The day before I went to San Pedro de Atacama (SPDA), I went to Zapallar, a beautiful town on the beach. Think Hamptons, but more hilly and with small but beautiful cottages. I went for lunch with my friend Caira, and her aunt and uncle and we had a wonderful day. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold (it is after all, still winter here)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296780&l=d6741&id=907196
SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA
Monday.
Coincidentally, I was on the same flight as another volunteer and her family. I hung out with them for the first few days. We walked around San Pedro, and when I say walked around, I mean we walked up and down the one main street there. And we planned our first few days in the desert.
Tuesday.
I woke up very early on Tuesday to go on a tour of the lagunas in and around the salar de atacama. The first stop was Chaxa, the lagoon inhabited by flamingos. There were tons of them and right after they wake up they fly from one part of the lagoon to the other so we got there in time for that. The scenery was incredible and the water was so still you could see perfect reflections in them. Next, we went to another lagoon, Laguna Miscanti. This was at an altitude of 4,200 meters, and I was definitely feeling it. We were walking on a flat area and my heart was pounding! After the tour of the lagoons, we went to a few small towns in the area and ate some lunch. Once we arrived back in SPDA, I took a very long siesta and then another delicious meal at the best restaurant in SPDA, Todo Natural.
Wednesday.
Back to Todo Natural for breakfast. I am a creature of habit, what can I say? Then Katie's family and I went on another tour to the Valle de la Muerte and the Valle de la Luna. Excellent scenery and lots trekking at a lower altitude.
Then, my friend Caira arrived. Following our delicious dinner (guess where?!) we decided we definitely wanted to go out. However, my long excursion and her day of traveling to San Pedro left us too weak to do anything. We decided to take a nice siesta and then rally at 11:45 at night to then go out. Bars in San Pedro close earlier and we were determined to at least make last call! What an experience that turned out to be! We went to the bar and after last call, all the locals and tourists went off the beaten path and started a bonfire where we hung out and chatted till it was time to go home.
Thursday.
Katie and her family went to the geysers which I wasn't prepared for (the temperature was -15 degrees Celsius!), so Caira and I hung out in San Pedro and spent the day taking silly pictures and catching up on our vacation adventures.
After dinner, before we hit the bars Caira, Katie and I took it to the streets for some dancing, drinking and singing-filled merriment (but not too loud, we aren't THAT ridiculous). Think "So You Think You Can Dance" but better because one person recorded (yes, this is on video somewhere) one person sang, and one person did their dance. I think it was a 3-way tie, but my Bill Cosby dance killed. Then back to the bars, but only for a little bit.
Friday.
Ladies and gentlemen, I found my new sport: SANDBOARDING!!! It's super fun, exerts lots of energy so it's super strenuous, and if you fall, you fall into soft sand so injuries are hard to come by and if you know me, I get injured. A LOT.
In the morning we had our lesson followed by a few runs on the "bunny slope" and then on to the bigger runs. But Lauren, sandboarding doesn't sound like it's such a physically challenging sport? It isn't, but it's not like skiing at a resort, there are no ski lifts, so you have to hike up the sand dunes... OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH! yea, I definitely earned whatever delicious meal I ate afterwards.
Following sandboarding, Caira and I hung out with our instructor, Jorge and we had a delicious lunch accompanied by a well deserved cerveza. Back to the hostel for our siesta and then we headed just to the outside of town for our astronomy tour. If anyone gets a chance to visit the southern hemisphere, make sure you can go to a clear area because there are so many more stars down here.... it's incredible. Just as nyc's sky is flooded with city lights, Santiago is flooded with pollution. Stars are hard to come by. When you are finally able to see them down here, it's amazing! We had a great experience on the tour with a ridiculously funny french astronomer who has been living in Chile for years as a guide.
Back to SPDA for dinner where Caira and I were too exhausted and it was too late to start a siesta, so sadly we called it a night.
Saturday I woke up super early to head back to Santiago...
Here are some pictures:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296782&l=e5549&id=907196
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2297131&l=d1dd2&id=907196
Coming up, the final leg of my vacation: Buenos Aires with Mom and Earle!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Vacacion Parte II - Isla de Pascua
Welcome to the second installment of my month long vacation!
This week, I went to Easter Island, a Polynesian Island located 5 hours west of Chile. It is also known as Isla de Pascua in Spanish, and Rapa Nui the native language to the islanders. It's known for the mysterious statues located all around the island called moai. That's about all the education you are gonna get from me on the subject. Read more about it on wiki if you want to get more information. Below is the day by day breakdown of my Easter Island adventure.
Saturday.
I arrived in EI and met a 2 chilean girls from Vaparaiso and hung out with them for a bit. We headed over the moai closest to town to take a look around. I went back there to catch the same moai for a sunset view.
