San Pedro de Atacama - Recovering and exploring its surroundings

After our first night back in civilization, we first enjoyed a huge breakfast, before we took a bus to Calama, the next bigger city, in order to get some stuff done that we needed a city for… On the way back to the bus terminal, someone tried to steal Flo’s (one of the French guys) backpack, so we spent the rest of the evening at the Police station, which in fact was quite funny (at least for me, as I was the only one who really spoke Spanish…), as the police officers seemed to be more interested in the soccer game than in working and that didn’t even care that I constantly made fun of them... However, eventually I had to tell these police officers that they definitely should hurry up a bit, as we had to catch the last bus back to San Pedro… The next day we didn’t do a lot, I was still physically and mentally completely wasted from the last few days and after long discussions we decided to find a way to get to Bolivia without cycling, as I was just not up for another week fighting against the wind… The next afternoon we and most other cyclists staying at the hostel (we were almost 10!) wanted to cycle to the Valle de la Luna (moon valley) to watch the sunset. However, already at the first crossing we did not agree on what direction we should go, and obviously we didn’t end up in the Valle de la Luna, but at a nice viewpoint over the Cordillera de la Sal, a mountain ridge covered by a layer of salt, so it looked like snowed mountains in the middle of the desert…

Cordillera de la sal

It really looks like these mountains were covered by snow...

However, we were not alone up there, hundreds of tourists joined to witness a beautiful sunset with amazingly colored clouds.

Beautiful sunset!

I could look at this sky forever!! :-)

After everyone left, Stefan and I set up our sleeping bags below the sky and hoped that the clouds would vanish eventually to let us enjoy the stars… It became a cold but great night: The first time I woke up, there were no clouds anymore, but a huge moon shining brightly. The second time I woke up, the moon was gone behind the mountains and the starts were incredibly impressive!! I just stared up at the sky enjoying its beauty and thereby I was able to observe several shooting stars, it was just amazing!! :-) In the morning we observed the sunrise from our sleeping bags, went back to sleep until the sun warmed our bags and then we cycled towards the Valle de la Luna. The Caves in the moon valley were extremely impressive; it was so easy to imagine how a long time ago vivid water made this stony formations look so surreal!

Interesting stone formations next to the caves in the Valle de la Luna

Also the Major Sand Dune was really great to see, the view from the top was just amazing.

Stefan on top of the Duna Mayor - He's soooo tiny :-)

Surreal formations of stone and sand...

But soon the wind was growing so strong that we found ourselves in the middle of a sandstorm, so we decided to head back to San Pedro. In the afternoon we surprisingly met Beat and Luzia in town, the two Swiss cyclists we travelled with on the southern Carretera Austral, so we had to drink something with them as there was a lot to tell each other! The next day we didn’t do anything fancy, just got lots of stuff done in the village. The following morning we got up pretty early in order to make a day trip to Laguna Cejar together with Guilherme, the Warmshowers guy in town, and his dog Sariri. As soon as we left San Pedro we found ourselves in the middle of the desert; and once again I figured that the desert is not my thing… However, when we got there I was completely fascinated: Several lagoons in the middle of the desert, some almost a perfect mirror and others very deep, reflecting the sunlight in all kinds of colors and so clear, that one could see every single stone on the ground…

I still think Laguna Cejar is a magical place...

The almost perfect mirror of Laguna Cejar

Just amazing this place!!!

After the mandatory photo session, Guilherme and Stefan both went floating in the salty lagoons; for me, however, it was too cold. In the afternoon we just enjoyed the sun for a while, before Stefan and I continued to the Ojos del Salar, two almost perfectly round holes in the desert filled with freshwater!

Ojos del Salar - Freshwater in the middle of the desert...

Back at the lagoons, I was able to observe two flamingos before we started our way back to San Pedro. It took us quite a while to get back, as Sariri’s paws seemed to be hurt and he didn’t want to run anymore… As we’d leave San Pedro the next day, we went for a beer with Guilherme in the evening to say good-bye and then fell to bed really tiredly.