Home(!?) ...And the adventure continues...

Hello all,
Eyes wide and tired is how i re-entered Chile after my 2 month summer vacation around Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Wow. what a trip that was. I believe my last blog left a bit of a cliffhanger as to how the hell I was to get back to Chile, so Ill relate a bit on the last few adventures...
I was traveling with this Aussie guy named Alex for the 10 days en camino back to Chile. We passed through some of the places in Colombia that I had been to before, and had some silly times in some of the smaller towns I had been to earlier in the trip. When we crossed into Ecuador, we stopped in this town called Otavalo, which has a famously enourmous market every Saturday. So, we went the next morning and barely scratched the surface of this HUGE outdoor market of crafts, jewelry, food and other little things. I got some presents for my host family, and then we were both a little overwhelmed and decided to go to Quito, where we spent the night. The next day, we planned to go to this town south of Quito called Banos, because I had contacted a guy through Couch durfing who has a farm there. So, Alex, our new friend Joanna (from Atlanta) and I all took the beautiful bus ride there. As it turned out, the farm was in Another town, so we went there instead to look for this farm. As soon as we got off the bus there, we ran into some people coming down from the farm who told us it was about a 3 km. walk up there. So, we made the (longer than expected) hot, trek up there via a dirt road surrounded by tropical landscape. Upon arrival, it was nearly dinnertime, so I jumped into the kitchen to help with the preparation. Since the walk up there was a little long, I was thinking a cold beer would be nice. But, TURNS OUT that this was not just a regular, cool farm-hostel, but rather a Harikrishna religous retreat farm, complete with a temple, sweat lodge and harikrishna devotees who explained their reasons for not eating onions, garlic or mushrooms due to the Passion (yes, Passion) it envokes in the being..... ? But, it was really nice, and everyone was super friendly. Since we were in a rush to get to Peru, we left the next night after one of the ceremonies and hitch hiked to the town where a bus could take us to the border. Luckily, I had talked to my friend Margot the day before who told me her terrible story of almost getting robbed at the Peru Ecuador border (apparently one of the most dangerous down here). So Alex and I were to be super cautious about crossing in daylight, and with luck and awareness.
So, we got to the border on a bus from Ecuador filled with people who all seemed to be family or friends or something, and who seemed really nice. Due to the dangerous warnings of the border crossing, I asked one of them if we could stay with themand cross all together. TURNS OUT, they were a Super friendly band of dancers and musicians, en route to a band competition in Lima, and openly welcomed us to stick with them. So, we piled our stuff into a 20 passenger van, and litterally rode the "band wagon" across the border with them. The guy who I had originally talked to then helped us get another bus to the hot, sandy party haven of Mancora, where Alex and I were to stop for the night. So, we thanked them profusley and were on our way.
Having it be my second time in Mancora, I felt accostomed to the lifestyle of the party beach scene, and was SO glad to be getting out of it! ha, but Alex loved it (aussie...) and stayed, while I left the next day to take an 18 hour bus to Lima, where I would then go immediately to the airport to fly back to Chile. And that is what I did. After the long ride next to a mother and her two kids, I got to Lima, and was taken to the airport by a very friendly cab driver who gave me a Very discounted rate. (the favor is to be returned to a foreigner in my home Country). Then, popped back to Chile and discovered that my host family was in Santiago, and I was not able to stay at the house that night. But, fortunately my friend Rachael from last semester was in town and invited me out, so we went to a Disco, and I crashed on her couch. Then, the next day I called my landlord in Valpo and arranged to move my stuff in that day. With help from my friend Donnie, I finally got my stuff moved in and met my new roomates from Spain, Germany and Austria! And a new semester continues.....
chau chau!