The Driest Desert in the World!

The last trip I took was to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world and where Macarena lives. I won't go into too much detail on this one, but it was probably one of my favorite places I visited during this semester, the desert is just a different kind of beauty and it was very relaxing!

Thurs: Peter, Nell and I took our flight to Calama which is about 2 hours away from San Pedro and the closest airport to where we wanted to go. We had to take a cab to San Pedro since our flight got in later than the buses left, so we enjoyed a nice ride looking at the stars and the milky way in the clear sky. Maca had booked a hostel for us close to the center of town (which looks fake by the way- everything is adobe and there are lanterns lining the few roads that make up this tiny city in the middle of nowhere). We met some Brits and an Australian at our hostel who shared a drink with us and shared stories about their travels and what we should do in San Pedro. Since it is so dry, it gets VERY cold at night in San Pedro but luckily the adobe reallly held in the warmth and we have a really comfortable nights sleep.

Fri: We got up and explored the town (which only takes about 20 minutes) stopped in the museum that has many artifacts found in the desert, looked in the gorgeous adobe church, had a nice breakfast, and finally found Chelsea and Hyder who had taken a flight early that morning. We booked a tour for that afternoon and luckily we were all able to go together. We went to three places, First we went to a lake that is 4 times more salty than the ocean, and we got to swim (float) in it for about a half hour. It was so surreal because we were in the middle of the desert with mountains and volcanoes all around and we were in this little lagoon that was freezing at the top and hot underneath! Afterwards we headed to the Ojos de Salar- which are two round lagoons that resemble eyes and are so smooth that they look like reflecting pools. The last lake was really shallow, and apparently in the summer it is just a big open area of dried out salt. It reflected the sunset on the mountains and was absolutely gorgeous! It was a lot of fun going on that tour together and when we got back we went out to dinner and then met up with Maca and Hyder's host brother (who was also visiting for the weekend) for a drink. Hyder's host brother (Javier) was a little much, he seemed to think he knew EVERYTHING about San Pedro even though Maca lives there and was trying to tell him that he wasn't right. It was awkward, but He offered to take us to Valle de la Muerte and Valle de la Luna the next day which was really nice (especially because we wouldn't have to pay for a tour!)

Sat: Javier and his friend took us to Quintor, which is this area where there are old ruins and a big cross and altar up on a huge hill that overlooks all of the Altiplano and San Pedro. It was really beautiful! Later we went to Valle de Muerte (Death Valley), which was gorgeous. It was a bunch of huge rock formations and it was so dry that if you listen you could hear the rocks cracking. We made our way through there to the giant sand dunes where people were sandboarding. The guy who owned the restaurant we had gone to the night before (and also a friend of Maca's) was there giving lessons and let us try sandboarding which was really nice of him!) We headed to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) for sunset which is a must do in San Pedro. It was really beatiful but not nearly as cool as other places we went that weekend. We got back and met up with Maca and Judith for a birthday dinner for Macarena (her birthday was Sunday) which was really fun- it was great to hang out with Judith outside of the apartment, she is so fun!










Sun: Got up and relaxed for awhile- we all decided to do different things that day. I really wanted to go to Laguna Chaxa for sunset, as Maca said it is the best sunset around! So I finally found a tour and went to the Salar de Atacama which is incredible! Apparently the whole Altiplano used to be an ocean that dried up and that is why it is so salty. Today water comes down for the mountains and is beneath the altiplano and when it evaporates up through the ground salt comes up with it and when it dries it makes really cool looking formations that go on for miles! Laguna Chaxa is in the National Flamino reserve and I was lucky enough to see flamingoes feeding on the the lake as the sun went down- and Maca wasn't kidding, it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen! When I got back and met up with the others we went over to Maca and Judith's hostel for a Llama bbq. Llama meat really is delicous! It was fun but we called it an early night because Peter, Nell and I had to get up at 3:30 the next morning for a tour of the highest geysers in the world.









Mon: At 4ish we headed out for the Geyser tour and on the way I saw the moon setting which was spectacular! It was really low in the sky so it looked huge and since the sun was going to be coming up the moon reflected the orange of the sun- it looked incredible and I wish I could have taken a picture! We finally got to the geysers at 6:30ish and it was really cool to see steam and water shooting up out of the ground. We also stopped by some areas to look at different kinds of birds- some of which were sooo cute (they had huge feet and were running and slipping on a frozen pond) we saw lots of llamas an vicunas and stopped by a little town called Machuca (10 people maximum at any time) where we tried goat cheese empanadas and took pictures of the scenery. It was a nice tour but long! We met up with Maca and Judith for one last lunch together, and Maca showed us the hotel she works at (500 dollars a night per person!) it was gorgeous, but really over the top- only the richest of the rich stay there! When Hyder and Chelsea got back from their tour that evening we all headed to Calama where we had dinner before our late-night flight home. We were about to land in Santiago when we were told there was too much fog and had to land in Concepcion for the night. They put us up in the nicest hotel in Concepcion but we were told we only had 4 hours to sleep before we had to be up and ready to try to fly back to Santiago

Tues: up at 6:30 which was rough after being up since 4am the day before, but we were surprised by an amazing bfast buffet (American style), we also were offered free food at the airport since we still had to wait a few hours to go home. We finally made it back and literally had to land in pure fog- it was sooo scary, but Nell (who is from Seattle) said that is very common where she is from. It was a great trip and even though the end got a little frustrating it was a great way to end my travels.