Getting a cavity here in chile showed me a part of life here I wouldn't have known otherwise...the wonderful healthcare system...as far as I'm concerned, people don't have family dentists, they just go to a clinic, sign in, and wait for the next available dentist to see what's wrong with them...so when I told my host mom my tooth hurt, she responded immediately with, let's go to the clinic right now! Well, I convinced her to wait till the next morning, but when we got there--after the car breaking down in the middle of the road and me and some old man having to push it into the parking garage--i got to experience what i assume chileans have to do on a regular basis just to see a doctor...it's called waiting. we sign in, say i need to see a dentist urgently, as i was leaving that evening for the north, and got to wait. i got called back, told the dentist what hurt, was told to go back out and wait until the xray lady was ready...got called back for xrays, sent back out, got called back again for xrays, waited, saw the dentist again, and then got the most painful and long-lasting anesthesic shot in my gum to get a hole drilled in my tooth and some temporary filling until after i returned from my trip...all in all, this process took about 3 hrs.
but then, finally, i was on a 20-hr bus ride up north! me, Jess, Jeff, and Andrew went north to San Pedro de Atacama and Iquique for the week of Fiestas Patrias. San Pedro is basically a major tourist city, but rightfully so, as there are tons of tours to take to see cool things nearby...
Our second day in San Pedro, we got up at 3:30 to go see the Tatio Geyser 3 hrs away...when we were standing outside our hostal waiting to be picked up, people were just then returning home after a long night of carreteando, and there was still lots of loud music playing throughout the city...haha...anyway, the geysers were cool...there were tons of other tourist groups out there too, all with there little tables of desayunito standing outside the vans, and people huddling trying to keep warm in teh freeeeeeezing cold weather. Jess and i both got a case of the altitude sickness...no vomit...but still no good. after that, our group went to see some termas where people went swimming...and then we went on a little hike to a small waterfall, and got to see some cool cacti, some rocks, plants, etc...the north is so pretty!
The next day, the guys and i biked to Valle de la Muerte to go sandboarding--another really popular thing to do on all the sand dunes...it was tons of fun, but my camera is now almost dysfunctional after getting sand in the lens...ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh...later that day, we biked 12km to valle de la luna to explore around and watch the sunset...it was just absolutely espectacular! actually it was really funny because on our way up a big sand dune to watch the sunset, we were just a few of the tons of people who were making this 'pilgrimmage,' if you will, to see the sunset...but the at-times-difficult-and-uphill bikeride was well worth it, to sit up there and have a panoramic view of everything around you--the mountains in the distance, the various colors of the sky, etc--as the sun set...in the middle of the desert...bacan! then we got to ride back to san pedro in the dark...that was fun...!
after san pedro, we made our way even more north to Iquique, a city on the coast that seemed pretty similar to Vina...we took an overnight bus ride, that i originally thought would arrive there at at least 7 in the morning...WRONG! we got to Iquique at 5:30 am...i really just thought this was the funniest thing...hello?!?! what are you supposed to do/where are you supposed to go at 5:30 in the madrugada in a strange city? well, luckily our hostel for the following night was chill and let us show up around 6 to have us crash on the couches till we could get our room later that day....ahhaha...what a day. BUT! jess and i went paragliding! apparently this is a hugely popular thing to do, and the guy that i went up in the air with actually came from germany to south america: brazil, argentina, and finally chile, just for the paragliding! it's a legit sport...aparentemente. anway, it was awesome...to put it simply.
after our time in iquique, we got on a 24-hr bus ride to head back to vina...except this time the bus didnt play a single movie the entire time...oh. my. gosh. jess and i were going crazy. but oh well, i'm here now, just facing all the work i have yet to do for this upcoming week... it was a good trip, but i'm glad to be back... :)
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