Patagonia, The W Trail

Wow, almost two weeks later , and I still can't believe all of the beauty I got to see in the Patagonia in Southern Chile.  Sorry to have lacked so much on this post, but coming home and the holidays have been quite the whirlwind! Anyway, here is the outline of the Patagonia backpacking excursion. Our group got so close during our trek (maybe closer than we would have liked!), and I want to give a big thanks to Laura, Ellen, Nolan, and Nathan for making it as incredible as it was!  The trip started off with quite the large amount of traveling... a bus, a flight, a transfer bus, another bus... and the next day there was another bus, and a boat! Woo! But well worth it. Here's the itinerary we stuck with, along with some daily details.

Friday, December 7th:
--7:30am: Take 2 hour bus from Puerto Natales to the catamaran inside of Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
--11:15-11:45am: Visit Salto Grande waterfall.  At this point, we knew it was a 15 minute walk from where the catamaran picked up to Salto Grande, and so we decided around 11:15 that we'd better get a move on if we wanted to see it.  With a lot of wind and rain along the way, we made our way up there, and it was beautiful! The only downside: on the way back, when we were on our way back to catch the catamaran, we checked our watch, and it was 11:55am. We were on the other side of the lake, and still had about a 10 minute walk to where the boat picked up, but usually things in Chile run a little late, so we thought we'd be okay. But that was before the boat engine turned on and there was no one else left walking there! So, with little time to make and still needing to grab our backpacking packs, we decided to run the last 10 minutes. Thankfully they waited for us, and our packs got to go on top of the pile of backpacks so we were the first off! Everything turned out okay.

The crew at Salto Grande

--12:30pm: Get off the catamaran, make a quick lunch, and start the 11km, 3 hr hike to our first campsite at Refugio Grey.  Along the way, the winds were so strong that we were literally walking around like we were drunk. Feet crossing each other, walking on and off the trail, and trying to keep ourselves and our heavy packs from falling down! To give you an idea of how windy it actually was: 2 buses driving around the park that day were actually blown over, with people in them and all! Pretty scary!
--4:00pm: Arrive at Refugio Grey, pay $4000 each for campsite (free campsite was closed in that area during our time there), set up our tents and leave our stuff to go on an hour hike to see Grey Glacier up close and personal! When we got back we just rested, made dinner, and went to bed.

Glacier Grey

Saturday, December 8th:
--6:30am: Wake up, make some oatmeal, pack everything up and get on the road by 8:00am to head to Campamento Italiano.
--11:30am: Arrive back down to starting point from the day before, make lunch.
--12:15pm: Start walking again
--4:00pm: Arrive at free Campamento Italiano.  This campsite was definitely the busiest, because it was a possibility to stay there for two nights for some people if necessary. At this point we were in the middle of the W of the W-trail.  To get to the camp, it was necessary to cross a rickety wooden hanging bridge, held down only by a pile of rocks and a couple of steel cables. From the bridge was a great view of mountain ranges covered in glaciers and waterfalls. Not too shabby!
--6:00pm: Make dinner, settle down for the night, and head to bed.

Sunday, December 9th:
--6:30am: Wake up, oatmeal, pack up the girls tent and put all of our stuff in the boys tent while we do a day hike up the middle of the W, through Valle Francais.
--8:00am: Start hiking, get to end of Valle Francais by 10:30am.  This was one of our favorite sections of the W, and we were really glad to get an early start because we were able to avoid most of the cloud cover and see it when it was clear. It was also pretty nice to be hiking without our packs, at least for a couple of hours!

The crew in Valle Francais

--1:30pm: Arrive back at camp, make lunch, pack everything else up, and head on our way to Refugio Los Cuernos to cut off some time on the following day's hike.

On the way to Campamento Los Cuernos

--4:00pm: Arrive at Los Cuernos, set up camp under a tree, relax a bit at the campsite below ours and read with the great view we had! Later made dinner, read some more, and headed to bed to rest up for the longest day of hiking the next day.

