San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

It is with much sadness that I write this blog without the majority of our pictures to help tell the story of our amazing time here. Unfortunately, all of our trip pictures for the first few days were accidently deleted from our camera. NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FORMAT YOUR CAMERA NOR YOUR MEMORY CARD. Jacques is an amazing photographer but a really bad camera technician!

Anyway, we have had an amazing time in this town of 1,938 people. San Pedro is located in the far north of Chile, near the Bolivia and Argentina border. The altitude is 2,450 metres and we had to climatize the first few days. It is a town with dirt roads, mud houses, extreme temperatures - hot during the day and cold at night. The people are so friendly and we feel like locals already as we walk the streets and are greeted by name by familiar local faces. We love it here and are sad to see it go.

We arrived on the 23rd and spent the first day wandering the streets and getting familiar with our home for the next 5 days. We slept a lot our first day as we were still in recovery mode from our last week packing and moving in LA. It is a town built around tourists and backpackers, so there are plenty of restaurants, tour agencies and shops but only within a few blocks of each other. We had an amazing dinner our first night with 3 courses for $10 each and the presentation and flavor of the food rivals major city restaurants. Accomodations here are quite expensive and we are in a 6 bed dorm but everyone in and out of our room for the past few days have been so nice and we have shared a lot of travel stories.

On the 24th, we found our favorite local deli and bakery and started making our own jamon and queso sandwiches. We had to build our appetite for the evening tour and trek of the Death Valley (Valley de Morte) and Moon Valley (Valley de la Luna). We went with a small group and drove through Death Valley for breathtaking views of the volcano range in the distance as well as valleys that have been shaped by centuries of extreme natural erosions. In some areas the rocks "speak" to you as they are busy expanding and contracting due to the extreme conditions. After touring Death Valley for a bit, we made our way to the Moon Valley for a stunning sunset trek. The sunsets in the desert aren´t best viewed by actually watching the sun set, but rather looking opposite at the volcano range for the dramatic change in colors and shadows as the night makes her way in.

The 25th was a very special and fun day. Not only was it our 1 year wedding anniversary, but it was the highlight of the trip so far. We started with our morning walk to our favorite bakery and had a well over-priced but good coffee (double the price of Starbucks - since we have resorted to instant). We relaxed in our hammock and took a snooze prior to our sunset horse back ride. We met our guide, Sergio, outside of town and saddled up for our 2 hour tour through Quitor (Incan ruins) and Death Valley. It was just the 2 of us and Sergio (who didn´t speak a lick of English). Sergio let us run our horses as often as we wanted to and often stayed behind. We would end up holding the horses at crossroads until he came trotting up the back and point the way then we would take off on a gallop on our horses again. This was Jacques´ first real time riding horses the way horses should be ridden and we had a blast running through the desert. We got off the horses at Quitor and explored mud caves dated back to the XII Century. Back on the horses we galloped to the top of a dune in Death Valley for a beautiful sunset (can we tell you again how heart broken we are that we lost our pictures¿?¿?¿!!!!). On our way back through town we were trotting next to a stream and were chased by a pack of dogs which scared the horses and led to a full gallop splashing in and out of the stream, mud flying everywhere! We were laughing our asses off and having a jolly time! It was truly an incredible experience and something we will never forget. After coming off of a high from the horses, we had another 5 star dinner of steak and salmon complimented by Chilean red wine. We sat next to an open fire and listened to live Chilean music. It was a perfect 1 year anniversary!

We started out early on the 26th, leaving town at 8am for a sunset bike ride to Death Valley for sand boarding. We rode 4km (mostly a gradual uphill) into the desert. The ride was so fun and mostly up a rocky and sandy road - good thing we had mountain bikes. After arriving at our first major sand dune, we parked the bikes and took a morning siesta. NO ONE WAS AROUND FOR MILES! The silence was intoxicating! After laying in the sand and sun for about an hour, we decided to play with the sand board. Hiking the dunes beats any gym! We played in the sand for a bit and unfortunately this is the point where all previous pictures were accidently lost as Jacques was attempting to see what our camera was capable of. After we realized this, we made our way back into town to see what could be done to fix our situation. Unfortunately, they couldn´t help us here but we are holding thumbs for a computer/camera guru back in the US. In town, we enjoyed a dinner of a freshly roasted pollo and papas fritas (chicken and chips - YUMMMMMMM) and we can´t forget our litre of Escuado cerveza for the night. We slept well!

With our day and a half left, we wanted to reclaim as many pictures of this wonderful place as we could. So, on the 27th, we set out EARLY in the morning for the 3 mile trek to Quitor for some more pictures. We took a wrong turn and ended up hiking across the arid desert to get to the right point. Success! After returning to town for a pit stop of another jamon and queso, we set out again on the mountain bikes for our spot in the Death Valley, this time without the sandboard but rather Jacques´ attempt at a sandboard with cardboard boxes. Our tired legs made their way up the hill again and we rested before climbing the sand dune one final time. Other sand boarders were up there and we watched them coast and fall their way down the hill. They had nothing on Jacques´ display of talent from the day before. Unfortunately, the card board boxes didn´t work out for us as we had hoped. After resting for a bit and laughing with the locals (How´s your hammock??? - haha, inside joke) we climbed further along the dune crest up to the plateau for our sunset spot. As the desert is deceiving, so was this climb. We underestimated the distance and the grade but we made it! The top was windy and as luck would have it our battery on our camera was dying. We made the most of the last hours of our final hours in the desert. Unfortunately, the camera battery decided to die on us as well! We tumbled and jumped down the massive sand dune as the night set in and jumped on the bikes to make our way through the winding, rocky valley to the main road and back into town for a dinner of HOT and home-made soup.










