So I am
finally sitting down and beginning my 3 part blog about my trip around South
America. As I am writing this, I am
beginning to realize that maybe it took me so long to begin this blog because
beginning the blog meant the trip was indeed over, something that has been hard
for me to grasp. You may wonder what or
who is “GABI”. We decided that the trip
we were planning was worthy of a name.
The “we” I am speaking of is Felix, Matthias, Sonja and I. Three of the amazingly crazy Germans that I
was able to spend the last year of my life with. But we couldn’t choose just any name! We
needed a name that you could say awesomely… So we chose G-A-B-I! Planning our trip was not the easiest
feat. First we had to figure out how
much time we would have and when we could leave. Then we had to figure out where as a group we
wanted to do. After that it was a matter
of finding plane tickets to the areas we wanted to go. After that we stopped planning. We kind of had no real clue of what we were
doing but we had the tickets and we would figure it out when we got there….
Day 1: La Paz to Arica, Chile
 |
| The crew and I standing on the Beach with the Pacific Ocean Behind us. "THIS IS GABI" |
We loaded up on a bus leaving La
Paz heading for Arica in northern Chile.
The bus was to leave the station at 5:30am. I had barely gotten any sleep the night
before. We were trying to finish
cleaning up and packing our stuff since it was our very last night in the house
where we lived together the past year. I
may have gotten 2 hours of sleep which was plenty. I had to say farewell to the rest of the
people in the house that were not going on the trip because this would be the
last time that I would see them until I go visit in Germany. I woke them up one by one saying farewell and
giving them final hugs. It was so hard
leaving behind the people who were in your life for everyday of the past
year. I hate saying goodbye….
After a nine hour bus ride we
finally arrived in Arica, Chile. Upon
arriving, we immediately scheduled our tickets to go to San Pedro de
Atacama. We were not able to get tickets
for that day so we had to stay the night.
We went and found a hostel across the street and claimed a room. Arica is on the Pacific Coast so we made our
way down to the beach to watch the sunset as we ate some tomato and spam
sandwiches. It was a great time to
reflect on the year that had past and that our time in Bolivia was over. We all were struggling with the issue that
after this trip we would be going home and that our life in South America had
run its course. Once the sun had set, we
walked around a bit and sampled some of the fresh juices that they had to offer.
Day 2: Arica, Chile
This
day was a chill day in Arica. Our bus
was to leave around 8pm, so we had the whole day to enjoy the city. We finally got up and out of the hostel
around 9:30am. We found a minibus that
took us to the other side of the city and made our way up to overlook where the
Christ stood above the city. It was a
beautiful view up the coastline and of the city. We sat up there enjoying our brunch
(Sandwiches) and figuring out the plan for the day. We decided to make our way
down to an island where we watched the waves crash in and some people managing
to surf without hitting the rocks. Next
we walked about 30-45 minutes down the coastline to a nice sandy beach where we
chilled in the sun and went swimming a bit out in the pacific. After swimming we were visited by some random
dogs who joined us in digging in the sand. It turned out to be quite
amusing.
 |
| Visiting the Christ of Arica |
 |
| Patrick |
Once bored of the beach, we went in
search of the market to find some dinner.
We wanted to find something typical of that area. We stumbled across many stands selling Pailia
Marinas. To me, it is very similar to
Clam Chowder. It was really tasty. It was a thick substance with clams (in the
shells), pieces of fish, some other things, and a crawfish on top. Next, me and Matthias were still a bit
hungry, so we split a ceviche. We then
found a fresh juice stand and then made our way back to the hostel to shower
and pack. We walked to the station and
got on a bus headed to Calama and then to San Pedro.
 |
| Swimming in the Chilly Pacific |
 |
| Chillin' wit' my DAWGS. |
 |
| Pailia Marina YUM |
Day 3: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
We arrived to the San
Pedro bus terminal in the morning and right away booked our return trip back to
Calama because that was where we were to get on the plain for the next portion
of our journey after the Atacama. It’s
always important to book your next bus upon arrival if you know when you have
to leave because they tend to fill up unexpectedly and also you are already
there and don’t have to return to the terminal until it is time to leave. We then made our way to the city center and
began looking for a tour that seemed appealing to book for the Atacama
Desert. The Atacama is one of the
world’s highest deserts and is said to be the most arid desert on the
Planet. After searching for a bit we
decided that the tours were all too expensive and so were the hostels. So we rented some bicycles, packed what we
thought we needed in our small day packs, and headed off into the desert. We had a well drawn map (NOT) and we routed
our way through the desert towards Laguna Cejar. Laguna Cejar is a place with 2 small lakes in
the middle of the desert. One lake has
flamingos and the other has such a high salt concentration that it is possible
to float in the water (like in the dead sea).
 |
| We had a flat tire within 5 minutes of leaving the city. |
 |
| Beating the Block |
 |
| Just riding around in the desert.... |
We
walked around the first lake and saw the flamingos, which was cool but we had
already seen so many flamingos earlier in the year in Uyuni. We actually were not too far from there, just
basically across the border (if you don’t count the few hundred miles). But basically the same thing. We were walking towards the other lake when
we decided to sit down and have a snack which actually ended up turning into a
naptime in the desert. We had nowhere to
be. Nothing but time… So after napping for about an hour we got up
and made our way towards the salty lake.
Felix, Matthias and I got into our bathing suits and took a couple of
steps into the water. IT WAS SO
COLD!!!! No one said it would be
cold. Being men we decided to tough it
out and see how far we could wade into the water. We got about to our knees before we couldn’t
take it anymore. We couldn’t bring
ourselves to seeing if we could float of not.