View from campsite at Los Cuernos

Monday, December 10th:
--6:30am routine wake up and schedule, hiking by 8:00am

--2:30pm make it to Campamento Las Torres.  We made surprisingly good time this day considering there was so much terrain to cover, but we hiked pretty quickly and kept the breaks short.  The casualties of this day included me slipping down a dirt path on a steep path and falling into a thorn bush with my left arm and hand, Laura later on landing in another thorn bush, and some wet tennis shoes during some water crossings.
--3:00pm: The campsite was set up on a 30ish degree slope, and the park ranger suggested to us that we set up our tents at the bottom, because there was better wind and rain protection, so we did. A little bit after we set them up, it started raining pretty hard, and we were pretty wiped, so we just decided to read a bit and nap. About an hour and a half later, when we woke up, it was still down pouring.  I took a look out of the vent of our tent, and immediately said, "Umm... guys? I think we might have a problem!" Turns out that having a tent at the bottom of a hill after two hours of rain ends up with our tent being located in a puddle, with a small stream running next to us! Because it was still down pouring, we just laughed it off, decided there was nothing we could do about it for the time being, and we warned the boys what was going on. However, rather than laughing it off and waiting it out, they had a slight diva freakout (don't be mad about my adjective usage guys, you know it's true), and decided to pack everything up in the middle of the storm and move their tent uphill. They did, and it ended up being fine. When the rain let up a little later, we ended up doing the same, with the tent still intact but to a new, drier spot uphill. I'm not sure what the park ranger was thinking, telling us to camp at the bottom. He must have enjoyed watching us struggling to move our tent over logs and other people's tents in the rain! Typical Chilean.  After struggling to find room in the covered cooking area to make dinner, we finally did, and after being well fed, went to bed early because the next day was an early wake up.

Tuesday, December 11th:
--4:00am: Wake up.
--4:15am: On the trail of death (straight up!) to hike up to see Las Torres at sunrise (meaning yes, we had to hike in the dark with our headlamps for most of the way up).  We brought our packs, but they only had sleeping bags and warm stuff for the top to watch the sunrise in.
--5:00am: Arrive at the top, bundle up, and enjoy the view! We spent an hour up top.

With Las Torres in the background

All bundled up at 5:30am

--7:00am: Arrive back down, pack up camp, and make breakfast. Head out around 8:15am.
--11:00am: Arrive down at the base, make lunch a little later, and then it's the waiting game until the transfer bus back to the regular bus at 2:30pm.

When it was all said and done, this trip was absolutely amazing. The sights, company, and even the food (at times) were really great! It was the perfect ending trip to an amazing 5 months in Chile, and the trip of a lifetime.

Thank You Chile

While I am here in Chile on this great American holiday, mourning my lack of stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and other delicious Thanksgiving foods, I was suddenly hit with this thought: "Hey! Look at the bright side! You won't be feeling guilty about the size of your ginormous stomach afterwards! And, there are so many wonderful things here to be thankful for too." And that got me thinking, there really are so many things! In fact, I decided to make a list. While in no particular order, I'd like to say thank you to Chile for:

1. Empanadas.
2. The delicious panadería on the corner of my street.
3. Pisco Mango.
4. Watching "Los Tres Chiflados" (The Three Stooges) with Mamá as she cries laughing so hard.
5. Cooking with my host sister Leslie.
6. Seasons 1-7 of Dexter.
7. Skype and WhatsApp.
8. Sunny days at the beach, and living only 15 minutes away from it.
9. Finally being able to understand Chilean slang po. Cachai?
10. Being able to see the desert, beach, mountains, lakes, and glaciers all in the same country.
11. Good wine.
12. Cheap public transportation.
13. Friends who have turned into family down here (Laura, Rachel, Geneva, Lindsey, Katherine, Kassi, Nolan, Nathan, Katie, Karina... to name a few).
14. The openness and caring attitudes of the Chilean people.
15. Llama/Alpaca sweaters.
16. Flor de Chile.
17. Finding the bagel shop on 7 Norte.
18. Thursday morning coffee dates with Rachel and Geneva.
19. Bros like Nolan, Nathan, and Laura.
20. A host family that loves me.
21. ISA.
22. The old woman who found my wallet back after it was stolen.
23. A wonderful family back home who are so supportive and caring.
24. DU for having such a great abroad program and the Cherrington Global Scholar Program.
25. My grandparents for sending me cards with frogs that hug you.
26. Sunscreen.
27. Morning runs on the beach.
28. Warm showers.
29. The coconut cookies that Mamá buys.
30. Mint tea at once.
31. Pazookie and movie nights.
32. Friends from Steamboat and DU always there for me.
33. Orbit gum.
34. Peanut butter.
35. Earplugs.
36. Chorrillana, even thought it's a giant plate of grease and occasionally undercooked meat.
37. Only being able to talk in Spanish with my host family.
38. Discotecas (Bar Arena, Oasis, Ovo, etc.)
39. The colors in Valparaíso.
40. Llamas.

