beautiful atacama...lost in the desert

Per my mother's request, I have decided to finish my blog. Better late than never I suppose? I am now back home in Minnesota, currently sitting in the comfort of my living room, a cozy shelter from this blustery snow storm we have been facing lately. I left off on my blog nearly two months ago, right after my family's visit to Chile and my "athletic weekend" climbing and kayaking. We headed to the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile the following week. It was truly an amazing trip, easily one of my top Chile experiences.



girls in glasses - waiting to get on the bus to santiago



I'm going to attempt to recall the week without my journal and simply though pictures & memories, so this mayyy be kind of weak. We'll see. We left for Atacama on a Monday morning bright and early.  We took a radio taxi (which we had called in for the night before) to our meeting spot. I actually ended up leaving my cell phone IN the radio taxi (typical), but thankfully I got it back when the same taxi brought other people from our group to the site. I hadn't even realized it was gone! First we took a bus ride to Santiago, which the majority of us slept through. At the airport, Gannon realized he had lost his Nalgene on the bus. When shopping with my mom before the trip, Gannon & I insisted on buying Nalgenes instead of their cheaper counterpart despite my mom's insistance that we would lose them anyway. We were positive that wouldn't happen and thus we made a bet. She said she would buy us dinner at Granite City if we both didn't lose them. Gannon was so bummed about losing his and in effect, the bet! So much for the dinner!

Todd being chased by goats

We flew into Calama, which was about a three hour bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama, where we would be staying. The airport in Calama was really small. We had to take a small bus to the bigger bus station within the city. While waiting for our TurBus, we walked around the town looking for food, settling on some cheap granola bars. The bus ride was RIDICULOUSLY hot. It was terrible. There was a bit of a scandal too with this drunk man and he ended up getting kicked off in the middle of the desert! Craziness. After we got to our hostel in San Pedro, we settled into our rooms, which were actually extremely nice. The hostel had a main office/eating area and then a bunch of rooms that led straight outside. I ended up rooming with Rey, Shannon, and Steph. Our group decided to have an asado that night, so we all grouped up and went off looking for meat and other things to make. Me, Todd, & Sean-Michael ran into a herd of goats during our meat search! The food at the asado was reallllly good.

the group of us bikers at La Pukara de Quitor

The next morning, I decided to rent bikes with some people and go explore. We biked through the desert and ended up at some Atacamenian ruins! There was a little museum where you could read up on the history of the Atacamenians. I hiked a bit but decided to stop because I was running low on water. With the heat and altitude combo, water is absolutely crucial. Thankfully, the museum sold huge bottles and I refueled before heading back to the hostel for empanadas. That afternoon, the group went to Valle de La Luna (Valley of The Moon), which was gorgeous! It seriously looks just like you're on the moon. We saw quite a few sights (Tres Marias, a mini salt mine) and enjoyed the sunset. Oh, and there were a lot of pictures involved. That was probably the primary activity.

CHILE!

Me, G, Shanny :)

Geysers de Tatio

The next day, Wednesday, was great. We got up really early and huddled into our vans for a trip to the geysers. It was FREEZING. Thankfully, I  heed notice to the warnings we had gotten about the cold & was bundled up accordingly. I had more layers than a lot of people did (warm fleece, two layered winter coat, leggings and pants, gloves, scarves, etc) and was still ridiculously cold. The geysers were really fun to see though. I guess a couple of people have gotten killed by them in the past, which was a little freaky to hear. We loved watching their spurting, and Todd & I enjoyed doing a modified "Let's Dance" in front of them. :) We were given warm tea/coffee and cookies for a little breakfast. Afterward, we went to swim in a hot spring - SUPER fun. It was freezing peeling off all the layers into our swimsuits but so vale la pena :) It was really steamy & extremely hot in certain parts. We were all exhauste on the way home & kind of cranky too. A lot of us just wanted to get back to the hostel, but it seemed we made a million stops- to see the alpacas, to admire a little stream through the desert, and get food in a little village. We all rested when we got back and then a group of us decided to try & find a pool we had heard about. Most of the group took a taxi there, but Donald, Brenna,Corey, and I decided to brave it through the desert and walk. It was an adventure, because we truly had no idea how long it was going to take. We found a shortcut which looked a lot shorter than it actually was. We saw the pool in the green distance and counted 19 powerline polls til we got there. It ended up being wayyy more than 19. The water was cool and refreshing though, well worth the walk despite the bad sunburn I was starting to get. That evening, we had a group dinner at a really nice restaurant where we ate out at the patio. The soup was amazing & the tres leche cake was delicious (we all agreed). That night I hung out & explored the town's nightlife (basically nonexistant).

with Lauren in the hot spring!

Our adventure to the pool

at the salt flats (see the flamingos?!)

Thursday was definitely my favorite day of the trip. We left later than the day before (thank goodness) and went to see the salt flats, which were out of this world gorgeous. Gannon & I were in a really goofy mood and were singing Goodnight Moon throughout the flats. We got to see some of the most beautiful sights ever...oh and flamingos too! After the flats, we went to a number of really, really random stops. Among them, a church (which was actually pretty interesting to see), an alpaca in someone's backyard (there was a dog too..), and an artificial forest (??? there was also a dog and rooster you could see). We were visiting a salt lake that day and we were all really excited for that. Finally that stop came. I have wanted to float in a salt lake ever since I can remember, and I had just found out a few days earlier that that was one of our stops. I was so ectastic! The lake was beautiful. It was FREEZING when we got there and really windy too, so we all struggled getting into the water. I decided to just push myself in because this was an experience I did NOT want to miss. It was incredibly cool. You float no matter what! We all tried a variety of floating positions & were just in awe of how neat it was. I had a burn on my neck, which just killed in the salt water, but it was worth it. We all had such a great time. After we got out (still freezing), we rinsed off with water and did our best to get dressed again in the open land. Then, we headed off to another gorgeous sight. I don't even know what you would call it, but it was a really, really big pool of shallow water. The water was so clear and the mountains framed the background. It was so much fun to play in. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back SO badly. Afterward, we all got free snacks & drinks. I went on the first bus back, because a group of us were going to go on a star tour. When I got back I started to feel really sick. The sick feeling lasted throughout the tour and into the night. It was terrible, but the tour itself was really neat still. We were given a lengthy speech about the constellations & other various components of our night sky & then got to see for ourselves through telescopes. It felt so good to sit down & sip our hot cocoa at the end. Back at the hostel, the other part of our group was celebrating Caroline's birthday so a group of people came to our room for awhile. Looking back at pictures, I was the most burnt I have EVER been in my life, so I am pretty sure sun poisoning was the likely cause for my enfermedad :)

salt lake. GORGEOUS

FLOATING in the salt lake :)



with a couple of my lovely Chorillos ladies!




our looooong day.



Friday was our last day in Atacama, a day I spent almost completely in the hostel lobby sick! We had to leave our rooms by 11, so that was the only place to go til our bus left for Calama around 4. The whole travel process was terrible. I could barely eat - I just had crackers and some toast at the airport (bad idea- Chile's idea of toast is more butter than bread). I felt so sick the whole way back. I was so thankful to be back in my bed in Vina (although it wasn't until around 5 am). The next few days consisted of me taking the weekend off to recover. It was rough but I made it through. Regardless of my sickness, it was still an amazing trip, one of my all time favorite parts of Chile!!

More to come after lunch break...