Moon and Death Valley, Atacama desert

Walking solo into the driest desert in the world feels like a suicide mission. As our tour guide in Valparaiso pointed out, Chileans are not especially inventive with names and the Valle de la Muerte in the Atacama Desert is named The Valley of Death for a reason.

There is no water and, from about 9:30am, no shade either. The sun slips between the gaps in the bizarre rock formations and beats down on the unwitting desert wanderer. Barely any life survives here. In all my hours of walking, my only living companion was a lonely beetle scuttling across the path. And the only sound as I trudged barefoot through the gritty sand, was that of my altitude-suffering lungs gasping for oxygen.

With days spent eating fruit in hammocks and nights spent gazing at galaxies, it is hard not to fall in love with Atacama.

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