trip

so, ich bin wieder da. ab sofort wird mein blog auf englisch sein, da sich einige beschwert haben. ich vermute, dass die meisten deutschen die mitlesen englisch koennen, meine ganzen amerikanischen freunde koennen aber gar kein deutsch.


so, steffi (the other german volunteer) and i set off for 2 weeks of vacation. every three months we have to renew our tourist visa by lleaving and re-entering the country. we used this as an excuse to go north (where it is warmer than here!)
in temuco it had been rainy and cold for days. the day we left the weather was great and the sun was shining.

our plane

when we arrived in santiago, it was pouring, all the streets were flooded, cars were stalling, etc. etc.
from santiago we took a bus to san pedro de atacama, a bus ride of about 25 hours. the first half was overnight, when we woke up the next morning, we were in the atacama desert and the scenery was pretty much the same for hours and hours:





until all of a sudden, behind a hill a town appeared:


and then the ocean!

the town is antofagasta. from there it was only a few more hours (about 5) of desert until we reached san pedro.
san pedro de atacama is a very cute, tiny oasis town with adobe housing. it looks nothing like a typical chilean city. it was a center of atacameno indigenous culture before the arrival of the spanish.





i really liked san pedro a lot. the only problem is, it is overrun with tourists! it was pretty hot in the sun (20 degrees) which was a welcome change from the cold of temuco. but at night it was very cold. also, the air is really dry (duh-the atacama is the driest desert in the world, and every morning i would wake up completely parched.
we stayed in a nice hostel which cost only about 8 euros per night. we arrived saturday night around 7, after 25 hours on a bus. since we only had a few days in san pedro, we decided to go see the geysers the very next morning, meaning we had to get up a 4 am....! but i will save that for the next post, i'm off to lunch!