mi último día entera en chile

Today is my last full day in Chile. Tomorrow, at about 4pm I will cross the border into the Argentine Andes without immediate plans to return. I´m devastated and in the last few days have been eating lots of empanadas, buying foolish toursity recuerdos and listening to the beautiful chanting of chilean spanish as I walk down the streets, already anticipating the nostalgia. Sigh.

The desert was bakan (chilean slang = fucking awesome). The weather was muder on my body, there were an insane amount of tourists and it was absurdly expensive to buy anything. But it sure is fucking beautiful. This really can only be expressed in pictures, but y´all will have to wait. I went sandboarding en el Valle de la Muerte, saw saturn and the amazing desert stars through a fancy telescope, went to the 3rd biggest salt flat in the world and hung out with chilean flamencos and saw the lagunas antiplanicas. It was all beautiful. After a few days though I was burnt out on San Pedro. I said goodbye to my big comfy hostel room and bought a bus ticket to Iquique. Iquique is a surfing town about 8 hours from San Pedro. I crashed at a great hostel right on the beach and spent two days doing next to nothing. The people in the hostel were awesome so I spent most of my time alternating between lying on the beach, and eating and drinking with my friends in the hostel. It was a nice relaxing break from my busy and exhausting days in San Pedro. Plus, the beaches are sooo beautiful.

I got back to Santiago yesterday in time to meet Javi, a chilena who was an exhange student at Bethlehem, for lunch. We talked about the Sagor house, the Bentley house and what it feels like to be a forigner in Chile, and in the US. She sends her love back to everyone from BC. Then last night Julie and I finally got vegetarian food and it was amaaazing. I moved out of the hippest hostel in the world and moved back into the place I stayed when I first got to santiago four months ago. Just to frame the trip nicely. Its so much better here. Everyone is friendly and relaxed, there is laundry, there is a rooftop deck and the breakfast comes with fruit. Anyway I´ve got to go because I´m waiting for Aquiles to pick me up. My last day in Chile will be spent with a chileno I met who worked at the last hostel (I guess it did have some nice stuff to offer). He claims to be a mountainista and is going to take me to the cordillera for a hike. I have packed an empanada de pino. Obvio.

Although its the end of my stay in Chile, its not quite the end of my blog or my adventure. Tomorrow I get on a bus to Mendoza, Argentina and on Monday I will land in Buenos Aires. Expect to be updated with stories that include famous argentine beef and wine, lots of gringo friends, fun exciting adventures in BA, and some kind of 21st birthday celebration with a combination of old friends, people I´ve met along the trip and probably some perfect strangers.