Moon and Mars Valleys

Day 236 – San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

I was supposed to go on the Moon Valley sunset tour last Sunday, but I got a bit sick and the agency agreed to reschedule it to Tuesday.

(We got a water blackout the same day, nothing like being sick when there is no running water.)

We left the agency in the middle of the afternoon en route to the Moon Valley. More precisely, we went on a lookout above the valley. Full sun, dry air, we are still in a desert!

After a few explanations and numerous pictures, we left for the Mars Valley. As it was named first by a French-speaking missionary, the Spanish-speaking local soon named it the Death Valley for the similarity in the sounds.

Mars Valley is a bit more reddish than the Moon Valley. Both get their name, I imagine, for their twisted and tortured rocks.

We started on top of the ridge, then went down a sand dune to the bottom. The sand is grey, not yellow, brought by the wind. As the feet sink deeply, the recommended manner of making one’s way down is to run. Yippie. But a brisk walk can manage the same result, going slightly across so as to avoid a too-steep descent.

Of course, by the time we descended twice -there is a kind a shelf midway through-, we got shoe-full of sand to get rid off. I had to get the insert soles off to get rid of as much sand as possible. And I got two neat piles of grey sand. It was a lot.

The same dunes are used for sandboarding, with real snowboards and not the light surfboards I got to play with in New Zealand. I don’t envy going up these high, loosely-packed dunes with a real board!

I get that it is supposed to be fun, but it is a long way down, you get sand everywhere, the wind tries to snatch your hat (a fellow visitor lost his), and you are just tired and hot and sandy at the end of the descent.

We boarded the bus again, back to the Moon Valley, since it is where we are supposed to watch the sunset.

We had a quick visit to a salt mine and its settlement; the houses were built with salt blocks as bricks, and the commodities were rudimentary to say the least.

We walked a bit further in the valley, watching nice rock formations, the result of rain and wind erosion; then finally we were driven to the next spot and we walked up a high ridge to have an overview of the valley while the sun set.

I got to see the shadows lengthen over the valley until the sun disappeared, and the far-away volcanoes on the Bolivian border turned pink.

The pictures are here.

And then we went back before the light disappeared completely. It was dark by the time we got back in town. I popped up to get my laundry. My usual clerk was absent, and his replacement tried to sell me my usual drink quite a lot higher than I’m used to, not nice.

And I went quite straight to bed after a good shower.