busy week!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't written in a while, but I have been pretty busy with a lot of things. Since I last wrote, I did my normal school things, but I also took a trip to the really cool city of Pucon. It is pronounced: poo-CONE. The town is a ten hour bus ride south of Santiago in the middle of volcano country. There are lakes, a river, hot springs, and of course, volcanoes. The region is full of activities for the outdoorsy and adventurous type. I stayed with 4 other girls in a hostel and we did a canopy tour, went white water rafting, enjoyed hot springs, the beach, and a horseback riding tour. It wasn't overly expensive by US prices, but for Chile - it was "muy caro" (as my host family would say) - it was expensive.

Because we didn't have school on that Friday, my friends and I decided to take advantage of the 3-day weekend, and leave Thursday night. The bus pulled away from the station in Santiago at 11:25 pm. I swallowed a Dramamine to fight any nausea, and to make myself a little more drowsy for the 10-hour ride. We paid a little extra to have a Semi-Cama bus. This meant that the seats leaned back a bit more than they do in - like- a normal airplane seat. Cama means bed. The seats were still pretty uncomfortable, so even with the meds, I only got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep. We made a lot of stops along the way in tiny Chilean towns. Halfway through the trip, I woke up and looked outside. I could see different parking spots that were numbered, Anden 6, Anden 7, Anden 8, Anden 9, etc. One of the girls wondered out loud, "Where are we?" and I said, "We are in Anden!" All my friends started laughing, because "anden" means platform in espanol. I didn't hear the rest of it for a while. :)

We pulled into Pucon on Friday morning at 8 am. We were pretty sleepy, but ready to get to the hostel. Ecole was a great hostel. Run by Americans, it has a hippie vibe, is very clean, has a vegetarian restaurant, and lots of connections for things to do in town. For $13 a night, I was really pleased with the place. Our room had two sets of bunk beds, one regular bed, two tables, and a couple of ceiling lights. I guess we didn't need any more. The bathrooms were clean for the most part, and every time I took a shower, it was warm. In each bathroom are little signs with a couple rules/guidelines for the bathroom. You aren't allowed to flush your tp down the toilet. This is really common all over Chile, because many places don't have great plumbing systems. It also said stuff like keep the place clean and dry the shower off after use. My favorite rule said something to the effect of "Take quick showers to conserve water (or shower with a friend!)".

Friday afternoon we did the canopy tour. Canopy is a series of zip lines strung from trees at least 10-20 meters off the ground and you get to the next one by climbing up a series of ladders. It wasn't as safe as courses in the US, but this sport is still pretty new in Chile. I think they have only had it for 10-15 years. Because of summer camp, I know all the bad things that can happen to you. Here, they didn't take as many safety precautions as I would have liked, but I survived.

You can see the platform that everyone is standing on and the instructors are in red shirts. They just climb like monkeys all over the course - sometimes clipped in and other times not! The platforms and the trees sway a little, but it is part of the thrill. The trees aren't going to fall over, but it is still a little scary. Well, five minutes after we finished the course, the sky opened up and poured rain. We became soaking wet while waiting for the van to pick us up. I haven't seen any form of precipitation since being in Santiago - and I LOVED the rain. It was so nice to be cold for once! Santiago is still the hottest place ever. I am made for cold weather... Anyway, we rode back to town with our instructors who invited us to their house that evening for drinks. They all are from Santiago and do this job in the summertime. Since the season was ending, they were celebrating being done with the summer. The girls and I went back to the hostel and ate at the restaurant in the hostel. I had this delicious vegetarian lasagna... it was so good. Pucon was an awesome city, because they knew how to cook with flavor! On Sunday morning, I had these whole wheat, oat, and nut pancakes with fresh fruit, fresh blackberry jam, and plain yogurt. Then we had pizza that night - with garlic!!!! I was in eating heaven. (Santiago restaurants don't have any flavor -or at least, I haven't found any yet). So Friday night, we went over to hang out with the canopy instructors. It was really fun and I got to speak Spanish with native Chileans.