Well, there you have it. There are so many more than 40, but this is what I came up with for now. And yes I ended the list with Llamas. Duh. They're awesome. I can only hope everyone else has as many things to be thankful for as I do today... Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends currently abroad and everyone back home too!

Pucón: Land of Volcanoes and Tarantulas

Thanks to my great study abroad program, ISA, we had the opportunity to go to Pucón, a city in the lake district of Chile. It was absolutely beautiful, and really reminded me of Colorado which was really wonderful! After a longggg 12 hour nighttime bus ride, we finally arrived and got a couple of hours to rest at our cabins. From there, ISA took us to several beautiful places throughout the day, including waterfalls, blue lagoons (really really blue!), a lunch at a Mapuche woman's house (so cool!), and to top of the day, we got to soak in some hot springs in the mountains. So wonderful.

Beautiful flowers/river in some old lava runoff from the volcano.

Light coming through the roof of a hut at the Mapuche woman's house

Blue flannel, blue lagoon

The next day was a big one, we had to wake up at 5:45am in order to get all set up to hike Volcán Villarrica! This volcano is absolutely beautiful, and can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the surrounding area! We had quite the group (mostly just girls...girl power!) hiking up with us, and it was so cool! We were pretty lucky with the weather to have been able to go up in the first place... they've said that even if there's one big cloud in the sky, they sometimes won't let groups go up! Thankfully we had perfect blue skies. The first bit was just dirt, but then after awhile we were just climbing in snow... which was the best part! We got to use ice picks in order to help us on our way up and down, I know I was feeling pretty legit, just saying. After about 4.5 hours, we made it to the top. It was not an easy hike! At first I was complaining a little about how slow we were going in the dirt part, but I was pretty glad for the slow pace after awhile. However, it was all well worth it once getting to the top, what an incredible view, so amazing! At the top, we walked around the crater of the volcano a bit, but had to make sure to not get too close because there were parts where there was snow, but no supporting ground underneath the snow, so it could have broken off and had someone fall in! Ouch! After getting our fair share of pictures in at the volcano and finishing our lunches, we had to get geared up for going down the volcano. Remember how it took 4.5 hours to get down the volcano? Yeah... it only took maybe 1 hour or so to get down. How is this possible you may ask? Well, we glissaded down! Basically, we slid down the snowy part of the volcano either on our behinds or on small sleds fitted for someone's backside, and let me tell you... it was AWESOME. To give you all an idea of what it was like, my friend Nolan had his GoPro with him, and took a video of part of the way down... here is it's link!

https://vimeo.com/53548844

Basically, it was totally awesome. I mean, who can say that they've been sledding down a volcano in Chile before!? Once we got to the uncovered dirt part, we had to walk the rest of the way down (super sad day), but it was only about 20 minutes... not too bad. We got bussed back to the tour company, and were welcomed back with some cerveza! Awesome, yet again. Thanks tour company! The rest of the day we just lounged around by the lake... hiking volcanoes kind of takes it out of you.  Pictures from the hike are below!

Chairlifts on the volcano... it also has a couple of ski runs!

Laura and I at the top, with a different volcano in the background

Our last day, we still had a full day around Pucón and didn't have to be ready to go until 7pm. We woke up early to catch the earliest bus, and made our way to Huerquehue National Park to do some hiking and sightseeing. It was really beautiful, and we had a great view of the volcano as well as many lakes and waterfalls along the way! A couple of the girls wanted to swim in the waterfall area, but Laura and Emily and I wanted to keep going in order to see the lakes which were higher up! And luckily, we made it and got to see two of the three main lakes. They were really gorgeous. Hiking down had to be quick, because we had to be back in order to catch our 2:15 bus... with a little bit of running at the end (for about 20 minutes actually!) we made it back with a couple of minutes to spare before the bus got there. Before we did though, Emily all of the sudden asked, "Hey guys, did you just see that spider?" And we said, "No, where?" She then proceeded to point at not just any old spider, but a freaking ginormous wild tarantula. Let me tell you, that thing wasn't a spider, it was a stinking monster! Bleh... the picture still gives me the heebie-jeebies. Gross.

Giant, disgusting tarantula monster.

Laura, myself, and Emily at one of the lakes we made it to!

