We flew from Santiago to Calama and then got a taxi to San Pedro de Atacama on Monday 9th November. The road from Calama to San Pedro was through desert landscapes, there was just sand and shingle as far as you could see until San Pedro popped up in the middle of a valley, a small oasis of trees and buildings with the Andes in the background and desert and salt flats in every other direction.
The Atacama desert is the driest desert in the world and San Pedro is a small town of sandy cobbled streets and dozens of tour operators built around a pretty plaza.
We stayed in a hostel just out of town which included free mountain bike hire so on Tuesday afternoon we cycled to the Valle de la Luna to watch the sunset. It's an 11km ride to the park entrance and from there you can cycle another 11km round trip to see different parts of the valley, named because it looks like the surface of the moon (although I thought parts looked more like Mars). The cycling was so hard! It was all uphill, into the wind and in 32 degree heat. We wondered why most ppl catch a minibus there - now we know! There weren't many other cyclists but we felt really rewarded by the end of it as it was such a struggle, especially trying to cycle over the sandy bits. We watched the sun go halfway down and then cycled back, stopping to watch the sunset as we went. The way back was way easier and much more enjoyable as it was downhill and downwind. In front of us were the Andes bathed in pink light and behind us was the valley In yellow and gold, it was so pretty. We took some pretty rad bike selfies.

On Wednesday we got up at 4:30am for the Taito Geiser tour which is the highest Geiser field in the world and was -3C when we arrived. After visiting the geisers we went swimming in some natural hot springs (they were practically boiling!) and visited cactus valley. The cacti grow 1-2cm a year and once they are over 4 meters they grow another arm for balance, anything over 10 meters they usually fall over. We also visited a small town (population 12!) called Machuca and ate a lama kebab - it was tasty but quite chewy. We saw lots of wildlife on the trip - Vicunas, a small marsupial rabbit, flamingos and lamas - and met 3 really nice Belgian girls on our bus.
On Thursday morning we rode our bikes up to the Pukara de Quitor ruins of the Incas which is at 2617m (Ben has downloaded an altimeter on his phone...). The view from the mirador was across San Pedro, it was awesome and we were the only ones up there. In the afternoon we booked to go sandboarding in the Atacama desert on the same trip as the Belgian girls, it was all girls except Ben! It was a bit slow at first but we both picked it up really easily and Ben's head got even bigger when the instructor told him he looks like James Franco! (Also, randomly we saw a wasp giving birth on the side of the van, don't see that every day!)
We ate out a lot in San Pedro and the local speciality is called Pastel de choclo which is a beef, chicken, sweet mash, egg and raisin dish - it was really good! Must look up how to make it. They offer great set menus called carte de dias where you get a 3 course lunch or dinner for the equivalent of £8.
We both really liked San Pedro, it was chilled out and sunny, about 32 degrees (a nice change from the past couple of weeks) and the longest place we've stayed in a while. Getting used to the altitude was hard, it makes you out of breath after even the smallest activity. But at least we are now acclimatised to it and ready for our salt flats tour!