San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama is a gorgeous little town located in the Atacama desert, near the Bolivia and Chile border. The Atacama desert is the driest dessert in the world and has some incredible landscapes, including the Valle de Luna (valley of the moon) which gets it's name from the moon like terrain there. We spent a day exploring this area and looking at sparce landscapes with sand or rock mountains that seem to go on for ever.

We had also arrived in Chile just in time for dieciocho (18th September) which is like an Independence Day for Chile. This meant that there were Fondas (parties) all around the town for the week we were there, which provided a great atmosphere.

We also had a great group in our hostel with Martha from Barcelona, the two Daniella's from Australia, and Arturo and a big group of Chileans from Santiago. We drank lots of Pisco and went to a great Fonda.

The highlight of our time in Atacama was when we did a star gazing tour at one of the world's leading observatories. They had lots of amazing telescopes and we got to see incredible sights such as other galaxies, supernovas, Saturn, and the moon up close and personal. We also had a great Astronomer tell us all about the stars and space and blow our minds with information about what we were looking at.

We had such a great time here, in a town that we originally weren't even going to stop in, and today we're heading south to Valparaiso.