San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)

We were dropped off in San Pedro de Atacama, close to the main square. We headed straight for the tourist office to find out exactly where our B&B was located (given that we were only in Chile for a few days, we hadn't bought a Lonely Planet).  It turned out that it was actually quite far outside the centre of San Pedro but, having been "reliably" informed by a girl in the tourist office office who was barely in her teens (who had to draw on the map where we were heading to as it was not on the map - never a good sign!) that the B&B was only a 10-15 minute walk away we set off with all our stuff on our backs. 25 minutes later, thorougly exhausted from carrying 20+ kilos on our backs in the blazing sun (how do the porters on the hikes do it?!) and having taken a few wrong turns (my nickname is "Tom Tom Mortimer" for good reason!), we managed to find our B&B.

The owner of the B&B spoke perfect English (she had lived in Westerham in Kent for a year when she was younger) and told us to treat the place like home, which was great. Sarah was quick to point out that this did not mean I could leave my dirty clothes lying around anywhere and play my music at full blast! Still, what was great was that we were able to cook for ourselves in the evening in their kitchen - funny the home comforts you miss!

So, we had a lazy few days with the exception of a bike ride to the Vallee de la Luna (Moon Valley) which was great fun but a little longer than I had led Sarah believe (i.e. seven hours on a bike instead of three). The valley, which is some 8 miles west of San Pedro, was a spectacular place, not least for its resemblence in places to the surface of the moon - it has various stone and sand formations which have been created through the centuries by floods and wind and has also given it an impressive range of color and texture.  It is also considered to be one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. Apparently, a prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley's dry and forbidding terrains.

We really enjoyed San Pedro and another period of downtime but now it was time for Mendoza and some serious red wine and bife de chorizo - we simply could not wait!