August 7: Unidad

Words of the Day: Portuguese Edition!
Exquisito= awkward, strange, weird (unlike Spanish where it means really good)
Quente= hot (temperature)
embarazada= embarassed (unlike Spanish where it means pregnant)

Today started out less than propitiously, but wound up being phenomenal due to several interesting turns of events.

Despite waking up with more than adequate time for the tour to Las Lagunas Altiplanicas that I had bought a ticket for, due to miscommunications, I missed it. Apparently, they were going to pick me up at the Hostel but I had gone to their office. An hour of frantic phone calls and running around later, it was clear that $40 was down the drain. While the Yankee thrift part of me was weeping at the waste, the adventurous side kept whispering "APROVECHAR". I knew I couldn't just sit around moping and had to do something to use the only full day I would have to the max.

The problem was that my traveling companion was off sandboarding for the day, leaving me alone. Plus, all the morning tours had left. But in a stroke of fabulous luck, while strolling by the tour agencies to look for options I ran into a group of 3 French girls I had met on the Valle de Luna tour the day before. They were going biking nearby and invited me to join them.

Turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. As the ultimate self-hating tourist, the person who wants to see everything but also be away from the hordes, being self propelled for a morning was wonderful. While there were plenty of other people on the path, it certainly wasn't an excessive number and the sight of desolate reddish cliffs, grassy valleys (with tufts as tall as me) and icy mountain streams which we frequently had to ford lent a feeling of adventure.

The man we rented the bikes from recommended heading out to Grito del Diablo also known as Quebrado de Chulaco, a canyon with a zig-zag formation. When we finally got up to the Canyon mouth, the girls wanted to have lunch. Given the lack of planning that had gone into my morning, I had planned on eating when I got back. So, leaving my bike with them for safe keeping, I decided to go in and explore the canyon on foot.

Best decision of the trip. Oddly enough, no one else was there. It was the most alone I have ever been in my life yet never have I had an experience that made me feel so ALIVE! The silence of the place was deafening, but made me realize how incredibly noisy I was: my footsteps, the slosh of my waterbottle, the click of my camera and even at my stillest, the loudness of every breath.

Being there around the seemingly infinite rocks made me think of Pablo Neruda's "Residence on Earth," a collection of poetry that my Spanish teacher had introduced us to last semester. Essentially, through, Neruda introduces a philosophy that the only way to find happiness and peace is through accepting the circular nature of things and their subordination to time. There is a unity in all things, he argues, something that everything has in common but yet is often obscured by humanity's frequent inability to get over ourselves. For me, it was impossible to deny the existence of unidad in such a place. Seeing my weakness and smallness compared to the vast cycling of the landscape was oddly comforting for something that I usually find frightening or at the very least as a stress inducing challenge to go get things done. Instead, I was left with a feeling of incredible thankfulness: I realized how much my life has been blessed with beautiful and incredible moments and people. Until then, I honestly think I had taken this study abroad opportunity for granted, rather than seeing it as something for which I am incredibly privileged. Here I am, at barely 20 years old, half way across a hemisphere and being witness to such amazing things.

After joining up with the group and biking through the canyon a second time, we decided, since we had a little time left, to bike uphill to "El Tunel," a mirador from which the whole valley could be seen. Although the ride was strenuous, especially with the little altitude boost, it was tremendous.

Bidding goodbye to the girls, I found an albahaca empanada (cheese, tomatoes, herbs= closest thing in Chile to NY style pizza flavor) for lunch and a tour to the Salar de Atacama, a salt flat with lakes, for the afternoon.

Our tour group was great: we were mainly young Spanish or Portguese speakers, so the guide spoken in Spanish the whole time. We visited:
-Laguna Cejar- three times saltier than the ocean so you can float. That is, if you can stand the cold. Gorgeous, but I only braved the water for about 1 minute.
-Ojos de Salar- perfectly circular deep fresh water pools side by side- one green, the other blue. Swimmable, although I passed...
-Laguna Tebenique- My favorite! Shallow, big lake where we watched the sunset.

While we snacked and watched the sun go down, we had an interesting conversation about the differences between Portuguese and Spanish, travel and Iberian colonial legacies. We were the last tour group to leave, which meant that the stars were coming out as we returned. By 7:30, the sky was literally filled, all the way down to the horizon, including the Milky Way visible from one side to the other. Across the flat, the lights of tiny pueblos glistened and blinked happily. Certainly one of the best all time van rides of my life.