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Published: July 30th 2009
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I spent the past two weeks traveling up and down Chile. It was an incredible two weeks, full of adventures, misadventures, new people, new friends, and incredible sights. I started out from Rancagua on Thursday, July 9, traveling to Iquique, which is a beach city in the second region of Chile, so it's very far north. I was traveling with Kate and Kelly, two of the other volunteers also living in Rancagua, and our friend Scott met us up there. We didn't get to our hostel in Iquique until about 1.30 in the morning, but Kate and I accidentally ended up staying up until 6.30 hanging out with the hostel workers. They were all really young, and were sitting down in the bar area just hanging out and totally welcomed us into the hostel, and into Iquique, so that night kind of set a tone for the rest of the week. Why sleep in a bed when the beach is right across the street? That was kind of our mentality while we were there. We ended up napping on the beach a lot. The view from the hostel was incredible. It was right across the street from the beach, and our
room was the only one that looked out over the beach, so we woke up every morning to a gorgeous view, and one day I went running along the beach, which was incredible. There are some volunteers teaching in Iquique, and I am so jealous of them now, having seen what they get to experience every day! The city itself isn't very big, but we wandered around a lot, bought some alpaca items, Kate and I highlighted our own hair, and swam a little bit in the ocean.
The people that you meet while traveling are so incredible, especially when you stay in inexpensive hostels. We were sitting at dinner one night, and at our table were two French boys, two Swedish girls, a couple of other Americans, an Argentine, and a Brazilian. And two South African guys came and hung out with us later. It's just amazing the different people you meet and the stories that they have. I was reading "On The Road" while we were in Iquique, and I feel now like I am having that sort of experience for myself. Staying up all night talking to people, hearing their stories and about their lives is so
incredible, and it makes me what to travel more and experience more new things. I am so grateful to have this chance, and I am just trying to take everything in.
Iquique was amazing, so amazing that we almost missed our bus to San Pedro de Atacama. But we eventually got on the bus and were on our way to the desert. After about 40598 hours of traveling, during which we had to get on and off the bus three times, I yelled at the bus driver and almost made him cry, and caused one of the bus attendants to be so afraid of me that he wouldn't come near our seats, we arrived in San Pedro at about 7.30 in the morning. After yet another night or little or no sleep, we checked into our hostel and then left to walk around the very small town of San Pedro. There are about eight streets in the entire town, but its a very cute little place. Kelly found a place to go horseback riding, while Kate and I booked our first tour for the Valle de la Luna. It was absolutely breath-takingly beautiful, pictures are attached. We hiked to the
top of a sand dune and watched the sun set. I can't even explain how incredible it was.
After that we were pretty wiped out so we went out to a small dinner and were in bed by 9.30, because we had to get up at about 3.45 to catch our bus for the tour of the Geyser del Tatio. Those are these incredible natural geysers that are at 14,000 feet above sea level, and you can see them steaming and spouting while watching the sun rise. It was pretty awesome. I ran into a friend of mine from college in the middle of the desert at 7.30 in the morning, which just proves how small the world really is.
After an amazing time in San Pedro we headed back to Iquique on an overnight bus, arriving at 5.30 in the morning. We went back to our hostel, where they were so wonderful and let us store our stuff there, and nap on their couches all day. We bummed around the city all day, hung out with the crazy peeps there, and then took off for the airport around 6.30 that evening. We eventually arrived back in Rancagua at around
2.30 in the morning. I haven't slept so well in months.
The next day, Friday July 17, Kate and I went to the bus station to get our bus tickets for Valdivia, 11 hours down south, so we sprung for the almost full reclining seats, thank goodness. On Saturday we left from Santiago after meeting Cami and her family there for coffee and wandering. Eleven hours later we arrived. In Valdivia we were volunteering at the English Winter Camps, which are put on by the Ministry of Education every Winter and Summer. The days were really long, 9-5, and we had meetings every day after that, but it was completely worth it. The kids were absolutely incredible. Kate and I started tearing up on the last day when we said bye to everyone.
The kids in these camps are there because they want to spend a week of their vacation learning and practicing English. They are incredible. We had high schoolers, and they speak better English at their age than I did Spanish. It was amazing. They were all so excited to have us there, and we had so much fun with them. On the last day we had a
talent show, and the volunteers decided to participate. We made up a song and dance to a Spanish song. The kids loved it. A couple of them taped it, and now we are on facebook. It's pretty embarrassing.
Now I'm back in Rancagua, and teaching again.
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