How is everyone?! Well, it has been a very eventful past week! All of the teacher´s in our region and even beyond have been on strike for about 2 weeks (and still counting!). The local government was given money to give to the teachers, but they used it for other programs and never gave it to the teachers. Kind of lame of them. Anyways, Anna and I have tried to keep ourselves busy and productive by volunteering at the University here, I have given a couple classes in English, and hung out with friends but we were getting pretty bored. Well, last Monday we decided to drown our boredom in some internet (at a place in the center of town). We were on our way downtown when we ran into another teacher´s demonstration. My co-teacher said there would be another march, but we had thought that she meant another small one like we saw earlier. NOT SO!!! The demonstration was HUGE with tons of teachers and supporters blocking a major intersection, stopping all traffic! They were holding lots of signs, chanting protest songs, and drumming and blaring horns. It was all very exciting and there were lots of spectators including us taking pictures and watching the chaos :). Here are some pics of the insanely fun demonstration...the teachers were in good humor and nobody was hurt, SO DON´t WORRY! :)
Here is a pic of one of the semi-trucks blocked by all of the protestors.
There were lots of people, so many that they blocked a large intersection. I guess that is one way of getting noticed!
You can see in the picture here all of the banners, flags, etc.
Ok, here comes the fun part! The Carabineros (police) have these armoured trucks with water canons, screens over the windows, and a ram in the front. Well once they showed up everyone got excited. Some teacher´s ran off, but most stayed and surrounded the truck chanting all the louder. Anna noticed a Carabinero walk up to the driver´s window and say something and she told me she thought they might have just given the go ahead to blast the teachers. Well, she was right! A lot of spectators started cheering when the water started blasting and we all got excited ;). The water pressure didn´t look extremely powerful, but it got them cold and was really dirty.
Anna was very proud because her teacher´s held strong! My school...shameful. They ran like little girls! I guess that Anna´s more humble school has grit while my better off school has become soft and wimpy :). Very exciting and funny to see middle aged women (some men teachers) get blasted and soaked by the police.
I got a little too close trying to get some good pictures and almost got wet myself. But, we ran outside of their range and were ok. I know this looks intense, and in a way it was, but you could tell that the Carabineros were not being too rough with the teachers who most likely teach their own children. Besides hosing them down their was never any batons being pulled out and wacking the demonstrators like you see on Youtube.com of the riot police at soccer games.
After the cannon wetting of a lot of teachers these Carabineros came out in full riot gear. They just stood their until their Captain (I think that´s who he was) came out and talked with some of the leaders of the demonstration. He even pumped his fist along to their chanting and seemed to treat them nice. Anyways, the teacher´s never were rounded up and they marched down to the center of town, walked around the perimeter, and then walked to the center of the plaza where they concluded their demonstration with singing and with some people speaking about them eventually prevailing.So, after seeing the big demonstration and talking with my co-teacher we realized that we were not going to be teaching any time soon. So, we decided to get the heck out of dodge and do some traveling!! The place we chose to go is about 11 or 12 hours north; a place called San Pedro de Atacama.
San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama is a very small little oasis pueblo in the middle of the desert. It draws tons of tourists every year because of the beautiful landscapes surrouding it, yet has maintained its quaint feel. The houses are made of mostly adobe and the streets are all dirt.
Here Anna and I are at the "Valle de la Luna" or Valley of the Moon. This picture doesn´t really do it justice because you can´t really see all of the valleys and hills and colors that make this place so unique and beautiful. It is called the Valley of the Moon because it is so barren with all of these craters.
After our first look at the Valley of the moon we went and saw the Valle de la Muerte and other interesting sites, but at the end of the excursion we went back to Valle de la Luna for sunset. The sunset is very beautiful there, bringing out tons of colors in the hills.
This is one of the pics I took at sunset. Notice in the background the pointy mountain? That is one of the many volcanoes in the area, but it isn´t active. I believe that it has a lake at the top and is the highest crater lake in the world.
This pic is out of order and belongs to the next picture. On our second day in S-P we went on another excursion the Salt Flats where three types of Flamencos flock to every year. This picture is a close up of one of the salt rocks that covered the ground.
Here is a pic of good lookin´Anna and I! There are no flamingos in the background of this picture of us, but we did see several. Many of the flamingos had already migrated, but we did see a lot of the kind that live high in the mountains and in the winter come down to this Salt Flat. Unfortunately my little point and shoot camera doesn´t have a great zoom and so the pics I did take were blurry. I kept following a couple of flamingos to get a close up, but wouldn´t you know it they don´t like humans getting close!
On our way up to some lakes in the Altiplanico we stopped to take a picture of this little pueblo. I forget the name of this town, but I will post more pics of our trip later and try to remember what it´s called.
On our way to the Altiplanico lakes we saw a lot of wildlife. Here is a "wild" fox that we saw...I say "wild" because they are used to tourists tossing them food so they are accostumed to coming up to tour vans. Another animal we saw during our trip was the Vicuno (tilde over the n). The Vicuno is like a wild Llama, but a little smaller.
These lakes are high up in elevation so it was pretty cold. See the white around the lake? That is salt!
Another pic, this one of the second lake.
This is another pueblo that we went to, called Tocanao, this one was on our way back to San Pedro de Atacama.
Once we got back to S-P we were greeted with a beautiful sunset!
On our third and final day we went to the Tatio Geysers. We had to get up at 3 AM so that we would be ready to be picked up at 4 AM by the tour van!! Needless to say we were VERY tired and cold. After an hour and a half of driving on a very bumpy dirt road we finally got to the Geysers.
