When we first got there on Thursday, we had about an hour to explore town. It was not what I expected at all. All the buildings were made of adobe and one story. The streets were made of dirt and there seemed to be a tourist agency or souvenir shop in every other building. After exploring town, we had a short lesson about the history of the people of Atacama and the land. After dinner, we went to sleep in anticipation of a full day the next day.
Saturday started with a hike at Pukara de Kitor. It ended up being two mountains that we hiked up and got amazing overarching views of the desert and the Andes that surrounded it.
Then we went hiking in a place called Devils Gorge. It used to be a gorge with a river running through it, but because we were in a desert it dried up. In order to get there, our bus took us to a certain point and then had to drop us off because there was a river it couldn't cross. So my entire program had to take off our shoes and cross the river in order to get to the hike. It was pretty funny seeing a group of 36 students and 3 trip leaders up to their knees in the river.
After lunch, we went to the National Flamingo Reserve, which encompasses the Atacama Salt Flats. The Salt Flats were bunches of salt that took over the entre ground. I tasted some of it and it just tasted like table salt! It was incredible. The flamingos live in the lagoons of the salt flats and eat the small crustaceans that live in the water. There are three types of flamingos in the reserve: Andean flamingos, Chilean flamingos, and James' flamingos. The Andean and Chilean flamingos looked very similar to the flamingos we have in the US. But the James' flamingo was really small and like a bird. The difference between all of them and the ones in the US is that the ones in Chile could fly!
Our third day started bright and early at 5:30 am. We drove two hours to Tatio Geysers to watch the sun rise. It was so incredibly cold (like 14 degrees farenheight). The geysers were really cool (I had never seen any before) but the cold made it hard to appreciate them. One of the coolest parts was that we ate eggs that had been hard boiled in the geysers! They tasted like normal hard boiled, which was incredible. In addition to the geysers, we got to go to hot springs that were heated by the geysers. It was fun! The hot springs weren't as warm as I had hoped though, and could only spend about 10 minutes in them before I froze.
After lunch, we went to Death Valley and Moon Valley. Moon Valley was probably the most beautiful place we went in Atacama. We hiked up to the top of a sand hill and watched the sunset over the Andes. It was absolutely incredible. The pictures I took can't even come close to doing it justice. The reds, pinks, and oranges of the sunset were so beautiful.
That night we did my favorite thing of the entire trip: we went to an observatory. According to scientists, Atacama is the best place in the world to go star gazing and I can entirely see why. The tour started with a PowerPoint lesson of the sky. Our guide told us a really interesting story about how the Incas saw negative space in the Milky Way and saw different animals in it; they saw a sheppard, a big llama, a little llama, a snake, a frog, and many more. They believed that when the sheppard, which is the first negative space in the Milky Way, touched the ground, it was time to plant their harvest.
After the presentation, we went outside and looked up at the stars. It was INCRESIBLE! Seriously probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. You could see everything. I clearly saw the Milky Way and all the negative spaces and animals, Jupiter (which is always the first star visible in Chile), and another galaxy.
Then we went up to a giant telescope on top of the observatory. Through the telescope we saw the lines on Jupiter, Saturn and its rings, and a black hole. It was absolutely incredible.
Unfortunately the next day we had to leave. San Pedro de Atacama was easily one of the most beautiful places I've been in Chile. The nature was incredible and the desert was unlike any desert I've seen in the US. I'm sad that my time there is over but I'm so glad I got the chance to experience it.
