It's an 18-hour bus journey from La Serena to San Pedro de Atacama, a tiny dusty town on the edge of the Atacama Desert with fewer than 3000 inhabitants. During the night while driving we climb to over 3000 metres and my ears pop several times.
In San Pedro the 'must-see' is the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) and I arrange a tour which will take me first to the Valley of Death which is only 2km from town followed by Moon Valley.
It's 35 degrees in the Valley of Death, so called because someone mistook the word for the planet Mars (Marte) for the Spanish word for death (muerte) and the name stuck. The valleys are part of the salt mountain range that have been eroded by wind and rain leaving towering mineral sculptures.
The Valle de la Luna is an alien rocky landscape, given its name because of its resemblance to the moon's surface. I feel like I'm in another world. In the early evening I climb to point between a rocky ridge and a perfect sand dune and watch the sun cast long shadows across the spectacular landscape until it finally sets.
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