Although it was a hideously early morning start which is never good for a birthday, who can say they've been to both Bolivia and Chile for their birthday?! I was pretty tired when we arrived at our hostel in San Pedro and not too impressed to find we had a tiny room with bunk beds. However, the others went out for lunch while I had a shower and then Bryan and I went for lunch on the plaza (after getting money out and doing laundry of course!). We had got the exchange rate from JP and were surprised at our bargain lunch until I went on the internet and found out he'd made up a rate that gave us 4 times better value for money than the actual exchange rate. So unfortunately it turns out Chile is expensive, and apparently so are the remaining countries in South America that we visit.

I returned back to my room for a snooze to find it plastered with balloons! That was a really nice surprise and apparently the others had all been blowing them up while we were gone. There were about 80 of them it was hard to move in our room for the sea of balloons! I had a little birthday nap before going out and exploring the town a bit more properly. It is very small and seems to be pretty much made for tourists. It seems like most people come here to book tours for the salt flats because nearly every shop was a tour agency advertising the tours. I still liked the town though it has a relaxed bohemian vibe to it.

In the evening we went out to a Mexican restaurant for my birthday meal. I say meal...we never actually ordered food because when you ordered happy hour drinks you got a free taco with it which was enough for most of us. We then went off in search for a club and somewhere to dance but this is when we found out the shocking truth...dancing is banned in San Pedro! How crazy is that?! Apparently there is/was a problem with people going to clubs and taking drugs so they stopped allowing places to play music. I was absolutely gutted that I couldn't go out dancing on my birthday but we still had an alright night and we found a restaurant/bar where we could have a couple of drinks.

Throughout the evening one of the girls in the group had been practising her Spanish skills with a waiter and found out there was a party on the beach by the river nearby which she was keen to go to. The rest of us were unsure if they were trustworthy or not and our guide JP didn't seem to think it was a good idea. We stood outside our hostel discussing it for a while and one girl, Kim left her camera in reception while we went outside to tell the guys we weren't going. As we were going to bed she noticed her camera had disappeared and the man in reception told us the guys we were talking to came in and must have taken it. Kim was certain she closed the door behind her and that no one came into the reception and the receptionists story kept changing. JP started interrogating the receptionist and Kim was pleading for him just to give her back her memory card with the photos on. We weren't having any luck so a group of us went back to the bar to try and find the waiter while Bryan and Joe stayed behind. The bar was closed and the security guard outside was unhelpful. We walked a tearful Kim back to the hostel where the boys told us the camera had "turned up". They had checked the grounds of the hostel, even though Kim was sure she left it in reception, then they went inside and saw the receptionist come outside. He went back in and turned the lights on for the grounds and as if by magic it suddenly appeared. It seems pretty obvious it was the receptionist which put us all on edge because he has access to all of our rooms. It wasn't a great end to my birthday but at least Kim got her camera back.

The next day we decided to take full advantage of the warm, low altitude sunshine (being at altitude for so long where it was so often freezing had taken its toll on us) and hire some bikes to cycle the moon valley. This was very different to the moon valley we visited in La Paz because it was much larger, completely different terrain and really beautiful. We had only just cycled to the entrance and bought our tickets when Johanna's bike had a puncture. Bryan and Joe set to work replacing the inner tube only to find the bike pump they had given us didn't work. We had to wait around for an hour and half while they tried to fix it but in the end JP had to hitchhike a lift back to town to exchange the bike and cycle back with a new one. The cycle was quite tough and it didn't help that I had a dodgy stomach again so had not eaten all day. Our first stop was a cave which we could walk through. It turned out to be a lot more challenging than we expected and we had to crawl through small, dark spaces and climb up steep rocks. Flip flops wasn't the best choice in footwear but it was very fun! By the time we had finished, JP had already returned with a new bike and we were ready to move on.

An incredibly steep hill later (and yes most of us had to walk it not just me!) and we had to lock up our bikes to trek to the viewpoint. By this stage I was absolutely exhausted but I finally made it to the top for some absolutely incredible and unexpected views. There was a huge untouched sand dune and on one side of it was perfectly smooth sand whereas on the other side was a craggy, rocky surface like something from another planet. In the distance, past the desert were the mountains. We were supposed to go to another viewpoint to watch the sunset but after all the palava with bike chain we didn't have time. This meant we were early for the sunset so had a lot of time to relax and soak up the view. It started getting windy up so high and I was getting chilly. Me and Bryan walked back down before the sunset but I don't think we missed much because all of the mountains in the background would have blocked it out anyway. We then had a long, cold and dangerous cycle back in the pitch black with only poor helmet lights. That part of the cycle wasn't too well thought through and we were trying to keep everyone together for safety but the cycle had taken its toll on some people. We made it back in one piece but very cold! We had planned to go to an observatory in the desert for some of the best stargazing in the world but because it was a full moon we weren't able to because it would be too bright. This didn't matter because we would be able to do it in the next place, La Serena...or so we thought. You'll have to read the next instalment to find out what happened!