Sunday.
In the morning, I went to the museum on EI to get a better understanding of what I was seeing, the history, Rapa Nui culture, theories from archaeologists, etc...
In the afternoon, I set my sights on hiking up the largest volcano on the island, Rano Kau. However, the hikers path wasn't marked as clearly as I hoped. By the time I passed 4 or 5 forks in the path and realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be it started to rain. I decided to head back down and try again some other time. Of course, then it started to pour and I got a blister from wearing wet socks (this information becomes pertinent later, I promise)
Monday.
I rent a jeep with the 2 Valpo. girls, Paola and Gabi. They happen to have a friend, Andres, also from Valpo, who lives on the island. The 4 of us drive around the island to see all of the moai and caves. We go to the first cave (or cueva) Te Pahu. My left knee still hurts from my fall while skiing the weekend before, and my right foot has a blister. The ground in the cave was damp so I was constantly looking down because I can't handle any more feet or leg injuries. After all, I have 3 more weeks of traveling to get through! So, what do you think happens? You guessed it.... I look down and without realizing it, the ceiling in the cave got really low and I bashed my head and screamed "hay sangre! hay sangre!" (there's blood, there's blood!) but after the initial shock and realizing there is no permanent damage, we move on.... to the next cave. I have absolutely no interest in going into another cave, but I was told that Dos Ventanas (2 windows) is incredible and a bit hard to find. Since we had a resident with us, I shouldn't skip it. Dos Ventanas lived up to its expectations. It's a very small cave that opens up to the ocean with 2 separate openings. (pics in the link below)
Then we go to the rest of the standing moai and head to the beach at Anakena for sunset. Andres, not native to the island, lives in an apartment near the family of his boss who are native to EI, and another guy, Laser, also a Rapa Nui native. We have dinner at their house and drink some wine and have a great evening with some locals.
Tuesday.
Laser, Andres, the 2 Valpo girls and I decide to go fishing. Let me clarify, Andres and Laser do most of the fishing, the 2 other girls and myself go along for the scenery. We went around most of the island and they caught 14 fish! In the evening we went back to their house and had a big fish dinner! It was delicious and really fun. After cooking the fish on a giant try, the whole family and the 2 guys and 2 girls stood around the tray full of fish with forks in hand and just stood around picking at all the fish. There were no plates, no chairs, just fish and beer. Then we stood around the fire for a bit and chatted (I mostly listened as my spanish is still a work in progress).
Wednesday.
I finally went back up to the Rano Kau Volcano (in a car, not hiking). It rained most of the day and I was tired from the previous few days in the sun and staying up late with the people I met, so I just hung out. I met some people from New York and hung out with them. We had a delicious dinner at a japanese restaurant on the island with the funniest chef ever. He has this little restaurant and he is the only person that works there. He cooks, cleans... the whole thing. He even has the small tiny kitchen open so you can watch and chat with him as he cooks.
Thursday.
Another backpacker told me about this amazing French tour guide that lives on the island. I hadn't yet gone on a guided tour and felt that I still had more that I wanted to learn that I couldn't get from the museum. I also didn't want to go on a standard tour with a whole bunch of people to the places around the island I had already been to. I met Christophe, and with the other New Yorkers that I met the day before, we went on a 1/2 day hike up the Poike Volcano. None of us had gone there and we would have never found the cool places on the volcano without him. Poike is the place were the moai originated. What may be considered one of the first moai is there. It's much smaller than the others around the island, it's white instead of black, and it isn't propped up on the ahu (alter) as most others are. The crater of the volcano was filled with a eucalyptus forrest, and down the cliff on the side of the volcano is a cave with some petroglyphs. Christophe was an excellent guide for the day. He used to live in Tahiti and came to EI for the surfing. He visited a number of times, and decided that he loved the island so much that he wanted to move there. He has now lived there for a year and while he isn't native to the island, he was definitely knowledgeable and passionate about everything relating to Easter Island.
After the hike, we went back to Anakena for some lunch and relaxation. Then, back to the japanese restaurant for a terrific last meal before I left the island.
Friday.
Woke up ridiculously early to catch the sunrise back at Ahu Tongariki and then to the airport to return to Santiago.
For those not that technically savy, there are 3 albums and yes, you have to look at all of them:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296759&l=59328&id=907196
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296770&l=eaa93&id=907196
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296776&l=10045&id=907196
Next up.... San Pedro de Atacama!
This week, I went to Easter Island, a Polynesian Island located 5 hours west of Chile. It is also known as Isla de Pascua in Spanish, and Rapa Nui the native language to the islanders. It's known for the mysterious statues located all around the island called moai. That's about all the education you are gonna get from me on the subject. Read more about it on wiki if you want to get more information. Below is the day by day breakdown of my Easter Island adventure.
