Valle de la Luna and National Flamingo Reserve

http://www.protourschile.com/index.php/the-atacama-desert/the-atacama-desert.html

We headed out early last Sunday morning to visit the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) -- a trip we have wanted to take since we arrived. We heard that a portion of the new James Bond movie was filmed here. The link included above provides a map showing Calama and the surrounding area where you'll find some of the places we've previously visited.

We left around 6:30 a.m. hoping to arrive before the sun came up but didn't make it so stopped for this photo of the volcano Licancabur with the sun just starting to peak over the range. The shrine in the foreground is a common site along the side of any of the roads we have traveled.

We arrived at the Valle de la Luna shortly after sunrise and discovered a sand dune that we couldn't resist exploring.

When we reached the top of the dune this was our view -- wish the photo did it justice. We left the Valley of the Moon and headed south to the National Flamingo Reserve located in the Solar de Atacama where Laguna Chaxa is located. The photo below shows the path that has been created in the salt flat leading us to the lake area where we saw a few flamingos.

Again, wish the camera could capture what we saw. The water and weather contributed to beautiful reflections of the mountains and clouds in the water.

We returned to San Pedro where we discovered a new restaurant where we enjoyed the best pizza we've had since our arrival here -- even better than what I make!! San Pedro is full of tourists now compared to when we've visited in the past. Many of the tourists are from Chile but you also see and "hear" many Europeans and visitors from England. Next trip: Torres del Paine in the Patagonia Region

http://www.protourschile.com/index.php/patagonia/patagonia.html