Week 9 - Trip to San Pedro de Atacama

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I am writing this on Friday, October 23rd after a long week trip to the desert. Let's see how much I remember!

Tues, Oct 13
I had class today from 10-12, and afterwards, I met up with Andrea (on Sunday we had decided to meet up sometime during the week, so why not Tuesday). I talked to her for about a half hour, and in that half hour my spanish drastically improved. One on one conversations are definitely the way to go 😊. Afterwards I took a micro home for lunch, but I don't remember what happened after that, haha.

Wed, Oct 14
I had class from 10-12 again, and afterwards, I walked to el centro to buy some sunglasses. I decided to buy some from a street vendor, because it took the least time and they were the cheapest ($4). They guy selling them helped me find the best kind for me. A pair that suited me and that would be the most effective. I was surprised how nice that person was, and all he was making was $4. He went out of his way to make sure I got what I needed; its not like he is getting a tip or anything, so I was surprised. I then went home for lunch, and I'm glad I did because the whole family was there. That's all I had time to do at home, because I then had class at 3. I met with Andrea again at 5pm after my class. I had a great time walking around Concepcion and talking to her. We also went to Cafe Neruda, and afterwards just hung out until like 7:30. I was going to see the soccer game agains Ecuador, but we decided not to since all of the bars were full anyways. I later found out that some of my St. Cloud friends saw the game at Tercer Tiempo, but they had to watch it from outside because the bar was too packed. Apparently it was 0-0 until about 45 minutes into the game, where Chile scored. I heard them score on the radio while I was on the micro back home, haha. When I got home, Oliver and Claudio were watching the game. They were really into it! Coming home late I missed dinner too, so Claudio made 2 sandwiches for me. I could barely eat all of that, especially already having a sandwich at Cafe Neruda! But I did it, haha. That was nice of Claudio to make me food, even though I had missed dinner with the family. Afterwards, I packed for my week long trip up north.

Thu, Oct 15
Our flight was at 8:35, so I had to wake up at about 6:30 to have breakfast and stuff, and get to the airport by 7:30. The plan this week was to do as much as we could in the 7 days that we had. We flew to Santiago, we then went directly into a tour bus. The bus driver was also the tour guide. He was nice and made the tour fun and exciting. He knew so much about the cities that we toured. First, we went to Valparaiso. Valparaiso was one of the richest towns in South America back in the early 1900s, and it has still maintained some of its old buildings. Valparaiso is really a unique city because of it. It is on a hill, so there are some elevators around the city to get to different parts. First, what we did was take the bus up high where we could get a good view of the city, oh, and of course the port to the ocean. You could see some cool ships if you were high enough. I took some good pictures. We all went to Pablo Neruda's house and we toured the inside. He had the most interesting house; its 5 floors, and he seemed to do the best with the 5 floors that they had in terms of decoration and style. Also, from the 4th floor there is an amazing view of the city and ocean. It's breathtaking. Afterwards, we went to a gift shop where they had cds and books by pablo neruda as well as clothes and postcards. I bought a few postcards to send to my family. We then walked up down a couple of the streets in Valparaiso, and then we took one of the elevators down to the main town area. I was a bit wary at first, as to whether or not it was safe, but I took it anyways. We walked around the city, seeing all of the cool buildings. There were a lot of old buildings that were a sight to see back in the day, and are still pretty cool nowadays. The main street went through this huge plaza, and it didn´t even seem like a street, yet cars were passing by on it. When I crossed, I almost forgot to look both ways because I just wasn´t used to street going through a plaza without curbs or any other indicator. After looking around, we hopped on the tour bus and advanced to Viña del Mar. We ate at a restaurant near the beach. It was pretty expensive, but I wasn´t surprised because of how many tourists that go there. The service was decent enough for us 20 that just came in at once, haha. Afterwards, we walked by the beach. I bought a Colo Colo jersey from one of the vendors. The fact that it was 10 bucks didn´t concern me because the jersey was styling, haha. The beach was nice, but it was really windy, and the waves were not as high as the ones at Playa Cobquecura. We then took a couple stops- went to this sweet artifact store where everything was expensive, but it was cool to look around. They were also handing out samples of pisco sour, not sure why, haha. I also saw the original Statue of Easter Island. Afterwards we walked to this outdoor stadium, where concerts and such are held. It seemed like one of those coloseums where gladiator matches where held back in the Roman era, haha. That night, we got to our hotel in Santiago real late. Once we got settled in though, I went out with Al, Brad, Evin, and Eric and we got some pizza at this restaurant. This is the 3rd time I've been to Santiago for their pizza, and its great every time. What surprised me though is how you can just walk into a pizza place in el centro and it is already made - they just need to heat it up in the oven, which you watch them too, and its 1 dollar per slice. The quality of the pizza is just as good as any restaurant, yet you get it right away and practically the same price 😊. Afterwards, I chilled with Eric, Brad, Evin, and Sonny in the hotel till about 3am. It was pretty cool being on the balcony at night and looking at the buildings in Santiago. I think some of the gang decided to stay up the whole night, since we had to wake up at 5am anyways. I decided to get 2 hours of sleep because there wasn't any reason to be up that late while being exhausted.

