After 3 days driving solidly off road through Uyuni, crossing the border into Chile the first simple pleasure to enjoy was the welcome return of a paved road. Descending down the Western edge of the Andes a couple of thousand meters into the Chilean Atacama desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama, it became more & more apparent that we were well & truely leaving the wilds of Bolivia behind. Good quality modern cars & buses make there way through the streets, as oppose to the old heaps of junk in Bolivia & immediately you notice the difference in the general appearance of the people as well. The majority of the Bolivian population are of indigenous descent, & as such have a very native Indian style appearance, whereas Chileans have a much more European appearance. Over the last few months as we have moved from Ecuador into Peru & then on into Bolivia, it has taken a couple of days to really pick up the feel of the new country as there are so many similarities in some respects between them. Though straight away upon entering Chile you know you are unmistakably in a different place.
San Pedro De Atacama is a very nice, laid back oasis town on the edge of what is reportedly the driest place on the planet - the Atacama Desert. Rainfall averages about 10mm's a year here & humidity levels never exceed 10% - a far cry from Colombia & Central America where the humidity levels were regularly in excess of 90%. The wind blows through Atacama regularly at up to 70mph (Spetember apparently being the windiest month...great timing on our behalf!), & with the desert wind whipping up sand & dust & pelting you with it it can be a little uncomfortable at times. Though bizarrely in amongst all this apparent inhospitability things here actually seem to function pretty well. The showers in our hostel for example were about the best we have had yet on the whole trip - albeit with huge signs everywhere about keeping them brief due to the obvious water shortage, internet connections were as good as back home (something that was a real problem in Bolivia) & all the restuarants we ate in actually managed to serve good quality food that was served at the same time - quite a novelty after a couple of months of watching each other take our turns in eating our meals.
Whilst here we were still with the 2 blokes from our Uyuni group - Antonio (Mex/Eng) & Timo (Swiss), & after a day of relaxing we took a ride out to the Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon) just a couple of km's outside of San Pedro, 
an area of unbelievable desert landscape so named obviously due to its resemblance to the surface of the moon due to strange geologic formations & wind sculpted shapes. It's here that it is thought the controversial US moon landing photos were actually taken rather than the moon itself, & countless film producers have used the location as the set for films based on other planets. We stayed out on top of a dune to watch the sunset, & how the colours of the Andes in the distance change as the light fades. Desert sunsets are probably winning the award for most dramatic sunsets so far, as both the Atacama & Huacachina in Peru have both been pretty incredible.That night Chile were playing Brazil in a World Cup qualifier game, so the four of us went along with a Chilean & Japanese guy we had met to watch the game. The typical South American passion for football was alive & well in the bar we watched the game - & in the face of stiff Brazilian opposision Chile put up a brave fight, though ended up losing 4-2. It was all taken in good spirits however, as none of the Chileans really expected to beat Brazil anyway, so the partying continued & we ended up playing cards with a group of Chileans back at someones house until dawn.
Nothing much happens in San Pedro particularly quickly, there is such a laid back pace to the place that you can't help but get in sync with it. So we spent another couple of days doing very little other than eating, drinking & sleeping. Antonio & I snapping out of it one afternoon & hiring a couple of bikes out & heading off for a ride in the desert (its not all sand, so it's not as hard as it may sound), off to an old desert fortress built into the side of a dune & exploring a pretty impressive cave, before riding onto a place where there was a labyrinth of tight gulleys in amongst towering stone & sand formations. We managed to scramble our way up top of one of them where we were rewarded with some amazing views over the desert.
A few days here in the Atacama Desert was a great addition to the previous few days spent around Uyuni in Bolivia - it feels like we had just spent a week on Mars or something!
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