San Pedro part 1

At last! The story from the weekend!

So...

Friday, I woke up and went food shopping for my trip to San Pedro. At 11:00, I took a metro to the bus station, and then the bus to the airport. I was super early, so I was really excited to see some other people from my trip in the lobby-thingy waiting. So we all waited together. Finally, it was time to check in. I thought I had been really good by bringing two carry-ons so I wouldn't have to check any luggage. What I failed to realize is that domestic flights in Chile don't allow a carry-on of more than 5 kg (roughly 11lbs). Yeah, well, my back pack was like 9 (roughly 20lbs). So, had to check that. Anyway, the flight was great. 3 hours, and we were there! It felt like a completely different world from Santiago.



After we all landed and got our luggage (no lost luggage!!), we took a bus for about an hour to the town of San Pedro. The scenery was gorgeous, and our guide, Claudio, was very knowledgeable about the history of the area, the geography, etc. which was awesome for me! Calama (where the airport was) used to be two towns: Calama and a town with an indigenous name I can't remember. Well, this other town was a mining town. Recently, with the big push towards environmentalism in Chile (and yes, it's bigger here than in the US...way bigger), they decided to close the mine (too much pollution). Well, this caused a problem for the town. The government determined that it would be more expensive to make the town environmentally friendly than to just build a whole new town farther away from the mine. So they moved the whole town farther away from the mine.



Anyway, upon arriving in San Pedro, we took a walking tour through the town. It was nighttime, and the stars were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I really wish I had pictures to show you, but cameras don't work too well in the dark (not even with flash). Anyway, everything was gorgeous at night. From there, we ate dinner (at 10 o'clock, which will be important to note for the continuation of this story) and went to bed.

Here are a few more pictures of the scenery we saw. The full album will be on Facebook and Snapfish (link coming soon). The story will also have to continue tomorrow, as it's already 11:30 and somebody has a test tomorrow (yikes!! not already!!)



Anyway, until next time!