San Pedro de Atacama

The bus ride from Salta to San Pedro did not disappoint, each turn revealing a landscape as alien as the previous one; From the colourful Van Gogh landscapes of Humahuaca to the eerie desert mountainscapes of the Argentine/Chilean border worthy of Dali. I found myself half expecting a melting pocket watch to float up out of the horizon or an elephant on stilts to wander across the occasional salt flats we crossed... Instead, we got lots of llamas which I was more than happy to settle for, cute buggers.
In London, where I live, the sky during the day is grey and at night it turns to a pitch black (if you're lucky enough to avoid light pollution)... San Pedro by contrast boasts the bluest of skies which are further enhanced by the arid browns of the desert, and at night the inky sky is split by the splatter of white specks that are our own Milky Way galaxy. We took an astronomy tour where we learned that in Greek mythology it is said that this streak of misty light was created when Hera breast fed Hercules and her milk was spilled across the heavens. In fact, the word Galaxy derives from the Greek word Galaxias meaning milky. Now, you can't say this isn't educational! And now that we're done with astronomy and mythology I'll move on to a bit of geology... Many tens of millions of years ago, the mountainous area around San Pedro was made up of ice which melted when the volcanos in the region erupted. The melted ice formed a HUGE lake with salts from the volcanic rock which over time evaporated to form the salt flats that are seen today... Water trapped underground forces itself to the surface in certain places to create the amazing lagoons that we visited during our stay. We first went to a salt water lagoon which is 800 metres deep... Which is pretty damn deep for what looks like a puddle in the vast desert! The water is so salty from 10 million years of evaporation, that you can't even swim, but floating was far more fun anyway! After that we visited a beautiful fresh water lagoon which is made in the same way but the water flowing underground doesn't pass by the volcanic salts. After drying off our last stop was a crystalline salt lake where we impersonated messiahs on the thin layers of water and drank a glass of local pisco sour during sunset... Followed by a glass of Chilean red wine to warm our bones!
Anyways, I found all the above quite interesting so I thought I'd share it (plus if I don't write it somewhere I will forget it myself!) - apologies if I've bored you. I promise I'll return from our 3 day 4x4 trip to Uyuni with less education and more entertainment... For those of you who prefer pictures, I've put plenty below!

Key info:
How we got here: A breathtaking 10 hours on the bus.
Hostel: Hostelling International - A cute mud building with straw roof on the main street in San Pedro. Squeaky 3 storey bunk beds which require death defying stunts to get into... Comfortable and cheap enough though so no real complaints!
Highlights: The amazing Laguna Cejar tour and the quaint, sleepy, dusty town of San Pedro itself.