Lunar Landscapes

San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) is an extremely touristy little town--gringos outnumber locals by a longshot. There are many companies vying for your patronage on a number of different tours including star gazing, lunar landscapes, sandboarding, etc etc. We chose the lunar landscapes tour which takes you through the "Valle de la Muerte" (Death Valley) and "Valle de la Luna" (Moon Valley).

Tourists by the busload

photo-op

I don't know if this qualifies as lunar, certainly beautiful

Death Valley

Liz in a salt mine

all of Death Valley is made of salt, the miners even built their homes using big bricks of it for lack of better materials!

Moon Valley

a rock monster

watching the sunset in La Valle de la Luna

San Pedro de Atacama

We spent a couple of nights in the quaint desert town of San Pedro de Atacama.  The center of town is packed with restaurants and shops.  In the central square, giant trees protect a scattering of benches from the harsh desert sun.

...but literally a two minutes walk from the center is complete nothingness; desert for as far as the eye can see.  This is the view out the front door of our hostel, on the top left you can see the Licancabur volcano.