While we only spent about five days in San Pedro, they were packed with tours every day. The town itself was really cool, aside from the desert heat that we hadn’t experienced in years. It was a tiny little colonial town, almost entirely built around tourism. While that meant a lot of tour companies, that also meant a lot of ice cream shops too. It was also an incredible place to see the stars at night. We were there during a full moon which was particularly bright this month. It was almost blinding, it was so big and bright.

Our first day of tours was spent going to El Valle de la Luna – the Moon Valley – and we could see why it was called the moon valley. We felt like we were on Tatooine from Star Wars. There were these massive, jagged cliffs and empty canals in the middle on the desert. Through erosion from wind and sand over the years there were tons of large, impressive structures isolated in the sand.

Day two was our longest but most fun day with sandboarding and swimming in oases. We were up bright and early to go sandboarding before the sun was too strong. It started with a quick lesson, and then we had two full hours to board down a 100m sand dune. In reality, there was far more enduring a lengthy climb than boarding but we had a blast regardless. Next, to Laguna Cejar, a salt water lagoon in the desert that was so salty you could float in it like the Dead Sea. After an hour there we went to another lagoon that filled a crater. In order to get in we had to jump off a little three meter high cliff. This may not sound like much of a feat, until you notice that there is about two meters worth of rocks and reeds in the way before you could reach water. We ended the tour at a final salt water lagoon surrounded by salt flats. We hung out there and watched the sun set before heading back into town.

3:30am wake up to see the Geisers del Tatio (geysers). We drove to 4500m above sea level to see a massive geyser field that at times lit up the sky with steam. While there we were also able to relax in a geyser-fed hot spring before moving on. We then stopped in a little village for lunch where we were able to try llama kabobs. They were surprisingly delicious; it tasted a lot like lamb.

We decided to split up for our final day of tours. Michelyn opted for an archaeological tour to see Pukara de Quitor, or the Fort of Heads (named so because when the indigenous community was sacked by the Spanish, they decapitated all the inhabitants and put their heads on pikes as a warning to other nearby communities). Brad decided to climb the Lascar Volcano, a 5500m high active volcano. Starting by watching the sun rise over the volcano, he and three other climbers slowly made their way to the top, dealing with the serious oxygen deprivation at that altitude. Once at the top you could look down into the crater and watch the steam from the volcano billow out from the mountain (I know, that sounds way more exciting than some ruins). However, that day Michelyn also got to visit a local farm and try a traditional indigenous breakfast with fresh bread and cereals topped with local fruit syrups.

Overall San Pedro was a blast, and we were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the desert. It is far less baron than we expected and had a ton of opportunities to explore.