The first thing you should know about the Atacama desert is that it is the driest desert in the world, and the second thing is that it's a very big tourist area, so everything is expensive!! I spend a good haul on food and on water as well - because the water from the taps was not safe for people who are not used to it.
Now getting into more of what I actually did while I was there.
The first day - Saturday we didn't leave Viña till 3:30 I believe it was. We drove to Santiago where we got checked into the airport and ready to leave a whopping 20 minutes before the plane boarded. I'm very glad that none of us actually knew when the flight was scheduled to leave because I'm sure there would have been some people in our group really freaking out with how close we cut the time.
The flight was only a couple of hours long, but since it left so late once we got to San Pedro there was only enough time to get to our hostels and then do a tiny bit of exploring.
The Hostel.
There's actually an interesting story there. Because our group of 21 students, plus our directors and their families, is so big, we couldn't all fit in one hostel even though we had reserved spots much in advance. That meant that six of us had to stay in a separate hostel. I, not by choice (you don't get much choice when you're one of two men surrounded by 19 women) was to stay in the second hostel - which actually ended up being a very nice place. BUT, I'm getting ahead of myself. The first night when we rolled into the hostel we were sadly informed that our reservations no longer had stood apparently because of how long in advance we had had them (WOW that makes a lot of sense). However, the owner of the hostel had felt bad, so she offered up her house for us six students to stay.
We were a little leery of staying in her actual house, and had many mixed feelings about it! But when it was all said and done, it was a very very nice place to stay. Her "house" was almost exactly like another hostel... we each had our own separate "room" which was actually more like a two room (bedroom/bathroom) building. I stayed with Gabe - the other male on the trip - and the four girls stayed in the other "room". It was very nice! So that was an adventure, but only for the first night.
The next day, Sunday, we had the morning free but we didn't sleep in so we could eat breakfast. That afternoon I went sand boarding with five others. We had a great time, it was super fun. Something i realized however... I am really bad at sandboarding. If I can find the video of myself biffing it I will post it, but till that time you will just have to trust me!
That same night we went to valle de la luna I believe it was called where we saw an amazing view of the desert. I got kinda board, however, after being there for about an hour..... so I started climbing down this small cliff that we weren't actually supposed to go near. It was super cool because I climbed all the way down and then out towards the sites that before we were all looking at from afar, but then I had become a part of it. After some pretty awesome pictures, there was nothing left to do besides wait for the next day to come, or I should say morning...
The following morning at 3:30 my alarm rang. We as a group were heading way way up the mountains to see the boiling geysers and a few other sites. We had been warned many many times that where we were going was very very high up, and we were never to move faster than a regular paced walk, nor were we too get too excited at any point... if we did we could experience altitude sickness. They were right about the altitude sickness and how easy it can sit in. More than half of my group was affected, and I think it was six of them had to go down early because of it. One fainted, and the others all of a sudden found themselves on the ground, their bodies having taken them there to steady themselves. As funny as that may sound that is how a friend described it to me, as if she didn't have any control over it. It got a little freaky for me at one point. There was a moment when one of the girls fainted, but then also two more went down at the same time - both still conscious. The guide then turned to me (I'm assuming because I was one of the two guys there) as he was taking his oxygen tank off of his back and applying it my recently fainted friend, and then he said to me "Go find Pablo right now and tell him to come here immediately!" I right away went and very quickly walked to find him. I walked as such because I had been feeling fine, and the way he said for me to go get help made me think there was something more wrong. After quickly finding Pablo I was very relieved because I had no idea where he would actually be, we both quickly walked back. When I got back was when my effort of getting Pablo sunk in. I wasn't affected in my head, but my legs were like jello. I had only walked fast and at one point skipped across a small stream, but my legs were as unsteady as if I had just ran a 400 meter dash. Luckily that was all that came of it! And my friends all were fine after using the oxygen mast. I got some great pictures of the geysers, as well some of my favorite pictures of an amazing mountain sunrise. That following afternoon was left open for us and we filled it with a bit of nappy and a good chunk of relaxation time. When the sunset came I decided I really must have pictures of it, so I set off running for it and ended up getting a few nice very last minute shots (more about my chase for the sunset expressed in my essay downbelow. PS Google translate :)
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| One of the photos I ran to capture in San Pedro |
Tuesday was an entirely free day which I spent biking with five others. It was actually pretty difficult because we started out (8:30) on the wrong road. We biked for a somewhere around three hours before turning around for about an hour, which was when we turned on to an off road path.... which is when it got very difficult! We actually ended up ditching our bikes (hid them behind nearby sand dunes) and waling because the sand was too much to bike through. As that turned out, that was not the smartest idea because after the sand cleared up we still had to walk for another couple of hours.
