San Pedro de Atacama: A Desert Vacation

So last weekend WE WENT TO THE DESERT!! It was amazing--so amazing, in fact, that is was on the show Planet Earth, if you've ever heard of it. Chile is literally one of the most diverse countries in the entire world, if not the most. The desert, Atacama, is in the city of San Pedro in northern Chile. We were close to Argentina and Bolivia, about a two-hour plane ride out of Santiago. We landed, and we were outside! The airport was so small we climbed out the plane and walked to the airport from the landing strip, but it was gorgeous and warm outside so we didn't mind. There ws absolutely nothing outside though! Just flat land all around us, and dunes hidden in the landscape. 

Airport at San Pedro, Welcome to the Desert!

After spending hald of the day traveling, we spent the rest of the day in town.  It was downtown, 'el centro', but it was tiny! There was one main street with lots of small restuarants, and little shops with al paca fur and local food and leather hats (not real...) and a bunch of little things. I bought some gorgeous al paca scarves (hello christmas gifts) and then we met up at a restaurant on the dime of our lovely school. I've been eating vegetarian to try and stay healthy, and it is working! The thing that wasn't so healthy though was the half of bottle of red wine, Merlot, that I shared with Becca. But, it did make my food taste even better. At the end of our meal, a live music group came into the restaurant and played local music for us! Charlottle noticed that one of the instruments was al paca or llama toenails. Lovely.

I have fallen in love with red wine

The second day was incredible. We had a free morning, which Becca took the time to arrange sandboarding for! This is exactly what it sounds like: boarding on the giant dunes in the middle of the desert for 4 hours. It was AWESOME!! I fell about a million times but the best part was that falling on sand doesn't hurt! Yes, you have sane everywhere, down your pants, in your shoes, all over your face, stuck to your hair, and when you sneeze. But! It is totally worth it. The sun was beating down on us, and we have to walk up the dune to go back down it; but once you got to the top, you did not want to go down. The view was spectacular, like a postcard, of the sky meeting to dunes and mountains of sand with the sun almost making it impossible to look for too long. Up there on that dune, it was the most mellow I've felt in awhile. It was way to hard to leave. But, I needed to shower.

Just shredding it, no big deal

After the dunes, we went on a tour of La Valle de la Muerte, or Death Valley. This was where we went sand-boarding earlier that day! Afterwards, we went to La Valle de la Luna, or Moon Vally, to see the sun set. In the desert, it get insanely cold when the sun goes down. So we stayed, went to the top of another dune, and watched the sun go down. It reflected everywhere, and was as I keep saying, incredible. Another free meal, and we went to sleep. Sunday was our third day, and by far our busiest. We woke up to another tour, this time of the natural salt fields, the second biggest in the world, in San Pedro. The coolest thing: flamingos! They just lived at this national park and ate the little organisms in the salt water all day and slept all night. What a life.

Charlotte and I, flamingos in the backround somewhere

Later on Saturday, we layed by the pool because it was go nice outside. To be honest, we all got burned, but this was after multiple reminders by the Chileans that we were "white" and "pale" and all gringos think they can handle the sun and they can't. We proved them right: everyone was some shade of red, except Melly. Not fair. Next, the lagos y lagonas. 

The gringas, and the grino

Monday was our final day, where we woke up at 4 am and left  4:30 to go see the gysers in the wee morning at the top of a mountain. Thank goodness no one go too sick from the altitude (4,800 meters up. I still do not know what that is in miles, or feet). Se valio la pena? (Worth it?) No. Too cold and too high. But, Joe, Becca, and I were able to go swimming in these natural springs on the top of mountains. 

Once in a life time baby

We came home later that day and I slept my life away. Great, amazing, lovely, sandy trip. Loved it.