San Pedro de Atacama

On Friday, October 12, the day of our long-awaited group trip had finally come.  So we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6 am, loaded onto a bus to the Santiago airport, and boarded our plane for the driest desert in the world:  THE ATACAMA!!

Some say that the Atacama is the closest environment to Mars on earth.  Scenes from movies such as James Bond have been shot there.  And now Chile study abroad group 2012 has left their mark their too!

Plane ride entertainment of MASH and my friend drawing out caricatures.

The flight took about two hours and I had wonderful seat buddies, Allison and Caitlin, to keep me laughing the whole time.  As we flew, I could look out to both sides and sea snow-peaked mountains surrounded by desert.  It was beautiful!

Our plane after we landed in Calama.

We landed in the small city of Calama and I could immediately feel the dry air that seemed to cracked my lips immediately as I stepped off the plane.  We stopped at the grocery store to get snacks (some Mac n´Cheese that ended up having blue cheese and tasting very strange - I miss Kraft! - was my selection), and then we were off on another beautiful bus ride to the tiny town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Our bedroom at the hostel.

Immediately upon arriving at the hostel (which was wonderful) I saw a dead, bloody sheep carcass behind one of the cabins... and we ate sheep´s meat that night at dinner!  So that was a fun experience.  However, the hostel was wonderful with a big group space to eat and have parties and several smaller cabins.  Mine had it´s own kitchen, 2-two person rooms, and a bathroom.  My roommate was my gemilla (mix of gemela, which means twin in Spanish, and Miller, our shared last name) Caitlin.  One of my favorite things about the hostel was all of the hammocks in the back.  I loved hanging out there!

Our cabin at the hostel.

That afternoon we just meandered through the town, went to ferias to shop at which I got an alpaca sweater and pencil case, and watched some of the Chile-Ecuador fútbol game at a local bar.  I liked the atmosphere of the town a lot better because it was more laid back, rural, and there were a lot of tourists around so I felt like I blended in better.  One night I walked around in yoga pants and didn´t feel weird or unsafe at all, which would never happen in Viña!

The central plaza in San Pedro.

Saturday was full of buses and tours, but it was one of the most scenic days of my life!  That morning, about half of our group chose to do the salt lakes tours, which took us to three lakes: a salty lake where we could just fall back and float, los Ojos de Salar, and a salt-bottom, very shallow lake.  The first was gorgeous and freezing, but my favorite of the three because I love swimming.  It was definitely worth braving the cold to experience the feeling of being weightless as the salt held us up.  At the second, which was chilly as well, we had the chance to do do a mini cliff jump (only about 10 feet haha).  They are called los Ojos de Salar because there are two small round lakes that look like eyes in the middle of the salar, a big salt flat in the middle of the desert.  At the third lake, we saw even more beautiful scenery and limped around because the cracked and sharp salty bottom of the lake hurt.  It was a beautiful experience.

Lake 1: Laguna Miscanti

Lake 2: Ojos de Salar

Lake 3

That afternoon was filled with even more driving and taking in the most breathtaking views.  We went to two well-know valleys in Atacama, Valle de la Luna y Valle de la Muerte.  At the former, we all took turns taking a picture on the overhanging rock below.  At the second, there were more photos, and we got to run/jump down a sand dune!

Valle de la Luna

Pride Rock in Chile!

Sunset over Valle de la Luna

Valle de la Muerte

The next day we got up at 4:30 am to take a bus to the geysers of El Tatio.  These are a couple hours outside of San Pedro and are formed by heat from the nearby volcano.  It was fun to wander through the varies geysers and just take in the general awesomeness of the place.

The drive back was beautiful, filled with desert landscapes, volcanoes, and llama sightings.  In the bus we jammed out and had a sing-a-long session to Michael Jackson and other classics. We also stopped in a small town where I bought an empanada.

We only had about an hour after arriving back at the hostel, and then another group of us were off for another adventure.  This time, we went to one of the highest lakes in the world.  It was freezing and windy, which we were not prepared for, but it was worth every penny and shiver.

The next part of this tour was a trip to la Salar de Atacama, or the Salt Flat.  It is a huge open space where the ground is literally covered in salt formations.  It was simply beautiful and an amazing sight to see.  I tried to capture it on camera below.  However, the best part was experiencing the sunset on the Salar with a mountain in the background and clouds causing a stunning array of colors.  It was the prettiest sunset I´ve ever seen.

Vivid colors.

Our last stop on the tour was to a church in a tiny town on our way back to San Pedro.  It was a beautiful and comfortable little church that I would love to call my home parish.  Every 15 minutes a nun comes out and rings the bell in the tower.  There were several nuns there, attending to the church and ringing the bell.  We asked them if we could take a picture with them and we are going to share it with the nuns at my college!

The next day we had time to wander around the town, went to more ferias, and found a playground where I swung for a while :)  Then, sadly, it was time to take the bus back to the airport :(
I had one minor setback where I thought that I lost my iPod for the whole plane ride back.  I was so worried I felt sick.  However, it was just in my pocket.  Silly me.

Overall, an amazing experience and I am so so thankful for my time here and every that has made it possible.  More posts to come soon!

Chile: Getting there is half the fun!

Adventure story time:

The building where we saw the ballet.

A few weeks ago, I went to a ballet in Santiago (another free event - last week we got to go to the opera - from our choir teacher), which was modern and weird, but very cool.  However, we had to leave early to catch our bus back to Viña.  Yet when we arrived at the bus terminal, the bus we were supposed to get on was overbooked and the driver clearly told me NO, this is not your bus.  So we went to the last bus heading this way and they too were overbooked so we could not get on.  Did the bus company help us get to Viña?  In Chile?  Never.  They simply changed out tickets to the next morning and left us shit out of luck.  Needless to say we were pretty pissed and frazzled since it was 10:30 pm on a Friday night and we were stranded in Santiago.

