After an amazing trip through the Andes mountain range I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), a oasis town in the centre of the Atacama desert.
My primary reason for stoping here was to arrange a 4x4 trip across the Salar de Uyuni salt flats into Bolivia, but I decided to spend a couple of days to explore the Atacama desert.
First up was a trip to the Moon Valley to watch the sun setting on the distant Andes. A really pleasant couple of hours trip which highlighted the unique features of the Atacama desert landscape.
Secondly was a stargazing trip in the desert. This was one of the highlights of my trip so far!
A two hour trip, during the first hour the expert astronomers explained the southern sky. The naked eye view was incredible I had never seen anything like it. Several distant galaxies were visible, along with Saturn and a huge part of the Milky Way.
The second hour we were able to make use of 9 telescopes set up to view the best the sky had to offer and we were shown how to take pictures of the night sky however cheap your camera is.
The next day I visited a pre colonial fort built by indigenous tribes in the mountains surrounding San Pedro, before going for a small trek to visit a recommended valley nearby.
Although San Pedro was a place geared up entirely to tourists I enjoyed my couple of days stop.
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