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SNAPSHOTS FROM MY 7 MONTHS IN CHILE |
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Home |
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September-vacation with NIKI... |
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Friends |
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From "Cordillera del Sal", the Atacama desert in Northern Chile |
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Badminton |
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More about Chile |
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My childhood |
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September is a month full of bank- holidays in Chile. September 11, the day of the Pinochet coup in 1973, September 18, which is Independence day and September 19, the day of the armed forces, makes September a great day for travelling... We- explanation will follow... went on a 10 day trip to Northern Chile, more accurately San Pedro de Atacama, by the worlds dryest desert. |
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I (with thanks to the Norwegian Student loan association...), didn't fell like staying on a bus for 26 hours in order to save 60 euros, so together with Niki- the Japanese guy- I went by plane to Calama, a small mining-town where we had to spend the night due to lack of transportation to San Pedro.. The rumours say that Calama is pretty dangerous, and since Niki hadn't been working out since he came to Chile we went for a couple of beers and then back home in order to at least make it to our final destination... And Niki got to do his first "sheet-check" at our "hotel", which led to the use of sleeping-bags.. |
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Laguna Colorada- in the Bolivian highland |
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Even though few things turned out as expected, our vacation was a success... We stayed at hotel Soncheck, a small, cosy hotel in the "outskirts" of San Pedro (well- everything there is the outskirts...). San Pedro is (as you might know by now) a small town and full of travel agencies trying to sell trips to Valle de la Luna, El Salar de Atacama, geysirs and Bolivia. We were waiting for the "bus people", Vincent, Jarle and a couple of French girls, to go to Bolivia with them. However, when we all showed up at the border with our great smiles, it turned that the bus people did not bring the right documentation so they couldn't leave Chile... (well, they could leave, but they were not sure to enter again...). But no need to be sorry, Niki and I went alone, and headed for Uyuni, and 8 hour long trip in a jeep, chewing coca- leaves and listening to ABBA in Spanish... Finally there we got the chance to try lama-meat and Bolivian beer, before we started the return trip to Chile. |
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The trip turned out GREAT. Three days without much water or electricity, but with an incredible nature and great views. The desert was fantastic with all its different colours, nothing like what I had imagined. The impresion we got of how people are living in this part of the world gave us a perspective to the life I am leading in Norway. To see how few of the things we take for granted that they manage without and how proud they are of what they have, made us appreciate even more both our experiences and our life back home. |
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Valle de la Muerte - Death Valley |
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