Exploring

Adobe house damaged by quake

Fishermen on Playa Chinchorro (near my school)

Chilean flag

Everything is settling back down and going back to normal in Arica post quakes, although they say a bigger one is expected. Today, tomorrow, or in fifty years. So until it happens, or not, it's business as usual. Damage was minimal but even still schools remained closed until Tuesday, giving ample time for inspection, trauma and students meetings and for me, ample play time. I've been going to the beach, playing with the kiddos and took a couple of day trips. Sunday Vladimir and I joined a tour group to Lake Chungará, the 29th highest lake in the world, at almost 16,000 feet. The lake gives way to three snow capped volcanoes and is surrounded by grazing llamas and birds of prey. Along the way we stopped at the famous candelabra cacti in the Atacama, the worlds driest desert houses cacti that exist by absorbing the morning dew, we had breakfast in small town where we watched a llama chase a cat and drank coca leaf tea, stopped at lookouts for photos, the lake and then a small town on the way back. It was a long day that exposed us to five different zones, beginning at the desert and going up to the mountainous lake. The altitude was higher than I've ever experienced and we found that we got dizzy moving at a normal pace, and forget about squatting down for the perfect shot. And thank goodness for that tea.

Atacama desert, driest in the world

 Candelabra cactus

    

View of Parinacota volcano

Coca leaf tea

Llama chasing a cat

    

Llama friends

    

Lake Chungará

Monday, seeing as there were still no classes, grandma took me to Tacna with her, the Peruvian border town. She needed to order the cloths for the family's cross celebration next month. I went as more of a chaperone and followed her to three cloth stores, one three times. A barber, phone center, malls, bowl shopping, pirated movie shopping, juice shops, pharmacies, the cousin's house, markets for olives and toilet paper sold in Costco sized quantities and the bus station to look for a new maid. Longest day of my life. She was so content to be out and about, being a typical grandmother trying to buy me ice cream and cutting in line because she's older. But nine hours was a bit much for me. I look forward to exploring Peru on my time.

This Tuesday it was back to school, I have now seen half of my students two weeks into my time teaching. Fingers crossed those tectonic plates stay put at least through this week. So I can meet all my students.

Martina practicing English