I´m at the begining of the end in the place that I began.

Oh man, I'm sitting a table away from a guy making a paper mache mask, I love it! Hostel craft time is the best. So my last few days in Iquique were action packed. We rented a car and hit the road for our last batch of tide pool surveys. We found lots of new species including GIANT FUZZY CHITONS seriously the size of my hand, bright blue anemones, big sucker fish that clung to rock faces and would drop off into the water when they sensed our presence, and one feisty octopus that changed brilliant patterns in the flash of a second. The waves in this area could not be trusted though and the beach was jagged rock, so it was difficult to do counts. There were times when I would be like 3 meters from where the waves were coming up and then suddenly a freak giant one would appear and we´de have to make a run for it. The first time this happened I wasn't fast enough and got knocked over onto the rocks, landing on my knees. Good adrenaline rush though. After spending the whole day out we stopped by this beach side ghost town that had a castle up on a rock and a cemetery. We found out later that almost everyone in that town died from a tsunami. The next day Jorge picked us up and took us out into the driest desert in the world. Our day began with a bang, seriously, we were stopped by police on the highway and we weren´t sure why until there was a giant explosion out in the desert in front of us. Still not sure what that was about. Jorge took us to this abandoned nitrogn mine, a sad, spooky place where the Chinese workers were treated horribly. They were paid in fake coins that were only good at the factory store so they couldn´t buy anything down in Iquique. When they protested this, they were fired upon with machine guns and it was said that their blood ran all the way down into the ocean. It was these Chilean factories that really woke people up about worker´s rights. Afterwards we headed out to the geoglyphs which were really so much bigger than I expected. It was indescribably hot and dry out there, I can´t imagine how people were able to make them up on the steep slopes. They are 8000 years old and were the billboards of those times, advertising water, livestock and such. Then we drove through the flat, cracked desert for a while before reaching this bizarre town that exsists in the middle of it, just this oasis of green that looks so out of place in the harsh landscape. The town survives on natural springs and they produce mangos and oranges. We spent the afternoon in a hotspring that was partially underground. You could go back into these clay caves to almost complete darkness. We bought a bag of oranges for juicing and it was probably the best orange juice I´ve ever had in my life. Our last day in Iquique we spent saying goodbye to the beautiful Pacific and getting knocked around by waves but this time on the sandy beach. There happened to be a porteño at our hostel who was an asado master, so we had a bqq then reluctantly packed our bags. At the airport we had the biggest face-off with customs over some presents that we are determined to get home. We were arguing for at least 30 minutes. Security was being so ridiculous but we couldn´t back down and managed to get all 14 gifts onto the plane. I know the guy just wanted to keep one for himself, because thats what it came down to. Although I love Chile, it can seem totally strict at times and I love how Argentina just doesn´t give a shit. Like I got here with a bag of mangos that the dog sniffed out, and I was like here, take em, but security shrugged and said they didn´t want them. Its so funny because I was declaring all this stuff, but they never actually took my declaration paper from me. Anyways, now I´m back in Buenos Aires to wrap up class. Got to see baby Luca last night and he really is so beautiful! Now I somehow must finish my journal and species accounts once and for all, although its insanely hard knowing I will be finished with school in less than 2 weeks. I just want to slack off and play in the sunshine.