Hello from...the moon :) Well, not exactly the moon, but pretty close to that. Just outside of San Pedro de Atacama is Valle de la Luna, an otherworldly and completely bizarre landscape that really and truly looks like the moon!
We took two walks through the moonlike landscape and just those two walks took our breath away! From the smooth sand dunes to the sharp rocky drops over the edge of paths, it was just amazing, yet with little to no water (don't ask, we forgot to pack enough water!), I found the walks a little hard.
One of the questions I constantly asked was how can this type of landscape be formed? Well, here is the answer: formations and folds of layers of horizontal sediments of an old salar originated, and then converged horizontally due to constant movements and folds of the crust land.
At the end of the day, we drove out to a viewpoint to watch the sunset which was pretty incredible even though there were so many people watching it with us. The setting sun casted a wonderful red glow across the Valle de la Luna and it felt magical! The moonlike landscape suddenly transformed into a chocolate or dulce de leche piece of cake! I wonder whether I will ever get bored of all these amazing sunsets and sunrises.
Amazing landscapes!
ReplyDelete