Arriving in Chile’s Atacama’s Desert is overwhelming due to two major problems:

1. It is far too beautiful that you may experience shock.
2. There are far too many wonderful-sounding sights to see and things to do.

Our Lonely Planet was bursting with suggestions and as we walked through the streets of San Pedro we discovered from the cluster of tourist offices that there was even more things to do than our 2014 LP guide had told us.

But there was one MUST see (that was apparently even mustier than the 286.4 other ‘must see’s’ in the area), and that was a visit to the unearthly landscape of the Valle de la Luna — Moon Valley. Which according to Lonely Planet can be described as… ‘one of the driest places on the planet, the valley is made up of dunes, caverns, sharp peaks and natural depressions, creating an unbelievable moon-like scene in the Salt Mountain Range’

Space travel may not be in our touristy grasp quite yet but trust me, a visit to Valle de la Luna seems pretty darn close.

Valle de la Luna is an 8-mile (13-km) drive west of San Pedro and is the quickest journey to feel like you have landed on the Moon… Well the quickest from San Pedro at least.
We had arrived only that morning and by early afternoon we had signed up for a tour with the local tour operator, Desert Adventure, and were on our way to the moon Valle de la Luna.

We jumped in the minivan and set out into the heart of the desert. We started our journey with a few scenic stops including Crodillera de Sal (Salt Mountain Range), a rugged collection of canyons and sand dunes. As it was our first day in any form of elevated altitude the short uphill desert walk seemed much more challenging than it should have. But we soldiered on – we photo-took, we hiked and we even did a little bit of rock climbing through some funky rock formations. (Some of the older group members didn’t make it through all the caves… But yes, we went on without them  don’t worry, we eventually found them later).

My Mum would probably refer to it as her ‘first day of bootcamp’ on our South American adventure…

But every rock we clambered through, every sandy hill we climbed and every breathtaking view was worth braving the heat and altitude – we had stumbled upon a pretty spectacular part of this planet… And we hadn’t even arrived at the main attraction yet!

As the sun lowered we headed to the magnificent sunset scene itself – Valle de la Luna. The dramatic lunar landscape of wind-eroded hills surrounding a crust-like valley floor, which was once the bottom of a lake. An immense sand dune swept across the valley dusting the scene like snow, even if there is a snowballs chance in hell of snow ever landing here, but it creates a great place to sit and survey some pretty phenomenal scenery.
It is absolutely true that the valley is at its best at sunset, when it’s transformed into a spellbinding palette of golds and reds, even though we had to share the view with a horde of fellow visitors – each wanting that cliche iconic dare-devil-esc photo on that precarious cliff. (Yes there was a ridiculous line… And yes I did line up to get a photo… Because I’m a cliche daredevil…)

DESERT ADVENTURE

Tocopilla esquina Caracoles

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