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Published: January 14th 2015
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Claire's hike We woke to a beautiful blue sky! Yea, no rain. There were still so clouds but there was some blue sky. Shelly’s hike started earlier than mine so off she went. I went down for breakfast and then later our guide told us to meet for some of the local tea. Now our guide in the Atacama drank this and I swear it looked like pot and the straw (pipe) out of the cup made it look like a bong. Well, I tried it. There is the whole ritual to it. Which hand you take it with, what you say afterwards… As I walked back, I saw the fox again but this time she was with one of her cubs. It was very cute.
Last night I could not find my sun glasses anywhere. Now that the sun is out, oh no, what am I going to do. I used my glasses that change in the sun. It was the best I had.
Then I got in the van with the other 5 and we started out for our journey. My guide Sara was great at explaining what we saw and we saw a lot
of wildlife. I even saw the bird that is kin to an ostrich here. We got to the first lake and she explained about the microbes that live and build the rocks in the lake (along the shore). We then van’d it to the next lake where we hike down to the base and learned more about different microbes. This build underwater, the first built the rocks on the shore. Along the way she showed us the plants and we ate some of the local berries (they are kinda like blueberries but have some seeds). Then back to the van for a drive to our barbeque. The food was great and the weather was clearing more and more but we still couldn’t see (fully) the towers – which the national park we were in is named after. Along the way, we saw condors and were trying to get them closer. Helena had red gloves on so she kept trying to look like condor food. IT was funny. We then headed to the waterfall and by the time we got there the clouds had moved and we got some beautiful views of the waterfall and the towers. It was grand. Then
we drove back to camp and that is when I realized our camp had a great view of the towers, it had just been too cloudy and rainy the whole time that we never saw it.
Shelly had just gotten back from her hike and told me all about it. They did about 28 kilometers today and hike to the base of the towers (well to the lake at the base of the towers). She said it was STEEP and was a tough hike but of course she loved the whole thing.
We rested for a minute, showered then headed over for our Pesco drinks and dinner. Tonight we split up. Shelly ate with her group from today and I ate with my group and guide. Turns out the couple in my group had an anniversary and they made the a special spiced wine drink (which they shared with the table) then the guide got up and played some songs on the violin. Shelly joined us a bit later and we sat and talked for a bit. Everyone was so happy because the weather had been so great today.
Guess what
I found tonight, my sunglasses. They were in a part of the backpack I never use. Yea. Oh, the other funny thing. This time we were working on the fire in the firebox. Shelly goes, I know how to build a fire, I used to be a girl scout. She put a log on it and smothered it. ;-). We got it restarted.
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Patty
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Awesome pictures!
Beautiful! But it looks cold, so I'm glad I'm not there ;-)