Iquique

After two full days in San Pedro de Atacama, we took an overnight bus up north to Iquique. Iquique is a beautiful city known for it's beaches, casinos, and PARAGLIDING.
On our first day, we explored the city, did a bit of shopping, and had a picnic on the beach. On the second morning, we went paragliding over the Chilean coast. It was incredible! My pictures and descriptions really don't do it justice. It was one of the most unreal and SCARY experiences of my life.
Photos 1-2: A beautiful morning in Iquique. :)
Photo 3: The girls in downtown Iquique.
Photo 4-6: PARAGLIDING
Photo 7: ME PARAGLIDING (the other three pictures are actually of Liz and Megan)

San Pedro de Atacama: Day 1 Part 1

On Thursday, September 9, I left for San Pedro de Atacama for three friends. After a semi- miserable 24 hour bus ride, we arrived in San Pedro just in time for dinner on Friday evening.
The next morning we got up at 4am for a tour of the El Tatio Geysers. Although we were extremely exhausted and cold, the geysers were beautiful and well worth the early wake up call. Next we headed to nearby hot springs to defrost. The hot springs were greatly appreciated after our freeeezing cold morning.
Photo 1: Me and El Tatio.
Photos 2-3: Various geysers...
Photo 4: Our beautiful view from the hot springs.
Photo 5: The whole group warming up a bit.

San Pedro de Atacama: Day 1 Part 2

After visiting the geysers and hot springs, we took a hike to see "special cactus" and an unknown surprise, which our tour guide was VERY EXCITED to show us. The surprise ended up being a beautiful river leading to a waterfall. In the middle of the world's driest desert. Pretty cool in my book.
The waterfall hike concluded our first tour of the day. After a 30 minute lunch break, we headed out on our second tour of the day. This tour took us to the salt flats where we took a swim (or should I say floated?) in a lake with a very very high salt density. It was difficult to enjoy the fact that we could float in the water since it was SO COLD. We had to keep moving around just to make the temperature of the water semi- bearable.
After that, we headed to a large salt lake to watch the sunset. It was beautiful :)
Photo 1: Vicunas. Photo cred goes to Megan Libby on this one.
Photos 2-4: Photos from the cactus/ surprise waterfall hike.
Photo 5: The whole group-- pre- COLD swim.
Photo 6: Photo fun in the middle of Atacama.
Photo 7: Volcan Lincancabur and one of the world's largest salt lakes. Quite the view. :)

Sandboarding and Valle de La Luna

On our second day in San Pedro de Atacama, we went sandboarding. Yes, that's a real thing. After a two hours of failure, we watched the sunset over Valle de La Luna. It was breathtaking to say the least! The pictures really don't do it justice.
Photo 1: A blooper shot from sandboarding attempt #1. The first thing we learned was how to get up after we fall.
Photo 2: The whole group!
Photo 3: I slowly but surely improved.
Photos 4-6: Sunset over Valle de La Luna.
Photo 7: Another Liz Hallack original. :)

Villa Grimaldi

On Saturday, September 4, I visited Villa Grimaldi Peace Park in Santiago. Villa Grimaldi was where the great majority of atrocities were committed against the "political enemies" of Pinochet's regime (1973- 1990). Villa Grimaldi has since been converted into a peace park, but still has plaques marking the location of important buildings. I was fortunate to have a tour of Villa Grimaldi and Chile's Cemeterio General by a survivor of Villa Grimaldi.
Photo 1: A rose garden in Villa Grimaldi that serves as a memorial for the hundreds of young women who were killed during the early years of Pinochet's regime.
Photo 2: Salvador Allende's tomb in El Cemeterio General.
Photo 3: A section of El Cemeterio General where many members of Chile's lower class are buried. The cemetery is divided by social class-- with the upper class having the largest and best maintained tombs.
Photo 4: A memorial commemorating the more than 3,000 people that "disappeared" during Pinochet's regime.