North Trip-Day 6: sand boarding

On our last day in the Atacama desert we had the whole morning to do whatever we wanted to. I decided to go sand boarding with Lizzy, Sam, Sonni and Lindsay. I got up at 8 to eat breakfast and we had to be to the sand boarding place by 9. When we arrived at the place nobody was there and it looked closed but we were a little early. A guy that worked at the restaurant across the street knew the people so he called them to tell them we were waiting.
A lady showed up pretty quickly. We paid for our little excursion and then a guy picked out boards for us. The van that was supposed to pick us up was having some trouble and running late. While we waited, I went across the street to a shop and bought some new sunglasses for 3000 pesos ($6). I wanted some plastic ones because every time I put my metal ones in my bag, they get all bent out of shape. We saw the stray dog from class on the street. It was funny.
The van finally arrived and we all climbed in. There were two other guys from Brazil going and then we had 2 guides. We headed out to Valle de la Muerte. Again, we were driving off road. We had to stop at one point to they could look at the tires or something before we went over a really rough patch. We made it to the sand dune though. We carried our boards to the top and got instructions from our guide. We had to wax our board with a little candle they gave us every time we went down because otherwise there is too much friction and you don´t go anywhere. At first we took turns just going a little ways at a time. Each time we went a little further and then they taught us how to turn. We still took turns going down so we didn´t hurt each other. It was a long, tough hike back up the hill once you went down. I feel quite a bit but I really wanted to turn and it was hard. If your not going fast enough your board digs in and sinks into the sand and then you fall. By the end I was covered in sand. On the last time down, Lindsay somehow managed to flip head over heels. It was kind of funny since she was okay and when I got to the bottom she hand sand all over, in her teeth and everything. Part of our package that we paid for was for them to take pictures of us. I took some with my camera but my camera ended up getting sand in it and it stopped working.
We were in a hurry to get back to the hotel since we had to check out by 1. We had them drop us off and we would go back later to get our pictures put on a USB drive. We got back to the hotel between 12:20 and 12:30. I quickly showered and packed up my things. We moved all our suitcases into one room since the bus wasn´t going to pick us up until 5. Christina and I went shopping. I got a leather bracelet, a headband, and a dream catcher shaped like a star. We came back to the hotel to eat. After that we laid by the pool for about an hour. When we were shopping and walking around we saw the UV traffic light. It was at the highest level, which was blue. We made sure we put on lots of sunscreen and were in a shady area by the pool. Others had laid out earlier for a few hours and most of them ended up really burnt. I wrote out postcards while I lounged by the pool.
We went back to the main lobby, changed and waited for the bus. The bus took us back to Calama to the airport. A group of boys had went rock climbing in the morning and decided that they couldn´t make it back in time to catch our bus to the airport so they said they would just meet us there. We weren´t sure if they were going to make it but they finally arrived. They cut it a little close though. We boarded the plane as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. I was sad to leave the sunny weather but happy to be headed back. On the plane I wrote out postcards and wrote in my journal. We didn´t make it back to our hotel in Santiago until about 11 p.m. Everyone was pretty worn out so we stayed up watching t.v. for a little while but went to bed shortly after that.

---

Part of trip: STUDY ABROAD

---