Oh well, it was still another beautiful day in the mountains surrounding by the beauty that we have in the world! Made me feel right at home again (minus the gigantic "spider"). The weekend ended with another 12 hour bus ride back, brutally just as long as the first one, but well worth it after a great weekend in a beautiful place. I can't wait to head back south in December when I go to Patagonia, it's really like a whole other world down there! It really is true what they say about Chile, God took the scraps of every kind of geography in the world, and put it in this country!

Gratitude

Yesterday, somewhere in between getting on the bus to school and coming back from school, my wallet was stolen out of my school bag. It had my credit card, debit card, $100 of Chilean Pesos, my metro student pass, and my Chilean ID (I can't leave the country without that).  I didn't notice it was missing until last night when I was getting ready to go out with some friends, and afterwards, ending up needing to call several people in order to cancel cards, figure things out, etc.  With incredibly good luck, this morning as I was doing homework, I received a call from an unknown number on my phone. It was the office of the metro station, and a woman had found my wallet and called the metro station since she knew they would have my contact information. They gave me her number, I called her, and we agreed on a meeting place in front of a supermarket near where she lived.  I called my friend Nolan to come with me just in case (you never know, and this neighborhood is a little far from me and kind of sketchy).  We made it up there, she and her husband came and gave me my wallet, and it had everything in it except the cash, big relief! She was so kind, and her husband was a bus driver and had found my wallet stuffed between the seats of his bus as he was cleaning it for the night last night.  While it was a bummer to lose the cash, I still got everything else back which is probably more important anyway.  I wish there was something I could have given her... a finders reward, something, but unfortunately without my cash/wallet I couldn't.  She told me she wouldn't have taken it anyway, and was just glad to have been able to help.

Moral of the story, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped me last night and today! My Mom and Dad for skyping and calling banks for me, my program director Elena for giving me advice on what to do, several of my friends for being supportive and calling/texting to make sure I was ok, Nolan for coming on the bus with me, and Alecía, the woman who gave the wallet back!  Before my four months here in Chile, if I had been in the same situation that happened last night, I probably would have freaked out, been crying, and just really stressed about the situation.  But instead I stayed mostly calm, realized that while yes it was a pain to lose all of that stuff, it could all be replaced. And I hadn't been mugged or harmed at all, so yet again, one more thing to be thankful for.  I really think my time here has helped me to realize that as much value as we give to certain things, usually materialistic things, there is always something more important and more valuable to be grateful for.  Basically, as we come upon Thanksgiving next week, I'm really realizing how much everyone in my life means to me, and how thankful I am to have each and every one of you around!

"All we have is all we need. All we need is the awareness of how blessed we really are."
-Sarah Ban Breathnach

La Familia Swiggart en Chile

Three Swiggart's in Chile at the same time. It's a potentially terrifying concept for those of you who know us for who we truly are... but don't worry, Chile, and my parents, made it out alive. It was a whirl-wine... I mean whirl-wind... 12 days, but I wouldn't change a minute of it! I'll give a day-by-day play-by-play, so here goes:

Friday, October 26: Head out of Viña at 7am to make it to the Santiago airport in time to pick the padres up.  Their flight got delayed an hour, so I had about an hour to sit and read my book before they got there, but when they did, the reunion was just as great as I had imagined!! Mom spotted me first, and we did all our hugs and kisses and went off to find a taxi.  While reminding Dad to keep his luggage close to him and not on the opposite side of the airport hallways, we made our way to the taxi area, got one, and were off to the Santiago hotel where we were going to spend 3 days. The hotel was GREAT. We had an awesome room, with a waterfall shower that gave hot water 24/7 (who would have thought!?), and a great pool/deck.  Since they were pretty wiped from their long travels, we decided to have a leisurely day. We walked around a nearby park in our Las Condes area, spend some time at the pool just lounging and relaxing (Dad may or may not have let a snore or two slip) and then got ready for dinner. To say that the dinner we had that night was amazing is an understatement. It was SO good. Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted, and a good night of sleep was much needed.

