Last hour of the last day

I put off posting for the last few days so that I get the last post while we are in South America. Unless Sarah puts one up in the next two hours, this is it. What an awesome trip. I love traveling like this: experiencing new things, pushing boundries, doing things never previously contemplated. Sarah has done a lot that neither of us thought that she would ever do... climbing a volcano for example, or eating a ridiculous amount of fried eggs. All in all, it has been fantastic. Also, the opportunity to share some of this experience (although at a much higher comfort level) with our parents and siblings was really nice.

The last week in South America:
We met Tristan in Arica and showed him around town, that was all covered in Sarah's post. We got on an overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama last wednesday for a few days of spending lots of money and going on cool tours around the desert and the antiplano. We arrived, after a wonderful (pill-induced) sleep on the bus, ready to conquer the desert. So for the first day, after grabbing some lunch, we joined a tour group out to the Valley of Death and Valley of the Moon. Wow. The valley and rock formations were unbelievable. There were also huge sand dunes for sandboarding (which we unfortunately did not do while in San Pedro) that we ended up running and rolling down. We caught the sunset in the Valley of the Moon and it was really beautiful.

We woke up the next morning at 4 AM to head out to the geysers. We were there for the sunrise and it was gorgeous. I felt a little altitude sickness since we went up more than 2000 meters in about 3 hours but it was still awesome. To see water shooting up out of the ground while the sun is coming up over the mountain tops immediately behind the geysers was something unbelievable. There were also natural hot springs that some people chose to swim in. We ate breakfast out there and made our way back to San Pedro relatively slowly, making various stops to see vicuñas, flamingos and traditional villages. We rested for the afternoon for the next day's adventure.

The next morning we got a small group tour with a Brazilian couple out to the salt lakes in the Atacama salt flat. We went swimming in the lakes and it was really cool to float in the extremely salty water. It was actually difficult not to float and it was a really odd sensation since it was so different from all my other experiences in water. The salt flats were awesome, whiteness stretching out into the desert and the water was still enough that clear reflections of ourselves and the mountains could be seen really easily. We got a great lunch at the last lake of olives, cheese, salami, crackers and wine, all included in our little private tour.

After that indulgence, we got on the evening bus headed toward Santiago. We got off the bus the next day in La Serena to hang out for a couple of hours. We checked out the archeology museum that we missed our first time through, spent some time in the market, and met a really cool old lady who was selling a bunch of leftist documentaries, movies and music made about and after the coup here in Chile. We then got back on a later bus and made our way back to Santiago.

We have been in Santiago for the last few days, trying to make the most of our time here. Since we hadn't really seen the city much, we did a lot of sightseeing. We went to La Moneda (the presidential palace) and checked out the civic center below it. We went to the Salvador Allende museum which is definitely one of the top 5 museums that we have seen this trip. We walked around Bellavista and ate good food and drank good wine. We went on winery tours at Cousiño-Macul and at Concha Y Toro, both of which were rather touristy, but good to see since Tristan had never been to a winery before. And we hung out at the house and relaxed after 2 weeks of really long bus rides and moving around a lot in Northern Chile.

Everyone here has been so awesome to us. Starting in Ecuador with Ricardo's family, the hospitality has been incredible and we owe our good time spent here to the families that put us up and helped us out. Also, thanks again to our parents who first agreed to this trip and for helping make it possible. And finally, the people that we met around South America made for some great company and good stories. I really hope to do this again in the not too distant future. It is sad to go home, but I have to get back to school and Sarah needs a job. So it goes.