We depart today on a bus ride for Calama then will catch a flight to Santiago for a quick 12 hour stop (airport bench here we come) and then off to chilly Patagonia!

Greetings from CHILE

We are in the second day of our stay in Chile and what a whirlwind it has been! We landed in Santiago after many hours of flying and a long layover at the Sweetwater Brewery in ATL airport. We didnt get the business class seat after all, but did share a row to ourselves and slept a bit. Once we landed in Santiago, we made our way via bus to the Bellavista area where we had a hostel booked. It was such a great area but the hostel was dirty and gross. Glad we only had to spend one night in there. We took a nap then made our way around the area. The Bellavista area is where the famous San Cristobol Hill is so we were happy to be so close. We took the fanicular up to the top and enjoyed a beautiful but cloudy view of Santiago from above. We purchased only one way to the top and planned on taking the path down. We were up at the top toward sunset and it started sprinkling rain so we decided to make our way down. We thought we had the right path but once we realized we were going down a muddy winding path, we thought differently but it was too late. We took our time climbing down the muddy mountain and came out with mud covered shoes - our adventure had begun! We had smashing views of the city lights on our way down and the snow capped Andes towering over the city.









We definitely worked up our appetite and thirst for some Escuado beer. We stopped at a street cafe for our first Chilean beer. The city streets don´t come alive until night so we were just in time. Unfortunately the rain decided to unleash at that point and left us stranded with no umbrella. We made our way back to the hostel for a change of clothing (only to discover a leaky ceiling over the stairwell) and left again as soon as possible for a dinner. We roamed the streets for a bit until we were just too cold and wet to continue and had a nice fish dinner at an Italian/Chilean restaurant. The food was ok (according to Jacques it was bueno). We were exhausted at this point so made our way back to the smelly hostel for a horrible night´s sleep. The rain pounded down all night long and we were crammed in a top bunk of a bunk bed together. This seems to be the way of the future for us though - we buy two single beds and use one for storage and one for sleeping. Anyway, our roommate for the night and his unannounced "guest" made their way back to the room at 2am to wake us up. The good thing was we had to be up at 4am for our airport transfer so got to return the favor to them. ;-)

We arrived at the airport earlier than the airline employees after a hairy ride on the wet roads to get there. We waited for a bit for the airline counter to open and felt like contestants from the Amazing Race without any competitors. Once checked in, we took a nap at the gate prior to our flight. We were so tired that we were out immediately on our flight and woke up when we landed. We gathered our belongings and were about to deplane when we realized we weren´t in Calama. Thank goodness I asked!!! We sat back down and went back to sleep and when we landed the second time we confirmed we were at the right place!

The airport is so small and only a handful of people were working to greet our plane and then immediately left after we came in. Luckily, we found someone who spoke minimal English and helped us find transportation to San Pedro de Atacama - an hour away from Calama. The bus ride was beautiful, just surrounded by desert hills. We didn´t have a hostel booked, so our driver drove us to one in our price range the city center - a 6 bed dorm. YIKES! Luckily everyone is so nice and layed back and it is super clean compared to what we came from. There is a nice courtyard and private bathrooms. San Pedro itself is such a neat town, truly a Chilean experience. Dirt roads and clay houses in a layed back environment with lots of restaurants, cafes and bars. It is hot during the day and now that the sun has set we are quite cold. What else could we expect from a desert in the Andes mountains? So after a much needed siesta this afternoon and a hot shower, we are now about to venture out for our first night in San Pedro.

Weekend Camping in Mexico

We left at the crack of dawn (6am) to drive to Mexico, just north of Ensenada on the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula. We met up with Martin and Lucy, Clyde and Ruth, Michael and Michele, and Chris and Candi for a caravan journey down to Playa Saldamondo for a night of camping. None of us had ever been so it was completely unknown...

Crossing the border into Mexico was nothing. You don't even stop, just keep driving as long as you have a green light. From the border, it was just an hour drive to our stop and the drive was beautiful - ocean side the majority of the route. Upon arrival, we realized how undiscovered the place was and there were very few people camping there and NOTHING else around. As soon as we got there, we saw dolphins surfing the waves off shore and playing in the distance. We had a large campsite and everyone found their place to set up tent for the night. The views were UNREAL - our site was about 20 feet off the water on a cliff. Jacques and I set up our tent right in the corner with an amazing view and sounds of the waves crashing below.





We spent the day playing and drinking in the sun, exploring our surroundings either by foot, climbing rocks or piled in a truck for a cruise of the grounds. When the sun set, the boys came out to cook up a feast for dinner and we listened to music and sat around the campfire all night.




We woke up to the sound of a whale off shore (couldn't see him though) and then had a front row seat for a dolphin feeding. The day had begun and was beautiful! We didn't want to leave... We spent the morning and afternoon sun bathing on the rocks below. The guys made another feast over the open fire of freshly shucked mussles, bacon, sausage, eggs and toast.




It was a hard scene to leave behind, but knew we had a long ride ahead of us, so we finally left at 4pm. We stopped along the way in search of fish tacos and finally found a restaurant worthy - shrimp enchiladas were delicious. By the time we hit the border to cross back into the US, it was already 8pm and we had a 3 hour wait to get through!!! Jacques passed the time in the back of the bakkie checking out the scene with Clyde while I drove. Once we finally got to the customs officer, he decided to flag us and send us to secondary screening because of Jacques' nationality. The second officer called the first guy a moran because Jacques is a legal resident. Oh well... I'm sure this won't be the first hold up for Jacques coming and going from the US.

By the time we got home, it was 2am and then back to work first thing Monday morning! Whew... thank goodness we only have 5 days of work to go! We are definitely in need of a vacation after our mini-taste of the relaxation in Mexico! We have one week and counting but still lots to do. We are SO excited though and already in vacation mode.