Saturday, October 27: Before my parents got to Santiago, I had found out about a free walking tour from a company called Spicy Chile. We decided to go to the meeting spot for the tour at 10am this day, and we are really glad we did! We met outside of the Palacio de La Moneda, where the president resides, and were lucky enough to see an incredible changing of the guards. Once we found our guide, Carla, she told us that she had never seen a changing of the guards quite like it, it was much more extravagant.  We got to see a parade, music, and lots of other cool exchanges.  From there we started our 4 hour walking tour! We got to see Bellavista, Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucia, Parque Forestal, Pablo Neruda's Santiago house, and many other things! Along the tour Dad also convinced the guide to take us to an incredible ice cream shop that she had pointed out as her favorite, Dad's treat. Definitely not upset about that one.  After the tour we went back to Cerro San Cristobal so we could go up to the top, and after having walked for about five hours already, we decided to take a $4.00USD taxi up and down the 6km hill. Hey, it was steep okay!? We then made it back to the hotel, had some more pool/relaxing time, cleaned up, and went to an excellent restaurant called Tiramisu right across from our hotel. If you are in Santiago in the Las Condes area, this is a must stop! Great pizza, salad, and wine! Yes, my parents and I LEGALLY shared a bottle of wine. And we finished said bottle of wine. I won't go into details for my parents sake, but they were both rather giggly and red-cheeked, and I may have heard stories that I'd never heard before about their pasts! Oh my! It was definitely a dinner to remember, and still makes me smile to think about it :)

Sunday, October 28: Well, we tried to go to Los Dominicos artesian shopping district on this morning, but unfortunately due to Chile's elections which were being held, it was closed! Not to be discouraged, we went back to the hotel, and enjoyed some more poolside relaxing in the wonderful Chilean sun.  After a day of bumming around, we went back to an area we had walked through on our walking tour called Lastarias, which we really liked! Cerro Santa Lucia was also really close to that area, and we decided to try to make our way in/up to actually see the beautiful water fountains it has.  We walked through the gate, when a guard told us they were actually just closing up. Thankfully, with a little gringa sweet-talking, he caved and let us go up and take a couple of photos before hurrying back down.  Thank you blond-ish hair!  Most restaurants were still closed in that area due to the elections, so we took the metro back to our area and found a great steak restaurant there.  The stars were really out that night, and surprising actually visible through all of the Santiago pollution, so we enjoyed those for awhile before finally going to bed after another long day!  Side note- Santiago metros are not quite as clean as those in Viña/Valpo... we constantly had clumps of long black Chilean hair floating across the floor as the wind blew through the moving metro train car... super gross.

At la fuente in Cerro Santa Lucía

Monday, October 29: Mom and I went back to Los Dominicos to do a little shopping, and had a blast doing so! We let Dad stay home to do whatever it is that guys do when women go shopping, and came back, grabbed some lunch, and took the metro to our bus station! Getting all of the luggage to the metro and onto the bus was a little interesting, but the parents were such troopers and did great! We got to Viña with time for me to go back to the hotel with them before my class, and checked into their room there... such a beautiful hotel yet again with the most amazing ocean view!  Unfortunately I had to ditch them to go to class for an exam, but I came back afterwards! I went up to the room expecting to find them in pajamas watching tv or playing cards, but alas, the room was empty! From our balcony you could see into the restaurant, and after a significant five minutes of creeping, I determined a couple down there was them and went to join! I got there, and not only were they almost done sharing an ENTIRE bottle of wine, but they were just jumping into a big dish of ice cream! The ice cream is definitely no surprise, especially coming from Dad, but the bottle of wine!? I was thinking, who are these lush people and where have my parents gone!? Guess they just had to celebrate finally making it to Viña!

Tuesday, October 30: Lazy morning, and then we went to my host family's house for a big almuerzo! It was anticucho time, and we came with hungry stomachs. With the exception of Francisca, my 21 year old host sister who can speak some English and understand a lot, and myself, nobody else understood anything of the other people speaking! It made for a very interesting translation process, but it was great practice, and everyone got along incredibly well, and we had a great time! Papá's food was delicious, and there was definitely no shortage! Chileans really do know how to eat lunch, and a lot of it! Told you Mom and Dad!  At one point, my host family was showing my parents some old pictures, and there was one of Mamá looking rather sexy with a diva pose when she was younger, and when my Dad saw it, he wanted to jokingly say something along the lines of "Wow, hot!" in his Jim Swiggart-esque way... and so, in Spanish, he said, "Wow! Caliente!" while touching Mamá's arm... and in that specific situation, the word "caliente" was referring not towards "hot" but actually to "horny"... so Dad is touching Mamá's arm, while talking about horny references... needless to say, there were some wide eyes, then a lot of laughing, and then when I told my parents what it actually meant, there was even more laughing on their parts. It was quite wonderful, and definitely an unforgettable, yet slightly embarrassing moment!  Another great part, lunch ran a little long, and rather than going to class, Mamá and Mom both gave me permission to ditch. Awesome! Thanks Madres!

