The journey fron Santiago to San Pedro is one hour with wings and air hosts, or 22 hours on a bus to the next town along, followed by another hour on a second bus. Being immeasurably wise we chose the day-long option. Best journey EVER. The seats recline into beds on coaches here because the distances are so great so we were totally comfortable, the landscape was unlike anything I'd ever seen - so dramatic and so variable - and we weren't bored for a minute.

We're in the Atacama desert now which at its driest points is the driest in the world and supports absolutely no life, but the bit we're in is quite unlike anything I'd imagined desert to be like. Sandy, yes, and it never rains, but just 2 hours from where we're staying is a network of underground rivers, spouting the highest geysers in the world (which we left our hostel at 4am this morning to visit, at -8C, after 3 hours of sleep) and the odd hot spring. Surrounding San Pedro and running the length of the desert are the Chilean Andes which never look the same colours from moment to moment, enormous volcanoes and hundreds of valleys in the most surprising shapes. Last night we went to the Valley de la Luna (so-named because it looks like the moon) at sunset, which was one of the most stunning landscapes I've ever seen, and earlier in the afternoon we visited the Valley de la Meurte (valley of death) which is utterly different but just as beautiful in the day time, and we slithered (no fat people there fortunately) through some salt caves.

After freezing at the geysers this morning at El Tatio, just north of San Pedro, we stopped off to see some rocks which are meant to look like the Virgin Mary but look more like a giant turd, then at a frozen river called the Rio Putajna ("River w****" in Italian, Clara says) - how there can be any kind of river in a desert escapes me - and then at an indigenous Atacameño village called Machuca where we had barbequed llama on a stick which was AMAZING, took pictures of a non-barbequed llama with decorations in its furr (we call it the party llama) and wore our alpaca jumpers.

This afternoon we cycled to see the ruins at Pukara de Quitor, the last settlement of the Atacameños before the Spaniards turfed them out in the 1530s and enslaved them. It must have been such a beautiful place to live because it's on a hill side with panoramic views of the Andes, and it felt really strange and sad to be walking around its remains which represent an entire community of people but are all but completely destroyed.

We bought some chachacoma leaves and coca sweets which are indigenous medicines for altitude sickness, in hope that we can embark on a three-day tour tomorrow morning of the volcanoes and Bolivian salt flats, where it's -15-25C every night, but the locals have warned us that it's going to snow tonight in the mountains at the border so our tour company might postpone it. Okay so it makes sense that at 5000m+ it might be a little cold and awkward to drive through, but why is it so bloody cold down here in the desert?

Off to be told the pipes have frozen again (presumably) which will make God knows how many days of not being able to wash. Enjoy your heatwaves. xxx