Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Day # 10 - Earth

Day # 10 of 30 Days of Indie Travel
At what point in your travels have you felt most in tune with the Earth? Share a story of how you interacted with the local environment or nature.


For a location where I felt most in tune with nature I would say Patagonia, specifically Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. For a specific moment, though, I have to say San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.


I was on my way home from a late-night, "clandestine" party - the parties there have to be held outside of town because the tourists don't like to be kept up at night - and as we were walking through a field I looked up. Never in my life have I ever been so aware of the stars. The friend I was with, a Chilean, kept asking me why I had stopped walking. It was like he didn't see it. The stars, I told him, they're so beautiful. The Atacama desert - the driest in the world - is also known for one of the world's best views of the night sky. I knew this when I traveled there, but I didn't quite realize what that meant until I was string up at the 3AM sky, gawking like a child at the pitch black sky filled with more stars than I had ever imagined could be seen at one time. It was incredible.

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