After a decent night’s rest, we are up at 9ish and meeting again for breakfast. Today, we are going to meet a pretty cool guy who is in the know with regards to the native Incan/Mapuche/Atacaman medicine and spiritual practices. We burn alfalfa, coco (think cocaine) leaves and tobacco and drink A LOT of wine in order to celebrate the coming of the new year with the advent of el invierno, or Winter in English. We have the rest of the afternoon all to ourselves now… What should we do?



The group is divided. Some want to go to the salt lagoons nearby where the salt is supposedly so dense that it is impossible not to float. The other half, the side that I chose, wanted to do this neat little thing called SANDBOARDING!!!!!!! Muahahaha! We haggle with the guy as being a group of eight gives us a little bit of leverage by virtue of our peso resources. Initially, its 15k pesos to go, or about 30 dollars U.S. through haggling though, we manage to score a cool 8k pesos per person and at 3pm we’re gone. Close to La Valle de la Luna, we venture out to La Valle Muerta or, cheesy enough as it is, Death Valley.
The dunes here are spectacular and I am so thankful to have brought my sand gaiters for the trip. I go first and thanks to my previous snowboarding excursions, I almost look like I know what I'm doing. I don’t fall once the first few rounds. Finally, after a long run, I get sloppy and BAM! Face plant in la arena (sand).



After a few hours here, it’s dark and we go home to rest and then eat at 8. I hear we’re supposed to go out on the town, errr village tonight…