We often spend our time on the blog talking about where we’ve been.  I’d like to make this post about where we WILL BE!  Tomorrow we’re taking a 24 hour bus ride up to San Pedro de Atacama:

As you can see, it’s in the middle of an enormous brown spot in Chile. In fact, it’s the brownest spot on the planet! Known as the driest place on earth, the average rainfall in the Atacama desert is approximately 1mm. Some more fun facts, courtesy Wikipedia:

• San Pedro de Atacama will be the first official oasis that I’ve ever been to
• The desert itself is on a High Plateau, and the town we’re staying in is 7800 feet above sea level.
• There are huge mountains there (22000+ feet) which have no glaciers at all, because it’s so dry.
• NASA uses the soil here to test its instruments that are designed to find life on MARS! The soil has such little residual water that it behaves much like that on the barren red planet.
• No rain means no clouds. So some really great opportunities for stargazing!
• Temperatures are moderate during the day all year round, with highs in the 80s in the summer and 70s in the winter. Don’t let it fool you, though, as it breaks below freezing at night all year round!

Needless to say, we’re excited! The only bummer is that San Pedro de Atacama is reputedly a tourist trap, being the only civilization (and water) for miles around. But we won’t let that stop us from having a blast!