I arrived at the hostel in San Pedro around 7.30pm and soon met 2 lads from Nottingham and Pedro from Santiago. The 3 of us went into town for food and it was nice to have a Spanish speaker to translate the menu for us. Pete and Dave had spent 7 hours that day in the desert on their bikes when they got last and had no water with them and with one bike with a puncture. Needless to say they weren't feeling on top of the world and thus it was a fairly lowkey affair before i turned in.

Next morning i was up early and had a leftover instant soup for breakfast before being collected at 9am to go sandboarding! We took the road into the desert and then continued to drive up a mountain to what seemed like the middle of nowhere where we were told to don our boots and boards and look over the edge of the cliff where my eyes met a giant sand dune. After deciding to sit down on the board for the first dune we soon arrived at the dune of choice for the day. After a couple of attempts where it actually took longer to get down the dune than the massive climb back up i finally got the hang of it (well at least wasn't falling over). However, the effort needed to climb the dune each time combined with the heat meant it was all a a leisurely pace. Once i had completed a few flips and 360´s we called it a day and returned to town via a walk through a crazy canyon.

Back in town i showered and had a homemade lunch (rare event) before going to Valley De La Luna at 4pm. We had a good english speaking guide and went to many viewpoints to look over the desert and the strange rock formations shaped by the wind and occasional rains. The rocks were mainly white in colour because 4 days previously the town was hit by floods (which never, ever happens) and this meant all the surface rock was eroded exposing the salt that lies underneath. Some of the scenery was awesome, albeit very strange. After we headed to a viewpoint to watch the sunset which was pretty spectacular as the desert changed colour as well as the sky. Back in town after i went for a pizza with Pedro and was again benefiting from having a local able to convert the menu for me, even if it was pizza!

The next day i was up like a lark at 3.50am and ready to be collected at 4am to go and see Geyser Del Tatio for sunrise. I was eventually picked up at 4.45am along with a German couple and Suzanna from Brazil. After a rather poor sleep on the way there we arrived 4300m up a mountain at 6.30am just after sunset.

The geysers were awesome though. There were both steam and water geysers, some continuous and some cyclical but all of them impressive despite the -2C temperatures. We had to go for before sunrise because this is when the geysers are most impressive, as the temperature outside rises the geysers lose some of their steam so to speak!!!

After we had wandered around at our leisure we returned to the bus where we had some breakfast and then headed back down. We stopped off at some hot springs where i had a quick dip, but the springs were only hot on one side of the pool and given the freezing air temperature it meant it was a rather cramt affair. After we headed back down the mountain and stopped at a couple of wetlands that surrounded the river. Here we saw vicuna`s (like small llama) and llama before heading to an old village for an empanada.

We got back to San Pedro around 1pm and had another homemade lunch. In the afternoon i walked into town and booked a stargazing session and booked my 4 x 4 trip to Bolivia for 2 days later. However, a combination of the altitude and sunstroke meant i had a bad headache and spent most of the afternoon in bed. I got up and went back into town at 8pm to find out whether stargazing was on or not, but it was cancelled 45 minutes later due to cloud cover, so i thought it was an excuse to get an early night.

I had a lazy morning and enjoyed a good 12 hour sleep before having a homemade breakfast (Delia eat your heart out, stale bread and pate!!). After i went into town and was either online, booking another stargazing tour, or trying to change money into Bolivianos ready for my 4 x 4 ride across the the border. I went back to the hostel and socialised for a while and then agreed to cook a BBQ with a few of the others in the hostel. We went into town to buy the meat at 7.30pm and i paid for my stargazing tour. When i returned at 8pm though the BBQ had not been started, at 8.35pm the meat hit the grill but i had to be in town at 8.55pm, so I fried my steak and sausages in the kitchen instead and as soon as it was cooked enough (but still very raw) i put it in a bag and sprinted into town. I turned up at the agency, sweating and out of breath with a bag of meat in my hand, and soon after checking in i was swarmed by well behaved street dogs all giving me puppy eyes. By now the other people on the same tour as me definately thought i was a weirdo, so i threw a sausage down the street to get rid of the dogs and hid inside until we got in the car.

For the stargazing we went a couple of miles out of town where there was some telescopes set up. We were shown Jupiter and a couple of constellatons but considering it is meant to be one of the best night skies in the world (and it was awesome) the telescopes weren't really up to the job as they still just looked like small white blobs to me.

After i returned to the hostel and stayed up til 2am drinking with the group of friends that had formed, including Anaide, a French girl who i had signed up to the 4 x 4 tour to Bolivia with.

Next morning I was ready to be picked up at 7.45am to head off to Bolivia via the salt flats. A bus took us to the border where we got our exit stamp from Chile and then about 5 miles further on in the smallest immigration building i have ever seen I received my stamp showing I had entered Bolivia. From here it was a case of finding which 4 x 4 I was in and meeting the rest of the group...