Tales from the end of the world

It may seem like cheating to be updating about a trip in Chile when I’m not in Chile anymore, but in all fairness to me, I’m not yet home either. I’m writing this from somewhere over the Caribbean Sea at 3:30 in the morning because I just woke up and mysteriously can’t sleep. Plus, I still have not posted anything about my last, and quite possibly my best, Chilean adventure.

Exam season in Chile was a bit of a nightmare for me, so as soon as it was over, I was ready to take off on my final trip. I had two free weeks after finals ended, and was originally going to be traveling for both of them. In the end, though, I decided I would rather one shorter trip and then a last week on the beach before I headed home, a good move since it also gave me some more time with my awesome host family before I left. The place I chose for my remaining one week of travels: Chilean Patagonia.

As my friend Lauren (mihijita!) said when she went, “it’s not just an outerwear company”. For this last exciting adventure, I had decided to travel alone and test my independence skills after a semester abroad. I started out in Punta Arenas, a city on the Straits of Magellan. I ended up meeting another exchange student down there and sharing a hostel room with him for two days. While he hung out in the hostel and watched TV, preparing for his hike of Torres del Paine, I went on the Pinguinos tour (translation: penguins) and did some shorter hiking in a national reserve nearby, which was complimented by some unknown flirting with the park ranger. Yeah, I didn’t realize what I was doing until my taxi had pulled up to take me back to my hostel and he was giving me his e-mail address and MSN messenger name. Oops!

After two days in Punta Arenas, I hopped a bus to Puerto Natales, 3 hours north. Puerto Natales is the touristy town on the Fjord of Last Hope and the gateway to the Torres del Paine Park, so to speak. Torres del Paine is supposed to be up there with one of the 10 best hikes in the world, and I’ll believe it. I only had time to do the one day bus trip into the park, but I desperately want to go back some day and spend at least 4 or 5 days hiking in the park. (I know what you’re wondering, but don’t worry, I haven’t completely turned nature girl while here in Chile. I’m still mostly a city-mouse.) The Park is absolutely gorgeous with lagoons and waterfalls and mountains rising up out of the water and into the clouds. The weather in Patagonia is even more changeable than Martha’s Vineyard, and I used to think that was saying something. Every day I was alternately rained on, freezing, and sweating at least once. All this creates very uncertain weather and cloud cover conditions, however, which some find disappointing because of the difficulty in planning anything, but I felt just added a lot to the almost mystical feel of the park.

The Park was definitely my favorite part of the trip, but my boat of the glaciers definitely came in a close second. I took a tour on a boat (oh, how I had missed the feel of ocean under foot, hehe) to see two large glaciers near Puerto Natales. We sailed right up next to one, and the other I was able to walk to. The second was particularly beautiful, with several pieces breaking off and floating into the lake surrounding it. There was, again, some unknowing flirting with the tour guides (I have to start realizing when this is going on), that I was this time unaware of until one of them started touching the neck of my sweater while complimenting me on my Spanish-speaking abilities. I feel like my subconscious must get lonely when I’m traveling alone, even while conscious Caitlin is having a fantastic time. Either that or I just have that nature girl vibe that really reels in the guys. Oh, how crunchy I am. Hehe.

My last night in Puerto Natales was spent in a lovely hostel that I finally got a bed in after two nights in the hostel from hell. (It was next to not one, but two discoteques. Late night karaoke, anyone?) When traveling alone it’s virtually impossible to actually be alone, since the traveling culture really does seem to be one of living together and sharing, and true to form, I met some really cool people all over my travels. Among the many things I learned from them: working papers in Chile are really not a necessity, so if I ever wanted to come back and make some money, I’d be set. (Just kidding, Mom.) In all honesty, though, I did meet amazing people doing amazing things. It made me hope that this is not, by far, my last international adventure. I ended my trip to the “end of the world” relaxing, chatting, and reading in my hostel, and flew back home the next day for a week of beach-ing and goodbyes. My Chile trip ended fantastically, and I am so excited to come home and see all the people I care about!

Dusting the desert dust off my shoes

(Still can't get my pictures working sorry! But I'll try to get them up as soon as I'm state-side and every little thing on the computer doesn't take forever minutes!)

