Alright, I need to start off my apologizing for being such a flake on the blog front. Life is literally zooming by here and it’s difficult to remember to take the time to keep all of you updated but I really want to share my life here so I’m going to do my best to catch you all up without writing a dissertation-length blog.
Highlights from the last couple weeks:
-We went to an outdoor jazz concert in the Botanical Gardens. While summer hasn’t fully hit so the flowers were still a little sparse the sun was shining and it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. And one of the musicians was apparently from the States even though they all could’ve fooled me with their Hawaiian shirts, Ray-Bans and Birkenstock sandals.
-3 of my lovely friends participated in a 10K/Half-marathon run on a dreary morning in Valparaíso so a couple of us pulled our tired butts out of bed early to cheer them on. As we walked along the course trying to spot our favorite gringas we were surprised to discover that chilenos will still whistle at you even while running a marathon. We all gathered at a café on the main plaza after the race and I got a wonderful chai tea and raspberry muffin, a little taste of home.
-My little host brother didn’t speak a word when I got here in August but is quickly learning words and it is absolutely adorable. I’d forgotten how cute little kids are at this age. It just melts my heart watching him try to put on his socks with his cute little toes. My host parents have also asked me to teach him English so the whole family learns a new word every evening at our meal.
-Our basketball team lost our game this past week to get us into the final four for the play-offs, which means our season is basically over (sorry to disappoint Dil). But regardless, I’ve really enjoyed my time with the team.
Now for the latest news: I spent Halloween in the desert, thrilling right? Our big group excursion was last weekend so we headed to the north of Chile to the driest desert in the world, Atacama. But actually, it was an awesome trip and something I never would’ve elected to do myself so I’m glad I was kind of forced into it.
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| Sunset from the plane as we landed in Calama. |
We had a lot of time to wander the small town of San Pedro to buy souvenirs and ice cream but we also did some really cool tours of the surrounding desert. Our super creepy/inappropriate bus driver Pablo took us to Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon), named so because some people think it looks like the surface of the moon. The first indigenous people arrived here more than 10,000 years ago by following the Andes from Perú. My favorite part was the amphitheater carved out of a cave. Bonus: some of the rocks were really sparkly from all of the salt in the area. We also watched a great sunset (big surprise) from a lookout.
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| The church on the main plaza of San Pedro, so serene and beautiful. |
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| Las tres Marías: the 3 Virgen Marys. |
The next morning the bus picked us up from our hostel at 4am. Why were we awake at such an ungodly hour? Because we were driving two hours up into the mountains to 13000 feet above sea level to see El Tatio, some incredible geysers. Our guide, who slightly resembled Mad Eye Moody, told us lots of cool facts about how the geysers but I don’t remember them because I was concentrating on not going into hypothermic shock (it was around 13°F). Considering the cold, what better way to pass half an hour than in the hot springs (which were really more than luke warm) but we just went with our motto of cuando en Chile and got er done. On the way down the mountain we stopped at an ancient town called Machuca, a tourist stop/town has been built around the ruins to make people stop there. We also stopped at a marshy river that is constantly being destroyed by global warming but it essential to the llama and vicuña populations that rely on the water and plants.
As soon as we made it back to our hostel I discovered that my stomach was very angry with me and 18 hours of altitude sickness/dehydration/stomach bacteria ensued. It was miserable but thanks to my wonderful friends and my program director I was back on my feet by morning, thank goodness, because our tour of the lagunas was that afternoon and ended up being my favorite part of the trip by far. The first was Laguna Cejar, it has a salt concentration of 40% aka no matter how big your belly has gotten from all the Chilean pan you’ve eaten, you’ll still float. When we got out of the lake our skin was white from all of the salt.
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The tea the owner of our hostel brought me when I was sick,
there is a straight up branch in there. |
Next stop was los Ojos de Salar, two circular pools more than 120ft deep, in the middle of the driest desert in the world. From the air they look like eyes, hence the name. Our guide warned us that you had to be a good swimmer to jump in due to the depth so the beer-bellied Dutch guys that were with us opted out but that didn’t stop them from cheering for us as we jumped/taking creeper pictures of us. It was cold but so fun.
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| Note the creeper taking a picture of us. |
Last stop was Laguna Tebiquinche or more fondly referred to as the ankle-deep lake since no one can pronounce that. In the winter months the land is totally dry but in the summer the moisture from the snow in the mountains creates a giant puddle of water over the salt flats. It looked like we were walking on snow! Once again, the view of an incredible sunset with a little pisco sour.
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| Snowy salt. |
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On the other side of those mountains is Bolivia,
I'll be there in just over a month! |
It was a great trip but we were all exhausted and ready to come home. The feeling of comfort I felt driving down the hill into Viña surprised me but I guess it just shows how much this place has become a part of me. That feeling of calm quickly diminished as I realized the giant amount of schoolwork I have to do in the last 4 weeks (unbelievable) of classes. Schoolwork that I have been avoiding while writing to all you so I better get back to it but I hope the sun shining on you today and always.
Cariñas,
Mackenzie
