July 5th: Horse lovers are stable people, right?

Horsing around
Yesterday, on a whim, Blandine splurted out that she'd really love to go horseback riding in the surrounding Valley of Death, so in true adventurers spirit we booked ourselves a little tour for this morning. We wake up early and hurry along the main street to make it in time to the travel agency for our 9:30AM rendez-vous. Chileans don't seem to like to wake up too early, except for the ever-permanent stray dogs the town is completely deserted. By 9:45AM the agency itself is still locked up and we abandon our waiting. We place a note on the door and go hunt ourselves some breakfast, not an easy task. The friendliest of Chileans serves us a nice cup of instant coffee and even makes us some take-out sandwiches. At 10:15, we head back to the agency, worried that we've been scammed. The office is just being opened. We explain our situation and hear that there was this incredible mix-up, where one cowboy picked up the guests of the other one, and the second cowboy didn't realise, bla bla bla....we've heard it all before. We ask for our money back because starting the tour now means we won't make it back in time for the afternoon tour of the surroundings we booked as well. With unexpected cash burning in our pockets we gallup over to the nearest internet cafe, to see what has happened to our email inboxes since we left on the Salar tour.

Proper touring, proper dining
The afternoon tour to Valle de la Muerte (this IS the world's dryest place after all) and Valle de la Luna are nothing short of spectaculat. Rinkydink buses are nowhere to be seen, we do this in a proper, airconditioned tourbus, with a tourguide who is actually very knowledgeable and takes time to explain everything properly. OK, Bolivia had some of that (Salar tour, downhill adventure, etc.), but every part of my body tells me this is much closer to the European tour experience we had in our minds before we left. OK, we pay more more European-like prices for this service, but I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. When we arrive back in town, we book ourselves a horseback tour with another company, and pray to the horse-god that we can saddle up tomorrow morning. It'll be our last day in S.P. de Atacama, so there will be no other choice to do this.
In the evening we walk around town to find a reasonably priced dining experience and settle for a place just off the main drag. An open fire is burning in the inner courtyard, a common set-up for this town, but Blandine is feeling a bit cold so we sit inside and the friendly staff makes us a romantic open fire in the fire place next to our table instead. We decide on a local meat fondue with cañar, some type of local nut that tastes like caramel. A nice bottle of white Chilean wine come with the fondue, to seal the deal. We're on top of the world, baby.