At the ballet with my friends Nicole and Brian.

So we called our Choir profe and he, being amazingly gracious and kind, let us stay at his house.  We took the metro there and he bought us snacks and chatted with us until 2 am, while we ate a several course dinner.  He played the piano, we talked about our travels, and the best part: the AMAZING view off of his balcony!  So it turned into an adventure after all, even though we had to get up at 6 to catch our 7:20 bus to Viña.  Interesting weekend so far.

Views of Santiago from Gilberto's balcony!!

The week before that we got to go to an Opera in Santiago, as well.  This was once again thanks to our awesome choir teacher.  The opera was Attila and, like most operas, was based on war and love affairs.  For this, we had the opportunity to see the Municipal Theater in Santiago, which was beautiful.  It was difficult to listen while reading the Spanish subtitles and translating them simultaneously.  However, it was a great experience, and we also got to hang out with some of the Chileans from our choir more!
Here´s a review (albeit in Spanish) of the opera from  my choir director:
http://www.visionescriticas.cl/?p=4519

Ceiling of the theater.

Teatro Municipal.

With my friend Katherine.

In front of the stage with Caitlin and Brian.

TERREMOTOOO!

Today at 14:23 pm I felt my first tremor!  It was so exciting!  First the walls started to shake slightly, then the ground, eventually the whole building was moving!  I was at my friend Nicole's house, and she looked out the window and saw that the other building was moving!  It was the weirdest experience of my life.  I shouted "To the door!" because that is the sturdiest and safest part of the building.  According to this website, http://www.onemi.cl/tipo-riesgo/sismo.html, it was a 5 on the seismic scale.  This is weird, but it was actually really fun!  Unless someone was injured or something bad happened, but I have not heard of that yet.

Grandpa, pass the milk.  EARTHQUAAAAKE!

Until next time,
Shaughnessy

¡Fiestas Patrias!

Every September in Chile comes a giant party, a celebration for the country itself.  It just so happens that this year it occurred in the middle of the week, leaving us with a solid week's worth of partying and vacations.  When I say partying I mean asadoing (barbecuing) all day and going to the fondas (tents of bars, carnival rides, and food stands set up especially for this celebration) all night.  We made plans to travel on the 19th since the actually day of Fiestas Patrias falls on the 18th, so we had 5 straight days of the festival.  It was so fun, yet exhausting!  Chileans stay out laate (5 am is normal), which I am not used to.

Churros!

On Thursday, I went dancing with my friends at a club called OVO, which was a ton of fun.

Friday, I decided to stay in and store up energy for the coming days, so I watched Chicago and ate popcorn.

Cute puppy at the asado.

Saturday, our study abroad group had an all-day asado in the Botanical Gardens.  We also went to a concert that night outside the Municipal Theater of Viña where there was cueca (a traditional dance that I learned that day!), singing, and the orchestra of Viña.  The mayor even danced a little.  After that their were fireworks from boats off shore so a few of us went and sat on the rocks to watch (even though people were being really rude and tried to stop us from passing them to sit on the vacant and clearly not blocking their view rocks).  That was really beautiful!  Next we all headed off to our first night at the fondas where I tried a Chilean drink called Cola de Mono (monkey tail) which was like coffee and was yummy, ate churros, and did the Loop, a ride that was quite jenky and we screamed the whole time because we thought we were going to die.  Fun stuff.

Here's a video of Chilean kids dancing the cueca!

Learning the cueca!

Fireworks on the water - so beautiful!

Las fondas!

Hanging out in the fondas!

Having a good time with friends

Scared to go on the Loop!

I survived!

El Emboque

Sunday, Maddy and I went to church and then went off in search of our friend Kevin's house to have a frisbee asado (yes more asado's - it doesn't stop here folks!).  When we found him, we went and ate choripan and more meat, drank jote (another Chilean drink consisting of wine and coke) and terremotos (Chilean drink with white wine, pineapple ice cream, grenadine, and optional additions of rum, cognac, and/or amargo), and played a chilean game called el emboque (other popular chilean toys/games).  After we went to another friend's house and the fondas again.  A wonderful day.

Kevin in a traje de huaso - traditional Chilean dress for males

The whole crew at the asado!

Chilean pride!!

On Monday, I just hung out with my friend Allison all day.  We chatted and she cut my hair, which was in desperate need!  Later, we ended up going to watch more fireworks off the coast, this time in Valparaíso with the same group from Sunday.  We went to a bar in Valpo, which I had never done and was very fun as well just to talk with new people from all over the world.

Tuesday, the actual holiday, Allison came over again to hang out and we ended up having a mini asado with my mom and her boyfriend where I had them try the meat with some KC barbecue sauce... I think they liked it, I'm not sure!  Then some of the girls went to a bar to talk and then another bar to meet up
with friends.  I ended up coming home early that night because I was exhausted.

Sunset photos

Wednesday, the day our travels would begin, I went to Bravissimo ice cream on the beach with friends and frantically tried to finish homework that was due Monday since I would be gone.  I barely finished, but was almost late to my bus to Pucón that night!  Typical of me to procrastinate, but how can one do homework when all of Chile is celebrating?  It really was unlike any other holiday I have experienced.  I mean in the US we have the 4th, but that is one day of picnics, laking, and fireworks.  This lasted a WHOLE WEEK.  Crazy.  I was actually very glad to be traveling because the festivities were beginning to get wearisome, but they were fun while they lasted.

Som cute bar pics with friends.