It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Kind of...

Just without snow, cold, and Christmas vacation. But we do have Christmas trees, lights, songs, gifts, consumerism, and Santa Claus (Hawaiian style)! It doesn't feel like Christmas is so near without snow and cold, but the Chileans are ready at least. 

Chile end to end

I took a day trip with a friend to see some geysers that are situated in the high plateau in the interior from Iquique. It was going to be about a 3 hour trip to get there so we were prepared and left early. Well it turned out that there were just so many places to stop along the way...small towns with lots of history, ancient glyphs on mountains, beautiful views, etc, that it ended up taking us about 6 hours to get there...and we never actually made it. Without realizing, we ended up on the border of Bolivia and Chile...we had travelled completely across Chile in only a couple hours. The scenery had changed completely from the coast and desert and it was even raining! We saw lots of llamas and alpacas when we got to the river, and I even saw a chinchilla! Next goal: travel from end to end North to South...

 

The church tower in the plaza of Tarapaca

A mini-tornado of dust!

 

The...plaza?

An author in Chusmiza selling his books about his history and anecdotes

Llamas or alpacas? That is the question...

Rain!

Colchane police and furry cactuses

Isluga National Park

Tiny semi-deserted town of Isluga

A little taste of home

My wonderful family sent me a package and it was such a nice thing to get a little taste of home after being away for 4 months. They sent me lots of goodies like PEANUT BUTTER!, clif bars, candy, mac and cheese...along with some awesome stuff like new clothes and jewelry and books for school that are always nice to have. :) Thanks fam you rock.

Thanksgiving in Chile

Well...this day was kind of a bummer. It started off with me thinking I was going to go to a Thanksgiving dinner with friends of a friend, but they cancelled, so then I had no plans. But then my bosses asked me and the other American if we wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate. They took us out and I got a turkey wrap...nowhere near the same and not very good, but at least I can say I had turkey on Thanksgiving...

But then later I got to skype with my amazing family. :) That definitely brightened my day even if it did make me miss them a lot. I'm definitely thankful for them!

You're invited!

Some of my students had some birthday parties recently and I was invited. That pretty much means that I get to go to their party and eat food and cake, but I have to buy them a gift....ok deal. Their parties are so over-the-top...with jumping houses, trampolines, wave-runners, you name it. They also have tons of food and cake. One even had local beer from a keg. Necessary?...No...but pretty awesome?...yep.