18 days

Lately the days down here have been filled with a flood of emotions. I might be up one moment and feel so excited that I almost done with this experience because I want to see everybody from home. Then 5 minutes later I might feel like 18 days is still so long and that I can't believe I still have more time down here when all of my friends who studied abroad are already home and have been for a while now. This roller coaster can be pretty tiring.

I want it to be Friday, my mom will be here and we will be pretty busy until I come home on the 13th. Valparaiso, Santiago, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, Santiago, Seattle.

It is going to be interesting when I readjust to life back in the United States. It might be a little lonely at times because nobody will be there who totally understands my experience. I know it is part of the process though and so many other things will be amazing.

Spanish blog

If you are interested, I had to create a blog for my Spanish writing class and I have attached the link to it. Some of the information I have blogged about here, but also a good amount is different. It is in Spanish though so you will need to translate it to read it! I always use Google translate, it works decently well when translating.

http://chile2013escritoblog.blogspot.com/

20 days until I am home, 5 days until my mom arrives, 10 days until I go to Machu Picchu

The photos are from my horsebacking excursion with my group! First time on a horse :)

 

Chiloe/Puerto Varas (Last week in April)

So I am starting the updates that I never blogged about...



Amelia and her curanto

This was the weekend I went to Ancud and Puerto Varas with Amelia, Julie Ann and Sam. We headed on out Thursday night after our classes and took a night bus down to Puerto Montt. After the 14 hour bus ride we needed to get some fresh air and walk around a bit. We decided to check out Puerto Montt a bit but there is nothing there. It wasn't very pretty in my eyes either. We found a restaurant to eat at that was recommended by a carabinero (police here) because it was his families. The place was kinda a hole in the wall but pretty full and we could tell that it was authentic Chilean food from the south. Amelia decided to try curanto which is the dish you need to try when you go the south. It is basically just a bowl full of clams, mussels, meat and potatoes. It was a huge proportion and super delicious! I decided to get cazuela which is just basically a soup with meat and potato's, squash and potato's. It is also super delicious and authentic to Chile. After our lunch we went back to the bus station and bought bus tickets to get over to Chiloe. You have to take a bus for about 2 hours and part of that involves going on a ferry because Chiloe is an island.


On our way on the ferry



Ancud on Chiloe

We arrived in Ancud right next to the hostal that we were staying at. 13 lunas was recommended by my friend Brittney in my class. The owners were super friendly and showed us the place. We rested for a bit and then decided to walk around a bit along the water and get some food. The island was beautiful when we rode onto it and getting to walk around a bit in one of the towns was nice. That night after dinner we went back and hungout. The next day we woke up kinda late and decided to walk around and look at all the towns museums and little spots. We saw an old military spot, museums, Church's, ferias, and much more. It was a good day and made me feel like we got to see the town. We had been debating if we wanted to go to Puerto Varas and spend a night there but our hostal emailed us in Puerto Varas and had to cancel. Because of that we knew the best choice was to stay in Ancud one more night. We played games that night and talked.

 

Top of a church

Amelia and I dancing

On Sunday we woke up early because we had a bus from Ancud to Puerto Varas at 8:30. We got in around 11 and walked around the town a bit and also looked for ways to get to Saltos de Petrohue which is a beautiful waterfall. We found a touristic office and talked to her about what to do and made a plan. We went into the cutest cafe for a quick lunch and then took a mini bus to the waterfall. The ride to it was gorgeous. There were rolling hills, beautiful landscapes and animals. We all really felt like we were out in nature. The bus took about an hour and once there we walked up to the waterfall. I thought it was going to be more of a hike than it was but, oh well. The view was awesome and we all just sat and soaked it in for a bit. We had more time to kill so we walked down the river a bit on a few of the trails and I decided to find a spot to put my feet in the water! It was freezing but I had to do it. We decided it was time to start heading back so we went out to the road and had to wait an hour.... for the next minibus to come. On the way back it became full of people and I gave my seat up for an old man and had to stand for about 45mins. I think I fell asleep standing up hahah but it was the most uncomfortable thing I had done in a while because I was squished between people and it was warm. Back in Puerto Varas we found a pizza restaurant and ate because we were starving. We found ice cream also at this cute little diner place (we got ice cream every day on the trip :D). Afterwards we bought some food at the supermarket and walked up to the bus office to wait for the bus. 45mins later we were standing outside a gym waiting for our bus with everybody else. We weren't in a bus terminal because that town didn't have one, so you just have to wait on the side of the road. We got on and continued our 13ish hour trip back to Valparaiso.

Salto de Petrohue

My feet in the water!

Overall the weekend went well, but it was a little frustrating at times because I felt like I had to make all of the decisions and the other girls didn't want to ask questions. Every group is a little different and my other trips went better! More to come about my trips!

Lately

A lot has happened since I last blogged and I hopefully will blog more specifically about those when I get a chance. I went to Chiloe with Amelia, Julie Ann and Sam. Then RJ came and we hungout and went to Pucon. I then went to San Pedro de Atacama with Patricia, Tijana, Issac, Leon, Calli and Mike. Finally we hit this weekend which was my birthday weekend.

It has been pretty great with my family and friends. We went out on Friday and celebrated by going to Kelsey's house and then going to bar La Playa afterwards. Then on Saturday I received flowers from RJ and the card from my mom for my birthday. Later in the day I hungout with Kelsey, Tijana, Amelia and Calli and we went to Desayunador to get some chocolate cake. It was really delicious!! We sat there for quite a while and just talked about everything for a few hours which was really great actually. It is funny to think about that all of those girls and I have boyfriends right now. Afterwards we left and all went back home. On the way I bought flowers and chocolate for my mom because it is her birthday also on the 1st and came home to a dinner with the family. They had all the family over and we celebrated my moms birthday and mine a bit. Tonight is when we are celebrating my birthday a little more since we didn't much last night and Tess is heading over right now to come hangout.

I have 41 more days here which is crazy to think about but I think that is about as many days as it has been since I last blogged.. So I am going to do better and update more often.