San Pedro de Atacama

A while back, I promised an update. Oops. I’ll do another later this week, but I need to study for finals right now.

In September, I traveled to the world’s driest desert: San Pedro de Atacama. I loved the descent of our flight into Calama, because the mountains changed from rough and rigid to smooth and curvy. As my friends and I loaded into the van from the airport to head to San Pedro, the sun was beginning to set. Twenty minutes into our drive, I looked out the window to my right and the sky was blue, blue green and sea foam green-I have never seen the sky quite like it before! What was even crazier was that I looked out the back window and the sky was pink and purple. I have seen sunsets throughout the different parts of Chile I have visited and the sunset it San Pedro was by far the best (Pichilemu is a close second and Pucón takes third).

My friends and I went on a few different tours, but I would have to say my favorite activity was renting bikes and sand boards and biking through the desert canyons in search of sand dunes. Walking up the dunes was tough, but the view from above was incredible. Plus, sand boarding was wicked cool!

Here are some pictures from the tours that I went on:

We visited Lagos Altiplanicos early in the day and it snowed. I did not expect that to happen in the driest desert on earth.

Laguna de las Piedras – Like the Dead Sea

We visited the Salar de Atacama, the home to many chilean flamingos. We tried to fit in as best as any gringa can.

Exploring caves and canyons at Valle de la Luna

Valle de la Luna

Piedra del Coyote – Valle de la Luna. We ran into pretty much every other person who was staying at our hostel here.

Geysers del Tatio – Just being Daenerys Targaryen and calling to my dragons

Las Dunas.