Well San Pedro de Atacama has turned out to be somewhere I have stayed longer than planned, well, didn't really plan for how long I would stay but have been here a week already! As is often the case I was busy my first few days here, doing tours and then have spent some time relaxing, or you could say being a bit lazy! (see part 2!)

I arrived last Wednesday at about midday after sleeping pretty well on the bus. Watched a few films and had our evening snack given out at 11.30, a bit late I thought and was glad I had had my early dinner! Saw a lovely sunset as we were driving along the coast and once I was awake as we were driving through the Atacama Desert towards San Pedro you could see desert of course plus some evidence of the mining trade which takes place in this area-I did have the curtains closed a lot of the time due to the bright sunshine! The Atacama Desert is the most arid desert in the world and San Pedro is a gateway point to various activities and there is plenty to choose from. The first afternoon I did very little, mostly because there was a sand storm in the desert and the wind was blowing sand and dust around San Pedro, not very pleasant to be out in!

Thursday- tour to the Moon Valley- Valle de la Luna

So this is one of San Pedro's most popular tours. You visit a few different places in the 'Cordillera de la Sal', the Salt Mountain Range. We first stopped in the Moon Valley, so called because of its likeness to the surface of the moon. The landscape is beautiful, with huge sand dunes and lots of rock formations. The views in every direction were fantastic, including looking out towards the volcanoes. Next stop was the 'Valle de la Muerte' apparently so called because of a misunderstanding as it shouldn't really be called the Death Valley but the Mars Valley as the formations there are said to be like landscapes on Mars. The stop here had to be quick though as were running late for getting to the place you go to watch sunset- we arrived just in time and saw the beautiful changing colours of the mountains in the valley- stunning.

Friday- tour to the high plateau lagoons 'lagunas altiplanicas'

I was being a bit indecisive about whether to this tour but on return from the Moon Valley I decided and got it booked. It had been recommended by a friend I have met travelling who had done it and I'm glad I did it- once again more stunning scenery. The trip started at 7am when it was still dark and cold! One (ok the only?!) benefit of getting up so early when it is still dark is to see the stars here, they are amazing as the sky is so clear and at there aren't many lights on at that time. On the way we had silhouetted views of the mountains and volcanos as the sun was coming up. Our first stop was Chaxa lagoon on the huge Atacama Salt Flat. There we saw 3 different types of flamingos who were busy eating- having seen what they eat (algae and tiny invertebrates) it's no wonder they spend so much time eating! There were fantastic reflections in the lagoon, of the flamingos, the clouds, the mountains- so beautiful. The salt flat was not flat as I was kind of expecting but jagged salt crusts. With the back drop of the mountains it was very scenic and I think it was a good time of day to see it, despite the cold! We continued with a stop at a very small village, Socaire (380 inhabitants) and then went on, climbing higher in altitude, to lakes Miscanti and Minique which are at 4,200m. They were also beautiful with snow-capped mountains and volcanoes in the background. On the way back we stopped at another small village, Toconao, before going back to San Pedro. It was a really good day out, but pretty cold, despite quite a few layers! But there was colder still to come!

Saturday- tour to the Geysers of Tatio (at 4,300m).

Another popular San Pedro tour- the bad thing about this tour was having to be up and ready by 4am! I didn't sleep well prior to getting up at 3.20 by which time I had given up on trying to sleep and had probably only slept about 2 hours. Once again though the stars at that time of the morning were so clear and I had plenty of time to look at them since I was standing outside waiting to be picked up until 4.45! Knowing it was going to be colder than the previous day's tour I increased by total layers from 5 to 7, but despite a vest top, a T-shirt, 2 thermal long sleeve tops, my hoodie, my fleece and rain jacket plus hat, scarf thing (I always forget the name!) and gloves and tights under my trousers I was freezing- minus 8 degrees on arrival at 7am and I think I may never have been so cold in my life! Until the sun came up the only part of my body exposed was my eyes (and mouth only if I needed to speak!) and even when the sun came up it was still very cold. When we first got there we had breakfast as the sun was coming up then walked around to see the geysers and the guide told us all about them. There is a reason the tour starts so early- to see the geysers at their most active, so you see the bubbling pools with the geysers' vapours shooting upwards. It looks a bit like clouds being released from the ground. Once we had toured a few of the 40 geysers, you had the option of going in the hot springs pool-no thanks! The thought of stripping down to my swimming costume in that temperature was not at all appealing and it would have been even colder once you got out! The surrounding mountains looked beautiful as the sun came up and the geysers looked even more impressive against the back drop of the blue sky. On the drive back to San Pedro we saw quite a lot of wildlife which was good; including different birds, vicunas and guanacos (from the Camelid family- similar to llamas), a fox, a rhea (like an ostrich) and some viscachas (a wild relative of the Chinchilla). Some of these animals only live at high altitudes, ie vicunas only live above 4000m. We also stopped at a tiny village called Machuca. I can only imagine how cold they are at night though in their small adobe houses at 4000m. They sell llama kebabs (the kind on stick not doner kebabs) and also empanadas, though to our disappointment there were no goat's cheese ones! I declined the chance to try llama but did enjoy the empanada :-) We got back about 1pm and I tried to sleep in the hammock in the sun in afternoon though for some reason I couldn't get to sleep…slept well that night though- 10 hours! (The clocks went back too so that gave me an extra hour!)