The next day I made my sandwiches again and bought even more water. First I went the same way as the day before to visit other remains of an Inca town. This one was bigger and closer to the town. It was on a hill and about a half an hour up the mountain I saw a monument and it seemed like up there you had a really good view so I decided to walk up. It was the remains of a small fortress and the view was just amazing. I could see the green valley, the desert that rises continually to the altiplano, the high plains of Bolivia with the snowy volcanoes in the back. It was already about midday and I still had a lot of riding for today so I hurried down the mountain to the bike. I crossed town and headed out for the lagoons the second time. In the bike shop they told me that they are very close, and they probably are when you go by car, but with the bike it’s not that close. It’s about 20 km from town and more then half of it is pure sand road. Sometimes the sand was so loose that I had to get off the bike and push. I got very pissed at the people in the bike store because the information they gave me vas very bad and the hand drawn map even worse. First there were some trees but then it was pure desert. I had no indication of how far it was and I was getting worried about the way back. If the wind would start to blow as strong as yesterday it would be a very though fight. Finally I found the Lagoons but to my great displease, there was a guy standing there asking for an entrance fee. I didn’t like that at all and didn’t think of paying him, so I just took a good look from the distance and circled it a bit. I wanted to go to another valley now, but taking the way indicated on the map it would be close to 40 km, I knew that I couldn’t make that. So I asked the guy if I could cross the desert without heading back to town first. He told me that there is a way but couldn’t describe it to me because there are so many paths crossing the desert. Since everything was flat here and I could see more or less the mountains I needed to get to I decided to try it, I could always return to the town if I didn’t find a way and I still had enough water and sandwiches. It was a though ride, the wind was getting stronger and stronger now. Finally I reached the road that was heading to the “valle de la luna”, the moon valley. Unfortunately now the wind came straight into my face. The sun was pretty low already when a pick up truck past me. They stopped in front of me and asked me if I wanted a ride. I knew I could make it to the valley before the sun got down, but it would leave me with no time to see what’s there, so I accepted the offer. We got to the entrance where I had to pay the entrance fee, nothing is for free here. We took a short walk in another small canyon covered with salt and then headed up the valley with the car. On top there was a little plateau covered with salt, on its edge a huge dune and some peaks. We climbed up there and the scenery was amazing, we reached the highest point just in time to see the sunset. Lots of tours came to see the sunset up here and it was very crowded. It must be very spectacular I thought, but then realized that it’s just another money making thing since it was one of the less spectacular sunsets I have seen so far on my trip. It got cold very fast now so we headed back to the car. They asked me if I want a ride back to town. Although I would have had the wind in my back and it would probably have been an easy ride I decided to go with them. I made about 60 km already and most of it in the sand, so I was pretty tired.