A little trip up North and back to the smell.
Wow, a lot has happened in the past few days. I really dislike not having the time to type in this blog. It may seem kind of lame, but I look at this blog as a form of meditation. A time where I can review the experiences that I have in a relaxing manner and try to understand what the heck has occurred from the last time that I updated it. Meditation may seem like a strange thing to say when I’m sitting in a comfy chair with a computer in my lap, but that is what I feel like when I am done, although I tend to still be a bit tight in the shoulders and lower back.
Last time I updated, we were heading off to San Pedro. We were planning on leaving on Friday night, but we couldn’t get tickets until the next morning. What resulted was an impromptu hair cutting party for Jake.
After that was a rousing game of cards with some amazing cards that Katie had. They all had breeds of cats on them, each card displaying a different breed. That’s 58 different cat breeds, including the jokers. I think some of the breeds were made up.
Waking up in the morning we headed out to the bus station in the early morning and got on the bus for a LONG 6+ hour ride. Arriving in San Pedro, we stumbled of the bus, were greeted by some old lady with a flier for a hostel and off we went. After paying 10 dollars each for a bed we lounged in the sun for a while, just enjoying the fact that we could breath and not have the aroma of dog poop and rotting garbage lingering in the background. We walked around the small town, admiring the church and a local market, with VERY expensive hand made crafts, (I think I can pick up the same things in Santiago for a cheaper price), we went to a restaurant and decided to have our “one nice meal of the trip”. Sadly, we had paid for a trip about that was about to leave in 90 minutes and failed to take into account the time that the cook would take to make the meal. What resulted, was us getting one of the nicest meals that I have seen in months, five minutes before we had to leave for the trip. Eating a meal that fast felt like I was spitting on a work of art. A tasty, succulent, delicious work of art.
As we piled on the bus we found that we had two more passengers than we were suppose to, due to a counting error on the part of the tour company. This resulted in Jake, Gina and Katie sharing a small seat made for two. They compromised by alternating on who was the person to sit on everyone’s lap.
We drove the desert, one of the driest in the world, to find that we had made our second mistake in our hurry to eat the meal and get on the bus. Only one of us had taken a water bottle, and that water bottle was only half full. I have to hand it to our little band of four, we all shared that water equally between each other for the entire four hour trip. I sign of selflessness that I have rarely seen.
After talking through the “Valley of Death”, that was it’s actual name, we all piled into the van again and went to the overlook of the Salt Flats, followed by a ride to Luna Valle. When it neared the end of the trip we joined about 50 other people, all walking up huge sand dune to watch the sun set. While we were there, Katie smoothed talked, or if you prefer, flirted with some other tour guide guy in order to get our water bottle filled. Thank you Katie, I will probably never make fun of you randomly talking to strangers again.
The sun-set was beautiful. The four of us found a little bit of rock on the side of a cliff, I pulled out my little speakers and we all listened to Bob Marley sing as the sun went down over the landscape of sand and red rocks. Usually I would just enjoy the silence of the landscape, but on that day and at that time, Bob hit all the right notes for us.
Getting back into town we walked around town, finally ending up at a restaurant with a fire pit where we relaxed and talked about the day.
We woke up at about 8:00 to get our tickets for the bus home. After another LONG ride back to Antofagasta, we arrived at 3:00pm. I tried to call a couple of people back in the states because we were near the call center, but I only got voice mails. When we got home our Mother Nuevo gave us teasita and then took us of a tour of the city. We went to the north where we saw the famous arch landmark that is on a lot of the Antofagasta advertising, then drove all the way to the south of the city where we ate empanadas from a little fishing shack. When we got home she tried to kill us by giving us an awesome, yet uncomfortably large, meal of steak and rice.
Jake has taken to having strange and scary dreams at night. For the first few days he couldn’t figure out why this was happening. Then he realized that eating an entire banquette 15 minutes before bedtime has strange effects on his psyche. Me, I just fall asleep in pain.
For school on Monday, I had a very enjoyable day. I was refreshed, the kids seemed to be more comfortable, although I had an additional two just “show up” and one of the most disturbing students didn’t show up. I’m actually looking forward to the next four days. I’m also looking forward to leaving on the forth day.
