San Pedro de Atacama - ruins, lagoons, salt, flamingos & geysers!

I will begin with the warning that this will be long. But it is the first of a several part installment where I will explain our travels for festivas patrias. I will begin with we spent hours and hours on a bus over the time, close to 80ish on this trip. While the hours were long and boring it was a great chance to see bunch of the countryside and get an idea of the terrain of the country. But enough about the buses, here's the story.

We began the evening of 14th with a overnight 22 hour bus ride to Calama, which is in the north central portion of Chile. We arrived around 9:30pmish the next day and proceeded to look for our hostal. Which we never found. We asked a nice Chilean girl where it was, she pointed down a deserted and sketchy looking street and then advised us to find a new place to stay. Being as we had already wandered the same street several times with all our bags we took her advice and got a hotel pretty close to the bus terminal. It was nice, it even had hot water. We then ate the most angry meal of my life that occurred in a bar on a table large enough for 2 olives and took over an hour to get. I am so glad that none of my travel companions gave up and left then and there. But we survived and managed to get a good nights sleep.

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama the next day. This cute pueblo is about an hour and a half from Calama and is incredibly traditional. All the buildings are made of adobe and it's organized into a nice little maze of cobbled streets. It's incredibly touristy with many gringos and artesians.

Sadly we were too late to bike to Valle de la Luna as we had hoped, so instead we walked down an abandoned looking road until we came to Pukara de Quitor, ruins dating back to the XII century. Basically it was just a big hill covered with stone terraces and walls that served as a fortress for the native people who lived there, namely the Ayllu and the Incas. When the Spanish came this area was easily taken over as the indigenous tribes had never seen horses, metal helmets or guns. Luckily this site still remains, it was really interesting and gave us a chance to look out over the whole area from a high point of view. We never did see the ancient masks we had hoped to find, but perhaps on another trip. The day ended on a much happier note than the night before with a good traditional Chilean dinner and a good nights sleep.

The next day began pretty early, but what a good and full day it was. We took the High Altiplanicas tour of the desert that took us to the lagoons high in the mountains and the salt flats. We began our tour in a rickety old travel van full of 4 spanish speaking couples and our wonderful guide Ricardo who was very friendly and seemed to know all the locals wherever we went. After a minor setback of engine overheating we made it to our first town, Socaire. While the other couples walked around and explored the town a bit we played on the playground before a quick tour. After seeing several pueblos they all seem to blend together so I don't think that we actually missed out on that much. After this little detour we finally came to the lagoons, named Lagunas Miscanti and Meniques, which were well worth the long drive over rocky terrain to get there. There were two of them, beautiful blue lakes in the middle of the mountains. Being so high up there were no trees which I think made them stand out as even more spectacular. The water was very blue and we even made friends with a cute fox at the second. This also was the location of our first flamingo sighting!

After the lagoons we made another stop in Socaire for a delicious lunch. You might notice I mention all we ate here, but really San Pedro was awesome for all of the delicious traditional food we ate. And of course, we love to eat!

The tour of the Salar, or salt flats, was next on the agenda after lunch and it was one of the absolute most amazing things I have ever seen. It was acres and acres of salt crystallizations on covering the ground. It was so weird to be there, to me it resembled snow, but it was hard and crunchy not to mention it was warm out. So what happens to form this crazy thing is that 96% of all the precipitation that reaches this area is evaporated. The remaining 4% of moisture make up the "lakes" that are dispersed through. These lakes are basically made up of a salty brine that is something like 10x saltier than the ocean. The terrain was flat so you could just see a huge field of salt with the pools of brine and the mountains and volcanoes in the background. Beautiful. But to top it all off, we saw flamingos! Yep, the flamingos live in the salt brine pools. They feed on the insects that feed on the bacteria that are able to live in such a harsh environment as the salty water. Amazing really how this whole ecosystem works. But what was even more amazing was seeing the flamingos up close in nature, something I have never done before. They were absolutely gorgeous and to my surprise, which may have just been my lack of previous knowledge, they stood with both feet firmly planted on the ground! Yep, none of this one legged business you always hear of, although, they do have such skinny legs that it appears they are standing on one leg even though they aren't. this must be where that comes from, but an interesting fact if you didn't know (or an alli moment if you did). all in all i think that the salt flats was my absolute favorite experience of the trip, due to how incredibly interesting, different and beautiful they were.

