#punta choros

[sergioguymanproust]

I love deserts, specially when they reach the sea.A very unique flora and fauna can be found that will surprise you. Here ,on my last trip to northern chile the coastal desert was indeed a treasure trove of an incomparable beauty and solitude.Near Punta Choros. I took a long walk and found these gorgeous little flowers in bloom a few feet from the water. Words and pics by Sergio Guyman.

[emmaboo-aventures-blog-blog]

Norte Chico

I feel like I start every blog post the same way: “What an awesome weekend!” And yet, I am happy to report back, I have done it again, my friends! This past weekend the CIEE family headed north by bus to explore Norte Chico.

First stop: La Serena. Apparently this town is awesome, although, with the total of 6 hours we spent in La Serena, all of which at the hostel, we didn’t exactly get to experience the marvel of this hipster beach town.

Thursday though, was an absolute treat. Bright and early (dear god CIEE, let a sister sleep for more than 6 hours, please!!), we hopped back on the bus on our way to Punta Choros, a penguin refuge a few hours north of La Serena. This penguin haven, which was home to no more than 10 penguins at this time of year, proved to be way more awesome than I had expected. After a 45-minute “speedboat” ride out to the island, the massive amounts of marisco water (salt-water) proving to be my only shower for the next few days to come, we made it to the dolphin bay. First of all, if you have not seen The Cove (http://www.thecovemovie.com/ - it’s on netflix, you have no excuse), get on it. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen wild dolphins before (Mexico, California), but dear lord, this was another world of dolphin-amazingness. I immediately reverted back to my five-year-old self, shrieking every time I saw a fin pop out of the water. It was stunning. They are stunning. At the front of the boat, as I peered over the edge, secretly hoping I could jump off and magically land on a dolphin’s back, we watched them swim along side our boat, their enormous grey bodies almost close enough to touch. It was incredible how human they seemed for .5 seconds, playfully interacting with us! We zoomed around for about 20 minutes here, the group of 20 twenty-somethings in absolute awe. As we made our way back to the shore, with a quick stop climbing a massive rock structure on a nearby island, I couldn’t help but recognize how incredibly refreshing it felt to be out of the city, seeing a different Chile than I experience every day. #fuggin awesome.

After our dolphin/Punta Choros experience, we ended our day with a tour of the Mamalluca Observatory. Chile is known for their incredible observatories (http://www.mamalluca.org/ingles/), and hot damn, I can see why. It was an absolutely perfect night, not a cloud in the sky, and the Milky Way illuminating our path. We started the night with a naked-eye astronomy lesson, our tour guide pointing out planets, novas (?), clusters, and constellations with her green laser pointer (note to self: laser pointers work way better than flash lights). Our questions seemed limitless, as we bombarded our guide, barely giving her room to breathe. Here’s a brief list of the things that blew my mind:

How can space not end? What’s out there?

There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand. WTF can’t be true…

Light-years. If you see a star that is 100,000 light years away, that means the light took 100,000 years to reach earth, which means we are looking at that star 100,000 years ago. Holy shit, it’s like time travel!!

How the hell are stars born? No way I am believing in creationism now (not that I did before).

Black holes. The absence of light, etc. Whoaaa.

Stars flicker, planets don’t.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies. How does this even make sense! There must be some other form of life out there, right? I’m not talking parallel universes, but really, there’s got to be something.

Constellations are different in the northern hemisphere than in the south. Duhhh, but really, this means we are totally surrounded by space! CRAZY. We are just a blip on the radar. It makes our history seem so irrelevant.

I am super excited to take my astronomy minicourse next year (with Leah, what what!!)! White dwarfs, red dwarfs, black holes, super novas, here I come! It’s about to get real!

Days 2/3: biking Valle de Elqui

My ass bones are just starting to recover from the brutal assault of my bike seat. I thought my newly acquired Latin American figure would provide me with enough padding to get me through two days of biking, but man, was I wrong. Day 1 was absolute hell: with Zopaipilla and I feeding off of each other’s negativity (deservedly so, this road was ridiculously hard to bike on…), the path seemed treacherously fome and awfully steep. 25 km have never been so damn challenging. And getting passed by the bajo (slow) group, having started in the best/most active group, was just the cherry on top. And that was supposed to be the easy day! Day two, spirits lifted after a refreshing freezing shower and cotton candy in the plaza, proved to be much more fun! As we made our way down (yes, key word, DOWN) the valley, snaking through little villages on the gravel road, the valley view getting us through the tough but short little climbs, Zoe and I were zoning. Not even a flat tire would slow us down (in spirit). Flat fixed and on our way, we rode for about 5 hours (sin comida – I don’t know how I lasted seeing as that I practically have a full meal every 3 hours). What a great day! Toward the end, we faded fast, the ass-bone ache kicking in once again, but were greeted with open arms and a big plate of pasta at the end of the road. *Hunger is most definitely the best spice,* just sayin.

Side note: Valle de ELQUI. I couldn’t help but think of Granny Elke.

And with that, it seems our weekend came to a close. We may have logged more bus time than anything else, but it was well worth it. And perhaps harder to believe there is still so much more of Chile I have yet to explore! And not that much time to do it in! (only 2 more months – don’t make me leave…)

[emmaboo-aventures-blog-blog]

Punta Choros

[pantxo2112]

Felipe Camiroaga interpela a Hinzpeter por termoeléctrica en Punta de Choros