followed by a much better tarmac section. It was relatively flat with good views of the Andes to our left - complete with a steaming active volcano, the salt flats and the two other smaller ranges -The Domeyko and de la Sal to our right.
We had a support vehicle behind us in case of punctures but importantly carrying the chairs and refreshments we had on our arrival at the lake. Two of the lakes are left to the birds - we could see a few flamingos - while the public can swim in the other one - with the high salinity its more floating. I forgot the swim gear but was happy to photo others while eating a fruit kebab and drinking local sweet fruit juice.
As our cycling abilities surprised Santiago he asked if we wanted to cycle back - people normally take the car- we agreed as I need to train for Lands End to John O Groats - we were back in 40 minutes - yet another surprise. John however took the car for the last third over the rough ground as his wrist hurt from a coming together with the shed at home while trying to put the ladder away!!
Back at Awasi - we headed into town to see if we could get some money out with our trusty visa debit card - no luck - eventually when I phoned on Monday we found that Visa had a problem throughout Chile and we would draw a blank until it was fixed - sometime!! Luckily I had some cash and a MasterCard so we should be ok.
After a sumptuous lunch, a snooze and a swim we prepared for our afternoon activity a walk in Moon Valley - so named because of its landscape.
We started at 5pm as it was beginning to cool down any earlier would have been suicide.
We were dropped off on one side of the de la Sal range and were picked up on the other side, having walked down a dune ( and picked up a couple of pounds of sand), traversed the salt flats, walked through a dry canyon - which does fill during high rain events - descended dry small, but tricky, waterfalls, stooped through small caves and made a final ascent.
After a day expanding in the hot sun you could hear the salt crystals snapping and cracking as they slowing cooked and contracted. If you looked carefully under the surface dirt you could see enormous blocks of salt.
Santiago explained that he had not done the walk for a year as it had been closed - after the last big rain event it had flooded and they wanted it to dry and evaporate naturally to revealed the thin white crust on the flats- it looked just like snow and was a very delicate thin crust. The salt had been washed from the blocks in the hills. The landscape was extraordinary and the salt crystals and the different ways they had been eroded and deposited fascinating. Back at the car we drove further into moon value to take a few photos before going to the edge of Death Valley to watch the sunset - unusual because the setting sun was not that spectacular but the effect of the last sun on the landscape to its East was amazing as we watched the colours change. As ever the skyline was dominated by the cone of the extinct volcano which watches over San Pedro and seemingly gets into every photo - Licancabur @ 5916m
As the sunset was late ( Southern Hemisphere summer