Camping in La Tirana

So my new friend became my new family in a day when she told me she was going camping with her family this weekend and asked if I wanted to come with. I of course said yes because who can pass up a weekend camping trip!?! We were going to go to the small inland town called La Tirana to check out the religious festival happening there with tons of people and dancing, but the festival ended up finishing the day before we went. So instead it just ended up being a camping trip in the desert...which I thoroughly enjoyed. Here's how it went:

They picked me up in their van and the 7 of us packed in on Saturday night to make the hour-long trek to La Tirana. We listened to awesome Spanish music on they way and they were all singing along to all the songs...it was fabulous.

We got to La Tirana and walked around the town a little bit before setting up camp. I saw the church and the plaza where all the people and dances normally are during the festival...very religious.

This statue represents the dancers in the festival, and it was modeled after Coni's aunt who has danced in the festival since she was a little girl. How cool is that??

There is a huge fair during the festival and tons of venders set up shop ready to sell their goods. They are selling everything from jeans to jewelry to water guns to popcorn.

We had to stop and get some "sopaipillas"...traditional fried dough made my the local native women. Just a mix of flour, salt, and yeast fried in oil but soooo delicious.

And then there was the asado. We had a barbeque at the camp for dinner and cooked tons of meat and toasted bread. We drank a little boxed wine and I even showed them all how to make smores. They LOVED them! Bringing a little North American culture to the south. :)

Here's me with Janna, Coni, and Alejandro.

Here's Coni's family: dad's friend, dad Victor, uncle, and mom Gloria.

The campsite the next day. We were in the Atacama desert so at night it was really cold...probably around 40-50 degrees and the next day the sun heat up so fast, by about 9am it was already about 75-80 degrees. I made sure to wear lots of sunscreen because this gringa burns faaast.