I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama when it got dark. After I found a place to stay I went for a walk in the small town. It’s very touristy and things are not very cheap, yet I found a place to rent a bike for a reasonable price. So the next morning I made me some sandwiches, loaded my back bag with lots of water and headed out north to a green valley. It was a really nice ride because it wasn’t a paved road and I had to cross a small river several times; I don’t have to mention that there were no bridges. The temperature was nice, not to hot, yet I had to drink tons of water because the air was so dry that my throat dried out all the time. About an hour away from town I found the entrance to “garganta del diabolo”, the devils throat, a really narrow canyon, just about 2 meters wide that goes into the mountains for kilometers. It’s a strange feeling in there, but very cool with the bike. I didn’t go all the way because it seemed to go on forever and I headed back after some time. Leaving the canyon I headed back up the valley. Apart from some shepherds, and some few other visitors there is nobody to be seen. When I reached a small church on a hill, I climbed up there and then decided to return to the town. On my way back I found the entrance to the ruins of an old Inca town. Again it was a canyon, but this time I had to leave the bike behind since it went up a lot and I had to climb. The scenery of the ruins is very nice, there are moon like mountains in the near distance and snowy volcanoes in the far distance.
Back in town I got some more water and went west to another valley, the Death Valley. It looked a lot more hostile then the valley with the river. It went up all the time and reaching almost the top there was a huge dune on the right side. The wind was strong and blew a lot of loose sand onto the path so that I left the bike and walked the remaining way. On the top there was a canyon where you can see the different layers of sediments. I drank some water and went down to my bike. The way down was a lot more fun then coming up.
I got back to town about at 3 o clock and decided to head out for a Laguna that was also supposed to be close to the town. I rode for a while but then decided to head back because it was getting late and the wind was picking up so strong now that I was worried about the way back. I shouldn’t underestimate the desert.