OKIE DOKIE! sorry its been a dynasty, but got back on Friday from an absolutely awesome trip up north!!!! Left friday night to take a plane up north to Antofagasta, a city along coast and a heavy mining area. Kind of boring, but had some really really good seafood. So we got in at 11pm, and our first destination was San Pedro de Atacama. Thats right, THE Atacama desert. Anyways, so instead of flying again, its usually a lot cheaper to bus everywhere. But who knows why, but our bus didn't leave till 7am. Soooo spent some quality time hanging at the bus stop for 8 hours haha. But the first bus ride went super well. It was warm, i had no one in front of me, and woke up to a cool view of riding into the atacama :). BUT! i do have to say that using the bathroom was quite the challenge....WHO PUTS A SPRING SEAT IN A MOVING BUS!? Just saying. ok! So we get there and the hostel we are staying at was waiting with a little van to take us, even though the town of San Pedro turned out to be super small! Ok so we got there at noon, and at 3 we were told there would be this tour of valle de la luna, a beautiful desert place to watch the sunset on the andes/volcanoes and see how dry Atacama is. P.S., its super dry. Like literally, no wind, no bugs, no life. But the sunset was gorgeous! Such a pretty place. So that was the first day. The next day! We got the pleasure of waking up at 4am to drive up the the Geysers of Tatio, the highest geyser plane in the world. And did not know there was going to snow......did not know. Sooooo my toes were a little bit chilly, but survived because getting to watch the sunrise through the geyser steam and the snow covered mountains. and theeeeeen, we decided to take a swim a thermal pack after seeing a pack of vicunas!!!!!!! there were so cooool. And so were the hot springs. soooo coool. We also had an awesome driver all day! Instead of being in a van with the rest of tourists, we got a pretty big jeep for the 5 of us. Have to say, it was so worth it to travel in a small group. Made things sooo easy and made so good friendships, hooray! Ok anyways, thennnn the next day we went to see a flamingo reserve, which had 3/5 known flamingo species! And afterwards, we saw the lagunas chaxa and cejar : ) SO PRETTY! When we got there, there was a photoshoot going on for a store called Paris down there. They seemed less than thrilled to have us yelling "GET IN THE WATER! WE HAVE PISCO!!!!!" but ohhhh well. So yes, lagunas here are like the dead sea, there is soooo much salt, you just float without effort. HOWEVER!!!!! the top layer is about 40 degrees, only when your feet hit water fully submerged is it warm...and you float. sooo that was interesting,, but so worth it to be swimming in pristine blue waters, with flying flamingoes and snow-covered mountains in the background. We also had the chance to stop in a little pueblo and went into this cool shop where they made llama/alpaca things, at first didnt seem that interesting, but then....THERE WERE LLAMAS! Dont, worry, I got to feed some llamas. Soooo cute! Ok, so after that, we wanted to head up north to Arica, which is the farthest point in Chile on the coast. Like actually, debated taking a taxi to peru for the day. But anyways! This bus ride was 12 hours long!!!!!! And absolutely terrible. First, it smelled. It was 90 degrees. and then the man in front of me so kindly put his chair on my legs so that i couldn't move. good stuff. but we made it! and saw the oldest mummies in the world!! A couple thousand years older than the egyptians. Annnnd climbed a hill that a cool view of the city. Stayed in a hostel with a 3 person bunk bed. Safe, right? But we did get to go out with the people at the hostel, so that was a good way to pass the time. Then the next day, meandered round the city before our 2nd bus ride back to Antofagasta. Don't worry, it was just a bad. Because after my reliable benadryl, got woken by the man on a bus saying "hey, get off the bus and take your stuff" at 5 am. greeeeat. turns out we had to stop at a military checkpoint. So after they opened my bag and poked some dirty socks, back on miserable bus we went. But I did feel worse for my friend next me, because everytime they had to return our ID's to us, who knows why, but they would only wake up her and give her my things haha. Oh welllll. Antofagasta was, well, not that exciting haha, but a relaxing day before heading back to Santiago.
OK! So today I started my classes at La Catolica, and have to say it was a pretty good first day. Really interested in this Commercial Exports of Agriculture class, the professor made sure we knew it was an easy class. He also asked who isn't in the department, and I raised my hand to say I am an exchange student, told him I went to Davis, and what did he say? "Davis is the best school". HOORAY! And afterwards, he asked me if I understood anything, which was pretty minimal, but he made it did say that he more than willing to help if I didn't understand, send an email or something, and then another student chimed in and said he would be willing to help too, so that makes me feel a little better. THEN! I emailed the volleyball coach yesterday bout joining the team, and I got to practice with them today! Felt so good to play again, even though I was wayyyy out of shape, but for the most part the girls were really nice, cept they did get a little mad when I would yell in english and they would mess up, they would just point and say "she doesn't speak spanish! she doesn't speak spanish!" haha, ohhhh well, so hopefully I am able to play on the team with them, have to send the coach my info but nonetheless it was fun today. Ok! That should be enough for now, now time to drink some tea and get ready for more classes tomorrow :)
Chao!
No comments:
Post a Comment