Travel | Kyle Hepp

May 3, 2012

Are you SO jealous? Yep, I got to stay in Hotel Tierra Atacama! I’d heard it was one of the nicest hotels in Chile and I was not let down in the slightest.

I left with a friend for San Pedro de Atacama at 5am in the morning. Meaning, we had to be at the airport at like 3:30am. Waaaaay too early.

But we arrived at the hotel and I didn’t even care how tired I was. It. Was. Gorgeous.

So worth it. We stayed our first night in San Pedro in luxury.

The whole vibe was very natural. Even though you were amidst luxurious settings you still felt in touch with Mother Nature.

The outdoor shower was hands down my favorite part of the entire place. I felt ecologically guilty because I took two showers, one during the day and the other at night when I could see the stars. AMAZING. There is something freeing about looking up and seeing the Milky Way and every other constellation whose name I don’t know, while you’re doing such a daily routine task. It was very romantic.

The hotel gave us free water bottles! I loved it. Ecologically friendly and also very useful. My friend and I took them with us on our journey to Bolivia.

I definitely appreciated the luxury of excellent shower/hotel facilities as soon as I got back from Bolivia.

The beds in the rooms were super comfy and the room also had a lovely outdoor patio, perfect for reading in the sun. I felt like a very relaxed lizard.

One of my favorite things was that you could eat all your meals outside too. These two delightful women allowed me to photograph them toasting and having a good time at the Tierra Atacama. Isn’t this picture cute? They are Argentinean…

And I kid you not, the Tierra Atacama has the BEST. PISCO. SOURS. EVER. Seriously. I became addicted. I had dinner by myself one night and I’m sure that I had about 3 more than what is considered “acceptable” for a woman dining solo

The food was ridiculously good too.

Mmmm, gazpacho.

The ambience of the hotel was incredibly relaxing.

I hope someday I get to go back to visit the hotel and stay for a longer visit!

Disclaimer: According to the FTC rules I have to tell you that Tierra Atacama sponsored my hotel stay. However, please note — I am not being forced to blog about this and I wouldn’t say any of it if it weren’t true.

21 Comments

May 1, 2012

Things I Like A Lot:

-Wearing my seatbelt.

-Driving in a slow and controlled manner. On roads.

-Summer sun.

-Meeting new people.

-Warm beds.

-Hot showers.

-Cleanliness.

-Dishes washed in soap and hot water.

Things I Really Don’t Like:

-Carsickness.

-Winter clothes and/or layers. Layers make everyone look fat.

-Germs.

-Listening to strangers sleep.

-Cold wind.

-Crossing country borders illegally.

Day in a jeep driving through the Bolivian Altiplano was basically my worst nightmare. Yet, for whatever reason, I was really drawn to this trip. After trying and failing to plan to go with Laura last Jan. when my friend decided to come down to Chile, and Patagonia went on strike, we decided to head up to San Pedro de Atacama and do the Salar de Uyuni tour from there. I was BEYOND nervous.

See, here’s the thing about me. I’m always scared. Of everything. But I try really hard not to let that stop me. In this case, I’m so very glad I didn’t let my fear get in the way of going. Bolivia was a soul searching trip. I needed it. This journey was amazing in so many ways. And fucking freezing. But really, really amazing.

Have you conquered any fears lately?

30 Comments

April 17, 2012

I’m bringing Los Roques back. Sadly, we’re coming to the end of this trip. And these aren’t really the paradisiacal photos. The last morning we didn’t have time left to go to a beach before our flight back to Venezuela so we decided to walk around Los Roques and take photos of the actual town itself.

I happen to think it’s adorable. Picturesque with lots of bright colors and cool textures, it’s like one of those places you think exists only in the movies.

Our little charter plane was leaving quite early, plus we didn’t have any sunscreen left. No, we’re not idiots, we brought a full tube with us to Venezuela, but we went through it insanely fast. At one of the recent weddings I was at a bridesmaid said, “That color lipstick is so pretty with your pale skin!” and I was shocked because that was immediately following this sunbathing trip and I was the tannest I’ve been in the past 8 years. I couldn’t believe she thought I was white!

Anyways, point being, I’m more…alabaster than most and I used massive amounts of SPF 80 every day. We were going to buy more but the stuff was like gold in Los Roques, too much for our sad tourist budget to afford, so we had to just run from shade to shade. And by we, I mean me. I ran sprinted from underneath a tree to a shady porch of a building, while Seba strolled leisurely behind me laughing his head off.

In between cracking up, pointing and laughing at me, Seba brought up a good point — what must life on this island be like for the permanent inhabitants?

We already know that the majority of them make their living off of tourism. But that has a downfall to it as well. If every day products like a tub of sunscreen are crazy expensive, no matter how much they make, I’m sure it’s hard to afford life on the island.

We saw the small school on the island and they’re also building a hospital. What they’ve always done up until now in case of medical emergencies is to have a standby boat on call. One of the locals guarantees his boat and driving services for a set amount of time. It only takes approximately 4-6 hours to make it back to the main-land coast of Venezuela.

Aside from the cost, the supermarkets had nothing! I’m not sure if we were there on a low-stocked day, but of the few family stores we went into, they were severely lacking in the meat and fresh veggie department.