Mad dash up north to the Chilean desert

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The night before leaving for San Pedro de Atacama we all went out into the bohemian district - Bellavista - for some dinner and dancing. We found a great place that was pumping out Chilean pop with a few North American hits mixed in...good times! We met a few local Chileans celebrating a birthday and joined in their party. On our way home we thought a completo was in order...tasty!!I love Chilean street meat 😊

The next morning I didn't set my alarm as my flight wasn't until 1:40pm and I figured I would be able to have a relaxing morning...eat some breakfast, say good bye to everyone, and catch up on my facebook 😉 Well...a buddy of mine came into my dorm room to wake me up at 12:45pm...THAT'S RIGHT....less than an hour until my flight left for the desert. I have never dressed, packed, paid, and jumped in a cab so fast in my entire life - I think it all took me a total of 5min...haha. My taxi driver made a crazy mad dash for the airport and got me there at 1:20pm which meant I was flirting with my departure time in 20min. I race through the terminal and show up breathless at the counter...she takes my information and calmly informs me that there is no trouble checking me in as the flight has been delayed by 30min due to the wind...my saving grace!! I hit a juice stand on my way to the gate and wondered if I had travel angels flying with me that morning...

We drove over an hour from the airport into the Atacama desert to San Pedro through a wind storm...we could only see about 100m around us and it was pretty crazy. Once I arrived I met up with some North American´s for dinner which was nice to enjoy around a bonfire in the back patio.

We decided to book a sandboarding trip for the next day which I was pretty excited about. Well we get out there and the wind is still howling...but we managed to get in 5 runs anyway. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be as the sand is pretty heavy which makes it hard to turn. We watched the sunset over the desert that night as a group and it was pretty spectacular 😊 The next day I went to see the salt flats, the lagoons in the mountains, and the flamingo reserve. It was incredibly cool to be that close to them in the wild and we were surrounded by snow capped mountains and the salt flats...I don´t think my pictures will do it justice (did I mention that I was wearing 3 pairs of pants, 5 tops, and 3 pairs of socks...yes, I definitely underestimated the weather...haha). On our way back to town we stopped at a local village to walk around - this is where I sampled llama meat which is really quite good! Finally that night we booked a star-gazing trip to the middle of no-where...it was spectacular to view the night sky without the lights of a city. We learned some of the constellations and viewed saturn and the moon from one of their many telescopes - it was very cool. On my last day I visited the thermal pools and geysers - up at dawn to watch the sun rise over the mountains with geyers spraying water and steam all around me was definitely up there on my list of favourite moments 😊

I had an absolutely incredible time in San Pedro de Atacama and I´m so glad that I listened to my local Chilean buddy on my flight into Santiago as it was his recommendation!!

Ciao ciao

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Comments

[Melissa]

Sandboarding??
Wow, I bet it was cold, AND hard! You are writing the next bestseller right now : ) Miss you, Melissa

[Lauren]

Devon late???
Wow Dev, you must be relaxed and in fully "no time" travelling mode. I laughed when I read the story about you being late....those are stories I tell you and you shake your head at me, haha. So glad to read what a blast you are having. I only just stumbled upon your blog today unfortunetly....it was in my junk mail this whole time :( So I'm catching up! See you in a few days. xo Lo