Trip to the north, continued

17th of October -
We had to wake up at 8am to take off in the bus to an archeological site. The city had been excavated several times (sand would keep filling it up) and was fully excavated in 1982 but the archeologists stopped work on it because the natives were having moral issues about what they were doing. They preferred it left alone. Now, tourists are allowed to see a portion of it, obviously, since I saw it. Later we saw a museum and outside of it we saw a thermometer that informed us the heat was dangerously high that day. Stupidly, later, we all layed out in the sun and got crispy. At the museum, I followed around a French tour with my friend Jess A. and we practiced some French afterward. We walked back to the hotel from there since it was just in town and that's when we fried at the pool. The pool at our hotel was ICE. Literally it was so cold we couldn't stand it, and we were in the frickin desert. Later around 4:00 we took a bus over to El Salar de la Atacama which is a huge salt field. There was random bodies of water with flamingos. Over those waters and the desert salt we watched the sunset. Incredibly beautiful. You can see a lot of these pics on facebook. Not only did we watch the sunset, but we watched the lights dance on the mountains behind us and the Valle de la luna. Heading back to the hotel we went through the indiginous, non touristy part and saw a celebration of the Día de San Lucas. We get back to the hotel and I happen to acquire a bloody nose because it was so dry. I forgot to mention the hotel supplies us with bottled water every day because its so necessary and because we couldn't drink the tap water. They would'nt even let us use it to brush our teeth. I was wary to shower in it. This night, some people went to this rave in the middle of the desert, but I was too tired so I passed.

18th of Octubre-
Some people were just getting back from the rave at 4:30 am when we took off to go see the geysers and the sunrise. Our tourguide told us there were only 3 deaths there this year... but never told us how they happened. Lets just say we were all very careful. After that we went to natural hot springs. They weren't actually that hot, and they were very enjoyable in the desert. The water was so clean and fresh! I actually had forgotten my swimsuit somehow and ended up using Cheryl's sports bra and shorts. After returning to the hotel, most of us napped or shopped. When I woke up I got ice cream and then dinner (yes, the ice cream came first). At the restaurant where we ate we watched an U de C game. We were losing for most of it but ended up tying 1 to 1. Returning to the hotel we bought some stuff to drink and just started gathering in the sitting area outside the main building just chatting and playing card games. We ran over to a bar called Milagro for a bit but ended up just going back to the hotel. Apparently, the person who is supposed to buzz us into the enclosure was being lazy or was sick of us gringos going in and out so when me Karl and Jess B tried to get in, he wouldn't open the gate. Therefore, we all jumped the 7 foot wall.

19th de Octubre-
Slept in a little to recover from last night and all the hiking in past few days. Later in the afternoon we went to a salt lake in the middle of the desert. Now THAT was incredible! We could stick our entire arms out of the water and still floated like a cork. It was so easy to float because of the fact that it was full of salt, just like the Dead Sea. Another thing about the lake was that we could actually swim faster. The bad part about it was that eventually the salt stung our skin so bad, it hurt like hell and we had to get out. After drying off, we headed back to the hotel and chilled some more, it was kind of a lazy/recovery day. Alison, Cheryl, Jess A and I just sat in the lobby downing cup after cup after cup of coffee and tea and talking about life.

20th of October-
I ran out of money so instead of going shopping, I fried by the pool some more. More like Hayley and Alison fried, they were tomatoes by the end of the day. Tsk Tsk.
Nothing really exciting happened that night in Santiago. We went for a walk at night and crossed paths with some male transvestites who said "Qué rico" to Trevor, but that was it.

Thats the end of the north trip. I shoulda kept a better diary huh?

My favorite part about this trip to the north was that I got really close to everyone in my group. I really got to know a lot of people I hadn't hung out with much yet, and got closer to the one's I've been hanging out with a lot. Cobquecura did it too, and I'm sure the south will. I love it. I love being close to these people. I've made some friends for life, which I usually find difficult to do.

The night of the 24th, Karl and I saw the movie "Bastardos sin gloria" or "Inglorious Bastards" as it was released in the states. It was AMAZING but most of the movie was in French and German and we were therefore forced to read the Spanish subtitles, but they scrolled so fast, we lost a little bit of the movie's content I think.

Besides seeing that movie, I was incredibly homesick this weekend. With my dog on the verge of death, I just wanted to be home. I got so homesick, I hardly did anything but sit in bed, and/or on my computer. It was probably the worst homesickness I've felt since coming here. I got over it a little bit on Monday night when I went out with some friends to celebrate a girl's birthday.
Well, on Sunday, I did go to the mall with Cheryl for a bit, to try to shake it off. We talked a long time and went back to her house to cook American/comfort food: aka Mac and Cheese and peanut butter (not together).

The funny thing was the next day when I told my mom about what me and Cheryl did to feel better, she went out and found Mac and Cheese for me, and peanut butter too! That stuffs not cheap here.

I'm severely sleepless right now, and I wish I had more interesting things to say in this blog besides listing what I did each day. I apologize to readers bored by my narration.

I thought about how wierd it'll be to go home today.
I'm going to miss the micros.
And my host family. My host family a lot.
chilean cuisine, esp cheap fruit/veggies

Many times a day I make lists in my head of what I'll miss about this place. I know as much as I missed home here, at home I'm going to miss Chile just as much.