- Woke up at 8 am, and walked around the main streets. Found a Hostel (Inti Para) 2 blocks from the one I was staying - same price, rooms and bathrooms and nice and neat, and most importantly they provided internet access too. It was a sweet little hostel and it is a crime that it was not advertised anywhere. First thing I did after I checked in was to have a nice hot shower.
- I had three hours before my Valley de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) tour. Instead of walking towards the ruins again, I decided to walk along Calle Licanabur to the mountains. It was a nice walk and amazingly I did not meet many people along the way. (It is a trekking route on the tourist map)
- Valley del la Luna is considered one of the driest places on earth. Some ares do not receive a single drop of rain for hundreds of years. It has various stone and sand formations created through
the centuries by floods, wind, earthquake and its impressive
range of color and texture look somewhat similar to the surface of
the moon, thus its name.
- We made stops at the dry lakes, the saline outcrops which appear
like man-made sculptures, the caverns for pictures, and last but not least at the valley for sunset. It was pretty windy, but the change of colors at the sky was impressive and definitely worth the wait.
- Met with Markus, one of the tour-mates at Valley de la Luna for dinner. Six of his friends at his hostel joined, and we ended up with a group of 8. The group consisted of mostly teachers, or teacher-affiliated volunteers. A couple of them were Americans, and I was amazed by their knowledge of the Peruvian/Chilean history when they started discussing the Pacific War, the relationship between Bolivia, Peru, Chile etc. After a couple of alcholic drinks, a debate on capitalism heated up. Who needs Michael Moore´s movie when the argument by these teachers were just as good, if not better?
- One of the earlier ones to head back ´home´. Need to wake up at 03:30 in the morning for the El Tatio Geyser trip. Another girl in my room is doing the Geyser trip too (but with another agency). Good to know that I can count on someone in any case I oversleep.
