Biking through the desert

12 November 2009, San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)

Our 4 day tour of southwest Bolivia ends at the deserted border post between Bolivia and Chile, it is literally a hut in the middle of the desert.

We get picked up by a private bus that brings us to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, this is a descent of 2000m in a bit less than one hour (luckily on an incredibly good road, a great relief after 4 days on dirt tracks). Nevertheless San Pedro is still at 2,400 m. San Pedro is a small village, an oasis actually in the middle of the Atacama desert, the driest desert in South America. We do several trips on the bike - the terrain is mostly flat though hot, dry and sandy, we needed lots of sunblock and even more water. To cool off we visit a swiming pool fed by natural springs surrounded by dessert on all sides. We also go to the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) by bike: a surreal landscape of salt mountains, sand dunes, and rock formations. Gaudi thought we ended up in a Star Trak episode, and was looking around for green creatures with antennas on their heads. Well we did not see any aliens but did come across a film set, where a double bed was placed on a large sand dune.

Pictures here