Diego, wake up it's time to go......

On Tuesday we decided to have a slow start to the day..... 

When we'd confirmed our Star Gazing Tour the previous day Ben and I had booked us all on a trip to go Sand Boarding and then on to visit Moon Valley and it wasn't starting until 2pm so it was lie-ins and late breakfasts all round.

We all met up at the pick up point for our tour, unfortunately the one person who didn't turn up was our guide but after an hour or so the agent that we'd booked through managed to find a reserve in Diego who looked about 15 with smashed glasses and the most peculiar beard, grown I imagine to make him look 15.

Whilst he was quite possibly the least effective guide and low energy person I've met we had a great day. 

Sand Boarding was hard work, so much so that Abs and I only did it once - walking up hill on sand, madness! Ben and Anthony went a few times before we called time and decided to wake Diego up to take us to Moon Valley.

Natural!

Naturals!

Moon Valley is a strange barren landscape with sand and stone formations that have been shaped over time by the wind - there hasn't been a single drop of rain in Atacama for over 400 years... It's credited as being the driest place in the world after Antarctica. These are facts that I found out before we arrived I don't get the impression that Diego had got to this part of his studies, or perhaps he fell asleep in that class......

The walk to the Great Sand Dune

At each point of interest Diego dropped us off and told us to be back in 10 minutes, it was very funny and not a problem he'll never know it but he pretty much made the day for me and to be fair when we asked to go to watch the sunset he pulled it out of the bag.

Sun setting Moon Valley

Sunset Moon Valley

After drinking our Cristal (remember it's a beer) sundowner it was pack to town for dinner and then Abs, Phoebe and I sat outside a bar close to our hostels and drank too many too strong Caipirinhas which resulted in my first hangover of the trip, I wasn't in a fit state to do anything other than drink fruit juice and eat ice cream the next day and can only imagine how Phoebe got through her 13 hour bus journey to Salta in Argentina.

Last supper....

Next is our first 16 hour bus journey which is to La Serena it will break the back of our trip to Santiago which is where we need to cross over in to Mendoza in Argentina.

Raine x