Fri, Oct 16
Oooh, I felt a little quesy in the morning for a while, but I felt better as the day went on. I think it might have to do with the large intake of pizza so late at night, haha. We got on the plane to San Pedro de Atacama. I talked to Samantha most of the way there. Again, it seemed so much easier to talk to someone on a one-on-one basis as opposed to being in a group and talking. And the conversation made the plane ride much faster 😊. When I got to the desert, I was pretty blown away. I had never been to a desert before, so it was a sight to see. I could not believe how empty the desert looked. It was so different; its hard to explain. The buildings were all the same color - like beige. They were all relatively small too, except for the mall i suppose. We stopped by for breakfast, I ordered a sandwich, which wasn't anything special, but it was something. I talked to Lindsay a little about "Donde Esta Eliza" (the soap opera). I could probably talk for days with her about that show because we are both very into it. Anyways, the plan today was to go to this copper mine called Chuquicamata- copper is Chile's number 1 export metal, and I can see why! The mine is huge! They were saying that it is 1 mile wide and 3 miles deep (I believe). There were quite a few workers, and we saw some huge bulldozers, trucks with wheels taller than me, and that sort. That was interesting. Our tour guide was really knowledgable of the mine and she spoke great english, so she was nice to have. Afterwards, we checked into our hotel at the desert. It was about 1pm and we had till 4 until our next trip. So, I went with Trevor and Karl to walk around the place a while. The desert town was so sketchy when you were outside, but when you entered into one of the buildings, you could hardly tell you were in a desert. Some of the restaurants had signs outdoor, and some you just had to walk inside and see how it was. The 2 restaurants we saw first were practically empty, - and everything was expensive ($9 a sandwich, $16 a pizza, etc)! So what we did was go to a 'supermarket' (they have little convenience stores with mostly snacks, but they also sell fruits, veggies, deli meats, and bread). We bought bread and ham and made our own sandwiches at the hotel to save money. Anyways, I hung out for a while, checked out my room too. At 4 we took a bus to Valle de la Luna. Oh, we got a new tour guide too. His name is Max, and he was probably the funniest and nicest tour guide I could ask for. He made the whole trip fun, exciting, and I felt like I wanted to learn with him as our guide. We went to a place called Valle de la Luna. We did some walking around in the desert - pretty sweet. And then we came to this cliff where you could see some people sand surfing in the distance. I wanted to do that! They were on smooth sand, in contrary to what we had been walking on. After that, we had to go down part of the sand. It was smooth, and downhill, so I ran down it. That was really fun, except when you get to the end it is hard to stop without falling over. Most of us ran down it too - Karl fell and did a barrel roll into the sand - that was so funny! He was like right behind me too! Well, we did some more walking. What wasn't fun is how sometimes the wind would put sand into your eyes, but I had sunglasses so it only happened once or twice. We got back into the bus, and went to a place called Valle de la luna, where we were going to watch the sunset. Before that, our tour guide and the bus driver provided snacks for us, along with pisco sour (which i didn't like too much but some of my friends seemed to). What's worse is that I tried mixing some Peach juice with it - which made it worse haha. Anyways, that was really nice of them to do that, and it seemed to bring us together. the sunset was awesome. It was like seeing the colors of the rainbow shadowing the red mountains, gradually changing as the sun sets. I stared at the mountains most of the time because that was more fascinating than the sunset itself. I miss it. We got back at around I got settled in and got some sleep that night.

