I jumped off the Andes Mountains

Hola Todos!

I was thinking about it the other day, and I can't believe how long it's been since I've made an entry on here! I can officially say that my schoolwork is kicking my butt and I have been traveling 4 out of the last 5 weekends. Luckily I don't have class today and finally have time to breathe! I have SO much to write about- I have had three of the most amazing trips in the past three weeks.

On the weekend of April 2 I went with my program on a trip down south to a place called Pucón. It was an 11 hour bus ride, but it was overnight so a little easier to sleep. Since Chile is such a long country, the climate from north to south is incredibly different. Pucón actually reminded me a lot of Oregon (and made me a little homesick!) except for that it had a bit of a tropical feel, but still cold, raining, and with some evergreen trees. Since the program arranged everything, we stayed in these beautiful cabanas with huge TVs, a kitchen, and great beds.

On the Friday morning that we arrived in Pucón, we took a bus all around to see some of the things the town has to offer. We hiked up and saw three beautiful waterfalls, and our last stop on the tour was thermal baths! They were tucked deep in the middle of the forest and I didn't know this before, but the reason they are so hot (or hot at all for that matter) is because they are warmed by the volcanic activity beneath them. Most of them were bearable, but there was one that the guide told us they could boil eggs on! Incredible.

(In the thermal baths)

The second day we were in Pucón we could choose which activities we wanted to do. In the morning I chose to go white water rafting (the "alto" version, which means huge rapids!). It ended up being SO fun! Our guide's name was Leo and he was intense but so much fun. My favorite memory was when we were about to go off a class 4-5 rapid, and we were paddling as hard as we could, and my friend Beth and I started screaming the song from Mulan when they are going in to war (Let's get down to business!). After we got out they had pisco sours waiting for us. What more could you ask for?

(In our wetsuits after rafting- it was freezing!)

Later the same day I also chose to go ziplining through the forest. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but the feeling of flying above the trees and over rivers is irreplaceable. For some reason the guides there kept calling me "Laura numero uno". I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking there's maybe a song with that name? Who knows! Or maybe I'm just the best :)

(Ziplining over the river)

As you can imagine, those two activities in one day was a lot, so I decided to call it a night after the ziplining. The next day I chose to go on a tour of volcanic caves. Chile in general is packed full of volcanoes, and one of its largest and most active is actually right in Pucón and called Villarica. Even though it was early in the morning and I got a little motion sick when we took a small van offroading up a mountain, it was pretty awesome to walk on volcanic rock and see these caves made by the lava. I will say, though, that after 3 months of being here during the summer, I was a little taken aback by the rain there! We were literally soaked the entire weekend, especially in the caves.

(At the end of the caves. Notice how soaked my jeans are!)

Unfortunately after the caves, we had to leave Pucón. I left there tired, wet, and I lost my voice! Imagine trying to speak spanish without a voice. So ugly!

The next weekend is when Tommy came! Vivi and I drove early on Friday morning and picked him up from the airport. That first day him and I swam in the pool with Teresa, had a fabulous Chilean lunch, and walked around the main center of the city. It was fun to be able to show him around and have someone see what I have been experiencing for the past 3 months. It is hard to keep straight what we did each day of that weekend, but we ate lunch with Vivi and Sergio, had great food every night, drove out to an artisan market, and went out with my friends to some discotecs at night. So fun! On that Monday I took him to my favorite neighborhood called Bellavista and we hiked up a little mountain right near there. It was a little hot a tiring, but so beautiful once we got to the top! On our way back we stopped and had a beer and a typical Chilean cheap meal called an Italiano. It is just a hot dog with mayo, tomatoes, and avacado on it. So so good!
(Vivi and Tommy at the airport)

(Hiking up the cerro!)

(Overlooking Santiago)

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had class all day. On Tuesday Tommy came to campus with me, and even came to a class! On Wednesday he stayed home and hung out with Sergio (which was a little awkward at times considering Sergio speaks no English and Tommy speaks no Spanish!) until I got home later in the day. That night we went to dinner at Sergio's cousin's apartment. It was absolutely delicious complete with appetizers, wine, and desert.

