Time for a vacation!

After a long but fabulous week of camp I was ready to head out for another adventure.

There were about 7 of us girls who decided to hop on a bus and see if we couldn’t explore more of what Chile had to offer! The night camp ended we packed our things and took a bus to a place called La Serena. It is a beautiful town right by the coast. We checked out some markets and El Faro (the lighthouse) which is kind of like their pride and joy :) During the day it was gorgeous and a nice change of pace from Curicó. The next day we took a day tour to the surrounding country side. We saw things like papaya plantations and many other fruits that are grown in the winter. The views were absolutely breathtaking!

We also visited a place where pisco is made (pisco is a very well known alcohol made in Chile) We were able to see the whole process which was very cool. We also hit up the town where Gabriela Mistral was born and raised. She is the only Chilean woman to win the Nobel peace prize. She won it for her literary work. I bought a book of her poems and am trying to memorize one called “piececitos” (little feet). She wrote a lot for children. After exploring a little bit more of La Serena and its neighboring city Coquimbo we hopped on another bus to San Pedro Atacama.

The Atacama Desert is one of the driest in the world and definitely worth the travel up north! We stayed in a cute little hostel called Cabañas Candelaria which was about a 15 minute walk from the middle of town. We met a lot of fun people there since it is a bit of a tourist town. People from all over all in this one little town, it was really a fun thing to be a part of. We tried to see as much as week could!

We went sand boarding in these beautiful dunes which is basically just snowboarding but on sand. I had sand EVERYWHERE let me tell you :) We then took a bus to the salt caves where we walked through. It was pretty small in some parts and really dark but of course tons of fun! After that we went to valle de la luna “Moon valley” where we climbed up to watch the sun set over the valley. I tried to take pictures but as most of you know no picture can ever do a sight like that justice. In the evenings we would hang out with people at the hostel and go dancing or wander around. Fun times for sure.

Another day I took a tour of the Tatio Geysers which was worth every penny! I had to wake up at 4am however which wasn’t my first choice lol. We traveled a about two hours where we proceeded to get out of the van and freeze our behinds off! I was soooo cold!!! :) We had breakfast while we watched the geysers erupt from our place inside the volcano. Totally amazing! We wandered around to the different ones and took pictures. Our guide told us there is a big fight right now in the towns because big companies want to use the geysers for electricity but that would mean huge machines would be placed all over and the geysers would practically disappear. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out. It is so sad to think they could all disappear in a few years time.

After that we traveled to a hot spring where a few brave souls got into swimming suits and braved the cold :) Of course I had to do it!! How many times does one get to do something like that?? Once you were in the water you were sure to forget all about the cold J Getting out was a funny sight though! I have never gotten dressed so fast. We headed off again spotting many animals along the way such as llama and Vicuña. So cute :)

We then proceeded to take a walk along a cactus filled field. Some of the cacti were 400 years old! I had no idea how slow they grow. We kept going until we reached a valley. We climbed down next to a little water fall and jumped over a small river to get further in. I think we went further than we were supposed to but it was so worth it!!! The view from inside was great!

The last tour we did was to an astronomical observatory. Now that was something that I seriously will never forget! They taught us a little bit about how to read the sky and pointed out things like the Southern Cross and the scorpion. The Milky Way was so clear it was unbelievable! It’s amazing how much the lights of a city cover up. They had about 7 telescopes set up and we took turns looking up close and personal to clusters of stars, galaxies and tons more! I’ve never seen a galaxy before!! I mean really how cool is that! The closest star to us is actually two starts that circle around each other every 80 years. One of the cooler things to see was Jupiter and its moons! I still don’t understand how we can get that close to things light-years away! We were able to take pictures through the telescope so that was really cool. We also got hot chocolate at the end which is always appreciated!!

All in all, my trip up north was exactly what I hoped for. Saturday morning we headed south on a 24 hour bus ride! It was surprisingly unpainful (however I’m not sure the food was actually eatable). You just have to go with the flow :) I got home yesterday during early afternoon and was grateful to be back in my room with a warm showers whenever I so desire :) Tomorrow I start school again and have 16 days before I go! Crazy to think it’s almost time to leave. It’s been quite the good time but I also miss my family and friends! I feel so torn about leaving. I’m just going to make the most out of the time I have left! I hope you enjoyed the update :) Sorry its so long winded :)