Atacama Desert

Today we spent the morning chilling and in the afternoon we went on an excursion to the Valley of the Moon and Death Valley.

The afternoon light was so harsh that none of the earlier pictures are very good.  It was very interesting and amazing to look at however

As it got nearer sunset the light improved and this photo is looking over Death Valley towards the Andes.

Death Valley is so called because it was originally called valley of Mars on account of its red colour.  It got modified into death valley because of the similarity between "Marte" the word for Mars and "Muerte" the word for death.

The white streaks in the shady foreground are salt which was extensively mined in the area until quite recently.