Last time I updated, we were heading off to San Pedro. We were planning on leaving on Friday night, but we couldn’t get tickets until the next morning. What resulted was an impromptu hair cutting party for Jake.
After that was a rousing game of cards with some amazing cards that Katie had. They all had breeds of cats on them, each card displaying a different breed. That’s 58 different cat breeds, including the jokers. I think some of the breeds were made up.
Waking up in the morning we headed out to the bus station in the early morning and got on the bus for a LONG 6+ hour ride. Arriving in San Pedro, we stumbled of the bus, were greeted by some old lady with a flier for a hostel and off we went. After paying 10 dollars each for a bed we lounged in the sun for a while, just enjoying the fact that we could breath and not have the aroma of dog poop and rotting garbage lingering in the background. We walked around the small town, admiring the church and a local market, with VERY expensive hand made crafts, (I think I can pick up the same things in Santiago for a cheaper price), we went to a restaurant and decided to have our “one nice meal of the trip”. Sadly, we had paid for a trip about that was about to leave in 90 minutes and failed to take into account the time that the cook would take to make the meal. What resulted, was us getting one of the nicest meals that I have seen in months, five minutes before we had to leave for the trip. Eating a meal that fast felt like I was spitting on a work of art. A tasty, succulent, delicious work of art.
As we piled on the bus we found that we had two more passengers than we were suppose to, due to a counting error on the part of the tour company. This resulted in Jake, Gina and Katie sharing a small seat made for two. They compromised by alternating on who was the person to sit on everyone’s lap.
We drove the desert, one of the driest in the world, to find that we had made our second mistake in our hurry to eat the meal and get on the bus. Only one of us had taken a water bottle, and that water bottle was only half full. I have to hand it to our little band of four, we all shared that water equally between each other for the entire four hour trip. I sign of selflessness that I have rarely seen.
After talking through the “Valley of Death”, that was it’s actual name, we all piled into the van again and went to the overlook of the Salt Flats, followed by a ride to Luna Valle. When it neared the end of the trip we joined about 50 other people, all walking up huge sand dune to watch the sun set. While we were there, Katie smoothed talked, or if you prefer, flirted with some other tour guide guy in order to get our water bottle filled. Thank you Katie, I will probably never make fun of you randomly talking to strangers again.
The sun-set was beautiful. The four of us found a little bit of rock on the side of a cliff, I pulled out my little speakers and we all listened to Bob Marley sing as the sun went down over the landscape of sand and red rocks. Usually I would just enjoy the silence of the landscape, but on that day and at that time, Bob hit all the right notes for us.
Getting back into town we walked around town, finally ending up at a restaurant with a fire pit where we relaxed and talked about the day.
We woke up at about 8:00 to get our tickets for the bus home. After another LONG ride back to Antofagasta, we arrived at 3:00pm. I tried to call a couple of people back in the states because we were near the call center, but I only got voice mails. When we got home our Mother Nuevo gave us teasita and then took us of a tour of the city. We went to the north where we saw the famous arch landmark that is on a lot of the Antofagasta advertising, then drove all the way to the south of the city where we ate empanadas from a little fishing shack. When we got home she tried to kill us by giving us an awesome, yet uncomfortably large, meal of steak and rice.
Jake has taken to having strange and scary dreams at night. For the first few days he couldn’t figure out why this was happening. Then he realized that eating an entire banquette 15 minutes before bedtime has strange effects on his psyche. Me, I just fall asleep in pain.
For school on Monday, I had a very enjoyable day. I was refreshed, the kids seemed to be more comfortable, although I had an additional two just “show up” and one of the most disturbing students didn’t show up. I’m actually looking forward to the next four days. I’m also looking forward to leaving on the forth day.
Comments
The desert sounds like it was very interesting, especially the sunset with Bob singing softly as night falls. Ah, the Marley man!
Enjoy your last week with the kids and have a safe trip home.
Your PT Connection
Peggy
We are requesting that you have Katie and Gina contact OJ Cotes immediately. We are concerned about their living environment and need to know what is happening NOW. ocotes@whitworth.edu.... it is only five hours difference, so please have them e-mail immediately.
Peggy and OJ