To finish off a great day we stopped on the way back in a little valley outside of the town of Toconao, a settlement known for its use of white volcanic stone in the construction of the buildings. The valley was a little oasis with lots of lush green foliage and a running river in the middle of the desert. There were lots of people picnicking and it certainly put me in the mood to do some camping while I am here. But the best part of this stop, and one of my favorite memories of the trip, is the happy little perrito we saw running along the edge of the river. I think that he probably annoyed most of the rest of the group, but he was so happy to be free that I couldn't help but love him. I am warming up to the dogs here finally, but I think he is the cutest one I have seen so far.

Day three of our trip did not start bright and early. It started dark and early. That's right, we left to go see the Geysers of Tatio before even the sun got up, 4am. We got into another rickety van and headed up into the mountains along one of the scariest and sketchiest roads I have ever been on. Now, it probably wasn't that bad, but here in the US we are pretty used to driving on real roads unless we have advertised an off-roading adventure. Not here, it was rough rocky and I am going to guess that roughly 1/4 of the time we were not even on a real road, just driving over the desert. I cannot imagine a tour group at home ever traveling in such a manner, but tours to this part are fairly new here and the infrastructure isn't quite as developed. Still, it adds to the experience, now I can not only say I saw the highest geysers in the world but I made it home to tell the story. Not all were so lucky, through the entire adventure we stopped to help 3 separate vehicles that had troubles along the way, at one point towing a pickup down a hill. I didn't even know that was possible.... Still, a good example of Chilean hospitality and the connection between neighbors, especially in the communities of Atacama. We finally arrived at the geysers at roughly 7:30am and I was stoked. "Highest geysers in the world." I have been to Yellowstone which I thought was really cool so I was just dying to see how big these things were. Big surprise. Highest does not equal tallest :S These were not the tallest geysers in the world, they are the geysers at the highest altitude! (again, possibly another alli moment, but I was still disappointed). These geysers were basically just some pools of hot water that sputtered out bubbles. Okay, a little cooler but I still wasn't too impressed. I think if I had not had such high expectations to begin with and if I hadn't already spent a week at Yellowstone before this I would have liked them a little more. All in all they were cool, but if given the choice between a scary early morning death wish and Old Faithful I would pick the second.

There was however a redeeming part of the morning when we drove a little ways off to another river canyon where we got to bathe in the hot springs. That was really fun. First of all it was like 20 degrees outside when we stripped down to our bathing suits. But once we got in the water we warmed up right away. It was dirty and gross, but so fun to enjoy the crisp morning air in the beautiful world we live in, I love being outdoors. After we had quite the adventure of putting out clothes back on without the towels we had forgotten. Needless to say, it was a wet ride back but absolutely worth it.

All in all our 3 days in the Atacama desert were great. I think we had sufficient time to see all we wanted and even though I have no desire to head back anytime soon (it's one of those once you've seen it you've seen it places) I am so happy that I had a chance to experience something completely different than what I know. It was a great start to our trip.

a bit of this and that

New pictures from Fiestas Patrias.... I don't know if I will ever get to completely writing about our trip anytime soon so I tried to be pretty detailed and at least explain the important stuff in the album itself.

Other than that I will just leave you with two thoughts for the day. The first is that last night at dinner there was an argument regarding the use of the imperfect and preterite past tenses between Daniela and Valentina and my host mom. I obviously had nothing to contribute to the discussion. But it did make me feel good to hear that native speakers still have trouble with this stuff that I have been learning for years and years and still haven't mastered.