So we snapped some photos and got out and dried off. We then hoped on our bikes making our way
back towards the city looking for a nice place to bed down for the night. A little ways down the road we found a nice
clump of bushes a little ways off the road where we unrolled our sleeping bags
and sat down for dinner. We had bread
and cheese and maybe some fruit. The
sunset was one of the most beautiful I had seen up to this point in my
life. After sunset, we got in our
sleeping bags behind the bush and slowly drifted off to sleep. It really got cold once the sun was gone.
 |
| Nap Time |
 |
| Walking on Water |
 |
| |The View from our Bush |
 |
| Our Sleeping arrangements |
 |
| Sunset WOWWWWWWWWWWWW |
 |
| We be Desert Peoples. |
D
I woke up a few times in
the middle of the night. Since I was
laying on the outside of the group I was getting bombarded by a strong COLD
wind that woke me up. But when I opened
my eyes I was greeted by a breathtaking view of the stars. The Atacama Desert is one of the best places
in the world to see the stars. There
were so many of them and they were so clear.
I managed to see many shooting stars.
I also was able to see satellites circling the planet! Finally I was able to drift back off to sleep
but it wasn’t easy with the cold. I
found myself wishing the sun would hurry up and rise.
Finally
we woke up with the sun. It was amazing
to wake up in the middle of a desert. I
was grateful that I didn’t have frostbite on my toes. With the sunlight things began to warm up and
we had breakfast (bread and cheese).
After packing up our sleeping bags, we jumped back on our bikes and
started making our way towards San Pedro.
The wind was becoming stronger and stronger as we continued on. We were peddling against the wind which
proved to be extremely difficult because many times it would blow us completely
off the road.
Once in town we decided that we would find a hostel to stay in that
night so that we would be close to the bus terminal in the morning and not miss
the bus. We then had some lunch and
decided to go to Valle de la Luna with our bikes. It didn’t seem too far on the
map. So, we figured out which direction
to go and we started pedaling. Again we
were going against the wind. We made it
to the turn off the main road which made it a bit easier since we were not
going against the wind but we did have to deal with extremely strong
cross-winds. Soon, after we started
getting pinned down by random sand storms.
It was a little painful in the storms because you were constantly being
blasted with sand. Many times we would
have to get off the bike and lay down behind some rocks on the side of the road
because it was so bad. It was crazy
because with the air being so dry that as the sand created so much friction on
my body that I was being statically charged and every second sparks were shooting
out of my fingers into the bicycle. We
finally decided to turn around because even if we made it to the Valle, we
wouldn’t be able to see anything with the sandstorms. Luckily, we had the winds to our backs and
barely had to pedal to get back to the town.
 |
| Being wind blown. The wind is actually holding me up.. |
Day 5: Buses and Planes and problems
So we
woke up early in the morning and made our way down to the bus terminal to catch
our bus to Calama. Once in the airport,
we prepared for a day’s worth of flying and airports. Well we made our first flight from Calama,
Chile to Santiago, Chile. We were just
chilling in the airport for a few hours then we were boarding our second flight
when we hit our first snag… As I was
boarding, the attendant told me that I was not able to board the flight because
I hadn’t paid the tax. I told him, “ but
why can my friends get on and I can’t because they hadn’t paid it either.” He told me that Americans have to pay a tax
to go to Argentina and that I had to go pay the tax but there was no way I was
getting on this flight. I told the
others to just go ahead and I’ll meet them in the other airport in Buenos
Aires. “I’ll catch the next one.” I
watched them and my luggage take off, leaving me behind. So I walked around for about 20 minutes
looking for the place to pay this tax.
Finally I found it. It couldn’t
cost much I thought but boy was I wrong.
The lady was very helpful though and she let me come behind the desk and
fill out everything on the computer to pay my 160 dollar tax. At least it is good for the next 10
years.
After getting that payed, she
helped me to change my ticket. But there
was a problem with that as well. The
next flight wasn’t for a few hours (around 9:30p) and there was no guarantee I
would have a seat. But there was another
option. I could fly to the other airport
in Buenos Aires and the flight would leave in an hour. Though the problem was that I told the others
to wait for me in the other airport and we had no means of communication. So I asked them if it was possible to send my
friends a message to retrieve my luggage and meet me at the other airport. She said “SURE, we can send them a message
that they can receive once they land.” That sounded a little unpromising but I
had no other option. I eventually
boarded my plane and began my way to Argentina hoping that the others had
gotten the message and that we would be reunited.
The plane landed in Buenos Aires
and I immediately went to find a representative of the airline to see if the
others had gotten the message and my luggage.
As she was trying to figure it out, I heard some say Matteo in a
slightly confused tone. It was Matthias!
I jumped over the divider and gave him again.
I told him that I thought I’d never see him again. He told me that they had just gotten there
and weren’t expecting me for a few more minutes so he was looking for a
McDonalds. We went back to where Felix
and Sonja were and celebrated that after five hours we were reunited again in a
totally different country from where we were separated. I said, “So you guys got my message!” They looked at me confused because they never
got a message. They had retrieved my
luggage in the other airport and asked if they could take it. A lady told them No. They explained to her that we were separated,
but she wouldn’t give them any information about where I was. Finally they pried some information from her
and she told them that I was going to the other airport. So it ended up working out, but I was super
stressed out. Since our next flight was
early in the morning, we found a quiet corner in the airport and fell
asleep. We were only to awake surrounded
by a crew of cleaners buffing the floor around us. We went and finally boarded our plane heading
for Ushuaia, Argentina.
 |
| Reunited in the airport. |
 |
| Not so comfortable place to sleep.... |
No comments:
Post a Comment