Around half the world in 180 days: Breakfast at 1500ft above New Zealand

We've just arrived in Arica in northern Chile after five days in San Pedro de Atacama. Arica is a very different place in that there are less stray dogs than people here.

Our first day in the driest desert in the world it rained twice, causing the whole place to virtually shut down. We couldn't hire mountain bikes due to the mud (?). We did manage to go on a tour of the Valle de la Luna just outside town. It looks more like mars than the moon, with red rocks and sand dunes interspersed with white salt pans; an amazing landscape with no evidence of life anywhere. The guide was an entertaining Frenchman and the driver managed to avoid the many cliffs en route, so we decided to go with them for two other tours in the Atacama.

The first of these was to the Altiplano lakes, firstly to Laguna Miscanti at 4300m. We left at 6am to get there only to find we were too early and the gate was locked. The driver said it was a half hour walk to the lakes, so we set off with breakfast along the snow-covered road. Quickly realising it wasn't a half hour walk, we stopped for a very cold breakfast! Luckily the gate was then opened and we could drive the rest of the way and thaw out in the van! We had amazing views of the lakes, but couldn't get here because of the snow. After walking briskly back to the van and then panting like dogs for the following 5 minutes due to the altitude, we went down to Laguna Chaxa and saw loads of flamingos close up on the lake which was surrounded by jagged salt crystals stretching towards the snow-covered volcanoes around the edge.

The final tour was to the El Tatio geysers, the highest in the world at 4200m. This time it was a 4am start to get there at dawn when there is the most steam. We arrived in the dark for another cold breakfast, -15C this time. As the sun came up we were surrounded by an ice-covered basin filled with steam vents and pools of boiling water, the edge lined with volcanoes. An awesome place and definately worth the ridiculous early start, cold and thin air! We returned to San Pedro via a snowy plateau at 4600m and picked up some tasty goats cheese empanadas on the way.

Then it was an over night bus, along roads that would make a New Zealand ski-field road look like a snooker table, to Arica. The buses may be luxurious, but the roads seem to make up for that at times!