Drago D13 - Moon valley

A lesiurley morning started with breakfast and good coffee at last at Roots Cafe. A reggae themed place with a wall of famous people to puzzle over. Back in the hostel we gorged on wifi to upload photos and update blogs. Life admin done we walked along the main street popping into the souvenir shops to get the best deal. I bought a colourful scarf, bag and purse. I'll have to wait until Bolivia for my Mate cup.

Mid afternoon we joined a tour to moon valley guided by a lovely local called Miriam. She already wore a scarf securely round her neck and warned of sandstorms on our trip.

Moon valley is so called because it's so dry that it shares the same conditions as the surface of the moon. It looked more like the surface of Mars with red rock caked in salt crystals. We battled 70km winds and a sandstorm to climb the ridges for the panoramic view. A great sand dune lay on one side, while red rock ridges rose up either side. We had a pit stop at a rock formation called the three Marys by a Belgian priest. I was more impressed by the rock next to it that loked like a dinasour head! Passed the "amphitheatre" and made our way to the caves hewn out by the wind.

Putting our head torches on we wove our way through rock corridors before entering the cave. Slip and slidding, crouching and climbing we made our way through and came back out into the light to another panoramic view of red rock towers.

In the same bus was a group from a rival tour group that tested our patience. Thank god they weren't on our tour as I may have left. Talking loudly that they were missing a football game, they were ignoring the amazing landscape around them. The only point in which they became animated was when pulling moonies in moon valley 🙈. It might sound mean but some people are tourists with a capital T.

Back on the bus we continued in to Coyote rock, this is where we had the stargazing tour the night before. In daylight we could see that we were on a high cliff. As the sun set in the distance the rocks turned into deeper shade of reds. Leaving Chile tomorrow we cross the altiplano to Bolivia.Read more