Dusty, hot and expensive

Getting to San Pedro De Atacama we decided to fly from Santiago rather than taking the 27 hour bus. However, we at the time we were in Valparaíso meaning we had to get a 2 hour bus back to Santiago to then go to the airport.  Once we got to the airport it was about lunch time and we were starving as we hadn’t had breakfast. Thankfully Santiago airport is much bigger than Mendozas and there was plenty of options for food, so we got some food and then boarded our flight. There is actually no airport at San Pedro De Atacama so we had to fly to Calama and then get a 90 minute transfer to San Pedro de Atacama. It wasnt until the evening that we arrived so we checked into our room before going to find a tourism agency to book a Valle de la Luna tour we knew we wanted to do the next day.
The next morning we got up to do yet another free walking tour. We were unsure what to expect since  it was such a small and touristy place. We were pleasantly surprised, we learnt about the three main economic industries - tourism, mining, archeology. They told us about the Cordillera mountain range and showed us around the very small village and gave us some tips on tour agencies. That’s afternoon we set out to find a Salar de Uyuni tour, we were both a little apprehensive about choosing the right company, we read lots of review so and went into some of our preferred companies and choose from there. We also ended up booking an astrology tour for that evening. We had a pretty chilled time in San Pedro, doing lots of admin and getting excited for our salt flat tour. During the astrology experience we got to see up close the moon, Mars, Saturn, nebulas and much more. We both really enjoyed San Pedro but were equally excited to leave for our 3 day tour.