viajes de mi vida...

Hello all!
Writing here after what was probably one of the best trips of my life- so far. A lot happened, so I will just go day-by-day and give some highlights and insights. This trip taught me a lot about how to travel, how to be a traveler, and how to prioritize my travels so that I am having fun and being safe and smart all at the same time. I got to get back to some of my roots, and even discover new ones. This may be a little long, so get comfy or read day by day. Overall, it was fantastic, so here we go.....
Day 1: After a long, overnight bus ride, we finally showed up in the beautiful and surprisingly suny town of Pucón, Chile about 14 hours south of Viña. We were showed to our Cabañas which were amazing, and my friend Amy and I took a much needed nap in one of the enormous beds. We Nearly missed breakfast, but thanks to the Chilean hospitality, were treated to a lovely meal. Then we had a presentation on the activities we had to chose from for our "free day" the next day, and the rafting got me all excited... But, thats for the next day. After this presentation, we all then got ready to take the bus to a Mapuche community and spend a day with them. This consisted of firstly asking the space for acceptance to enter it, and then getting a guided tour of their museum, and asking questions about their lifestyle and practices.
We then made it upstairs where we sat around a big, circular (so you can see everyone´s face when they talk) indoor fireplace (where they boil water and bake bread) and just chatted about their lifes and ours. It was very cool.
I asked the lady about their religious practices, and she talked about how they believe in spirits, and divine beings, and how when they pray, it is for the whole world. So just think- somewhere in the middle of the South of Chile, there are ancient Mapuche peoples praying for not just them, you or the environment, but for the whole world...
That night we did a little partying, as it was one of our last nights all together as a group, and hung out with some recent high-school grads as they were having a weekend party at the same resort we were at. It was pretty funny because they were all just Mezmorized by our "cool gringo ways". it was great...
Day 2: This day ruled. Since I couldnt ride horses in the morning as I had wished, I went zip-lining through the forest and over the river, instead! It was SO tranquilo to literally be flying through these environments. It was awesome. Then, in the afternoon, I got into a raft and rafted down a river! One of the guides was in a "safety" kayak, and watching him huck the nar and paddle just made me realize how much I really wanted to be kayaking! I´ve had a strange relationship with kayaking because it scares the shit our of me, but is also really fun. So now, I think its time to just go for it. It is definately a goal to look forward to. The rapids were so enticingly awesome, and definately got me pumped. I literally thought to myself instead of traveling this smmer, I Could just hang out here and be a kayak bum all summer.... Ha, but the excitement of my travels is just too big to give up. Maybe after I graduate I will disappear into Pucón with Amelie and raft and kayak....
That night, we went out on the town for what WAS going to be a just one drink, but turned out to be many and 4 AM. How this happened, was me going to the bar and ordering another drink, and hearing a guy order a "shot" who was clearly North American. In English, I asked him where he was from and he said West Virginia, and I found out that he teaches History at a Kayaking school! He was really nice, and introduced my friends and I to his kayaking friends (who are all professionally sponsored, btw...) and we had a great time chatting. Then we hit the dance floor, and I met even More kayak bums. One guy was really nice and from California, and we chatted and daced thoughout the night. Since my friend Conor (who I furthur traveled with) and I decided to stay in Pucón an extra night and didn´t want to pay for a hostle, I asked my new friend if we could crash at his place in exchange for cooking breakfast the next morning. He consulted his roomies, and all was well.So, we went back to our cabaña that night, and woke up leisurely the next morning to prepaire to go to the Hot Springs around Pucón.

Day 3: Very tranquilo day at the hot springs. Not to much happened this day, just a lot of hanging out in the Springs and chilllllllling. Much needed. I also did a lttle river walking and exploring, and realized that walking up, down and through rivers is one of my very favorite things to do. The place where the springs were was just so naturally beautiful, and got me very excited about my upcoming ravels to the South of Chile in the Lakes District. That evening, our program had a (surreal) goodbye dinner wih everyone, and we all said our farewells. It was so crazy to reflect on the first night we were all together in Chile during Orientation, and then to be here now saying goodbye??? It was really strange, but all part of the journey...

Then, Conor and I found our Kayaking friends place, and went out for some drinks and crashed on their floor. The next day we made breakfast (as promised), and left a beer in their fridge for them to enjoy.

Day 4: Then we started our adventure! The plan the whole time was to hitch hike to "cut down on costs, and up the adventure" so thats what we did. We woke p fairly early to get a good start on the day, and planned on getting South. We hitched some really friendly rides with some nice people, and ended up in these beautiful lake towns. One, Lican Ray was particularly beautiful, and we ate a nice lunch by the shore. At one point, we weren´t having much success making the distance we wanted, and decided to stop in one of Chile´s cooler cities called Valdivia, where they brew yummy beer. :) It was founded by German settlers, and has a very distinct style that I really enjoyed. We checked into our hostle, cleaned up, and made the trek to the cervecería Kuntzman. With beer as our motive, we walked and walked, but couldn´t find it. Finally we flagged down a micro and went the extra few kilometers to get there. Once we did, we took some silly pictures (soon to be on Facebook) and enjoyed our much deserved beers. So yummy! Conor ordered this Cerveza Miel (honey) which is so sweet and SO delisious! I ordered an unfiltered Lager that was divine as well. Then, we left and found a restaurant and drank more cervezas artesenales. It was great.

Day 5: We had bought bus tickets the night before to get to the town of Puerto Varas which was close to our Final Destination of this town called Petrohué, which is the launch point for a 3 day trek we had planned. So, we got to Puerto Varas, walked into town, did a littlefood shopping, and caught a bus to Petrohué where se set up our "tent" and spent the night underneath Volcano Osorno. I say "tent" because Somehow, Somewhere in between Pucón and Petrohué, our tent magically malfunctioned. We set it up in Pucón and it was fine and normal, but for some reason in Petrohué it.... just got screwed up- I don´t really know how to describe it other than "not right". (Again, Facebook offers a lovely description) But, nontheless, it was a shelter and it worked...