Saturday.
I arrived in EI and met a 2 chilean girls from Vaparaiso and hung out with them for a bit. We headed over the moai closest to town to take a look around. I went back there to catch the same moai for a sunset view.
Sunday.
In the morning, I went to the museum on EI to get a better understanding of what I was seeing, the history, Rapa Nui culture, theories from archaeologists, etc...
In the afternoon, I set my sights on hiking up the largest volcano on the island, Rano Kau. However, the hikers path wasn't marked as clearly as I hoped. By the time I passed 4 or 5 forks in the path and realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be it started to rain. I decided to head back down and try again some other time. Of course, then it started to pour and I got a blister from wearing wet socks (this information becomes pertinent later, I promise)
Monday.
I rent a jeep with the 2 Valpo. girls, Paola and Gabi. They happen to have a friend, Andres, also from Valpo, who lives on the island. The 4 of us drive around the island to see all of the moai and caves. We go to the first cave (or cueva) Te Pahu. My left knee still hurts from my fall while skiing the weekend before, and my right foot has a blister. The ground in the cave was damp so I was constantly looking down because I can't handle any more feet or leg injuries. After all, I have 3 more weeks of traveling to get through! So, what do you think happens? You guessed it.... I look down and without realizing it, the ceiling in the cave got really low and I bashed my head and screamed "hay sangre! hay sangre!" (there's blood, there's blood!) but after the initial shock and realizing there is no permanent damage, we move on.... to the next cave. I have absolutely no interest in going into another cave, but I was told that Dos Ventanas (2 windows) is incredible and a bit hard to find. Since we had a resident with us, I shouldn't skip it. Dos Ventanas lived up to its expectations. It's a very small cave that opens up to the ocean with 2 separate openings. (pics in the link below)
Then we go to the rest of the standing moai and head to the beach at Anakena for sunset. Andres, not native to the island, lives in an apartment near the family of his boss who are native to EI, and another guy, Laser, also a Rapa Nui native. We have dinner at their house and drink some wine and have a great evening with some locals.
Tuesday.
Laser, Andres, the 2 Valpo girls and I decide to go fishing. Let me clarify, Andres and Laser do most of the fishing, the 2 other girls and myself go along for the scenery. We went around most of the island and they caught 14 fish! In the evening we went back to their house and had a big fish dinner! It was delicious and really fun. After cooking the fish on a giant try, the whole family and the 2 guys and 2 girls stood around the tray full of fish with forks in hand and just stood around picking at all the fish. There were no plates, no chairs, just fish and beer. Then we stood around the fire for a bit and chatted (I mostly listened as my spanish is still a work in progress).
Wednesday.
I finally went back up to the Rano Kau Volcano (in a car, not hiking). It rained most of the day and I was tired from the previous few days in the sun and staying up late with the people I met, so I just hung out. I met some people from New York and hung out with them. We had a delicious dinner at a japanese restaurant on the island with the funniest chef ever. He has this little restaurant and he is the only person that works there. He cooks, cleans... the whole thing. He even has the small tiny kitchen open so you can watch and chat with him as he cooks.
Thursday.
Another backpacker told me about this amazing French tour guide that lives on the island. I hadn't yet gone on a guided tour and felt that I still had more that I wanted to learn that I couldn't get from the museum. I also didn't want to go on a standard tour with a whole bunch of people to the places around the island I had already been to. I met Christophe, and with the other New Yorkers that I met the day before, we went on a 1/2 day hike up the Poike Volcano. None of us had gone there and we would have never found the cool places on the volcano without him. Poike is the place were the moai originated. What may be considered one of the first moai is there. It's much smaller than the others around the island, it's white instead of black, and it isn't propped up on the ahu (alter) as most others are. The crater of the volcano was filled with a eucalyptus forrest, and down the cliff on the side of the volcano is a cave with some petroglyphs. Christophe was an excellent guide for the day. He used to live in Tahiti and came to EI for the surfing. He visited a number of times, and decided that he loved the island so much that he wanted to move there. He has now lived there for a year and while he isn't native to the island, he was definitely knowledgeable and passionate about everything relating to Easter Island.
After the hike, we went back to Anakena for some lunch and relaxation. Then, back to the japanese restaurant for a terrific last meal before I left the island.
Friday.
Woke up ridiculously early to catch the sunrise back at Ahu Tongariki and then to the airport to return to Santiago.
For those not that technically savy, there are 3 albums and yes, you have to look at all of them:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296759&l=59328&id=907196
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296770&l=eaa93&id=907196
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296776&l=10045&id=907196
Next up.... San Pedro de Atacama!
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