Early Thursday morning Tommy and I left for Mendoza, Argentina, which is a small town near the border known for it's hiking and wines. When we were about to board the bus in Santiago, the driver asked for Tommy's passport and a small yellow reciept that everyone gets when they enter Chile. Apparently Tommy had taken that out of his passport, which I desperately tried to explain the bus driver in Spanish. He was extremely nice, and said something to the extent of, "Okay, you can get on and you SHOULD be able to cross the border when we get there." Feeling risky, we went ahead and got on the bus. At the border itself, a very scary and official asked Tommy for his piece of paper, and I (with my biggest and prettiest smile) told him that we had left it in Santiago. He stared at me for a minute and then reluctantly stamped Tommy's passport. Victory! For the entire weekend Tommy and I told people that he was in Argentina illegally. Not true but still fun to say :)(Smack dab in the middle of the Andes Mountains on the bus ride there)

The first night we were in Mendoza, we went out for a delicious meal. Since Argentina is famous for its beef, we decided it would be appropriate to get some steaks. We ended up having a huge steak dinner with bread and a bottle of wine for a little over 30 dollars! The next day in Mendoza we decided to do a wine tour since neither of us had ever been on one and we knew nothing about wine. The tour we did was fabulous. They took us to three wineries and showed us how they made all the wine, and each one had a tasting. At the end of the three tours, we had this AMAZING lunch. I am not kidding you, it was the biggest feast I have ever seen of Argentinian food. Not to mention that it came with unlimited wine. Let's just say we were stumbling back to our hostel at the end of the day :)

(Tasting some wine!)

The next day in Mendoza (Saturday) Tommy and I decided to do something extreme and go Paragliding! We got picked up by this small car and we drove out to this dirt road at the bottom of a HUGE mountain (I wish I could post more pictures on here- I have so many of this mountain!). From there, we were picked up by a monsterous army-looking vehicle and drove for 45 minutes straight up a mountain! I thought it was going to be us and a bunch of other tourists, but in the end it was us and all of these Argentinian farmers who paraglide in their spare time. Haha talk about authentic! Once at the top we put on all the gear and were strapped in with guides. What happened next I literally cannot explain. No joke, we just ran off a cliff. It was incredible. The view that I had from the air was spectacular. I couldn't believe it was real! We were in the air for about 40 minutes, and then we effortlessly floated down to the ground. I thought I would be more scared but to be honest it was just so surreal that I didn't have time to be scared. Tommy and I talk even now and we can't believe we actually did it. Pretty amazing!(The truck that we rode up to the top)

(About to jump off!)

The next day, we checked out of our hostel around 10am and then had an entire day to kill in the city until our bus left at 11. We spent the day wandering around to different shops and reading in the park. The city of Mendoza is made up of five plazas, all of which are so pretty, so we spent lots of time there just hanging out. Once we finally made it to the bus, we crossed the Andes once again and made it back into Santiago around 5am. Unfortunately Tommy had to leave later that same day :( Taking him to the aiport was so sad but as I keep saying, we are already halfway done!

This past weekend I took yet another trip all the way almost to Antarctica. I promise I will write about it soon! I have a huge Psychology test on Wednesday that I really need to start studying for. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this warm weather that I keep hearing about! I will write soon!

Ciao,

Laura

Reality check: I'm actually here to go to school

Hola Todos!

How is everyone? Again I have been falling behind on my entries- I have been hit very hard by the amount of school work I've had! It's hard to say whether or not my classes are actually difficult or not because of the simple fact that they are completely in Spanish. In my literature class, we have class readings, readings for the discussion on Fridays, and a 300 page book to finish for presentation in ten days. I figured out that on average I read about 8 pages an hour in spanish, if I'm lucky. You can do the math! In my art history class, I've slowly figured out that we are in the "erotic" unit. It took me a while to understand why we were only looking at phallic pictures and I kept hearing the words "pubic region". Who knew that there was so much nudity in art history! And my psychology class in another story. It is actually really really awesome- since it is Community Psychology we are actually going out into the community in Santiago to help find resources and solutions for a youth center. In the end, I know this will be very valuable. However, trying to organize this in another language is impossible! My day today consisted of wandering around a "poblacion" (which is the insane latin american neighborhoods that you see in movies with tin roofs, etc) with a group that I was put into with all chilean students. I can definitely say that today was the first time I was EXTREMELY outside of my comfort zone. But like I said, in the long run I think the experience will be worth it and hopefully my group with be patient with me.