Eskimo Anna! We were both EXTREMELY cold!!! The temperature was about 6 degrees Celcius below Zero!
Me by one of the Geysers.
Last stop of the Geysers. Bathing site. The poor people who did decide to get into the hot pools found out that they are COLD! The only hot water is where the water streams into the pool! So everyone was crowded around this little trickle of a stream that had hot water. Then they froze their hynies off trying to get dry and dressed. Anna and I just walked around and looked at the Geysers.
The tour group guide treated us to a breakfast of hot chocolate milk, bread with cheese, and cookies! They heated the milk up in the Geysers! Now that is green energy!
On our way back from the Geysers we stopped at a REALLY small pueblo where we bought some food and tea. YUM!
This tea is really good! Well, I liked it but Anna thought it was gross. It is made with a plant that grows in the Altiplanico. The flavor is like nothing I have ever tasted and is supposed to be very good for you.
Here is a pic of Anna enjoying a hot Cheese Empanada! YUMMMY! She looks a little weird here but I think that the cold made her temporarily insane :). For all of you who know her she is not a fan of cold but of WARM weather, sandles, and coffee.
Up close and personal to one of my new loves! These were AMAZINGLY good and we would have bought more but the tour van had to get going so we would get back on time. The whole trip was very cool and quite an adventure. Well, that is all for now. Anna and I will post some more pics of our trip when we have time again. Miss you all and hope you enjoyed the blog post!
San Pedro de Atacama is a very small little oasis pueblo in the middle of the desert. It draws tons of tourists every year because of the beautiful landscapes surrouding it, yet has maintained its quaint feel. The houses are made of mostly adobe and the streets are all dirt.
Here Anna and I are at the "Valle de la Luna" or Valley of the Moon. This picture doesn´t really do it justice because you can´t really see all of the valleys and hills and colors that make this place so unique and beautiful. It is called the Valley of the Moon because it is so barren with all of these craters. 
After our first look at the Valley of the moon we went and saw the Valle de la Muerte and other interesting sites, but at the end of the excursion we went back to Valle de la Luna for sunset. The sunset is very beautiful there, bringing out tons of colors in the hills.
This is one of the pics I took at sunset. Notice in the background the pointy mountain? That is one of the many volcanoes in the area, but it isn´t active. I believe that it has a lake at the top and is the highest crater lake in the world.
This pic is out of order and belongs to the next picture. On our second day in S-P we went on another excursion the Salt Flats where three types of Flamencos flock to every year. This picture is a close up of one of the salt rocks that covered the ground.
Here is a pic of good lookin´Anna and I! There are no flamingos in the background of this picture of us, but we did see several. Many of the flamingos had already migrated, but we did see a lot of the kind that live high in the mountains and in the winter come down to this Salt Flat. Unfortunately my little point and shoot camera doesn´t have a great zoom and so the pics I did take were blurry. I kept following a couple of flamingos to get a close up, but wouldn´t you know it they don´t like humans getting close!
On our way up to some lakes in the Altiplanico we stopped to take a picture of this little pueblo. I forget the name of this town, but I will post more pics of our trip later and try to remember what it´s called. 
On our way to the Altiplanico lakes we saw a lot of wildlife. Here is a "wild" fox that we saw...I say "wild" because they are used to tourists tossing them food so they are accostumed to coming up to tour vans. Another animal we saw during our trip was the Vicuno (tilde over the n). The Vicuno is like a wild Llama, but a little smaller. 
These lakes are high up in elevation so it was pretty cold. See the white around the lake? That is salt!
Another pic, this one of the second lake. 
This is another pueblo that we went to, called Tocanao, this one was on our way back to San Pedro de Atacama.
Once we got back to S-P we were greeted with a beautiful sunset!
On our third and final day we went to the Tatio Geysers. We had to get up at 3 AM so that we would be ready to be picked up at 4 AM by the tour van!! Needless to say we were VERY tired and cold. After an hour and a half of driving on a very bumpy dirt road we finally got to the Geysers.
Eskimo Anna! We were both EXTREMELY cold!!! The temperature was about 6 degrees Celcius below Zero!
Me by one of the Geysers.
Last stop of the Geysers. Bathing site. The poor people who did decide to get into the hot pools found out that they are COLD! The only hot water is where the water streams into the pool! So everyone was crowded around this little trickle of a stream that had hot water. Then they froze their hynies off trying to get dry and dressed. Anna and I just walked around and looked at the Geysers.
The tour group guide treated us to a breakfast of hot chocolate milk, bread with cheese, and cookies! They heated the milk up in the Geysers! Now that is green energy! 
On our way back from the Geysers we stopped at a REALLY small pueblo where we bought some food and tea. YUM!This tea is really good! Well, I liked it but Anna thought it was gross. It is made with a plant that grows in the Altiplanico. The flavor is like nothing I have ever tasted and is supposed to be very good for you. 
Here is a pic of Anna enjoying a hot Cheese Empanada! YUMMMY! She looks a little weird here but I think that the cold made her temporarily insane :). For all of you who know her she is not a fan of cold but of WARM weather, sandles, and coffee.
Up close and personal to one of my new loves! These were AMAZINGLY good and we would have bought more but the tour van had to get going so we would get back on time. The whole trip was very cool and quite an adventure. Well, that is all for now. Anna and I will post some more pics of our trip when we have time again. Miss you all and hope you enjoyed the blog post!
Thanks, that was really fun to read and I loved the pictures. You guys are really having a grand adventure! You will have to cook us all some of that food when you come home!
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