Our tour guide quickly arranged a transfer from the Bolivian border to the Chilean border. The highway was well paved and quite steep as we were descending from the high altitude area of Bolivia. Coming to Chile was another surprise – so different from Bolivia in atmosphere and language and people. It was also way more expensive in Chile than in Bolivia or Peru. Our first stop was San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest areas in the world. San Pedro is a small town with a “frontier, western” feel to me. The roads are “mud” roads and the buildings are in the adobe style, making the town very charming and full of character. It was also nice to be so much warmer now in Chile than in the salt flats area of Bolivia! We just relaxed and soaked in the atmosphere. We joined a very good tour of the valley of the moon. The sunset was just spectacular and we even ran down a big sand dune! My tour guide arranged an archaeological tour for me to learn about some of the history of the area. This tour went to Aldea de Tulor with architecture/ruins of the dwellings of the Atacameño people. Then we went to an Atacameño fort – Pukara de Quitor and finally visited Archaeological museum. It was so much better to go to the museum with a guide. The guide did a good job explaining the customs and the history of the Atacameño people. The Atacameño people faced very similar problems with other native peoples in the Americas and now the Chilean government is trying to preserve their distinctive culture. The people at the hotel were very nice and I got the chance to practise Spanish with them. Then our group went to Santiago de Chile.