Thought number two is that I have noticed in my classes with other international students that they European students argue far more with the professors than that Americans. Generally Americans will ask questions simply for clarification and even if they don't understand after a few explanations will deal with it and move on. They Europeans (French/Dutch/Finnish/Austrian/German/etc.) however constantly have commentary on what is being taught, will argue with the professor about the lecture and will basically but in with any question or example in regards to such. I realize that the way I am saying this comes across as far more negative than I actually feel towards this, rather it is just incredibly different than what I am used to in a classroom setting. In many ways it is probably good that they are more active in what they are in learning, but in many other ways I would just like for the professor to say what he has to say so we can get out of there. Especially grammer. There really isn't much to elaborate on or discuss there.

vina sweet vina

We have returned from our journey, and what a journey it was. I saw so much over the past 10 days that I really have no idea where even to begin to start. Talking with my mom last night I was jumping around so much remembering new stuff and crazy adventures we had. Hopefully one of these days I will sit down and write about it, probably in installments. But just for now know that we are back safe and sound, had a great time and took plenty of pictures. I didn't really miss Chile while I was gone, but today as I was walking around the plaza I realized just how happy I was to be back here and how much this place really is starting to feel like home.

and to get you started you can find the first set of pictures from our trip here from San Pedro de Atacama, enjoy!

a new adventure

so despite the fact that i am a very loyal blogger, and facebooker as MA points out, i do have a life here in Chile. do not let my continuous updates lead you to believe otherwise.

that being said, tomorrow i embark on a 10 day journey through northern chile and up into parts of bolivia. the 18th of september is independence day here and chileans certainly do know how to do it right. this means that all my classes for the coming week are canceled to celebrate and i am left with a large chunk of time to travel. there are 3 others going with me, as well as many other international students and chileans who will be traveling during this period. please keep all of the travelers in your prayers this coming week. much love you to you all and i will return with plenty of stories and pictures!

el 11 de septiembre

September 11 is a pretty significant day in history. For obvious and some not obvious reasons. First and foremost is the terrorist attacks of 2001. It is strange being in a foreign country and hearing to people talk about that day. I never realize quite how much it impacted people in other parts of the world as well. Several people have mentioned it to me, which has surprised me I suppose. But even more than that, today is an incredibly significant day in Chilean history as well.

On this day in 1973 there was a military coup d'etat that overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende and began the regime of Augusto Pinochet. Ever since I have been here I have heard countless references to Pinochet, Allende and the coup, from all sorts of people with many different points of view. It is incredibly interesting to listen to everyones accounts of what life was like in this time as well as opinions surrounding the country under Pinochet and Allende. For many Chileans, Pinochet was a terrible dictator who murdered, tortured and incarcerated thousands. For others, including my host family, he was a man that brought order and prosperity to a country that desperately needed it. I find it hard to excuse the man for all the abuses of human rights, but I am trying to listen to my family, and others who supported/still support him, to see where they are coming from. It is an incredibly controversial topic with many people here and the two extremes are completely divided.

Because of the history surrounding this date in Chile there are many protests by those who opposed the regime. I find it interesting that 34 years after the coup, people still react to it so emotionally. Especially since many of those who are protesting barely lived during that time or know what it was like. Not that their voices don't have merit, just that it's amazing the chord it still strikes with the people is so strong after all this time. I went on a "walk" this afternoon in Valpo to see if I could observe, from a safe distance of course, some of the action. Apparently I was a few hours early and other than what seemed to be a few more than the usual amount of people on the streets nothing exciting was happening. One of these days while I am here I will see one. I don't doubt that as I have a few more months left and there is a protest at least every few weeks.

update on the walkout at santa maria: the demands of the students have been met and the walkout is officially over. however, the students voted and opted not to go back to class until after the festivas patrias. so basically they had like 2 weeks off, lucky kids.

