All Good Things Come To An End – 13th September

Test day has finally arrived. Nervous was not even the right word, trying to find even a bit of space to prepare for the test throughout the week was not the easiest thing as everything was so fascinating that it was hard to not immerse yourself in it. I mean could you blame me? A desert with more plant life than you could ever imagine not to mention the sheer callosity of animal species present, the true scientist in myself finally made itself apparent. The urge to find out what, why, how had become my sole purpose. Never the less, we made our way to the research base and prepared our selves for the 9am ID test. An hour and a half was given to us (this was extremely generous) to answer 30 two-part questions, which in total would make 20% of our overall grade.

The test itself was smooth sailing, all of the questions related directly to what we had seen and experienced although a couple interesting questions were thrown in like in any test. What was most surprising was the amount of information that was absorbed over the week as learning never felt like learning instead it felt like sheer curiosity so the revision only enforced already known facts. Once the test was complete we all got straight back to our projects this time with a slightly different aim – make a presentation. The thought of presenting is typically daunting but this was different. The feeling of presenting your own data and idea you had is so appealing that most nerves simply vanish. Our groups time for this was a tiny bit limited in the morning as we went back to the canyon to collect the final bit of data from our previously set camera traps, ready to be analysed and written in to a report that will make the 80% of our final grade.

On the way back, a slight detour was taken yet again (can’t blame a curious mind). Our goal this time, to find an extremely rare yellow ‘Garra de leon’ flower. Having earlier being tipped off by the park rangers we went to the place where previous ones have been spotted. After an hour or so of searching, climbing and hiking we had no luck. The sites of hundreds of red ‘Garra de leon’ however did not disappoint. Just imagine high rocky hills covered in vines that end with bulbous clusters of red flowers near a rocky beach leading out to the turquoise Pacific Ocean. To our surprise, this scene was made better. How? We found a stray cat… in the middle of the desert or rather should I say he found us. Possibly one of the friendliest cats that I’ve stumbled upon in my life so as a group we decided to give it some left over meat left from one of our carrion beetle traps, nothing goes to waste right?

Upon our return our tests were ready and graded. To my surprise I had achieved a first in it, clearly the self doubt never leaves in these circumstances! With this done, the rangers invited us to their quarters where they thanked us for our scientific research that was carried out and presented us with gift in the form of a t-shirt with the best animal on it – a guanaco, even a poster was presented! In all honesty it should have been us thanking them for giving us such an amazing experience, one that I will never forget as this opportunity simply doesn’t come around often especially during the flowering desert phenomenon. This desert is truly like a garden of Eden where even the harshest of conditions are not enough to get rid of life as it always finds a way to proliferate.

To celebrate our time here with everyone a barbeque under the most amazing night sky was had. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Everywhere you looked up, would be filled with millions of stars all highlighted by the Milky Way. This was truly the point that I regretted not having a larger memory card on my camera. The way each star stood out was only made more apparent by by the various colours produced by the Milky Way – truly breath taking. But my god was it cold! After boiling middays the thought of it possibly getting cold isn’t acknowledged until its too late. Safe to say as many layers as possible are added back on! The barbeque itself was without doubt delicious, there’s just something about it that cant be beaten. Maybe it’s the open fire with the dancing of the flames that creates the perfect atmosphere or more simply… I was just incredibly lucky to be surrounded by all the people part of the astonishing experience.

With this in mind, saying goodbye was possibly one of the hardest things as this unique place had left a lasting imprint and I will probably never experience anything quite like it. Never the less, a 4am wake up called to catch our plane from Copiapo back to Santiago which meant we’d have to leave our little town of Huasco one which we had all gotten so used to.  The trip back home would take place the next day to give us some time to recover from all the travel!

All good things come to an end. I am just extremely privileged to have been part of such a magnificent experience and I would like to thank everyone that was part of it and made it possible. I cant thank an of you enough! Also a giant thank you for finally improving my Spanish, which was none existent before the field trip! Take all opportunities as they arise as you may never be able to have them again.

It’s been a more than a pleasure!

-Anna Sajez x