I cannot emphasize enough 1) how LONG Chile is as a country and 2) how many different landscapes it has. I honestly am still in shock from experiencing them basically back to back (see my last post for Chiloé in addition to this one).
The Atacama Desert is the most arid desert in the world, and NASA uses it to test for missions on Mars because it is the closest place on earth that actually resembles the terrain of planet Mars (crazy)! This is a difficult place to get to if you are traveling on your own, so since we have a group trip with my GW program every semester, our residence director makes Atacama the trip so we can experience it without having to go through the arduous planning.
We left Thursday, October 2nd and flew to Calama, a northern city on the edge of the desert (2hr flight). From Calama, we took a 1.5 hour bus to the town of San Pedro de Atacama, an actual oasis at the edge of the vast desert. That afternoon, we visited Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) where we went on a hike with our tour guide who instructed us to imagine this as another planet, although I had to use absolutely none of my imagination to believe that it could be another planet because it looks just that surreal. After the Valle, we went to see the sunset from an overlook of the valley and it was just incredible. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
The next day, myself and three of my friends (Kelsey, Erin and Caileigh) woke up earlier than everyone else because we had signed up to go on a long hike through a part of the desert (everyone else went to the salt flats and had a great time too).
Our guide for the weekend led the hike, and it was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was about 7.5 miles and unlike anything I had ever seen. The four of us got to ask him so many questions about the landscape, animals and people who live in this unique place. It was so cool to have him there to answer questions, so different than if we had just gone on the hike ourselves! Again, I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story!
On Saturday, we had a very long but incredible day. We woke up at 4:30am to get on our bus at 5:30 because we were going to see geysers at sunrise. This is the best time to see them because the air before the sun rises is the perfect time to see the steam rising from them. The bus ride was about an hour, but since I do not sleep anywhere but bed, I was able to watch the stars for the whole ride there (so amazing). Once we got to the geysers, we got to walk around them and get so close! The park is not a national park of Chile, but rather a park maintained by the pueblos of the desert and all the revenue goes toward helping their towns thrive, which is really cool.
After the geysers, we were lucky enough to get to go into a hot spring a mile away from the geysers. It was not as hot as I was hoping, but we did eventually find the warm spots, and hung out there until it was time to eat the breakfast that our tour guides made for us!
After the geysers/ hot springs, we headed back to relax at the hotel in the afternoon and have dinner before we went STARGAZING to top the whole trip off. I do not have any pictures of them because my camera is not THAT good, but I can confirm that it was an amazing experience that I am so glad I got to share with my cool friends down here with me 🙂
That is all – stay tuned for more adventures!!
Lots of love always,
Cecilia
Cecilia in Chile - Fall 2019 