Exploring The Atacama Desert By Bike

This is the driest non-polar desert on earth and the only reason people come to the small town of San Pedro The Atacama is its outstanding natural beauty. It's a tourist magnet and anyone traveling to the north of Chile will stop here for a day or two. There are hundreds of tour offices and they offer the coolest stuff you can imagine: Steaming geysers, Andean lagoons, Salt Deserts and Lunar Landscapes. And while its extremely touristy, it's still awesome and worth every penny (competition keeps prices down). But if you choose to unplug from the tourist bustle for a day, I invite you to join me on a bike tour through the devils canyon (Quebrada del diablo). 

All pictures were taken by me in March 2016. 

Renting a bike is super cheap and you can either have it a full day or six hours. If you head out north of the town, you'll soon have to cross a river to enter the devils canyon. It smells a lot like adventure :-)

There is a lot of sand and it's sometimes hard to actually ride the bike. Me inside the canyon.

It soon becomes a labyrinth and without proper knowledge of the area locals don't recommend to go any farther.

You can either be up or down. On the brink of getting lost.

Finally, we found our way out along the river with the only green for hundreds of kilometers.

No it's not snow. It's salt. Amazing landscape and gorgeous sky. 

If you like it, there's a lot more to share about the insanely cool Atacama Desert @mcsvi.