Beth and I rose at 3:40 in the freezing cold to get ready for our nine hour tour to see nearby geysers. We threw on 9 layers, the first being our bathing suits since we had been told that we should jump in the thermal pool near the geysers later in the day. We went outside our hostel at 4am and got in the bus that would take us to the geysers. Unfortunately, we were the last ones in and were jammed in the back, which would be part of Beth’s undoing. (more…)

Saturday afternoon, we grabbed a bus to Calama leaving at 3:30pm.  It was another 20-hour bus ride, so Lauren and I settled in, reading and napping (respectively).

Around 11pm that night, the bus stopped.  And waited.  And waited.  I managed to wake up and Lauren informed me that we hadn’t moved for 45 minutes.  We finally asked the conductor what was wrong, but he blabbed at us in Spanish going 90 words-per-minute.  We asked him to repeat, which he did, just as fast.

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Our departure from Argentina took us through the snowy, winding hills of the Andes. The border control was located on top of one of the mountains, with 18-wheelers lining up for miles on the twisting roads leading up to immigration. We made it past the rather thorough inspection, bought warm ham and cheese sandwiches, and began our descent to Santiago.

We were excited for Santiago because we were staying with a good friend of my friend Shayna, Lorena, and her boyfriend, Daniel. I was looking forward to meeting Lorena, someone I had heard about for years, and Beth and I were psyched to be out of hostels and into an actual home. (more…)