Buenas

Ok, so I've fallen behind. Again.  I know, I know.

But seriously, the month has flown by.  I've been out of town for the past five weekends: Las Cabras with Techo para Chile, Mendoza, San Pedro de Atacama, Pichidangui for the 21st (my birthday and, coincidentally, a national holiday), and Viña del Mar (again).  It's been exhausting, but (mostly) awesome.  There have been some ups and downs (sickness, etc.), but I'll get into that in a second.


So first, some pictures from San Pedro de Atacama.   The top three places the nature shows tell you to visit in Chile are Torres del Paine/Patagonia, Isla de Pascua, and San Pedro; I can see why.  The landscape is absolutely SURREAL.

When we got off the plane, we went to see a copper mine (Chile is the world's greatest producer of copper, and there are hella mines in the north where we were).  I could not BELIEVE the size of those man-made canyons.

Ridiculous.  Later, we went on a bike tour through this beautiful area in San Pedro.  I was feeling sick all weekend, so I was really happy to hear that I could still go on the tour and skip the bike part (I was allowed to follow behind in the truck that followed the group).  Beautiful sights/ancient indigenous sites.

We stopped by some ruins, and found a sweet spirit circle:

And then we climbed a giant sand hill, which was kind of impossible? But worth the effort.

View from the top:

My friends Martin and Julie on the way down the sand hill.

Next stop: el Salar de Atacama.  It's the largest salt flat in Chile; salt, salt, salt, as far as the eye can see:

So that was San Pedro.  Gorgeous.  I'll try to write a little more in the next couple of days and catch you all up.  ¡Que les vaya bien! ♥

San Pedro de Atacama

 

This weekend I visited a family that had alpacas in their backyard.

...I can now say that I am satisfied with my South American experience/life in general.