3/23  The sleeper bus night was not as good as I had hoped. The bus was on dirt roads which were extremely bumpy,, especially on the 2nd level. Plus we stopped in a lot of towns, which means lights on and noise. Also, for some reason, we got our snack at midnight and breakfast at 6am. Oh well, this is an adventure.  Once here, we realized we are in a desert for sure. The whole town is made of adobe. It only rains 3 days to a week a year here.  But when it rains, it's a flash flood. Our hostel is really cute, BUT super noisy. You can hear everything. People sneezing, turning over in bed, etc. Not much we can do.
We decided on the tour to the Valley of the Moon at 4pm. First we walked knto town, T and B found a barbershop and got haircuts, we took our laundry to be done(charge by the weight), checked out a couple of stores and stopped for lunch. We went with a place that has no menu. You eat what they are cooking for the day.mthese places are much cheaper. Today it was pork, stir fried veggies, tomato salad for an appetizer and peaches for dessert.
We left at 4 and what a beautiful trip. See pics on Valley of the Moon. The salt mountains, volcanoes, the Andes Mountains were stunning. We ended the tour with watching the sunset from the top of a 300ft. sand dune. That was a hard walk up. Sand is hard to walk in, but kind of cool. As we were leaving it was getting dark and we passed a few bikers. Can't believe they rode their bikes and I am nkt sure what they will do in the dark. The bikes had no lights. I know I would have been very scared. It is dark in the desert. Nothing around for miles and miles and miles and miles.
Got back at 8:30 and we went to a local pub like place for a hand made pizza, beer and pisco sours. Very good. This town is hopping at night. Very cool looking. Dirt roads, small adobe buildings with very small doors. The buildings are all connected like one big plaza.
Got home at 10:30 and to bed we went.
3/24  Just as expected, heard everything last night to include every dog in San pedro barking in unison. Ugh!  So, I got up early, took a shower, had a good breakfast, am blogging right nkw, and when G gets out of the shower, we will plan our next leg of this trip...to Peru. Today at 4 the tour leaves to Laguja Ceja. A lake like the Dead Sea, super high salt concentration, so you float. We will go swimming and stop at a few other places. Before then, we will go into town, buy our bus tickets, souvenir shop and eat lunch.
Pic below is our adobe hostel, Mama Tierra.