Last weekend was one of the best I've had in Chile! Me and a group of my close friends here traveled about two hours to very popular beach town called Viña del Mar for the weekend. We stayed in a hostel which wasn't the nicest (the showers had half curtains and there was no soap or mirrors) but the beds were comfortable and, more importantly, it was cheap! On Saturday we stayed around Viña and walked to the beach. Unfortunatly it was wayyyyy to cold to go in the water, much less wear a swim suit. A couple blocks from our hostel was a restaurant/bar/discotec called Cafe Journal (weird to say in Spanish.. haha) where we literally spent at least a third of our time. In two days we ate there twice, had drinks there, and danced there at night.(The beach in Viña)

About 15 minutes away from Viña there is another popular town called Valparaíso, which is where we spent the day on Sunday. Let me tell you, it is one of the cutest, most beautiful places I have ever been. I fell in love with it immediately. It is full of hills and churches with colorful houses lining all the hills. We probably walked 10 miles all around the city, which included walking through one of Pablo Neruda's houses (a very very famous Chilean poet). We also found our way to a place like none I have ever been. It used to be a huge jail, but was burned down many times during the dictatorship here in Chile. Now it has been converted into an art space with graffitti where you can walk around. We ended up getting a personal tour from a man that works there, who actually used to be an inmate! He told us how he dug a tunnel and escaped by digging while pretending to have conjugal visits. He also offered to take us into the isolation rooms where they used to put the really bad criminals, and even torture them. It was very cool but also moving to see a place where so many people suffered. I won't lie, though, there was a moment when he was leading our group of americans down into the pitch dark isolation chamber when I felt like I was in a horror movie. I'm alive and well though! (Valparaiso)






(the former inmate who showed us around- notice the outfit that he wears for effect!)

One more funny thing that happened in Vina- when we ate lunch on Saturday at Cafe Journal we all ended up having TONS of leftovers (mainly fetucinne) but our hostel had no microwave so we weren't sure what to do with it. We ended up boxing it all up and carrying it with us on our long walk around the city. As we would see stray dogs, we judged them based on how pitiful/hungry they looked, and if they passed the test then they got to eat our gourmet meal of pasta with shrimp. You should have seen the looks we were getting from the chileans! I have never felt like more a good samaratin, though, so it was worth it.

(Lucky winner number one. I couldn't resist when he started sniffing the bag!)

Everything is going amazing here with my chilean family! Vivi just started classes to get her MBA so she is always busy with that and with work, so Sergio and I spend lots of time here together at home. I even made Kraft macaroni and cheese for them the other night! I don't think I have ever been more homesick than I was when I took my first bite. They are both so great and they honestly treat me like their own daughter. What more could I ask for?

This weekend I am getting ready to travel down south in the middle of Chile to a place called Pucon. The trip is actually through my program so everything is all paid for and ready to go, which is so nice. It is supposed to be really cold and rainy though, which you would think I woudl be used to being an Oregonian but I have gotten so spoiled here with the 85 degree weather every day! After class all day tomorrow I leave on a 10 hour bus ride to get there, and since I just finished my last American book I am stuck reading my spanish homework the whole time. Ah! Well let's just hope this time that I'm not by the bathroom :)

Lastly, I am getting EXTREMELY excited because Tommy is coming here a week from Friday! I can't believe how fast the time has passed. I am already planning everything we're going to do, including a trip to Argentina! Hopefully the nice weather will stick around for ten more days so we can do lots of outdoor things like hiking and maybe go to a vineyard around here. I think Vivi and Sergio are just as excited, if not more excited, than I am for him to come.

This is all for now! I still have some packing to do. I am going to try and start updating this more. I have found that I am one of those people who doesn't want to sit down and do this or make a phone call unless I have a good chunk of time. What I need to do, though, is start doing shorter entries more often I think. Anyway, I'm really starting to miss everyone back home! as they say here, besitos!

Laura