Walking on the moon and mars in San Pedro de Atacama

Last updated on January 11, 2024

Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama tour

San Pedro de Atacama is surrounded by surreal, other-worldy landscapes. In one direction, you can head towards Bolivia’s salt flats and a land of coloured lagoons and striped volcanoes. Travel to Argentina and you’ll pass a mountain of seven colours – or step just outside the town and you’ll find yourself in the Valle de la Luna, named as such because it’s said to look like the moon.

It was a French priest who named the valley. He also named the neighbouring Death Valley, although that was a mistake. He was trying to explain that it looked like mars (marte) but the Spanish understood muerte (death). I’m unsure how he made this assumption, but NASA test their equipment there so it seems he was right.

We went trekking in the Valle de la Luna after a fun, if slightly terrifying, few hours sandboarding in San Pedro de Atacama.

Tiny mountain in the salt cave, San Pedro de Atacama tour

Our first stop was a Chulacao Cave, which is covered in edible salt. You could walk through the salty walls to the entrance and then scramble through a very tight spot to the other side.

Peering through the salt cave, San Pedro de Atacama tour

Despite my success facing fears in Capilla del Monte, my claustrophobia overcame me and I couldn’t do it.

Playing the salt cave wall like an instrument, San Pedro de Atacama

Steve did though and he got to see our tour guide playing the salt formations like a musical instrument.

Victoria walking the ridge, Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama tour

After this venture, we headed to a secluded spot to watch the sunset. Most tour groups gather in the same place so we were lucky to be alone. It required quite a steep climb but the privacy and view was worth it.

Amazing rocks in the Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama

We were surrounded by incredible rock formations…

Amazing sunset in Valle de la Luna

…and stunning mountains. The pointed one is a volcano.

Sunset Pisco sours with Victoria and Erin, valle de la Luna

We were even given a pisco sour to enjoy as we watched the colours of the landscape change with the movement of the sun.

Sunset at Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama

It was a beautiful way to end a splendid day, and we’d definitely recommend the combination it if you get the chance.

Useful information on Valle de la Luna

Tons of tour operators in San Pedro offer tours of the Valle de la Luna. We were happy with ours as we’re not big hikers and we loved that we could combine it with sandboarding beforehand.

Our tour operator was Sandboard San Pedro, a branch of Atacama Inca Tour. It cost 12,000 chilean pesos (about £15) and included transportation, two hours sandboarding with tuition, a tour of Chulacao Caves, a trek to the viewpoint, a pisco sour and a DVD of the day. The only extra cost was 2,000 pesos (about £2.50) to enter the Valle de la Luna.