Back at home...after some desert adventures

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Here I am, back at my house in the burbs.

Although I can't believe that my Chile experience is over, I am glad that I'll be back at Furman tomorrow to begin my last term there. Woah. I heard some good news this week...I have an interview for Teach for America. woohoo! It's the next step in the application process, and I really want to be a part of that program so we'll see what happens.

free-travel adventures:
February 15th: Angela Hanor, Laura Whitesides, Suzanne Prak, and Morgan load the bus (called a "bed bus") for the 24 hour trip to San pedro de Atacama
February 16th: 30 hours and two buses later, we are still on a bus. Turns out that there was a big storm and the highway was closed in some places. We finally arrived in San Pedro around 5:30 pm...needless to say, we were glad to get off of the stinky bus.
February 17th and 18th: Woah! The desert is amazing! I had never seen landscapes like the ones that we saw. We traveled up a mountain at 3 in the morning and watched a field of geysers for a while (as we froze), we saw flamingoes in a salt flat that stretched as far as we could see, watched the sunset in Moon Valley, ate llama and empanadas in a little village of 7 people, walked through a little valley oasis with fruit trees and a stream, and ate some popsicles
February 19th: got back on a bus all day to get to Caldera. The bus, which was 2 hours behind schedule, dropped us off in the middle of the highway at 2 in the morning. Hmmm. Luckily, we walked to a gas station where a taxi happened to be waiting and took us into town. Too bad the hostal had given our rooms away. Hmmm again. So we called another place which did have a room and walked there. What a night.
February 20th: beach! We spent the whole day at Bahia Inglesa...white sand, turquoise water, cool breeze, free bathrooms...amazing! Even realizing that I burned myself to a crisp didn't ruin my perfect day (I have since shed all of the skin on my back and stomach). I'll reapply my sunscreen more often next time.
February 21st: Bus south to Vicuna. That night we saw the most amazing view of the stars that I have ever seen from the Mamalluca observatory. Crazy. We saw the rings around Saturn, the red planet, other galaxies and we learned a ton about the universe.
February 22nd: Pisco plant! We learned all we could ever need to know about the national liquor...and bought some to take home. Then it was off to La Serena where we explored Chile's second oldest city.
February 23rd: Day of travel. Had a little scare in the morning when we learned that our bus to Santiago was delayed 2 hours...and we had a flight to catch. But we made it in plenty of time. Headed to Adrienne's apartament to retrieve my luggage and we headed to the airport. Goodbye Chile.
February 24th: Plane landed in Atlanta at 6:15, we went through customs and got our luggage. I repacked in the baggage claim and ran through the airport to catch a flight to Pittsburgh to visit my grandmother. Cut it close, but I made it. Whew.

Our travel group was great!

I finally got to my house on Sunday night and I've spent the past four days relaxing/procrastinating/missing Chile. Tonight I'll be attempting to make Pastel de Choclo for my family...wish me luck!

Thanks for listening to my Chile adventures. It's been fun writing these blogs and hopefully there will be more travels soon to write about. Hasta luego!

Morgan

PS: Keep in touch

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Photos

uh oh....traffic jam
flooding in the desert (what are the chances) put the bus a little behind schedule

on the bus...
Angela's snoozing, and Laura and I are definitely enjoying our bus time (we sure had a lot of bus time that week)

geysers!
it was coooollld on the top of that mountain, but we kept each other pretty warm.

beach
At the beach in February!

desert and snow
the desert was surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountain ranges.

the gran duna
we climbed this dune and watched the sunset over Valle de la Luna

huge Pisco barrel
the pisco fumes in there were enough to inebriate

and here's Gram
one last stop before heading home

La Serena
What a beautiful city!

breakfast at a hostal
Laura, Angela and Suzanne finishing up a breakfast of tea, coffee, bread, avocado, and marmalade. yum.

leche?
they warmed up the milk for breakfast inside the a little geyser

Comments

[Mary Grant]

Welcome Back!!!!
Morgan.....Wow....Thanks for sharing such cool experiences!!!! I know you will be accepted to Teach America.....You are an awesome individual. Besos, Mary