Saturday morning we woke up and went river rafting! I had never been before and I loved it! We had a great time with our guide. We were all suited up in helmets, wetsuits, life jackets, and water shoes. We didn't have a camera - but I wished we did, because we looked hilarious. The river was a level 4 which means that there are some pretty hefty falls and lots of big rocks. Our guide would always yell "Fuerte! Fuerte!" which means strong - so paddle strong! One part of the river is a level 6 - so we had to get out and walk through the brush to get around it. The end of the path is at a cliff overlooking the rushing water. Down below, our boat is waiting for us - and when we walked up, one of the guides says "OK, who is first?" I thought they were kidding. They told us it was about a 4 meter jump. It was pretty intense. It took me about 20 seconds of standing on the edge, before I had the nerve to leap. The jump was fine but the water took a long time to get to. I remember thinking how "I'm still falling, but I should be in the water right now!" And then BAM! You are deep in this freezing cold water! When you surface, you have to quickly swim to the boat, where your guide grabs you by the life jacket, and throws you into the boat. It was hilarious!

We kept paddling for a while before we got to this part of the river that is a pretty dangerous part. There is a one big rock that if you hit it - you could flip the raft over! So- we tried to paddle around it, but got stuck on a different rock! Then we got unstuck from that rock, only to be stuck between two rocks and water rushing over the sides of the raft! It wasn't really dangerous... just tricky. Our guide wasn't angry with us, but just annoyed because he had to do some extra work. So he helped us to climb to the side of the river (thank goodness the water was a little low) and we had to get out and climb once again, but this time there wasn't a path. The rafts are self draining, so we finally got everything figured out and went down the river. It never was dangerous - just took a little more time than planned. We like to think we got our money's worth out of the excursion.

After the rafting trip, two of the girls napped, while Kate, Christine, and I went to the beach. The lake was gorgeous and the sand was little black volcanic rocks. Isn't it gorgeous? The pictures don't really do it justice, but it still is beautiful.

That evening, the girls went to the hot springs, but I didn't feel well - so I decided to save the twenty bucks and stay in the hostel. I ended up borrowing this really good murder mystery book called The Survivor's Club. I haven't finished it yet, because Christine wanted it back on Sunday, but I only have 50 pages left and it's really good so far.

So our last day was Sunday, and Christine and I went horseback riding. It was run by some English/Spanish speaking Germans who were really super nice. I got to ride Esperanza and she was a fun horse to ride. She loved to run (which scared the hell out of me each time because I was just hanging on for dear life) and was generally really good. She was a big eater too. We would be trotting along the path and she would lean over and take a big bite out of a bush every chance she could get. It was really funny. I would worry that something was wrong with her, if I didn't know that all the horses are really well taken care of. Here is me and Christine on the horses in front of Villarica - the closest volcano.

Isn't it so pretty!!! I wish the horses would have posed better, but this was the best we could get them to do... I'm pretty sure that the pic was snapped while Esperanza was walking to that bush - to eat it. So it's Wednesday now... and my legs still hurt, especially my inner thighs. OW!

I put up all the pictures from my trip on Facebook again. The link for you to check them out is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2234202&l=8cf80&id=14811972

We got back from Pucon at 8:30 in the morning on Monday. I was glad to be back, but I was exhausted. I didn't do much except sleep then and yesterday. Again, I have another test this Friday so I need to study, but I'm procrastinating. I got a big care package from James today which I was so excited about. It had CD's, magazines, books, food, and candy inside. All my classmates were totally jealous. So I have been playing with everything in there all afternoon.

I fly home a week from tonight... I hope I can see some of you while I'm there! I plan on doing some resume work and applying for jobs - but also having a fabulous break from thinking in espanol all day.

This upcoming Sunday is Daylight Savings Time, and Chile "Falls Back" and the states "Spring Forward" - So that means we will be in the same time zone as Eastern! Isn't that a weird phenomenon? I didn't know that other countries did DST too.

Anyway, I have to go. I miss you and love you all!