Finally the third important event to occur on September 11... Happy 25th Mom & Dad!

musings at the mall

so i'm nursing a cold at the moment and it's no fun. but the past two nights have been great so i will deal.

ever since i have gotten here i have been told about the consumerism of the chilean people. today that was made even more evident to me as i walked around the mall. the mall in vina is unlike any mall i have ever been too. it's large and has many stores. but what is strange is that every time i have been there, which is several times spanning over different times and days of the week, the mall has been packed. absolutely packed. it's like a major sale at old navy (well all know how crazy that is, i just refuse to go then) all the time. i find this to be crazy. but it has a lot to do with chilean culture. here, having material possessions is seen as a sign of wealth and class. i don't know how many times i have been told by my culture prof that it is not uncommon to walk into the house of a person from the poorest and lowest social class and see a huge television inside a small and cramped living room. or how back in the days when the economy wasn't doing well and no one had money people would go to the store and put a bunch of expensive things in their cart, walk around the store for half an hour or so and then leave the cart and the store. all to put on the appearance of having enough money to actually pay for what was in their cart. one of my friends here has seen this happen although i have not witnessed it yet.

i have yet to find out if chileans have the debt problem that has been creeping up on the american population, but i would not be surprised. here, no matter where you go you are given the option of paying with "cuotas" or installments. just the other day i made a 2mil (~4$) purchase at the Jumbo and was asked if i wanted to pay in cuotas. i always say no obviously. but this method of payment is more attractive and easier for chilean customers who do not always have the money to be buying all that they are. there are credit cards for almost every major store for which you can earn points. it is a very interesting system. just today when i bought some makeup my host mom had me pay for it using her card so she could earn the points. yet as we were leaving the store she told me that points were actually almost useless because rarely did anyone redeem them. but it seems to be a driving factor in getting people to buy more than they really can afford.

one of the reasons for this high level of consumerism probably is due to the incredible importance placed upon class. i have never really thought about class much before, being raised to treat all as equals as well as growing up in a place where most people are of relatively similar standing. but chile has one of the largest disparities in the world between the richest people and poor est people of the country. just the other day we learned that like 75% of the nations wealth is controlled by the top 30% of the population. to me that is just astronomical. but what it creates is a culture where the rich, or even the upper-middle class, pride themselves on their standing and look down on all those with less than them. even in my own host family i am sometimes confronted with comments regarding other people in what i consider to be a very rude and demeaning tone. towards chileans and also directed towards people of other latin american countries such as peru and bolivia. to me, just because someone comes from a country that is not as economically advanced does not make them inferior.

while much of this shocks and frustrates me at times, i am glad i am here and experiencing it all. i think it's important to learn about how other people interact with each other in places other than little pullman, the liberal dot on the red side of a very blue state. i have gained so much perspective on so many things so far, but as this is already incredibly long i am thinking those other things will have to wait for another day.

no class and tear gas

sadly the title of this post does not refer to me. it refers to valentina and her school La Universidad de Santa Maria. they are having a student walk out to protest a change of policy set forth by the president. or something like that. but the point is, the students voted to walk out and for the past two days no one has gone to class. this will last indefinitely, until they are happy with the way university policy is moving. today when i went by the in the micro we were first diverted off the usual path, and then as we drove by santa maria there were big trucks spraying tear gas (i think) towards a bunch of students who appeared to be laughing/yelling?? when i asked valentina about it she just nonchalantly mentioned that it happens from time to time, people don't go to school for a while and it's no big deal.

i am continually amazed and a bit impressed by the level of activism and politics of the people here. this isn't the first walkout since i have been here. the fisherman have been striking since before i came, which would probably explain why we never eat fish as it is really expensive. just last week there were labor protests throughout, some even got violent in santiago. there have been talks of the micro drivers going on strike. that would really suck. but i like the idea that people here have their opinions and they do something about them. it probably gets taken a bit too far, people are so used to stuff like this that a lot of the time it doesn't have as much meaning. but it's still better than nothing. it's better than complaining. and at least when things don't work out their way they can say they tried.

party in the kitchen?

so today i have had my first, and probably not last, moment of realizing that not all english sayings translate into spanish. earlier i headed down to dinner and discovered no one was a the table. i then proceeded to the kitchen to find jorge and daniela, both of whom i am eating with. i casually mentioned that it was "una fiesta en la cocina" (party in the kitchen for those of you without my mad language skills ;)) and i swear you would think i wasn't even speaking spanish by the looks i got. new plan, don't translate stuff like that unless positive of an english equivalent. that's probably the safest bet.

