The picture for this blog entry is of me, biking through the Andes mts. in the DRYEST desert in the world-Atacama.

Sat, Oct. 4th consisted of more shopping through the town of San Pedro during the day. We also went to San Pedro's Museo Arqueologico Gustavo Le Paige. It's regarded as one of the best in South America. It was founded by the former village priest after whom the museum is named. It has a wide array of pre-Columbian artifacts. I was very disappointed after arriving, because after reading ahead of time about the museum, I read that the most fascinating part of the museum (and the reason tourists like it so much) is to view the ancient mummies. However after we arrived at the museum, I soon discovered that they had taken the mummies out due to complaints of nearby locals...It was more-so a "respect" issue.

Later that day, we went and toured the Valle de la Muerte, (valley of the dead.) This is a very windy area with absolutely nothing but sand and mountains. It's called valley of the death because it's so dry that nothing, (not even plants) are able to survive there. We walked through the valley for a couple hours before heading to the Valle de la Luna, (valley of the moon.) It's located about 5 miles from San Pedro. It's an interesting place with stone and sand formations which have been created through the centuries by floods and wind, which has also given it an extraordinary color and texture, looking similar to the surface of the moon. We stayed here until sunset, when the valley is at it's eeriest. The valley is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years.

Sunday was delegated as our "free day." Everyone in the group was able to do what they wanted to do. Some people went sandboarding, others just simply relaxed by the pool, shopped around the town of San Pedro. My friends Jake, Tracy, Christina, and I decided to rent some bikes for the day and go mountain biking around the area. We ended up biking for 4 hours, through mountains, across rivers, etc. It was by far my FAVORITE part of the trip!

Monday morning was VERY early, as we woke up at 4am to check out of the hotel and drive to El Tatio to see over 100 geysers. El Tatio is located within the Andes mountains of northern Chile at 4,200 meters above mean sea level. It was extremely dry and once again, a little difficult for some of the students to breathe. I tried to take as many pictures of the geysers as I could, to show just how cool (or hot lol) they are. After visiting the geysers, we drove to a few indigenous towns, one of them being the town of Chiu Chiu to visit the oldest church in Chile. Afterwards, we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Santiago.

After we arrived in Santiago, some of the students wanted to head right back to Concepcion that evening by bus. I decided to spend that night in Santiago, catching up on my sleep (due to the fact we woke up at 4am that morning) and head back tomorrow by bus.