There is no way I can describe everything that has happened in the last few weeks, so many new places followed by too many sad goodbyes. First of all, I’ll tell you about La Gran Aventura. My trusty travelling team Chaz, Jacob and Annie travelled for 2.5 weeks to Northern Chile, Bolivia and Peru. It was a speed tour, more like a preview of the countries really. Before the trip, I’d made a rough schedule and amazingly we stayed on track the whole time! Here is a very abbreviated account of the trip.
We flew up north to Calama, and bussed to our first stop: San Pedro de Atacama. This is the driest dessert in the world, and is full of awesome rock formations and volcanoes. We went to the famous Valle de la Luna and Tatio Geysers, also swam in some salty thermal pools.
From there, we took a 3 day tour through Salar de Uyuni, the world’s most expansive salt flats. We had some altitude sickness problems and it was much colder than we were prepared for, but still an incredible experience. We were in a jeep with our guide, Jose, and two new friends Cheryl & Lucas. Our days consisted of one breathtaking site after the next; we saw volcanoes, bubbling lava, llamas, cacti, lots of salt, cool rock formations, lakes and even flamingos!
The tour brought us into Bolivia, and from there we bussed through Potosi, the highest city in the world, to Sucre ‘la ciudad blanca’ – the white city. We really enjoyed this city, highlights included seeing real dinosaur tracks, eating pretty good $1.50 meals, visiting the cemetery and enjoying fresh smoothies from the fruit ladies every day.
Next we crossed the border into Peru and travelled to Cusco, and from there to Aguas Calientes. That trip involved lots of bussing, and a six hour taxi ride with an insane Peruvian-Japonese man who insisted on blasting awful music and tried multiple times to drop us off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we made it, then had a small but scenic hike to the town. We walked through the jungle and were surrounded by epic mountain peaks. The next day, we experienced Machu Picchu, which unlike many famous tourist attractions actually exceeded my expectations. We explored some of the different views and even played cribbage at the top! Unfortunately that day Annie and I both got some sort of food sickness, it was ironic that this happened in the most touristy place we’d been so far but luckily it only lasted about 12 hours.
We took a train to Ollantaytambo for a night and met my friend Courtney who was doing medical volunteering for the summer. It’s a cool town because it’s completely surrounded by ruins, which we explored the following day.
Then we took some more buses and arrived in Arequipa, another nice city. Highlights included trying the Peruvian pisco sour and cuy (guinea pig) and going to Colca Canyon. This canyon is the deepest in the world and known for the condors who soar over it. Seeing these huge birds (9 foot wingspan) in such a photogenic place was just wonderful.
From there, we made our way back to Chile and staying in Arica, where we flew back to Santiago. Saying goodbye to equipo gringo was really tough, we’d been together so much for the past semester and now it is hard to say when our next visit will be. They left for the US a week before I did, and I spent that evening crying with my host mama.
This began my 2nd adventure to Buenos Aires with my friend Emily. In comparison to the places I’d been in the past couple of weeks, we lived a life of luxury in BA. There was indoor heating, delicious food and fancy stores, it reminded me a lot of Europe. I was struck by how gigantic the city is, there are so many neighborhoods that you really have a lot to see. We were lucky to meet with my friends Jen & Katelyn, Jen who had been studying in BA and understood the crazy bus system. We saw the city with a relaxed pace, making sure to stop for coffee, ice cream and wine as much as possible. In the end, I feel like I saw a really good amount, but there remains a lot to explore.
My last night in Viña included a visit with Chaz’s wonderful family and a dinner out with my host family. The goodbyes were very difficult as Chile is just so far away. I have been so lucky to have met such sweet loving people here, it’s really hard to imagine not seeing them for awhile…I can’t thank my family enough for the care and love they’ve showered me with for the past 5 months, they are such generous, loyal and sincere people. While these goodbyes are tough, I know that I am very fortunate to have not one, but TWO loving families and homes.
Studying abroad was nothing like I imagined but so much more than I could’ve ever hoped for. It was exactly the big adventure I needed. I know I have grown and learned a lot during the past 5 months. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this experience and for everyone that is reading this and sharing it with me.
Con mucho amor para ustedes y para Chile,
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