on another note. talked some politics with jorge today. i always feel a little overwhelmed when talking about that stuff with him because he studies law and is very knowledgeable about stuff like that, and happens to know probably more about the us systems and such than i do. yes sad i know. that and he talks so fast sometimes that even my mom can't understand him. but, today we were talking about political parties. and he tried to tell me that there isn't really a leftist party in the states. i was like yeah there are liberals. he was like you have republicans and democrats, here, that is the same party the both of them. then there are the leftists/socalists. wrap that around your heads. because i for the life of me cannot imagine both of those very different parties, republicans and democrats, being able to be lumped together in ideas. maybe our ideas of what is liberal and what is leftist are different after all.

oh man, what a class

so today my sports nutrition class was certainly an adventure. we had our first quiz, which constitutes a third of my grade. last week my gringa friend and i talked to the prof about what to expect and he said a few short answer questions. so we went over the most of the material a bit, it was pretty easy and stuff we have had before. there were some confusing parts, such as a chart we had both copied but had no idea what it represented. since he didn't talk about it hardly at all, and we didn't know what it was for, we figured it wasn't that important. yeah wrong. it was the first question of our quiz. luckily, i could scrounge up enough previous knowledge as well as what i could remember from that chart to figure out almost all of it. in total, the quiz was 20 minutes. a 3 question breeze.

before the quiz we noticed that a bunch of students had a book. a book that we do not have. a book that in the three personal conversations i have had with the professor has never been mentioned. but it is the book for our class. there is one apparently. we asked him about it, and he gave us the "you are sooooooooo dumb for not knowing this" look as he asked us if we knew the book, which we did not. so yeah, now we have our own copies from the library. and it really wasn't that big of a deal. just a very funny and strange experience. but it does make me wonder. what sort of things are we missing? i don't know if we straight up missed the book info, or if it was just an assumed chilean thing that we would find a book in the library for the class written by the professor. that would not surprise me. but then again, neither would the former. it definitely was a reality check, a humorous one, that i really still have a lot more to learn here.

just some clouds

so in the past week since my last post... not much has happened. life has settled in here. a lot of going to classes, going to the gym, wandering around the city and going out. while it's all fun, it's not nearly as new as before. especially considering that i have 4 more months left of doing the same thing. not that i mind. i enjoy all of those things. it just leaves little to say about doing them. today was a bit rainier so i stayed in to study = write a paper, read a story and prepare for a presentation. while in the long run i think my choice to take a full schedule will turn out to be a good one, it is a bit harder to get down to business when i think about my friends with fewer classes who are at the bar. that's okay though, i think after my first month here the excitement of going out all the time has worn off as well. i do appreciate my sleep.

this weekend however was a fun one. with a group of students from isa we took an excursion to pomaire (a small artesian town) and isla negra (where the last house of pablo neruda is located). both were really fun and interesting. pomaire is a cute little pueblo that is known for its pottery. not only is it gorgeous, it is incredibly cheap. only a few dollars for a large beautiful piece. sadly i don't have any room in my suitcase to bring it home and shipping would cost a huge amount so i didn't get much. but it definitely was interesting to look at.

isla negra was nice as well. its about a half an hour from vina & valpo and is a little strip of coast (not an island) that has black rocks. the name isla negra translates to black island, but as i have described it is neither black nor an island. but the water is absolutely beautiful. even on such a cloudy day as it was when we were there the waves were a lovely blue. the sand was really rocky and it was much different than the beaches here in vina. the house of neruda was beautiful as well. he was such an eclectic man and had all sorts of collections, such as colorful bottles, ship figureheads and exotic insects. i only wish i could have taken pictures inside each of his houses because they are so different. just imagine a bunch of comfortable clutter of crazy objects. it was that cool.

photos!

and here are some photos from our tour last week :)