The Driest Desert on Earth

This past weekend, I visited San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert on Earth!  I know, desert sounds boring, but it was actually beyond beautiful.

Our flight left Santiago with no problem, something I take for granted after all of my flying mishaps recently, and we arrived in San Pedro, 2 hours North of Chile, at night.  It was such a weird experience driving through the town to get to our hostel.  Everything was dark, the stars were ever present in the sky, and the roads were just bumpy, dirt paths with no real boundaries.  I was interested to see what the town looked like during the day.

San Pedro during the day 

Beautiful sunset!

The first couple days, we had quite a few hiccups!  First, we were picked up at 8:30 am to see a Flamingo National Reserve and Lagunas Altiplanicas (High Plain Lagoon), but as we kept driving, it started to rain -- in the desert, in winter!  None of us were prepared for getting wet, but we all got out of the bus at the flamingo reserve and it started to SNOW!  I was blown out of my mind.  Here I am, in Chile, in JULY, and it is SNOWING!  You've got to be kidding me.  I was not a happy camper; I love me some blazing, hot summer!  Anyway, the flamingo's were cool, not as pink as I expected, but I think the fact that it was cold and wet and my toes were numb tainted my experience with flamingos. :)

The flamingo wouldn't take it's head out of the ground, so this is the best I could  get!

Flamingo Reserve -- the colors are from the salt!

After getting on the bus, the tour guide tells us that since it's snowing, the entrance to the High Plain Lagoon was probably closed, but we were driving up there anyway to check and have lunch.  So we drove, and it was closed, and we got out for a bit to play in the snow.  Everyone was so excited, but I was just in shock that it was snowing! So we had lunch, drove back to San Pedro and called it a day. Oh, and I tried llama meat! Tastes just like beef.

Did I mention it was snowing? ;)

Then the next day, we went sandboarding in Death Valley.  Sounds intense huh?  At first, I was terrified of having both of my feet strapped to a board and attempting to plummet down a sand dune, but after sitting on the beautiful hill for a while, I finally mustered up the courage to go down.  Granted, I'm pretty sure I fell each time I went down the sand dune, it was a blast!  I will say that climbing/walking up the sand dune (yes, we had to walk up a hill every time -- no lifts!) was harder than going down.  I also still had a sinus infection so that definitely didn't help at all with the altitude.

Can you see the pain on my face?  My tailbone hurt for the next couple days!

The rest of the trip was pretty normal thank goodness.  It was beautiful, like nothing I had ever experienced! So many rocks, hills, volcanoes, nature that I got to see in person.

Moon Valley

Beautiful sunset one day

Spelunking in Moon Valley!

Andes reflecting over a Lagoon during the sunset

Reflecting pool

Tatio Geysers!

Milk and eggs heated up in the geyser water for breakfast

Lagoon Cejar - 7x saltier than the ocean!

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend surrounded in nature, but I can confidently say that now that I have done all my traveling, I am ready to come HOME!  I am officially counting down the days until sweet tea, Chick fil a, my car, my family, friends, and my bed! 12 days!