Just got back this past Tues. (the 7th of Oct.) from my trip to the north of Chile. It was by far one of the BEST experiences of my life. It was a full week full of outdoor-adventure, something I'm not completely used to but I learned to fall in love with it!

We left Mon, the 29th of Sept. on a bus to Santiago, Chile. It was about a 6 hour bus ride, so we were all pretty wiped out when we finally arrived at the hostel. Everyone just went to bed pretty early since we had to be up and ready to go the next morning by 9am.

Tues. was a full-planned day. We woke up early, got ready, hopped in a van, and drove about 2 hours to Isla Negra, on the coast. Isla Negra is where we visited one of the FOUR homes of the famous, (and most influential) poets...Pablo Neruda. The house is absolutely GORGEOUS inside. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed or I definitely would have taken some from the inside. The house was apparently his favorite out of all four. It's obvious to tell why, with a view from his bedroom like no other. The house overlooks a particularly rough stretch of Isla Negra's beach, where the waves crash against humped rocks rising abruptly out of the white sand like children's castles. It was definitely easy to relax on the rocks for an hour after touring the house. Not only was this his home, but Neruda chose to be buried here as well.

After touring Neruda's home, we went to an excellent seafood restaurant. I had 2 glasses of wine, and a salmon dinner (that came with bread) for only about a total of $7 US dollars. After lunch, we continued to travel further north to the popular resort towns, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. These towns are absolutely gorgeous during the summer months. Unfortunately, we didn't get to look around too much (so I think I'm definitely going to head back there on a weekend coming up here the end of Oct. or Nov.) However, we were able to go to the beach and wade our feet in the ocean.

Wed. was filled with simply touring around Santiago for most of the day. Just walking through the Plaza, and purchasing little gifts from the vendors. At around 3, we hopped in a subway for about an hour and traveled to the infamous vineyard, "Concha y Toro" located in the picturesque country town of Pirque. Concha y Toro is one of Chile's most well-known vineyards. (I love how all this wine tasting I'm doing is part of the "cultural experience" and of course, the curriculum.) We toured the huge vats where wines are stored and matured and even were able to go into the room called, "Casillero del Diablo" (also the name of the company's top selling wine) where this particular wine is aged. The name means, "devil's locker room." The original country estate and family mansion can be seen from the road, surrounded by smaller cottages of the vineyards' workers. The main house, which appears on some of the labels of wine, was built around 1875.

The next morning (Thurs.) we woke up early to catch our plane to the town of Calama, in the north of Chile. Calama has little to offer besides a mall and of course an airport. Most travelers stay only overnight to take a tour of the Chiquicamata mine. It was about a 2 hour flight, which would have been around 20 or so if we decided to go by bus...Luckily we didn't. We toured the state-owned Chiquicamata mine that day which is one (out of two) of the world's largest copper mines. The mine was definitely a site to see. The pictures are hard to tell just how amazing it is, (pretty much like every picture from this trip.) It's just really difficult sometimes to capture that kind of amazement/beauty through a picture. Lucky for me, I have the first-hand experience memories. After touring the mine, we hopped in the tour bus and drove about 2 hours to the oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama. It's a popular base for tourist for exploring the north of Chile's most spectacular sights. It was VERY obvious we weren't in Concepcion/Santiago/any other part of Chile (or South America) for that matter. I really think there were more tourists there than locals, which was a nice relief for once....no whistles, kissy noises, comments, etc. for about a week was a nice break. To skip ahead a bit, it was funny because the MOMENT we arrived back in Santiago at the end of the trip, some friends of mine thought it would be funny to fool our taxi driver in believing I was Madonna's niece....and guess what.....IT WORKED! That's when I knew we weren't in the tourist town anymore haha.

The drive to San Pedro from Calama crosses the Plan of Patience, whose name soon begins to make sense: the landscape between two distant ridges appears not to change at all for tens of kilomenters. I was so-oo-o-o-o happy to find out that for this trip we were staying in HOTELS rather than HOSTELS!!! What a relief!!!!! A continental breakfast complete with scrambled eggs, yogurt, fruit, toast, REAL COFFEE, tea, and juice included! It was wonderful! Plus, a nice, HOT shower each time we'd come in from the dusty outdoors of San Pedro de Atacama. We definitely needed it as we were in the DRYEST PLACE ON EARTH-(Atacama Desert.) It was kind of hassle however, because it was unsafe to drink the water from the tap, (the hotel provided a bottle of water/person each day however you run out quickly.) Purchasing gallons of water was a daily errand. There were a couple girls in our group who had a hard time breathing because we were located at such high altitudes. A few people even had a daily routine of bloody noses.

The next day, (Fri.) we had the entire morning/early afternoon to do what we wanted. A couple other girls and I just toured the small little town of San Pedro, (constantly running into other people from our group of 14 throughout the day.) The town is completely filled with tourists (as I mentioned before) which makes it easy for the people that live there to make a living. The whole town is filled with little souvenir shops, restaurants/bars, and little supermarket stops. Later that day, at around 3pm we headed on a tour to see the salt flats-Salar de Atacama. Before arriving at the salt flats, we drove southeast through a small village-Toconao. The Salar de Atacama is absolutely incredible. It's the largest salt flat in Chile and extends beyond the town of San Pedro to a distant row of snowcapped volcanoes-including Licancabur which, at 5,900 meters (19,360 ft), is one of the highest extinct volcanoes in the Andean chain. You're able to see it in some of my pictures, but I'll have to physically point it out for you when I'm able to. :) There were also many flamingos "grazing" in the Salar de Atacama as well (as they LOVE salt water...what better place to be!)

Later that evening (Fri.) after returning to the hotel, we bundled up in warm clothes and left to go to this French man's house. He's from France, but married a Chilean and now lives a little outside of San Pedro in the desert. He's an astronomer (with a lot of money) and from his very own home, gives "tours of the sky." It was absolutely incredible and I learned so much that I didn't know before about stars, such as distance, age, brightness, etc. After he talked, we were able to look up close at various stars, (and the MOON) through about 10 different VERY EXPENSIVE telescopes.

To be continued....