Hi everyone!This is gonna be a long post, just to warn you all. I'll try to provide a decent run down of my most recent activities by the day:
October 24
Everyone going on the northern field trip had to meet up at 4:30 pm to take a bus to the air port to go to the Atacama Desert, AKA the driest place on the planet. We arrived and went straight to the hotel in San Pedro, a small touristy town with a lot of Incan history. It was a great place to explore and is probably the most different place I've been to in Chile and made me feel like I'm actually not in the U.S. anymore. We had a mini tour of San Pedro, and later went to a museum. Our hotel was pretty cool, there was an icey pool outside
October 25
We went to the salar flat of the atacama where flamingos roamed and then we went to a salty lake where you could float and then we went to these two big swimming holes!
October 26
we went to some hot springs and cacti valley
October 27
went to an awesome observatory
October 28
I think I sat out of the activity on this day which was a bummer because it was our last day. I wanted to rest my ankle because I injured it by sliding on a tile floor in my socks the night before and fell on it. Wanted to be able to hike the machu picchu shinanigans which was in like 3 days
Machu picchu trip
I went to machu Picchu for the rest of the week off with Matt and Forrest. It was a blast. We stayed a night in Cusco to get adjusted to the altitude. Drank lots of coco tea. That morning we took 2 colectivo vans to santa teresa where we then hiked 2 hours along a train track to find a camp area. The first colectivo ride(these vans that have a set destination and then go once they're full) probably had 12 passengers and was a 4 hour car ride. I got quite a rush in these cars. they drive crazily along an edge that looks like youre just about to fall off from. but I'm writing this, so I lived through it. When we got to santa teresa, my legs were immediately eaten by these savages called sand flies. They messed up my legs pretty badly and made them pretty growdy. Forgot that bug spray. We made it to the pueblo, set up camp and everything was good. Before falling asleep Matt and I heard this indescribable growling...I seriously think of it as a rabid werewolf. I haven't heard a scarier growling than that night, including all of those horror movies I've seen. It was right outside of our tent. Maybe it was because there was food in our packs that were outside of the tent.
The next day we went to Machu Picchu! Machu Picchu is a town that wasn't discovered too long ago that was ran by the Inkans. The Inkans disappeared, but they aren't sure why. Maybe it was because of the conquistadors but their city was untouched and not distroyed when found so that was interesting. They have the machu picchu park and then two other mountains that you can hike from that. We did the machu picchu mountain. Hardest hike I've managed to do. The stairs were way too big, steep and never ending. We got to the top and we were in a cloud. It was so amazing. It felt good. It was cool because some of the stray dogs managed to do the hike too. It was rewarding to see so many people manage to do the hike. We had to pay extra to do it and they only let so many people enter the park and do the mountain hikes for erosion purposes. We then explored the park for 3 hours and were exhausted after that. I accidentally dropped my hat into the toilet and so I threw it away. Later we saw a man carrying the same designed hat soo we weren't sure if that was my toilet hat or not. We then went back and chilled for the rest of the day. The next day we went back to Cusco and stayed at a hostel for 2 nights. The hostel was fun ,but we were pretty beat and didn't have a lot of energy. Cusco was fun. and cheap. We went out for lunch, managed to get a drink, meal and one dessert for probably less than 30 dollars all together , maybe less. I'd like to go back to Peru, but I'm not sure if I'll make it back there because the plane rides are pretty expensive.Sorry this entry is somewhat in telegraphic speech.
October 24
Everyone going on the northern field trip had to meet up at 4:30 pm to take a bus to the air port to go to the Atacama Desert, AKA the driest place on the planet. We arrived and went straight to the hotel in San Pedro, a small touristy town with a lot of Incan history. It was a great place to explore and is probably the most different place I've been to in Chile and made me feel like I'm actually not in the U.S. anymore. We had a mini tour of San Pedro, and later went to a museum. Our hotel was pretty cool, there was an icey pool outside
October 25
We went to the salar flat of the atacama where flamingos roamed and then we went to a salty lake where you could float and then we went to these two big swimming holes!
October 26
we went to some hot springs and cacti valley
October 27
went to an awesome observatory
October 28
I think I sat out of the activity on this day which was a bummer because it was our last day. I wanted to rest my ankle because I injured it by sliding on a tile floor in my socks the night before and fell on it. Wanted to be able to hike the machu picchu shinanigans which was in like 3 days
Machu picchu trip
I went to machu Picchu for the rest of the week off with Matt and Forrest. It was a blast. We stayed a night in Cusco to get adjusted to the altitude. Drank lots of coco tea. That morning we took 2 colectivo vans to santa teresa where we then hiked 2 hours along a train track to find a camp area. The first colectivo ride(these vans that have a set destination and then go once they're full) probably had 12 passengers and was a 4 hour car ride. I got quite a rush in these cars. they drive crazily along an edge that looks like youre just about to fall off from. but I'm writing this, so I lived through it. When we got to santa teresa, my legs were immediately eaten by these savages called sand flies. They messed up my legs pretty badly and made them pretty growdy. Forgot that bug spray. We made it to the pueblo, set up camp and everything was good. Before falling asleep Matt and I heard this indescribable growling...I seriously think of it as a rabid werewolf. I haven't heard a scarier growling than that night, including all of those horror movies I've seen. It was right outside of our tent. Maybe it was because there was food in our packs that were outside of the tent.
The next day we went to Machu Picchu! Machu Picchu is a town that wasn't discovered too long ago that was ran by the Inkans. The Inkans disappeared, but they aren't sure why. Maybe it was because of the conquistadors but their city was untouched and not distroyed when found so that was interesting. They have the machu picchu park and then two other mountains that you can hike from that. We did the machu picchu mountain. Hardest hike I've managed to do. The stairs were way too big, steep and never ending. We got to the top and we were in a cloud. It was so amazing. It felt good. It was cool because some of the stray dogs managed to do the hike too. It was rewarding to see so many people manage to do the hike. We had to pay extra to do it and they only let so many people enter the park and do the mountain hikes for erosion purposes. We then explored the park for 3 hours and were exhausted after that. I accidentally dropped my hat into the toilet and so I threw it away. Later we saw a man carrying the same designed hat soo we weren't sure if that was my toilet hat or not. We then went back and chilled for the rest of the day. The next day we went back to Cusco and stayed at a hostel for 2 nights. The hostel was fun ,but we were pretty beat and didn't have a lot of energy. Cusco was fun. and cheap. We went out for lunch, managed to get a drink, meal and one dessert for probably less than 30 dollars all together , maybe less. I'd like to go back to Peru, but I'm not sure if I'll make it back there because the plane rides are pretty expensive.Sorry this entry is somewhat in telegraphic speech.