San Pedro de Atacama

My trip to San Pedro de Atacama was pretty amazing. Eight other volunteers and I were able to tour the chilean countryside seeing mountains, the desert, lakes, and the altiplano. While our large group was a tad unwieldy we managed to get a good group package deal on our tours. Everyday the sky was perfectly blue without a single cloud and the temperatures comfortably in the seventies. At night it would become much cooler but nothing too extreme. Being there made me I wish I had down more outdoor explorations when I was in DC. Perhaps when I return I can put some cheap trips together.

San Pedro itself is a very cute little town with a church, a little shaded town square and many restaurants and tourist shops. However, it has many little oddities that made it unique. For example, the town has a bad electrical generator which means that the power in town was frequently out at both our hostel and in shops around town. When this happened some shops turned on their own generators, others closed or continued to operate without power. Unfortunately, one of the shops that would close was the ice cream shop. Also, there was no bank in the town and only two ATMS, both would stop running when the power was out and both ran out of money on Sunday creating problems for some people. Also, due to some past instance none of the restaurants or bars in the city have the proper permits to allow people to dance. At a bar when two volunteers danced a little salsa, they were warned that if they police showed up they could receive a ticket. Because of this we were invited to a party at some person's house where dancing would occur. We went and ended up talking to both tourists and Chileans standing around bonfire. It reminded me a little bit of college. 

Because the many pictures I took (to be posted soon) can do a better job showing the scenery than my writing possibly can I'm only going to mention the highlights here.

Got to try llama meat - tastes like beef

Saw the beautiful landscape at the Valley of the Moon,

Saw the Tatio Geysers ... one of the highest and largest active geyser fields in the world -- (to see them you have to wake up at 4am to arrive at sunrise when the geysers for reasons I'm not sure of are the most active -- Because they are so high up it was very very cold and my toes were frozen by the end.

Both when I was visiting the Tatio geysers and other altiplano lakes, I broke my personal record for the most distance from sea level while standing on the ground. El Tatio is approximately 13780 feet above sea level. My previous highest had been when I climbed Mt. Baldy in New Mexico which is 12440 feet. Interestingly, the view from El Tatio and the high parts of the altiplano weren't that spectacular because all of the nearby ground in high up while the view from Mt. Baldy was very spectacular because it dominated the surrounding landscape.

Got to see flamingoes on a lake in the middle of the salt flat.

Got to soak in some hot outdoor springs 

Got to climb around ancient atacaman ruins in on the side of the mountain. -- while climbing around I tried going down a part of the hill that was too steep to climb and ending up having to slide on the rocks down for about 100 feet.

The night sky was brilliant and truly amazing --- because of the lack of lights from the town and the clear cloudless sky.

I really can't wait for my next trip in Chile.

-- my next trip might actually be to Peru