I spent of lot of weekends away from Santiago, traveling to Bolivia/Chirimoyas, La Serena with Coquimbo and Valle del Elqui, and most recently the classic venture to the Atacama desert in northern Chile. I've only seen a little bit of the top half of this country, but Chile has the coolest and most gorgeous sights I've ever seen. Even though I've seen so many different things on my road trips around the states (only have Hawaii and Alaska left to see!) the different hemisphere provides radically different climates and really interesting geography.
A six hour drive north of Santiago brought me and my two friends Hudson and Nick to La Serena and Coquimbo, coastal cities that are a springboard for experiencing the more central Valle del Elqui (Elqui Valley). La Serena offered a wonderful view of the Pacific with dolphins swimming in the surf and an interesting archeological museum with a mummy and a moai statue from Easter Island.
In Coquimbo, we went to the top of the Cruz del III milenio (The Third Millenium Cross) that was built to commemorate 2000 years of Jesus' birth. It was really neat, with panoramic views of the city, ocean, and cordillera from the top of the cross and a mini-museum of catholic artifacts. It also had a series of life-size statues depicting the "final journey" of Jesus' crucifiction and resurrection.
Next, we traveled to the central part of the country to see Valle del Elqui. This region is famous for its grape crops that are used in the production of pisco, the very Chilean hard liquor which is pretty much a less processed version of white wine. Usually they mix it with cola to make "piscola" or add some other things to it to make "pisco sour", which basically tastes like margarita mix. A bit south of Santiago is where you'll find all the vineyards, where the Mediterranean climate predominates.
In mid-October, I traveled alone for 5 days in San Pedro de Atacama, a base for exploring the vast and arid Atacama desert. I met people from all over the world at my hostel, and the main streets of the town are always crowded with tourists. I went on four tours where I saw awesome rock formations in Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) and climbed through a cave/tunnel, floated in Laguna Cejar (higher concentration of salt/lithium than the Dead Sea) and saw a gorgeous sunset at Laguna Tebinquiche, saw the Tatio Geysers and swam in a hot spring, saw gorgeous reflections of the snowcapped mountains in the altpilanic lagoons and felt like I was in Middle Earth. There are SO many beautiful views I tried to capture with my camera, and my album on facebook has some comments about the pictures. It's very clear why this town is so touristy with all the views it has to offer, and people tend to come here to see some of the sights and then hop over to Bolivia. The completely superficial swing-through of the areas made me abhor tourism. I would much rather stay in one place for a longer period of time and actually form a connection to the land and the people than just check off some views from a list. In the end, traveling alone boosted my confidence in my ability to trust myself, provided more opportunities to meet new people, and made me appreciate the beauty of not really having a plan.
During the traveling and the routine of school in the second third of my stay, I became painfully aware of how much I miss my original home in SLP. During almost the entirety of September, I had Christmas carols stuck in my head and couldn't wait to get home for the holidays. I browsed through all the Halloween decorations on target.com when the Halloween displays in local stores left much to be desired. I had extreme cravings for pineapple Domino's pizza at Grandma's house and a cinnamon-sugar bagel with strawberry cream cheese at Bruegger's Bagels.
But even with all this lame homesickness, the traveling away from Santiago made me miss the city and my host family. When I stepped off the plan from Bolivia, a friend picked me and my host mother up from the airport and said "Welcome home!" to me in English. Hearing those words spoken to me in my native language made a strong connection in my brain. Even though I've only been here for 3 months, I'm starting to call this place home. I walk down familiar streets, see the same people in my classes, eat Chilean comfort foods like manjar, and feel some Chilean pride when I think about how they're going to the world cup in Brazil in 2014.
The stability of familiarity and routine can never be underrated for me now, as I realize that in the midst of new experiences that shake my world (even though I still haven't felt seismic activity here because I've slept through them all) there is always comfort in knowing I have foundations and the ability to return home. This is a luxury I appreciate more and more, especially as I learn more in-depth about the ways the dictatorship shook this country and displaced so many people and ended so many lives. I wish I could stay in Santiago longer, I feel like I'm just starting to scratch the surface that is Chile.
So, with 7 weeks to go, I'm motivated to see how much more I can discover about Chile.
See you all in December,
Athena