We finally reached our destination - la laguna cejar - which is a small lake in the middle of this desert. The thing about this very touristic lake that it has an incredible amount of salt in it... so much in fact, that any person can very easily float without effort :) It was greeeatt and a well welcomed treat after many hours of trying to get there in the blazing hot sun.
The way back was quite a test as we were all very tired! We ended up being gone for 11 hours, or in distance: 55 miles. It was a full day filled with sun and more sun!
Even though I was very exhausted and was much looking forward to my hostel bed I was very excited for the next activity that I was going to do. I went with four others in my group to this star gazing thing... haha I apologize for my lack of knowledge on what things are called! But anyway we went to this star gazing seminar and it was very much a highlight of my trip. I personally, like my mom, love astronomy. I learned tons about the sky, it's history, and how it has helped people ever since we thought that the earth was the center of the universe. I also got a great picture with my new DSLR camera... the guide offered to take pictures for people through a certain telescope that was powered too high for human eyes but great for pictures. As it turned out, besides stars a hobby of his was photography! He put my camera on full manual and took a great shot of the moon for me.
The next morning I slept in, ate breakfast/lunch, and then got on the plane heading back for Santiago and then Viña. It was a great trip, but also good to be back "home" again.
Now for you Spanish speakers I have a little treat. I'm going to attach the essay that I had to write about the trip for my art class. I realize that it is not grammatically perfect, and for that Mrs. Froland I apologize! I haven't gotten the grade back yet so I don't know just how bad it actually is. It also is very short because instead of writing a few long essays, we have written many short ones (front and back hand-written). Anyway, I hope you enjoy hearing about my trip in the language in which it was meant to be expressed.
Daniel
Knapper
Arte
Ensayo de
San Pedro de Atacama
“¡No
corras, está prohibido!” Yo seguía
corriendo como el conductor del auto rojo manejó en sentido contrario, casi con
toda seguridad murmurando como loco era el gringo que corría en el desierto de
Atacama. El conductor tenía
razón. San Pedro de Atacama es un
pueblo pequeño, 2.407 metros sobre el nivel del mar, y el más seco del mundo. Es muy peligroso correr en un clima
así, y lo sabía, pero necesitaba llegar al borde de San Pedro tan rápido que
posible. Cinco minutos más tarde
cuando alcancé el borde, me di cuenta que lo acababa de perder. Fue
en este momento cuando yo vi que mi destino podría estar sobre los cerros que
esperaban tan cerca.
Yo
corrí al cerro más cercano y lo subí hasta llegar a la cima. Fue obvio que solo tenía una
oportunidad. Hay que hacerlo
bien. ¡Clic! sonó mi cámara quién
capturó una foto perfecta de la puesta del sol en la cima del cerro a las
afueras del San Pedro de Atacama.
Yo
hice mucho en el viaje. Conocí los
géiseres en la madrugada, asistí a un evento sobre las estrellas en el cielo,
practiqué en las arenas del desierto el sandbording, y gasté una montaña de
plata en la comida en el pueblo, pero la aventura más interesante fue andar en
bicicleta con mis amigas.
Empezamos
a las 8:30 de la mañana. Lo que
queremos hacer fue andar en las bicicletas por unas horas hasta llegar a la
laguna cejar, y después de esta andar más, explorando las tierras. Cuando terminamos, estábamos pensando
que sería cerca de las cuatro en la tarde. En realidad, no terminamos hasta las siete. Lo que pasó fue andamos en la manera
equivocado de inmediatamente.
Pensábamos que seguíamos las direcciones que tenemos por la persona que
nos arrendó las bicicletas, pero en actualidad, estábamos equivocados. Estábamos bajo del sol, en el desierto
más seco del mundo, con mucho calor.
Superábamos mucho.
Al
fin, estábamos muy felices de lo que hicimos y no vamos a olvidarlo. En general el viaje a San Pedro fue muy
especial para mí porque no importó lo que hice, me disfruté todo. Aprendí una lección muy
importante. Se puede disfrutarse
mucho con actividades como sandboarding, andar en las bicicletas, o mirar las
estrellas con telescopios... pero también se puede disfrutarse simplemente con unas
ganas de lograr algo, como sacar una foto de la puesta del sol. Yo aprendí que si corre un poco, aunque
tal vez está peligroso, y si no para cuando hay cerros en tu manera, se puede
lograr algo mucho más que simplemente una foto para su libro de memorias. Se puede lograr lo que quiera... si
solo tiene ganas.
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| Taken through the lens of a telescope set to such high power that if the naked eye were to gaze into the eye piece it wouldn't be able to see anything for the next 10-15 minutes. |
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| Valle de la luna |
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| Valle de la luna |
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| Geysers waaay up the mountains |
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| One of my favorite shots near the geysers |
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