Wow so its been a while since I posted, so I have a lot of updates. Basically my world revolves around school in Santiago and our many travel adventures. So here we go.




This picture is from my photo project that I did for my History of Chilean Photography class on "Lo redondo y lo cuadrado de Valparaiso" - The round and the square of Valparaiso. The photo is taken in Valparaiso, the historic fishing city a couple hours outside of Santiago.





CIEE took us to Pucon where we saw beautiful waterfalls, crystal-clear thermal baths, lakes, mountains, rivers, and volcanic caves!!! Here I am with Chloe and Charlotte in front of one of the waterfalls.




We also went rafting which was probably my favorite thing I've done all semester- SOOO exhilirating - loved every moment! (I'm in the back on the right!)





Then a bunch of us went off for Easter weekend to Coquimbo and La Serena which was beautiful. Coquimbo is a fishing town and La Serena is a popular beach town right next to it.





We had delicious, delicious seafood in Coquimbo at the fish market! This is paila marina - a fish soup with all sorts of yummy/weird seafood in it. I have no idea what was in it but it was good!





The area around Coquimbo is one of the best places in the world to see the stars, so we went to an Observatory to check out the sky. Unfortunately there was a full moon so we didn't get to see many stars, but we got unbelievable views of the moon and we learned a TON!





We went on a great boat tour around the Coquimbo bay which back in the day was a real pirate territory. On that big rock were a ton of sea lions basking in the sun!





The weekend after that (I wasn't in Santiago for a single weekend all month!) Beth, Nick, and I went to Mendoza in Argentina. I LOVED it. Probably one of my favorite places I have ever been. We took a beautiful bike tour to all these different vineyards all around Maipu. Beautiful views all around. We visited two "bodegas"/vineyards, an olive oil factory, and a family run chocolate and liquor factory!




Nick, Beth, and I at one of the wine tastings!




We went to our hostel's delicious, delicious asado where we ate really good Argentinian beef! Yum! (Beth's photo).





On our last day we checked out the zoo in Mendoza which was amazing - all sorts of animals ridiculously up close- but also extremely sad since many of the animals are barely given any room to walk.





So Charlotte and I next decided to head off to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia. With only three short days (because of school obligations) we took a bus tour the first day to try and see as much as we could, and we camped and hiked the next. Definitely want to go back and do the whole circuit!





Unbelievable. The Cuernos and the Torres del Paine.





We saw the bottom of the huge waterfalls, but it was unbelievably windy and I'm way past the "Do not pass" sign (which was all our tour guides idea). Check out my back leg trying to brace myself so I didn't go flying over the edge!





Our campsite that night!





Since we came in fall, the trees were turning beautiful shades of orange and yellow.





We woke up at 4 in the morning to hike all the way up to the Mirador (in the pitch dark, with dinky cell phone flashlights). The view at the top was stunning, and although it was too foggy to really check out the Torres, we had no idea that there was this beautiful glacial pool at the top!





Here's a good overall view of Santiago, in all its smoggy city glory.





Then, after a weekend of actually staying in Santiago, CIEE brought us to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world (dry being the amount of water in the air - you get dehydrated after 5 minutes of not drinking water - crazy).





Our first morning there we went on a nice bike ride into the cavernous terrain of the desert.





Later that day we explored Valle de la Luna. Atacama was much more rocky and mountainous than we had expected, but really different and beautiful.





We went to watch the sun set on top of a giant dune. Here's the view of the sun setting over one of the twin volcanos of Atacama.





We also visited Los Salares - the salt flats in National Park Los Flamencos (The Flamingos). Crazy bizarre salt formations strewn as far as the eye can see.





The park's namesake - salt-flat residing Flamingos!!!





Then we headed on in to the town of Temuco and hung out with this adorable baby llama until its mother chased us away...






So when we got back to Santiago, rain finally had come! Santiago has been nothing but blue skies since we got here - it sounds nice, but in actuality its boring and hot. I'm so excited for weather again! Thought I'd get a picture of the mountains before the smog heads in during the winter (end of June through August).




That's all for now, but I miss you guys! I'm off to Buenos Aires this weekend and I'll be sure to update when I get back! Love you!


-ali :)
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