Doing the Moon Walk

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

One of the recommended tours around San Pedro de Atacama is a visit to Valle de la Luna.....or Moon Valley as it is known to us English speakers, part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve and a designated  sanctuary of nature.

Located 13Km west in the Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountains - which were formed millions of years ago moulded through time by the wind, rain and sun and whose name derives from the fact that the rocks possess a great quantity of calcium sulphate which gives them the appearance of being splashed with salt ) in the Atacama Desert, the valley is famous for its resemblance to the surface of the moon.

The visits are also coincided with the timing of the sunset when the variety of colours of the rocks (owing to the diversity of the mineral content) are especially beautiful.

Our evening tour began at the Mirador (or the Viewer)....a lookout point which gave a truly spectacular panoramic view of the surroundings. There was one part...a bit of rock which jutted out over the edge and when people took photos standing there, it was like they were dangling feets and feets in the air over this amazing glistening snow flaked (really salt sprinkled!) rocky landscape.

Then there was a 30 minute walk in Valle de la Muerte....that's Death Valley to you and me, a sort of canyon surrounded by peculiar reddish eroded shapes and I was absolutely stunned by all this. Firstly, we walked through what seemed like a a little alley way between to huge canyon walls which then opened out into this huge open space with just rocky canyons and huge sand dunes. Oh and on these large sand dunes....and I really mean, huge steep ones...people were boarding down them....just like it was snow!!!! Gimme a go at that that's all I can say!!!!

Hehe and it really was like something out of a movie....a Western that is....because as we were trekking through the rocks....we heard some noise and the tour guide yelled at us to be careful. We turned around and there they were....a pack of cowboys on their horses! Ok...haha...so they weren't real cowboys.....just some tourists on a horseriding tour....but the horses, the canyons, the desert......god, I really felt like I was on the set of the making of a western!

Next up was a short drive to some famous Moon Valley landmarks like the Three Maries....geological formations of gravel, clay, salt, gems and quartz resulting from sucessive foldings of the earth's crust and thought to be approximately one millions years old! It was also here that we demonstrated our very regressed ages again! Haha....Annie is just as bad as Michelle....the direction of the sun formed spectacular shadows on the ground and whilst we were waiting for everyone to finish hogging the Three Maries so that we could get at least one shot with just us in it  and not with every single Tom, Dick and Harry who were also on the same tour, we decided to be silly and play with the shadows! So there we were, everyone else taking photos of these million year old rock formations and me taking photos of Annie's shadow!!!! What wierdos were we!!!! To be fair, Annie was extremely creative!!! Haha....at one point she held up her leg  with one hand and started moving her other hand up and down.....haha....on the ground....the shadow was of her playing an electric guitar....haha!!!!LOL!!! Oh dearie me!!!!

The tour ended with us watching the sunset over Moon Valley from the Greater Dune. And no surprise there, the Greater Dune is obviously one huge, gigantic, enormous, big arse sand dune!!! It looked huge from a distance....but my oh my, when you have to bloody walk up the damn thing...I'm sorry, I should almost be saying climb up the damn thing...well, let's just say that I can vouch as to how huge it really was! To be honest, as we stood there watching the sun begin to set with the rest of the hordes of tourists, I was beginning to wonder whether the climb up was actually worth it. I mean, bneing so high up, it did give spectacular views of the valley floor but the sunset itself wasn't anything too incredible was it???!! Well, as usual, I had spoken too soon....the actual sun setting behind the canyons really wasn't that amazing but wait alittle and then the sky is dashed with gorgeous hues of red, pink, orange and purple and the valley floor is basked in these beautiful colours! It's hard to describe but it really was so incredibly beautiful and even though I got some really good photos to prove this....to say that the photos only showed half of how beautiful it really was to be there just tells you how crazy stunning the real thing actually was!

There was this one rocky cliff which was even higher up than the Greater Sand Dune and although we previously had not climbed up it, we just had to when the sky surrounding it was painted with these wierd but beautiful dark reddish purply clouds. Now I love climbing stuff so I was scarily zooming up this cliff even though it was very steep and there wasn't always somewhere sturdy you could place your feet. And from the top, we took some amazing photos. But haha...what goes up must come down and god, that was the hard part for me! Annie is the complete opposite.....she finds the going down bit alot easier....so the pair of us must have been quite a sight as I was on my hands and knees...almost crawling down this cliff whereas Annie just bounced down in like 30 secs!!!! Seriously, I put my hand down for one second to help the rest of me down....looked over to Annie and just saw her disappearing down the cliff like it was a leisurely stroll in the park!!!