Upon getting on the air plane we found out another surprise we were going to make 3 stops before getting to our destination, but for the price we were paying you get what you pay for. It is definitely hard to be sure of anything when you do not fully understand the language. Having woken up so early we tried to settle in and sleep for the four hour flight. Around 11:30 we finally landed in Iquique, Chile and boy were we surprised we landed in the middle of the dessert we could only see sand everywhere. Luckily our bags came and with a few questions to the airport security we found there was a shuttle that could take us to our hotel.
A completely sand/ dirt golf course doesn't that sound fun?
For Christmas Chase’s parents and grandparents gave us some money so we decided to us it to upgrade to a hotel, and the Radisson was the cheapest nicest hotel we could find. However in Spanish they say Raison and get very confused when you say Radisson. After checking we wanted to go check out the town. On website we had read that it was only 10 minutes from town they did not mention that was by car. But we did not realize that till after we had been walking for about 30 minutes. We found a nice place to eat overlooking the ocean called Las Rocas. They actually serves some Mexican food so we took our chances and ordered some chicken tacos that were really good.
Walking in town
Eating lunch along the beach
After lunch we decided to keep walking and try to find the city center. All in all I think we ended up walking for about 3 hours and never found the city center, we did get a really nice sunburn which was fun. Did I mention we were in the dessert apparently you can not go outside without sunscreen or you will get a terrible burn. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store to get some water and decided to take a taxi home. Something we found very surprising is that there is pretty much a set rate between 2,000 and 2,500 pesos not matter where you go which equals about 4-5 dollars.
Once back at the hotel we decided to go lay out by the pool, which overlooked the ocean. It kind of felt like I was on cruise, but we stayed in the shade. Having got up at 4:45 in the morning we were exhausted and decided to order pizza and have it delivered to the hotel.
laying out by the pool, it felt like we were on a cruise
Watching the sunset
Thursday, Christmas Eve Chase and I slept in and then headed to the pool to enjoy a relaxing day reading by the pool. Around lunch time we just ordered lunch by the pool and kept reading till around 3:00. For Christmas my parents gave us the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, I have never seen Chase read so diligently and do what I always do try to tell people about the books I am reading.
Eating by the pool
On our way up to the room we stopped to ask the receptionist if there was a Christmas Eve service we could attend? She informed us of a church that had a service at 11:00. So we planned the rest of the afternoon around that idea. Before leaving for dinner we went down the hotel bar so Chase could redeem the free pisco sour from the hotel and watch the sunset then we had a taxi come pick us up and take us to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. The restaurant was called Nuevo Sombrero.
Christmas Eve dinner
Chase fish dinner
After dinner we quickly walked to the Church service. We were so surprised to see the service had already started at 11:00, nothing actually starts on time in South America. After standing in the back for 15 minutes they served communion which means the service is almost over. Meanwhile this homeless man, who was mumbling something and looked a little high kept coming in out right next to us with this pointed rock that looked like he a chiseled into a knife and all I could think, as crazy as this might sound, was that we was going to go crazy and start stabbing people. Luckily this did not happen. We found out later that the service had actually started at 10:00 so we had missed most of it.. We did get to hear a few Christmas carols that were familiar in Spanish and hear a reading and watch communion.
Once the service was over we walked to the nearest hotel and had them call us a Taxi to take us back to the Radisson aka Raison. My family called around 1:00 in the morning to wish us a Merry Christmas, it was so fun to talk to everyone including my grandparents and Aunt Amy. Eventhough it was good to hear their voices it was a little hard knowing they were all together. I knew I was always a family person but I have definitely realized how important family is to me and how much I love spending time with everyone.
Christmas day Chase and I woke up early in order to make a 8:30 bus to Calama. We were the only people down at breakfast. I have been the only person at breakfast because we were so late but never because we were there so early. We took yet another Taxi to the bus station and bought a ticket to Calama. Because we arrived there only 10 minutes before the bus was leaving we got stuck in the back of the bus next to the toilets for 6 hours, which is never fun.
While we enjoyed Iquique for two days it was definitely enough time. Because Chile is located on the Pacific Ocean the water is really cold and not very fun to get into, so you are better off enjoying the beach but finding a pool to go swimming in.
The Bus ride to Calama was a very interesting ride. About 1 and half hours into we pulled over and they made everyone get off and put there bags up to get inspected. We never really understood why but my guess is because we were so close to the Peruvian and Bolivian borders they were looking for drugs. The funny thing was though, there were no dogs and only one woman went around and when she got to us she said in Spanish, solo ropas? We both said yes and she did not even look in our bags. We got back on the bus and continued our drive through the dessert. We did not see anything but sand for hours. Occassionaly, we would go through a small town and for the life of me I have no idea what they do to make money because there was nothing there.
Our bus inspection
Driving through the dessert
On the bus
We finally arrived in Calama around 2:30 where we had to get another bus to take us to San Pedro Atacama. Luckily this bus was only 1 ½ hours and we arrived in San Pedro around 4:30. My first thoughts were what in the world are we doing here? The roads are made of dirt and it seemed as though there was nothing to see. We set off with our roller bags to find a hostel. Luckily our friend Andrew had given us his Frommer’s Chile guide to take with us and using that we found a very clean hostel called Katarpe. After checking in we went to walk around the town and find a tour operator to book some tours. We were very surprised by how many there were in such a small town, two on every block. Our trusty book came in handy again and we choose Atacama Connection. They were very friendly, spoke a little English and gave us a discount for booking two tours and said if wanted to book a third later we could have a discount for the third as well.
City center of San Pedro Atacama
Our room at the hostel
One down side to our hostel is that there is no internet, and since we can not call outside of Chile with our cell phones, I felt very cut off from the world. As we were walking down the street I saw a restaurant called Adobe that had wifi and decided immediately that we needed to eat there. Chase and I got a free Itouch when we bought our computer and I am so glad we have it because it has come in handy while traveling. I was so glad to check my email because we found out that my Aunt Julia had her baby earlier that day. It was so funny because the night before I asked my mom when is Julia going to have her baby and my mom asked Julia. Julia said tomorrow, Christmas day and she was right Alice Elizabeth came on Christmas day. I can not wait to see pictures. At Adobe we had a pretty good pizza and enjoyed sitting outside. All the building here are one story with huge court yards. Since we are in the dessert it is very hot in the afternoons and then cold at night and cool in the mornings.
Getting Ice cream on the way back to the hostel.
After dinner we headed back to our hostel and talked to Chase’s family. It was the perfect way to end Christmas. Once again it was so good to talk to family but it did make us miss home even though we were in an incredible place.
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