Day 6: We had spoken with a boat captian the day before about ferrying us over to the "town" where we would begin our trek, and he offered us a deal, so we met him at about 7:30 Am for the 2 hour ride over. When we got there, however, there was a small shore, a shack and two horses. Nothing else. But, it was the place, so we began our journey. The beginning of the hike was just beautiful. It was misting, and we walked through green pastures,and thick bamboo (yes, bamboo!) forests. There were some sketchy suspension bridges to cross, but other than that, it was magical. Our map indicated that there were farms along the way, so we decided to check one out to see if it had any food for sale. We found out that the lady would make us lunch so we agreed and hung out for about an hour while she prepaired what turned out to be one of the most heavenly lunches I have had. It started with bread. Freshly Baked Bread that she had made by hand only hours before. By the first bite, I was smitten. Never ever have I had such divine, tasty bread in all of my life. It was SO GOOD. damn. so good. Then we had soup, rice, a seafood thing, and some potatoes. All with the sides of bread and homemade goat chese. THEN, for dessert we had cherries that were lovely as well.

After peeling ourselfs from our chairs, full bellys and hearts, we continued. Our destination for that day was the Hot Springs of Callan. First, we stopped at another farmhouse to get the keys to the hotsprings, and chatted more with the lady who lived there and se gave us cookies! And two cans of beer :).

About 2 Km. later we arrived at the hot springs. We were thinking a pool of sorts, but unlocked the door to find two hollowed-out Tree Trunks that were the "baths". So, like naturals, we stripped down and jumped in the hot hot water. Then, like College students, we cracked open our beers and said "salud".

That night, we made a fire, checked out the stars, and slept in the hot tub room because, lets face it, it was way better than our "tent".

Day 6: Starting the day with another dip in the Springs, we were ready for the 16 Km treck this day to another lake. We started climbing and hiking, and ate lunch, and enjoyed more of the lovely scenery of where we were. We WERE folowing a path (which was mostly farm animal tracks) when, all of a sudden, there was No path to follow. hmmm.

yea, the path we had ben following literally just ended. Even when we back-tracked, we hardly got anywhere, because the paths were so obscure. Our map did little to help us, but we both kept our cool, and continued looking for any kind of path. Finally we came upon one, and I went to check out one way, and Conor the other. We agreed to turn around in 2 minutes. My way of the path looked farmiliar and un-promising, and when I heard him call my name, I was pretty sure he found something. And he did! We followed it and it took us right where we needed to go. phewph.

Side note on this: Getting lost and getting found have many different components. Sometimes you´re lost, lost and have NO clue, sometimes you´re found found and have Every clue going for you, and then other times you´re lost and found even when you´re not expecting either, and yet other times you´re found when you´re lost. I think that´s just how things work out sometimes. You´re always somewhere on the chart of being lost, found, found, lost. Something like that.....

Anyway, we eventually emerged into the rolling, green pastures of farmland emmersed in between mountains, lakes and volcanoes for what was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen. We bought some bread and cheese from another farm lady, and were walking when one of the people from the farmhouse the day before stopped us and recognized us and enticed us with a bottle of vino tinto. So, we agreed, and were poured two glasses of wine, as we sat tranquilo in the midst of this beautiful land. We cracked into our bread, cheese, avocado and tomato, and had a lovely feast and chatted with our farmer friend about (what else!?) American politics! He was very curious to hear our opinions on which administration we thought was better (bush or Obama) and we both expresses our pro-Obama opinions. Chile´s elections are today, and when I asked our new friend who he was voting for (I prefaced it with "may I ask you a personal question" because the Chileans are just like that...) and he never told us who his candidate was..

Well, after our bottle, we were on our way to camp down by the lake. We got there, set up our tent, admired the sunset, built another fire, and were greeted by Another farmer named Sebastián who was also very kind, sold us beer, and was Also curious about our Bush vs. Obama opinions. ¿¡Qué raro!? We chatted for a bit, but once he went on his way, we both passed out and sept soundly.

Day 7: This day we woke up slowly and took a dip in the beautiful lake that was at our feet. We only had a few kilometers to walk that day, and we did them in a very tranquilo way, until we got to this dirt road that eventually led us into the town of El Poncho where we would catch a bus back to Osorno. Upon arrival in Osorno, we set out to look for a good pizza place Conor had read about in his guide book. We were trying to find it, and couldn´t so we asked some locals who gave us another recommendation. We went there instead and feasted on pizza, salad,and yes, some beers. Then, Conor decide to get a hostle and continue his journey down South, and since I didn´t have a whole lot to do, I considered going back to Pucón to say hi to my kayaker friends, but then realized it wasn´t really vale la pena (worth it), and decided to come back to Viña instead. That took care of both a place to sleep that night (a 12 hour overnight ride) and transportation.

Day 8: Arrived in Santiago at about 10 AM, exhausted, and came back to Viña. My house is decorated with Christmas stuff, and it is so cute! Then, I napped and ate some dinner and drove around to look at the Christmass lights with my Host mom and sister. It was just lovely. A great way to end (or begin) my trip. Summer break has officially begun!

Now I am here, and still working on just exactly what it is I am going to do in the next few weeks. I need to be in Quito, Ecuador on January 4,so we´ll see how that works out. :)

...And that´s that! Thanks for reading. It was a wonderful trip, and so much fun. Happy Holidays to all of you up there!Salud.

Chau -Celine