It was time to say goodbye to Argentina and Chile. Our last stop in Argentina was Salta. Here, we took the the cable car up the hill to get a spectacular view of the city, watched some local school kids let off flares, chant and dance in the main square (seemed to be their equivalent to our muck up day) and took a day trip to see some of the great natural wonders and taste local food and wine of the region.
From Salta we headed back to Chile via The Andes which again made for spectacular scenery. The Argentinian border crossing was at 4250m which left us feeling faint and with headaches - our first taste of altitude sickness, and the previous days goat stew certainly didn't help the situation. The corresponding Chilean border crossing was at our destination, San Pedro de Atacama, 160km from the Argentinian border. That's a helluva lot of no mans land!
San Pedro is a town in the driest desert in the world. However, it is surrounded by snow capped volcanoes. We visited some amazing places here including geysers at over 4000m. These are made when underground water reserves come into contact with hot rocks heated by volcanic magma. Due to the high altitude water boils at only 85 degrees, resulting in these tremendous steam outlets, resembling something out of a sci-fi movie.
On the way back from the geysers we visited a stream heated by the same water that drives the geysers. It was a very welcome escape from the cold.
Neighbouring San Pedrom is Death Valley, so called due to the fact that nothing can live there. It is a very cool place, and it also made for an excellent place to watch the sun set.
After some busy days of touring and bus rides it was nice to visit the laguna de Cejar, an extremely salty lagoon just outside of San Pedro. Here we relaxed by floating in the salty water and watching the majestic sunset while enjoying a Pisco Sour.
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