DAY 1
After a tiring day of empanadas, sightseeing, and figuring out the metro (plus a slight temper tantrum over the grocery store not having peanut butter,) I quickly packed for my trip to the Atacama Desert in about five minutes. I'm not sure what my packing strategy was, but I think I just made sure that I had a toothbrush.

With only three hours of sleep, Kendall and I had a brutal 4AM wake up call for our flight. After a taxi to the Santiago airport, a two hour flight to Calama, and then an hour shuttle to San Pedro de Atacama, I finally got to Hostal Rural.

Words can't do this hostel justice because it was just so unique. It was mostly outside except for the four rooms, and three bathrooms. There were hammocks, and a dome-shaped room in the center labeled "the pit" where you could sit around a table to meet friends or exchange a book from their collection. Everywhere you looked there was a mural, a sand-board, or some decoration unique to Atacama. The rooms had three sets of bunk beds, and the one I was in had an ensuite bathroom. That might sound like a luxury, but it still didn't have hot water, just like the rest of them (sounds awful, I know, but after a long day in the desert, it was bearable.) Music constantly played until about 1AM everyday, and it was impossible to not be friends with, or at least meet, everyone.

We made friends with our roommates, a family from Santiago, and they invited us to a desert party. It hurt to turn down such a cool opportunity, but six hours of traveling meant my bed was calling my name. I guess it's also important to mention that I lost my debit card today, didn't pack a bathing suit or any warm clothes (it's the desert how was I supposed to know?).

DAY 2
At 7AM, I got picked up for the "Piedras Rojas" tour. This was a 12 hour day, where we visited Lagunas Altiplanicas, Piedras Rojas, the small village of Toconao, and Laguna Chaxa. It was tiring, the dirt roads made it seem like I was on a roller coaster, and at 4,200m I felt a bit of altitude sickness, but I would still do this tour again in a heartbeat. Our tour guide Tony was amazing; he spoke Spanish, French and English. He said he grew up in France, learned English when he lived in America, and now he's been in Chile for two years. He described all the mountains and animals that we drove past in all three languages each time. Then, we'd get out, learn about where we were, and take pictures.

                                                 

The Laguna Altiplanicas, or High Plateau Lagoons, were breathtaking. They're surrounded by mountains and outlined by salt. We were taken to Laguna Miscante and Laguna Miniques.

While exploring Piedras Rojas, or Red Rocks, I wasn't sure if I was still in the desert or on the surface of Mars.

At Laguna Chaxa, was home to the National Flamingo Reserve. Everyone freaked out whenever a flamingo got really close to the path. I saw way too many people try to imitate a flamingo pose for a picture.

My skin is barely used to the New York/South Carolina sun, so I got badly burnt from 12 hours in the desert sun.

After a shower that didn't even seem cold because of my sunburn, we made dinner in the common area. This was probably the best way to make friends in the hostel. It was so interesting to meet all of them because whether it was a couple from Holand, or someone from Isreal, they all had stories about backpacking through South America for their gap year. It's so normal to just travel before college in other countries. In Sweden, traveling for 2-3 years before college is completely normal. The group of Swedish girls that we became really close with were only 19 and they were so mature and had already seen so much.

Our roommates checked out and I had no clue who was sleeping in the room with us, but they all snored.

DAY 3
TODAY WAS SANDBOARDING DAY. After seeing all the pictures and videos of this, I was so excited to try it out. Our guide spoke no English, which scared me at first; I pictured myself rolling down the hill and not being able to understand how the guide was screaming at me to stop.

The van picked us up, and we drove through Valle de la Muerte, or Death Valley. It didn't seem real at all. I would probably describe it as driving through a sand castle. I got my boots (a size too big), and my board and I was slightly terrified seeing how high we'd have to climb. The trek up was breathtaking, but not in a gorgeous way, just a I-want-to-die-not-sure-if-I-can-make-it kind of way. After a quick lesson, we went down one by one and some people made it look so easy.

After waiting for everyone else to go first, and telling the scared ones "sí se puede," it was only me, Kendall, and our two new friends left. I volunteered to goonly because I could feel the sunburn setting in every second I was standing there. Pretty sure I was going pretty slow, but it felt really fast and it was so much fun. It wasn't as scary as I thought, the most terrifying part was the walk back up to the top.



Enjoy this GoPro video of me falling. (Sorry for the bad quality)

After a cute lunch with live music, we sat with our hostel-mates and asked each other questions from a "Questions to Make You Fall in Love" link. It got deep, real quick.

DAY 4
This morning was a pretty slow start, and I just relaxed in the hammock. We talked to the receptionist, Yaga, for a while about how he grew up and where he's been. He's a total hippie, yet he doesn't consider himself one. He moved out when he was 15 to travel all over, and now he's working so that he can afford to move to this beautiful jungle in Brazil.

In the afternoon, I was supposed to go on a Laguna Cejar tour. It's a lagoon where there's so much salt that you can't help but float. We got to the entrance, and we were told that because of the lightning, there was a huge possibility that we would all get electrocuted if we went in. So, after a tough choice, we decided we didn't wanna die on this trip.

Then, we went to a less salty lagoon, but had to leave shortly after when the police started blocking off roads because of all the rain.



Rain in the desert is as weird as it sounds. There's no electricity, no wifi, and all the shops are closed. No one drives because the roads are so unsafe. Everyone's in such a good mood though and our hostel decided to have a big party to celebrate. They made this weird hot wine drink with oranges in it that was scorching hot when I got it.

We danced to reggaeton all night (desperately trying to get better music) and had so much fun with everyone we met.

DAY 5
At 8, we had a horseback riding tour through the Quitor Ruins. My horse's name was Gaucho and he "liked to walk slow and eat a lot." I could obviously relate to Gaucho, but it wasn't as beautiful of a friendship as you'd think. He didn't wanna listen to me, and I was so far away from everyone else that I couldn't hear anything they were saying. The guide kept having to turn around and make him run to catch up.

Despite Gaucho's stubbornness, it was so cool to ride with the beautiful ruins in the background. Gaucho was also afraid of crossing over the water, so that was an obstacle. I don't know much about horses, but I feel like that was weird to be afraid of. Still, we bonded over it because I felt bad.

Then, I just hung out in the hammock, until the next tour started. In the afternoon, we had the "Valle de la Luna," or Moon Valley tour. Our guide was Tony, from the first day, which made it that much more fun. We toured all of Moon Valley, and at the end we were supposed to have a Pisco Sour while seeing the sunset. But instead, the lightning came back (just my luck) and it was unsafe to go there.



Despite it being cancelled, I still met amazing people from all over on that tour and seeing lightning in the desert was insane. The thunder was louder than ever and the lightning struck over beautiful landscapes.

• Collapsible duffle for weekend trips
• Jacket clip to attach a jacket to a bag instead of carrying it
• Collapsible laundry bag
• Copy of important documents
• Febreeze wrinkle spray
• Lock for the hostel lockers instead of using theirs
• Travel water bottle possibly with a filter depending on where you’re going
• Allergy medication, kind of self-explanatory but some students in the cohort group before me had trouble adjusting to the smog in Santiago so this is a definite item to bring
• Comfort food! Something as simple as Sour Patch Watermelon will make you feel better on a homesick-kind-of-day