up at 6am and off to la reserva nacional de los flamencos at 7am! the very first thing that i wrote in my journal about this day was "today i know that God created the earth." I felt as if I was standing in a painting; it was nuts. the colors were so intense along with the variation.
we first went to a 'salar' or a salt plane. it was super neato because the salt comes up from the ground. there is natural water that flows under the earth from the andes and the water evaporates in the heat and fors salt structures (you can see pictures of me licking the salt in the photo album!!). It was really wierd to think that in the driest desert in the world there are flamencos standing in lagunas surrounded by a salt flat....what!! it only rains 60-70mm each year in the Atacama Desert....all of the lagunas are formed from underground resources. There were 2 types of flamencos: chileno, all pink, y andino, black on the wings. we also saw in a fish tank the teeny tiny brine shrimp that they eat that turns them pink. They make funny noises too not like a bird. we were also served breakfast there - a nice spread of pan, marmalada, jamon, galletas, cafe y te, pound cake y queso.
we then went to a little village called Socaire where we went to a little church and took pictures. after all of us girls had climbed up the bell tower to take our picture the tour guide, Oscar, told us that the legend is if you climb up the bell tower you will get pregnant. bahah! the indigenas believed that everything in nature had a balance - sun and moon, man and woman, day and night, etc - and this is the reason why the bell tower(man) and the church(woman) are built separately.
next, we traveled to the lagunas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is where my picture at the top is taken. it was breathe taking. hymns just kept playing over and over in my head. God of wonders beyond all majesty, you are holy. i will never be able to sing praises to God again without envisioning this place. volcanos, montanas y crystal blue lagunas all in the same place. just look at the pictures. we had lunch here too, and there is a pic of our lunch spread - tuna, avocado, tomato, pan, queso, jamon, hard boiled eggs, soup, pretzels, bananas, peanuts, raisins, crackers....it was great.
finally we went to the Valle de Jere in Toconao. the valley has one little stream running through it but they have harnessed it so that is waters every part of the valley. pretty neato. again, wierd for the desert. In the city of Toconao i took pics of their church and the 2 llamas roaming around the street. yes that is right, llamas wandering around.
had dinner once we made it into town at a little hole in the wall place. i got Charquican - a dish of the Mapuche (indigenas de chile) - which is like veggies and meat all mixed together served with rice and a huevo. me encanta! i also bought a hat this day while i was in town with a llama on it!!! i will be sporting it in post all of my pics from now on. it was perfect because we had a trek the next day where we were outside for like 7 hours straight in the sun.
took my first shower this night too! hostal showers..... ew but my room and bed were fine. my water was freezing at first but then at the end it was scalding hot - bueno!!!! we also had a fire and hung out and talked for a bit! manana: 6:30am.
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