The Driest Desert in the World

I am now in the midst of my busiest weeks yet down here. Therefore, I decided to take a little break and recap a bit from my little bench in the Facultad de Letras quad.

As it is now September, I can successfully say "pasé agosto!". Here, all of the older people celebrate when they reach September because they made it through another winter. It's quite the feat and news-worthy here in Chile.

This week and next week I have my first set of papers and exams. I took my Econ exam today - 1 down, 3 to go! Definitely looking forward to the end of midterms.

Tucked between these three weeks, I am taking a couple trips... to stay sane.

I spent last weekend in Iquique and Pica with half of my study abroad program. It was really fun a leave Santiago and experience a completely different setting. The weekend in the Atacama Desert (the world's driest - hence the title) was chalk full of adventures and surprises.

After a short week of school - they fly by here - I spent Thursday night at Abby's so that we could leave for the airport at 5am for our 6:55 flight. Awesome. Once we got the airport we ran into a little snag - everyone didn't make it on the plane. Our advisor, Elsa, and two other students got held up at the ticket counter and the gate closed before they could hop on the plane. So off we went! 16 students, without our advisor, making the 3 hour trip to Iquique.

Taking pensive photos

These starfish weren't actually squishy... We checked

Then we took a walk.

Iquique is a port city in the north of Chile and has a climate unlike any other place in the world: coastal - desert. Pretty cool. Soon after our walk and lunch, Elsa and the other two students finally made it and we officially toured the city together.

"Iquique, I love you"

Fun fact: Iquique in the language Aymara means 'sleepy sleepy'

We tried some chorros with manjar in the middle (a carmel-like substance that we love)

Experienced the "cueca" - a traditional Chilean dance

Found some sea lions on the docks of the marina

With that, we finished our tour of Iquique. That night we had some amazing seafood. I tried locos, which are so Chilean that they don't even have a translation to english. So I'm not exactly sure what I ate? And I tried octopus!

The next day we woke up and up the Cordillera de la Costa into the Atacama desert.

Traveling up the Cordillera de la Costa

Once we made it to the desert, we visited some old saliteras where they make sodium nitrate (i.e. gunpowder).

The old machinery at Santa Laura

After the salitreras, we saw the hieroglyphs in the desert mountains. Pretty cool. One slightly resembled the Vanderbilt "V". Abby and I were pretty excited.

Los hieroglifos

Here's the "Vandy" one:

We spent the night in a small town/oasis called Pica - the home of tiny pica lemons which are used to make pisco sours. That night we saw the most amazing desert sunset.

Abby and I literally ran to get a clear view because it disappeared so quickly

The next morning, we made our way back to Iquique and eventually back to Santiago, but not before picking some of the most amazing oranges I have ever eaten in my life. No lie.

Overall, the trip was wonderful. I came back to Santiago with a tan line, which is always great in my book! (No worries mom, I wore my sunscreen! The desert sun is powerful.)

Tomorrow I'm heading for Mendoza, Argentina with some friends to wine taste and possibly paraglide. So psyched! It'll be a great stress reliever.

Que les vaya bien!