We came to the driest place on earth......

...and it rained!

In her book Ines of My Soul, Isabel Allende describes the journey of the Spanish explorers from Peru through what is now the Atacama desert to the valley in which they founded Santiago. Although a river runs through it, along which I walked yesterday, parts of it are so dry that there is no vegetation and no fauna. She writes about how the explorers realised that they were coming to the end of this part of the journey when they began to hear bird song again. It is no surprise, therfore, that it hasn´t rained here for 31 years.....

Until yesterday. We set out to walk through the valley of the moon, so called because the landscape resembles the lunar craters. It is truely incredible and we have wonderful photos showing the contrast of colours. However, as we walked a black cloud which had been hanging ominously in the distance when we left began to grow and to gradually encircle us. We started to see lightening and hear thunder and the guide, connected to Explora through remote control radio, was ordered to bring us back. We headed off and tried one last time to see the other side of the valley which we hadn´t been able to reach but when we got out of the van there was so much electricity in the air that the van was giving off electric shocks. We beat a hasty retreat!

Must go now. Another adventure awaits.