Music: Placebo - Without you I'm nothing
Hello... Today started quite some time ago and I've done quite a bit since I'll try my best though! I woke very early this morning, not entirely on purpose, but given I'd been told that the sky can be very clear just before dawn I thought I'd have a peak. Sadly when I drew the curtains I saw that the sun was on it's way up and as such I tucked myself back into bed.
When morning proper came I headed out on a guided tour of the local pre-Inca ruins. This fort was taken by the Incas and then again by the Spaniards when they came here. This was not, however, until after they'd been once defeated by the locals and on their return, with a large native army, they beheaded 300 of the local warriors and put their heads on view around the fort as a warning to further resistance. Nice Spaniards that they were... We then went into town and had a look at the local church and all of the tat bizarres that have sprung up over the past 10 or so years that tourism has been piling foreigners into the town.
After lunch I kicked back on a sun lounger near the jacuzzi (I think I might treat myself to a bit of jacuzzi time tomorrow) and read my book. I spotted my second definite spelling error in the edition that I've got, prompting the question on Facebook (is it normal to spot spelling errors in such a text?).
At 4:30pm we set off for a tour of Moon valley followed by a brief trip to Death valley. Moon valley was where NASA tested the Mars rover before it's trip out into space as the surface of the valley is similar to the expected surface of mars. The rocks are a deep red in places, filled with criss crossing veins of white rock (I can't explain this at all) and there are large deep brown sand dunes of volcanic ash / sand. We walked along the top of a ridge that ran down the centre of the site and it is from the end of this Rolf is pictured looking out. In the distance you can see more rain falling over the Atacama desert. The rain mostly avoided us and we only got a few light spits of rain as we looked at an old salt mine near the Moon valley site. After this we briefly visited Death Valley, where much sand boarding is done during the day. This is a rocky barren valley in which, as by the name, nothing lives.
On the way back I asked to be let out of the bus a little early so I could walk the last 400m back to the hotel and take in the sunset lighting up the deep red rocks behind the hotel. Now I'm sat in the bar area, waiting for some of the other English speaking guests that I've spent the day with to come back for dinner.
And on that note I'll leave you for another day. Goodnight. :)
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