20-22 February
San Pedro de Atacama
Ron and Maarten still couldn´t get enough of us, so flew with us to Calama and onward to San Pedro de Atacama, a true oasis in the desert in Northern Chile.
On our first night we had our first taste of a traditional Chilean dish, in one of the many restaurants. It had a roaring campfire in the centre and Chilean Musicians performing while we ate under the stars in the desert.
The following day we walked around San Pedro, a vibey little town with sandy streets and clay houses with no pavements and the doors
opening onto the street. In the afternoon, in typical male style, Ron and Maarten decided to sit in the pub and watch football (Liverpool vs Barcelona) instead of an incredible excursion to the Valle de la Luna. This included a walk through the Valley of Mars (NASA has actually found a remarkable similarity between this part of the desert and Mars itself) ; watching the sunset over the Valley of the Moon (with only water bottles in hands for sundowners) and a moonlight walk through rocky crevices where the rocks reflected the moonlight making the rocks and ridges look like they´d been sprinkled with fairy dust. 
We arrived back at the hostel to find two drunken dutchmen awaiting our return. They proudly announced that they had found a local restaurant, which fitted our strict budget to use up our last few chilean pesos. The restaurant was so dirt cheap, that each meal actually cost the same as a quart of beer! In typical female style, on the way home, we had to take them on a brisk walk in the fresh air to sober up. This involved stablising Maarten, and controlling Ron´s skipping down the street! We didn´t want to be boring, but we could not help but wag our fingers and warn them of their impending hangover for the 4x4 trip the following day...
San Pedro de Atacama
Ron and Maarten still couldn´t get enough of us, so flew with us to Calama and onward to San Pedro de Atacama, a true oasis in the desert in Northern Chile.
On our first night we had our first taste of a traditional Chilean dish, in one of the many restaurants. It had a roaring campfire in the centre and Chilean Musicians performing while we ate under the stars in the desert.The following day we walked around San Pedro, a vibey little town with sandy streets and clay houses with no pavements and the doors
opening onto the street. In the afternoon, in typical male style, Ron and Maarten decided to sit in the pub and watch football (Liverpool vs Barcelona) instead of an incredible excursion to the Valle de la Luna. This included a walk through the Valley of Mars (NASA has actually found a remarkable similarity between this part of the desert and Mars itself) ; watching the sunset over the Valley of the Moon (with only water bottles in hands for sundowners) and a moonlight walk through rocky crevices where the rocks reflected the moonlight making the rocks and ridges look like they´d been sprinkled with fairy dust. 
We arrived back at the hostel to find two drunken dutchmen awaiting our return. They proudly announced that they had found a local restaurant, which fitted our strict budget to use up our last few chilean pesos. The restaurant was so dirt cheap, that each meal actually cost the same as a quart of beer! In typical female style, on the way home, we had to take them on a brisk walk in the fresh air to sober up. This involved stablising Maarten, and controlling Ron´s skipping down the street! We didn´t want to be boring, but we could not help but wag our fingers and warn them of their impending hangover for the 4x4 trip the following day...
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