30 in the sky. Desert chronicles. Day 5.

After waking up a couple of times before my alarm rang, hashtag anxiety, when it actually rang at 5:45 am I got up and dressed at the speed of light and went out to the street to wait for my van. Luckily, it came with English puntuality.

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After picking up more people, we got to this clearing in the desert somewhere between San Pedro and Toconao. The hot air balloon was still flat on the ground and while a crew was in charge of preparingit for our flight, a big table with hot beverages and croissants welcomed us. All of this in a freezing cold. The hot air balloon began to inflate and I tried to fight the cold with my first coffe of the morning without much success. Before taking off, the pilot explained us the security procedures for landing and after we all understood, we took off.

This was what out taking off point looked like.

The sky was clearer and clearer but the Sun wasn't there yet. Me,the one who wanted to start her thirties watching the sunrise in Machu Picchu, was in fact starting her thirties watching the sunrise, but over Licancabur volcano while was going up, just magical.

Not my best shot, but look at the smoke from the volcanoes and the Sun coming up, it's just ahhh.

I'm amazed with everything around me, just like a little girl, the slow motion -or at least apparently slow- flight makes you things as if you were a drone, specially when moving straight forward or backwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlhjU0Dnu6U

Here's a short video I made of the flight.

Up in the sky it was less cold and I also did what I was told not to because of my fear of heights, looking down. I felt nothing, and that's how I concluded that I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of trip on and fall.

Practical test of my fear of heights.

Good things generally don't last long enough, and it's time to land. We got into position and start going down, on another clearing in the desert. The landing spot is never the same beause of the air streams. Once again, the crew takes care of the balloon and a big table covered in food was waiting for us as well as a toast with champagne, my birthday couldn't be going smoother.

Shortly after 10 am I was back at the hostel having breakfast for the third? time, I must be a hobbit and after that I went to do my ckeck in for another activity and do my travel shopping. I wanted to take the whole crafts market with me but I managed to take quite a lot, including a blanket.

After lunch I went to to the thing I had been postponing, renting a bike and go to Death Valley, big mistake. Let's say I almost found death before the valley itself -what a drama queen-, but i ran out of air in the first slope. I wanted to go on even having a hard time breathing, but I remembered that the entrance to Death Valley was in a steeper slope, so I went back to return the bike and prepare my luggage which was quite a challenge.

At night, my other so expected moment, the astonomical tour. I can say that I had never felt so cold in my life, but it was worth it. I was wearing three t-shirts of different fabrics, my warmest sweater, a jacket, a pantyhose, wool socks, hat and gloves and even a blanket that the people from the establishment gave me, and all of that wasn't enough. Anyway, seeing one of the clearest skies in the World was worth every below zero degree.

The stars before the Moon came up were just amazing.

I couldn't take many photos of the stars because when the explaing part of the tour was over, the Moon was already up in the sky and giant, remember it was completely full just a couple of days ago. Meanwhile, I took some photos anyway and ended up with freeze burns in my hands.

The volcanoes under the moonlight.

My express trip to San Pedro de Atacama ended with a clear sky and a cup of hot chocolate. There was so much more to see but Uruguay welcomed me with a beautiful sunset while I was still in the air. See you in California.

*You can read the original version of this post in Spanish here.