Grand apologies for the long break in blogging. I could make excuses, but no one wants to hear about them. Instead, here comes a quick account of my trip to the driest desert on earth…much more interesting!

San Pedro de Atacama is a small tourist town in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile. It is a tourist town because it is the only thing close to four major tourist sites of the desert: lakes in the mountains nearby, the world’s third largest salt deposit, El Tetio Geysers, and Death and Moon Valleys. It’s small because, being the only town for miles, there is no competition to cause it to experience any drastic change. It doesn’t have an ATM in town, though a truck drives through (with a frequency I’m unsure of) with an ATM that accepts only MasterCard. The food is one thing that is really quite affected by tourism, which meant it was some of the best food I’ve had since arriving in Chile.

Most people, to get to San Pedro, fly through Calama, the unappealing mining city about an hour and a half drive away. Ashley and I like it the hard way…we found a deal flying through Antofagasta, an even less appealing mining city located 5 hours away by bus. Through the desert. Antofogasta is on the (west) coast of Chile, it’s one saving grace (yes, I learned it’s possible to have a city that is both in the desert and on the sea… it’s like endless beach). San Pedro is on the east side of Chile. Hence, we had to cross the desert to get from point A to B. But it still got us to there, so no harm done.

We left on a Thursday bright and early and arrived in San Pedro just too late to take any tours. We checked into a great hostel with llamas in the yard and headed for the Native American ruins located just a kilometer outside of town.

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playing in Atacamian ruins

The next day we took a full day tour that went to the salar (salt deposit) and the lakes. Both were amazing, and we also got to meet some cool Brazilians in the process (and some unfortunately boring Slovaks). The group also stopped in a couple of very small towns, and we were able to momentarily and superficially glimpse into rural desert life. Cool (and a little frightening)!

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lots of salt and flamencos

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in front of one of the two lakes

That night we got to go on one of the cooler “tours” I’ve done in Chile: a tour of the night sky. A French man came to the Atacama because of its incredibly clear skies and started giving tours in English, French, and Spanish. He has several high-powered telescopes and plenty of knowledge, so two hours were quickly filled with interesting facts and beautiful sights. It was especially nice to finally have someone point out for me exactly what I am seeing for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere sky (aka, the whole part of the sky we miss out on up North). Yay for Magellanic Clouds!

The next day, Saturday, we checked out the museum and got to see some Native American mummies. That night we went on the tour of Death and Moon Valleys. I walked through Death Valley, apparently where many early explorers died because they greatly underestimated the distance between one oasis and another due to the ability to see so much further in the desert than in most places. We watched the sunset over Moon Valley, more impressive sounding than it was, I assure you, but beautiful nonetheless.

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standing above moon valley

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getting ready for sunset

The next morning Ashley and I woke up at the late great hour of 3:30 am to catch our 4 am tour to see the “near-by” El Tatio Geysers. I suppose 4 hours away is near-by in the desert, and it was certainly worth the trip. The geysers are best seen in the morning when the difference in temperature between the water and the outside air is enough to cause them to spout, obviously an important part of the event. (The Atacama Desert, I should mention, is quite cold at night since the lack of cloud cover keeps in no heat, and, obviously, very warm during the day. The coldness of the night, however, explains why one has to leave very early to get to the geysers when it’s still cold enough outside.)

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The geysers was a great end to our fantastic trip. We gently urged our tour guide, the same one we had for every tour, to please hurry up so we could make our bus to Antofogasta. (Our guide’s name was German, but we decided his nickname should be “puro chile” since he was a Chilean bumpkin to the core, complete with traditional Chilean dance music as the soundtrack in our desert van trips.) Our bus ride to Antofogasta, through the desert, was almost unbearable since it didn’t have air conditioning, but we arrived all in one piece, if a little lighter from the sweating. We spent a rather dreadful night in Antofogasta (but really, who likes industrial desert towns anyway?), and headed home the next morning.

All in all, it was one of my favorite trips of the semester. I had never been to the desert before, and it was fascinating. I don’t think I could ever live there; the lack of water was constantly felt and was, I have to admit, a bit scary, but it was absolutely gorgeous and completely different from anything I had ever seen before. A truly amazing trip!