Visiting the Valley of the Moon (El Valle de la Luna) for sunset in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

As part of our marathon day in the Atacama Desert, which started at 4 in the morning, we joined a second afternoon tour to visit the Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna) in the Cordillera de la Sal of northern Chile just a few kilometers away from San Pedro de Atacama. We first visited a mirador lookout point called Piedra del Coyote where we enjoyed stunning landscape views of the valley below. Afterwards, we went explored a cave that at first appeared quite small but eventually became dark and rather challenging considering we didn't bring our flashlights. Whoops! As the final portion of the tour, just prior to sunset, we hiked up to a vantage point where we could witness the most spectacular sunset of the Valley of the Moon. Overall, we were tired, hungry and exhausted doing back to back tours but it was definitely worth it. The views and landscapes here are surreal.
Visiting the Valley of the Moon (El Valle de la Luna) for sunset in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile Travel Video Transcript:
Well the temperature sure changes quickly here in the Atacama desert. When we went to visit the geysers this morning we were freezing. It was so cold and this afternoon we're planning to tour the Valley of the Moon and we are melting. Like seriously, it must be like high 30's maybe even low 40's in Celsius. I feel like it's Samuel a la parrilla. His first Spanish joke - Sam on the grill. Haha!
So our first stop on this afternoon tour is called Piedra del Coyote and our guide was saying this was like the iconic postcard shot that you see on all of the guidebooks and it is pretty impressive. Voila!
Into the deep dark cave. Actually it is not very big and it is very deep or very dark but it is a lot cooler than out in the desert. So, I'm happy.
This is a time where I wish I was 5'6 not 6'1.
This is spooky. We're only seeing shadows. And darkness. We should have brought a flashlight. Should have brought a flashlight.
We're like little ants in a tunnel. Yes, except that I'm an ant that is way too big for this little ant tunnel. The Queen ant. I'm the queen ant. I should be out enjoying paradise somewhere else.
That was kind of hard to film. We weren't expecting to crawl through a tunnel. Yeah, it started off too easy. And we're like this isn't even a cave. And then it became hardcore caving. And it was pitch black and we didn't bring flashlights. But the best part about this was that it allowed us to cool off. It was so hot before we came in here.
The end is nigh. The end is nigh. No, seriously though. This is our final stop. We have to climb a dune or some hill. It is going to take us about 30 minutes. Once we reach the top we get to watch the sunset. Woo! And then we get food back in town. Feed me. Yes, and what you don't realize is this is our second tour of the day. This is going to be our second video coming out but we did all of this in one day. We started at four AM and right now it is what? Sunset, sunset time. Let's go watch the sun.
And that is a wrap for our Valle de la Luna tour. We are tired, hungry and ready to get a rest. Ciao!
This is part of our Travel in Chile series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Chilean culture, Chilean arts, Chilean foods, Chilean religion, Chilean cuisine and Chilean people.
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All photos and video taken by Samuel Jeffery (Nomadic Samuel) and Audrey Bergner (That Backpacker).
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network