That basically sums it up. I headed up north to the Atacama this weekend with Natalie, and a bunch of other people who happened to be there as well. I am in LOVE with my pictures, so i hope you guys enjoy them too. We went on 4 tours, all for about 100 USD. These were well worth it and i will try to give you a tour through pictures :)
Thursday-
We took a flight from Santiago to Calama and got in at about 10pm. Luckily we had planned with the hostal guy to pick us up. So 8 gringas piled into a car and we headed to San Pedro de Atacama. Our hostal was a tad bit sketchy...lets just say that. It was dirty, FREEZING, and just not the place for us. We slept there that one night, and moved the next morning to an AMAZING hostal with heat! finally *por fin*! it was amazing.
Friday-
Change hostal in the morning. walk around town and figure out plans for the rest of the weekend. Natalie and I chose a company and planned 4 tours. Starting in the afternoon on friday. 3pm.
First tour up was Valle de La Luna. It was a good start to the weekend. They picked us up around 3 and we got to see our first views of the true desert. dry dry!
looks like Mars no?!
dancing on the rock? :)
our view as we were walking
wow.
Then we walked for a ways up a hill, and got to the spot where we were to watch the sunset. and this is what it looked like. I wasn't as amazed as i thought i was going to be, but it was still a pretty view!
and that was the view. Not as bright popping colors as i was expecting.
We went out to dinner for Abby H's birthday which was nice. We didn't stay out long though because our tour the next day left at 4am!
Saturday- LONG LONG DAY!
4am. up and atem!
We started off our day with a tour called Geyser del Tatio. We were warned that it would be pretty cold, and being from New England i was prepared! It was -12 degrees celcius, that's about 10 degrees F. This was a pretty cool experience, even though I was super tired from my 4 hour nap. For those of you who don't know, Geysers are holes in the ground that release hot air. I think there are things flowing underground to make it super hot. I can't remember though because I'm pretty sure my brain was not processing things that early in the morning.
smoke everywhere.
close up!
Then we got breakfast...that was pretty good. They hard boiled eggs in the geysers and also put a carton of chocolate milk in there so we could have some warm drinks for those of us who don't like coffee.
Natalie holding the warm chocolate milk! so yummy, just what i needed!
Then to warm up a little bit, but not much because the water was cold, and then blasts of hot...we got into a "hot" spring.
it was super smokey, so i didn't get many pictures of this. But just know that changing back into clothes....NOT FUN!
it was cold. and smelled of sulfur.
after the geysers we headed to a small town to see the local culture. it was amazing. all of the houses had a cross on top, and a solar panel. I am so glad someone is finally capturing the power of the sun and using it!
one of the most photographed churches. There was a man charging money for pictures, so i had to snap one through the hole!
then we got to try some new meat. LLAMA!
so amazing and yummy!!
llama and onion. the most amazing mouth watering taste ever! these puppies were expensive! 4 dollars for one. Obviously i had to try it!
Next up on the tour.
8 foot tall cactus.
why not hug it!
That tour ended at around 12:15pm. We all got into bed and napped until our next tour at 3pm. This one turned out to be my favorite! Our tour guide was pretty cool, Felipe. It was just a great experience to have a smaller tour of 6 girls with Felipe as our trusted driver of the jeep This tour was Laguna Cejas.
getting in the lake was chilly. but it got a little bit warmer as you went in.
This lake had 4times the amount of salt as the ocean. It was crazy, and kind of stung my super dry skin from the desert.
floating!
Next stop, some cool lake reflection!
jumping. we found the other 6 gringas there as well! We did the same tours, but with different guides so we didn't always end up at the same place at the same time. but i'm glad that we got this picture in!
LOVE.
Next stop, sunset over looking a lake with amazing reflecting abilities. pretty cool!
nicole and i in front of the lake. that white stuff we are standing on is salt!
love this picture. Nicole, Ruth, and Dánika.
With some pisco sour to end the trip, we enjoyed some snacks over looking the water and then headed back to the hostal.
Sunday- MORE TOURS. our last one, started at 6am. The early morning thing was kind of killer, especially since it was SO COLD!
FLAMINGOS!
the view in the morning. just beautiful!
in flight. we were being too loud! well not natalie and i, but some other girls on the tour.
cool rock balancing...until Natalie said "hmm i wonder how this works" and touched it. knocking it over. luckily our guide was a super pro at standing it back up.
ivan. our guide.
i should really sell this one to the company!
Sunday night we relaxed, and Monday...we relaxed some more. Our flight left at 6pm, so we headed home and it all went smoothly!!
So there was my photo tour of the weekend. If you want to know more, just ask :)
Now, i should really be getting to my homework seeing as it is finals week coming up! Not so fun.... After next week though, i will be done with everything.
Art and Society-
Presentation (on the same topic that i gave my last presentation...so i dont know how to switch that up...)
Paper 6 pages.(on the topic of the presentation, that'll be easy. my one class in english).
Chilean Culture-
Dylan, a kid in my class from Southern California is my partner for this one. What we need to accomplish:
Collage- describing anything in Chile
2 page paper- describing collage
Presentation- to present our collage
Dylan is a pretty creative kid, and i think we have a good idea brewing for this one!
Contemporary Latin American Short Stories-
Take home exam. Should be about 4 pages long. Easy Peasy....it'll just take a long while to figure out these stories...whoops. (Due Monday)
Grammar-
Who knows! Honestly, we have not had class in 2 weeks, and it is not because of the toma! The teacher has been away on a conference, and who knows what else. Canceling class all the time. I will be back in class on Weds, so hopefully i will figure out what needs to be done then!
Oh yea, and all of that is due next thursday. except for my take home exam.
time to be a college student!
Chao for Now!
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