Santiago and the Atacama Desert

Hello! I am currently in Iquique which is in Northern Chile. This is my last stop before heading to Peru! This past week I was in Santiago and then I spent the weekend in San Pedro de Atacama. In Santiago I really did not do too much. I lucked out and had a full apartment to myself so I enjoyed the space and I also enjoyed big city restaurants. I got Indian food one night and brought it back to the apartment and ate it while watching TV. I also got Taco Bell!! I was feel nervous after my last Taco Bell experience in Costa Rica but this Taco Bell was so excellent. I got a bean burrito (literally called bean burrito not burrito de frijoles), some small, fried cheese empanadas, and french fries covered in cheese. It was all so delicious. Different from Taco Bell at home but still good. 
Also in Santiago I visited the Museum of Fine Arts. It was nice! My favorite exhibit was a room filled with nightstands. Each nightstand was different and had a different lamp on it as well as different objects. It was a really cool concept and fun to think about what you can tell about people from what is on their nightstand. Other than that, I walked a little bit around my neighborhood but not too much. 
On Friday I left Santiago and took a plane to Calama, Chile. I then took a shuttle to San Pedro de Atacama. The plane ride was about 2 hours and then the shuttle was 1.5 hours. Then I got to my hostel which was nice enough. I went out and got some insanely delicious empanadas for dinner and ate them in the town plaza. Then I went back to my hostel and they were doing a wine tasting of 3 different types of Chilean wines. I met some people from the UK and Ireland, and it was fun to chat with them for a while. On Saturday I got up and spent the morning exploring the town and getting ready for my afternoon tour. I got picked up around 3pm with two girls from my hostel who I had met the night before at the wine tasting. Then we went to Moon Valley which is an insanely cool park with lots of cool rock formations. We watched the sun set and it was a really good time! Then I went back to my hostel and they were doing a pisco sour making class. Pisco is a spirit made from fermenting grapes. A pisco sour is a very common drink in Chile and Peru and they each have their own twist on it. To make the Chilean version you put a champagne flute of pisco, 3 ice cubes, and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar into a blender and blend it until smooth. Then you add half of a lime (with the skin on) and blend for 5 more seconds. Then you strain the mixture and you have a pisco sour! The Peruvian version includes an egg white mixed into the drink. I am excited to see what that is like!
On Sunday I woke up at 5:30am and got picked up at 6pm for my full day tour. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, went to Piedras Rojas park, visited some altiplanic lagoons, went to the Atacama salt flat, saw lots of wildlife, and more! It was an 11-hour day but so worth it. For animals, we saw suri, viscacha, vicunas, Andean flamingos, and other native birds. Suri are large running birds almost like emus. Viscacha are little rabbit like creatures with long mustaches. Vicunas are the undomesticated version of alpacas! We learned that alpacas are domesticated alpacas and llamas are domesticated guanacos. I saw lots of guanacos when I was down south in the Patagonia. The Andean flamingos were so cool to see! My first time seeing flamingos in the wild. They were in the water at the salt flat. We learned that they eat 12-16 hours a day because they eat tiny little brine shrimp, so it takes a long time for them to fuel themselves. 
After the tour on Sunday, I got dinner with a girl who was born in the US but has lived in the Netherlands for the majority of her life. We got chorrillana which is french fries, then usually some type of meat but for me it was a bunch of sauteed vegetables, and then some eggs on top. It was so good!! Monday was another early-ish morning to get to the bus. I took two bus to get to Iquique. It is on the beach, but you can't swim because the waves are very severe. This week is going to be another chill one as I gear up for Peru!


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