After a long lay over in Santiago, we had a short flight to Antofagasta, a port city in Northern Chile and the starting point for our ventures into the Atacama Desert.  In Chile, Antofagasta is known as, “La Perla del Norte” or the The Pearl of the North, for its historical and economic importance.

We were met warmly by our homestay families at the “Antofagasta International School,” a beautiful, brightly-decorated campus, seemingly situated on the very edge of the desert. The choir sang briefly for their homestay families before they went home for the evening. The slide show at the bottom of the blog shows the boys with their homestay families, and a link to a full screen version of the slide show can be found below the embedded slideshow.

Antofagasta Homestays at , Antofagasta, Chile on December 17, 2015. (Photo by E Bryan Crenshaw III).

Antofagasta Homestays at , Antofagasta, Chile on December 17, 2015. (Photo by E Bryan Crenshaw III).

Antofagasta Homestays at , Antofagasta, Chile on December 17, 2015. (Photo by E Bryan Crenshaw III).

Antofagasta Homestays at , Antofagasta, Chile on December 17, 2015. (Photo by E Bryan Crenshaw III).

Click here for a full screen slide show of the Antofagasta Homestay Reception.