San Pedro Atacama Jan 2-5

I was TOLD by my new chilaen friends that I could not come to Chile and miss San Pedro Atacama, a small desert town in the far North of Chile. It is a touristy town that is surrounded by huge rock formations, salt flats, geisers and salt pools. This is why ppl come here.
It is a touring town so I signed myself up for....tours. My first tour was to see the famous rock formation: Three Marys. As we are pulling up our guide tells us that a couple of years ago someone climbed one of the Marys so it is really only 2 1/2 marys (I could not stop laughing...Gotta love SA tourist towns). A Catholic priest claimed that it is Mary praying in 3 different positions...I don´t see it. Then we are off to watch the "most amazing sunset" on a sand dune. Afterwards our my guide asks me, "wasn´t that one of the best sunsets you have ever seen". It was a nice sunset (I cannot lie)..."It is in my top 30" I said with a smirk. There were 50 other ppl on the same sand dune, ummm no.

Next day was a tour to the geisers. The tour started at 4AM. Driving to the G´s should really only take 45min on a PAVED road but becasue they do not pave the roads here (where everyday tourists go) it took two hours.

These were awesome. They were everywhere and the sounds that they made (Beth-Labyrith...the bog of eternal stench) For breakfast our guide heated up the water, hot chocolate, milk and boiled eggs in a geiser!!! It was yummy. We were the only ones with eggs and the other tours were jealous! My camera dies so I am waiting for my new friends Tom and Caroline to send me there Photos (they were kind enough to take photos of me on their camera!!). Next stop was a dip in the thermal pool. Not very warm but it was fun!!

You tend to meet people on the tours and I was fortunate enough to meet great couple (tom and caroline) and a girl from the Netherlands and we decided to book the last tour together to see their famous lakes. The first lake is full of salt so you essentially float. Okay so all week long it was hot as hell...we are excited to dip ourselves into these lakes. As we are pulling up it becomes cloudy and windy. We get out and we are....COLD! Caroline looks at me and says it is too cold to go in. I say...we are doing this!! We all get in but are so cold becasue the sun has decided to hide. Oh by the way, on the bumpy way over, Carolines husband Tom is reading that it only rains once a year, if at all, in SAN PEDRO. Wouldn´t you know...the day it decides to rain is the day we want it to be hot so we can enjoy these wonderful cool lakes!!. Next lake is 20 min away so we hope the rain will not follow us. At least we were here to expiereince the only rain they have..right?
The last lake is not one you cannot swim in. It is completey covered in salt. It was awsome walking on this...you felt like the great man himself walkin on water. Ended the day with a great dinner and conversation (thanks Caroline and Tom!!)