San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

A much needed 10-day break came around the end of October, right in the middle of the semester. As Thanksgiving is not a recognized holiday, this was pretty much the longest vacation we would be getting in the fall. So to kick off the ten days of freedom we had, several students and myself went on a program-organized trip to the north of Chile, San Pedro de Atacama. It was pretty brutal getting there - we had to meet at 3:15am to catch a 5:15am flight into the airport in Calama and then take an hour bus ride to San Pedro. When we arrived, there was no other way to describe it other than DRY. San Pedro de Atacama is famous for being the driest place on the planet. On our way to the hotel, though, we did make a brief pit stop to get a taste of what we were in for. The girls that I went with are all crazy active and high energy, so almost as soon as we touched down, we found ourselves roaming the streets looking for a bike rental store. We ended up biking through the desert for close to four hours, stopping only to marvel some ancient ruins, cross a stream, and hike through some salt beds.

Welcome to el desierto

Sand dunes and massive rock formations dating to who knows when

One of the lone trees spotted on our bike ride

Road warriors

We started the next day off by heading to an archaeological museum in the city. Browsing through the small museum, we were able to see the transformation of the Atacama people, the indigenous group that lives in San Pedro (hence the name, "San Pedro de Atacama"). Later that afternoon, we were bussed out to Pucará de Quitor, a pre-Hispanic fort. Hiking through the ruins, it was amazing to think that people were able to construct anything in the miserably dry heat. I always thought Vegas was dry and hot - oh, no. San Pedro de Atacama takes those terms to a whole different level. After resting at the top of the hill, we took a quick ride over to la Valle de la Luna, where we climbed to the top of a small mountain to watch the sun set over the massive sand dunes. It was interesting to see such a contrast because on one side we had nothing but sand as far as the eye could see, while the other side were the snow-capped Andes mountains.

The view of the oasis from the top of Quitor

It seems like I'm being redundant when I say there was a lot of sand there, but this stuff is NO JOKE

The gorgeous sunset from Valle de la Luna - haha, no luna here though

The next morning a small group of friends and I woke up bright and early to catch a tour of the famous geysers in the way. "Bright" is actually an inaccuracy because we had to meet the bus at 4am, when it was pitch black outside. Incredibly cold and groggy, we managed to pull ourselves out of our toasty beds to go see what the hype about all these geysers was about. And the hype was right. The fissures coming from the ground were one of those things that photos simply cannot do justice to, and we were able to see not only huge geysers that towered way above us, but also the small bubbling ones of mud that led to the name of "chocolate milk." Our tour of the geysers also included a drive by of local livestock like alpaca and llama, of which I actually tasted in a pitstop for empanadas and llama meat. After what felt like an exhaustive day, we returned to the hotel a little after noon. A much-needed nap later found us lounging by our pool before we went to dinner and later to an observatory in the outskirts of town. This planetarium was run by a Frenchman and his Chilean wife, both experts on all things astronomical. We were able to look through some tremendous telescopes to learn about star formations. Did you know that because of Chile's location south of the Equator there are certain constellations that cannot be seen back home in California, and vice versa? Although there was a lot to be learned, I was so tired from the day's activities that I practically fell asleep into my mug of hot cocoa as we wrapped up the planetarium lecture.

Getting up at 3:30am to see THIS!

My first try at llama meat - it tastes better than it sounds!

La luna - an awesome closeup pic I had to get professional assistance to shoot

Only several hours later, we were woken up to begin our second to last day, where we went out to the National Flamingo Reserve in the Salar de Atacama, or salt beds. Walking around in plant-less heat, we trekked across vast masses of just SALT. Salt, salt, salt. We saw several flamingoes, but my immense fear of winged creatures impeded my desire to see more or even approach our supposed feathered friends. This fear made it relatively easy for me to get the hell out of there as we moved to our next destination, a small mountain village of Toconao, where we got to meet the students of a small elementary school and see how the curriculum is implemented there. Our final day consisted of a visit to the termas, or hot springs, where we ran in the frigidity to hot spring to hot spring, trying to relax while adjusting to two major temperatures. Too bad we only had 2 hours at the hot springs, because our final destination before heading back to the hotel was the Valle de los Cactus, where we got to see a ton of cactus, a lot of which were over 200 years old! Wrapping up the trip, we lounged around the hotel before shuttling back to the airport in Calama to get ready to go home to Santiago. A good break indeed.

Salt mines at the National Flamingo Reserve

Looking out from the peak of the Toconao village

My friend Beth (on the right) with some of her new friends that she made from the elementary school in Toconao
One family of artisans just had llamas traipsing around their backyards

So much flora at the hot springs you really can't even see the hot springs at all, haha

My new 200-year-old cactus friend

This is what happens to you after five days in the driest place in the world