San Pedro de Atacama

The pictures are small, but if you click on them you can see the full sized image.

This is San Pedro de Atacama! A charming town made of entirely adobe in the north of Chile. I spent this past weekend there with five other girls. We had the time of our lives, it is easily my favorite spot so far in South America. The scenery is incredible, the weather is beautiful and the people are friendly. The picture above is of the "main street" where our hostel was located.
The first full day there we went sandsurfing in Death Valley, picture above. The landscape was so dramatic. The sand dunes were enormous and at first I was completely terrified. We had a very brief instructional session and then we were off! And as you can see below, I was totally successful!
It was such a great time, and a great workout. Every time you made it down you had to hike back up the hill which was already high, and in sand it was no picnic. We did it for about two hours, which was quite enough, and then hopped back in the van to watch the sunset. Below is another picture of the hill.
Below is the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) so named, I believe, because it looks like a moonscape. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and once the sun went down the colors became spectacular!
This is a picture of me in the valley. Sunburnt and tired after a day of sandsurfing, but happy to be there.
This is a picture of me in front of Laguna Cejar. This was the coolest thing ever! It's a lake in the middle of nowhere in the desert with seven times the salinity of the ocean. It's as salty as the Dead Sea! As a result, you are completely buoyant and can float without even trying. It's a really strange sensation, but I imagine it feels like being in zero gravity. It's literally hard to keep your feet beneath you in the water, you're that floaty.
Here's a picture of me floating!
This is a picture of me next to one of the Ojos de Salar (there are two.) These are two small bodies of water also in the middle of the desert. Apparently, their origins are unknown, as is their depth. They are literal infinite abysses. We jumped in to wash all the salt off ourselves from the laguna.
This is the other ojo, with a beautiful backdrop. It was an incredible sight!
Next stop was the Atacama Salt Flat, a giant expanse that is a lake half the year, and a giant field of salt the other half once the water has evaporated. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. At first glance it appears to be an ice covered lake but as soon as you're out on it it's clear that it's something else entirely. It was huge too!
It reached almost all the way to the mountains (volcano in the distance.)
The salt flat at sunset.
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 AM to make the 2.5 hour drive on dirt roads in a van without seat belts (standard Chile) to see the Geiseres del Tatio. It was negative ten degrees celsius and this was another landscape that appeared to be from another world. It almost looked prehistoric. The geysers are most active at dawn, which is why we had to be there so early.
After the geysers we took the long way home and stopped by a river, an active volcano in the background.
And one of the last sights was a herd of llamas drinking and eating along the road! This one looked right at me!

The trip was amazing. I'd love to go back, there's so much more to do! And everything was really cheap, for what you get to do. I am totally exhausted but had so much fun it was entirely worth it. If anyone is ever in South America you must visit San Pedro.