I left immediately from work Thursday afternoon and went to the airport. The flight was 2 hours and arrived in a mining city called Calama. From there it was an hour and half shuttle ride to San Pedro. Instead, some people take a 20 hour bus ride from Santiago. NO, thank you. I arrived at the hostal late and was bummed to find out that I was too late to book an excursion for the next day. I went to my room and immediately made friends with the guys there. They invited me to go on the excursion with them the next morning. I didn't even know where it was going but I woke up at six the next morning and blearily asked the guide for a spot on the bus, luckily I got one. There was a group of five of us traveling alone.
We snapped funny photos and swapped stories and felt like new old friends. That's a volcano behind us. That's also a lake. I'm not clear where the water comes from considering it is the driest place in the world . . . from snow from the mountains? It was really cool. I was wearing two pairs of gloves and pants and I can't tell you how many shirts.
We went to salt flats. We saw four flamingos where there used to be thousands.
Friday evening my friend Magda and her friend Aaron arrived. Our excursion on Saturday morning left at 5 a.m., necessary because we went to the geyers and they are most active in the morning.
In the afternoon we went to the Valley of the Moon.
The next day I went on an all day excursion to the Tara Salt Flats, which are very close to the border with Bolivia. They are wild and remote. We went off-roading and were at a really high elevation. I felt it in my lungs after walking a few steps up a little hill.
We had a picnic lunch at a salt flat. I found myself thinking that I never wanted to leave.
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