Sat, Oct 17
Today we went to these ancient ruins, and went inside this house in the middle of the desert - it was like a little hut. Anyways, it gave me a sense of what it was like to live way back when. If you take a look at my photo you an notice the circular shape of their houses. This is one of the oldest settlements here. We also went to these other ruins, but this time it was a fortress on a pretty decent size hill. We all went up it. I took some pictures when I got up to the top, but on the way there were stone walls with square openings (like windows), which were really cool. It was fun when we finally walked down it. I ran some of the way down, but not took much because I wanted to stay in control of myself, haha. Afterwards, we went to an archeological museum, which was quite interesting. My favorite part though, was the real gold that was there, that was cool. Then, we had a break until 4. So, most of us went to the pool by our hotel. Oh my gosh was the water cold... I could barely stand keeping my feet in for a minute. But the sun was out, and it was a warm day, so it didn't make sense! If I remember correctly, I believe Allison was the first one that had the guts to jump in. The rest just kind of tanned for a while. That's what I did, I got hot from tanning and that made me more pumped for it. But the water was so cold you couldn't get used to it - the only way would be to jump in and get out fast - which I did. It was definitely worth it! Then we went back on our tour bus, and headed to Toconao, another town in the desert. We walked outside of the city to where we saw walls and irrigation canals built by the incans, there were also these nice pink flowers, as well as cacti (without needles). I had to duck a lot walking through, and also the paths were very narrow! We came to this part where there were 2 giant walls of rock on both sides. Evin and Brad thought they looked cool, and they were considering rock-climbing it sometime during our trip. Afterwards, we returned back to the town and witnessed some parade. They had a very unique dance, they wore these capes and it looked as if they were wearing blankets, haha. Most of the dancing consisted of them twirling around, but sometimes they would kneel for a while and the others would continue to dance around them.
The parade was called San Lucas (not sure why) but I got a lot grief for me having the same name, haha. But I got a picture with some of the dancers, so it gave me some credit! Afterards, we went to a place called Soncor, where there was a trail to walk on, where you could look by and see flamingos from a distance. It was about 7 or 8 so the sun was beginning to set. The sunset was even more beautiful this time, because there were more mountains it seemed. It was so amazing - the sun was on one side, and the rocks on the other, and the sun was casting a red shadow onto the mountains. So cool, and I miss it! That night I went to a bar where there was a bonfire in the center, and there wasn't a roof. So, you could literally see the stars while being inside the bar. Karl and Trevor commented on how they could use bars like that in the United States with the bonfire and all that. I couldn't agree more, it was such a sweet atmoshphere to spend time with friends. I was going to go to a desert party, but decided not to because we would only be there for an hour and have to come back for our next excursion at 5am. I think 4 or 5 people of our group decided to go, and apparently they had a great time, even though it was freezing and they didn't stay too long. But from what I heard from them, it was worth it. There were numerous bonfires, and everyone was just having a great time. Plus, since when do you get to go to a party in the middle of the desert?? It doesn't happen very often, that's for sure.

Sun, Oct 18
We had to get up at 5am to see the geysers. I only slept a couple hours, and it was difficult to sleep on the bus on the way there. It was freezing cold when we went outside. I am talking like 20 degrees! I never expected the desert to ever get that cold. Also, I could tell how differently I felt from the high altitude. My heart was beating fast, had a headache, and my stomach felt a bit weird. But The geysers were interesting. Not that much water would come out of the ground, but a lot of steam would, and it would go up 50 some feet. I got a picture of me inside of the steam. We couldn't get too close because it was 800 degrees celsius! We were with the guide, and he was accustomed to knowing the spots where water would come out. If you were in a danger spot right before water erupted, it could be fatal. In addition to the many geysers there were, there was also small pools of boiling water. Those scared me, even though they weren't going to erupt or anything. What amazed me is when the sun came out, it got warm within minutes! It went from 20 to 60 in a half hour, no joke. How different the desert is! Afterwards, we got back into the bus and headed to the termas. I was expecting the to be hotter, but it was cool how it was all natural. They were natural pools of water in the desert. The water was clear! I had fun dipping my head in the small waterfalls. Also, hanging out with the guys was cool. When we were about to go, the high altitude was finally starting to get to me. I felt dizzy and disoriented with a headache, but I knew that I would feel better when we got back to our hotel, where the altitude is not nearly as high. When I got back to the hotel I just went to bed, and I woke up feeling much better. We got the rest of the day to hang out. I ended up just hanging out in the lobby, I also took a second nap. Later, everyone had a party outside of the hotel. That was fun hanging out with everyone.


Mon, Oct 19
We kind of slept in, thinking that we were for sure not going to go rock-climbing today. 10 o clock came, and then we thought of going there later and missing spending time with everyone at the lake. After much time deciding, we decided to head to the bus station and see if we could make it there and back and still make it in time to go to the lake! Well that didn't work so well! We missed all of the early buses, and there were buses leaving at like 2:30 or something, and that was too late for us. We decided to just go the next day, where we have the day free and we can get back here at a decent hour. We tried hitch-hiked a little, just for fun (we were unsuccessful), but then went to a place to get some lunch, then afterwards to our hotel. We didn't have to wait long until the tour bus came to bring us to "Laguna Cejar." On the way, the road was really bumpy! I guess that is how driving in the desert is like! We get there, and Max, our tour guide, tells us not to dunk our heads into the water because it is very salty. Besides that though, the water was freezing! I didn't want to go in at first, but as everyone went in, I mustered up the courage to do so as well. I got used to it once I got in. I didn't dunk my head in, but I remember getting splashed a few times at least. It was so salty! Afterwards, some of us talked with Max, and he told us about how his time he spent in Poland among other things. He has seen and done a lot, that's for sure. Anyways, everyone seemed to like him a lot. He was an awesome tour guide. That night I hung out a little outside the hotel with Karl, Trevor, Lindsay, and others but I didn't go out because I was going to rock climb tomorrow morning.

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Photos

The beach at Vina Del MAr
We didn't see much of the city..

Pure sand
Where you could sand board

Eric and I
notice the sunset in the background!!

Comments

[Triana]

Glad you're having a good time. What about some pictures of the desert?