+ After the exciting days through the Bolivian desert we arrived in another one: the Atacama Desert. This one is in Chile. We thought we were a bit crazy (or stupid) to remain in such extreme conditions. The reality was that the Atacama desert is much lower in altitude (at 2500m) so it was really warm during the day (like in summer in the south of Spain). Yes, the nights were cold but... who cares when one sleeps in a comfy bed of a comfy hostel?
+ We really liked San Pedro de Atacama (which is a lost city in the middle of nowhere ) because its adobe houses, its adobe church and the good weather. However, the town is just made for tourist and we couldn´t really find local people beside those working in tourism.
+ San Pedro is the launching point to visit some breathtaking Quebradas (rock formations and cannyons), Volcanos, geysers, lagoons and all the stuff we had just seen in Bolivia. With the difference that it is much more expensive and very touristy. So we took it easy and we just visited one of the cool places called Valle de la luna (Moon valley). It is a protected area with cannyons, huge dunes and a salty cave. We did it all by bike!! Yes, imagine us biking under a big sun on the driest desert in the world. It sounds stupid? It is stupìd.... But anything to save some euros ;) Of course we had a lot of fun and at the end enjoyed the bike ride a lot.
+ San Pedro de Atacama is also one of the best places in the world to obseve the sky, and the Universe. The reason is that it rains less than 30 days per year and it is not cloudy more than 60 in total (like in Brussels, right?). That's why many countries have installed astronomical observatories in the region. We joined a night tour to learn about our Universe, how to read and interpretate the sky and to look through the little lense of those gigantic telescopes. Unfortunately, we won't be able to use our acquired knowledge back at home because we were observing the sky from the Southern hemisphere. So don´t expect us to save your life when you get lost in the middle of the forest ;)
+ We could see twin stars, dying stars, some kind of "star-dust" and other stuff, but without any doubt, Jupiter with its moons and our Moon were the best. We could even make a picture through one of the telescopes.
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