Wednesday, October 31: After running some errands in the morning, exploring a nearby castle on the water, and me registering for my classes for next quarter at DU, we all enjoyed some empanadas at the pool at the hotel. Rough life, I know.  That afternoon I had to go to class unfortunately, but I didn't feel guilty, because Mom and Dad had plans of their own! The day before, my Chilean Papá had offered to take my parents on a driving tour of Valparaíso this next day since he didn't have to work.  I told him I had to go to class during the time he wanted to go, but he said it didn't matter, and that they should go anyway! I asked Mom and Dad if this was okay with them, and they said it sounded great! However, the part they apparently didn't understand was that I wouldn't be there! When they found that out, they were a little nervous, but were game for anything! After class I came back to the house, where we were all going to have oncé together, and they still weren't back! But when they did come back, Fran was with them, so thankfully there had been at least some kind of translating, and they had all had a blast! Oncé was yet again filled with hilarious little mistranslations and conversation, and we also left VERY full. We had panqueque's and my favorite "traigo" (alcoholic drink) called Cola de Mono. YUM.

Laughing at oncé

Thursday, November 1: Today was a tour of Viña! We saw Parque Quinta Vergara, La Parroquia, La Plaza de Viña, and ate at my favorite ice cream shop (anyone noticing a trend here yet with the ice cream?).  We had a nice homemade sandwich lunch on our hotel balcony and played cards, and then went for a tour of Valpo in the afternoon.  My friend Nolan came with us, and Mom started off on the right foot with him by bringing him a sandwich and cookie! What a lady.  In Valpo we just explored the hills of Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre, got lost, but as one of my favorite quotes says: "Not all those who wander are lost." So true!  While we were definitely a little turned around at times, we got to see some amazing wall art, colorful buildings, and Dad was especially amazed by a tree growing out of a wall.  To end the tour in Valpo, we sat at a small restaurant/café with a terrace overlooking the port and all of Valpo, and shared some wine (yes, more) and cheese. Yum. Then to really top it all off, we did a quick/cheap boat tour of the port, while wearing super cute orange life vests. We were definitely the best looking gringos around in those things.

Parque Quinta Vergara

Mom walking the colorful hills of Valpo

Boat tour of the port of Valpo

Friday, November 2: Día de la bodega! We went to Casas del Bosque, in the Casablanca Valley. In the past almost four months that I have been here in South America, I have visited six wineries in total, and this was above and beyond my absolute favorite. We started the tour off with a bike ride through the vineyards, which were massive!  We stopped at a beautiful dam at one point, and at another, Mom saw a big Lion-King-esque tree that she wanted to bike up too. I thought the hill looked a little intimidating to bike up, but she insisted we could do it.  And when Momma insists, you don't get the option of saying no.  My Dad says that my Mom is always right, even when she's wrong, but in this case, as we were walking our bikes up this incredibly steep dirt hill, I was really wondering how that statement came into play.  I guess when the view was so incredible from up there, that might have been the "rightness" he was talking about.  After a little more biking, we made it back to the main area of the winery, and we all decided that we needed to do some wine tasting before lunch, naturally.  Now in most places that you taste wine, a taste is just that: a taste. However, at this winery, a taste was about 3/4 of your normal glass. And we got three different wines to "taste". Mom couldn't finish her third one because she was feeling too buzzed. Needing some food in our stomachs, we got to the lunch table, and ordered what was about to be potentially one of the top 3 meals of all of our lives.  We also shared another bottle of the winery's famous sauvignon blanc wine. The meal of steak, salmon, potatoes, salad,  mousse, and wine among other things was just incredible, and we all left very satisfied and quite tipsy as well. Job well done I'd say. I may or may not have fallen asleep on the 40 minute taxi ride back to the hotel. Just throwing it out there.  After getting some advil in us, Mom and I did a little more shopping while Dad took a nap to wear off the wine, and that night I spent the night with my host family in order to get a little school work done!

Dad and I at Olivos Dam

Mom and Dad are tipsy.

As I'm getting a bit tired of writing and the last couple days were a little bit of a blur, I'll summarize: We played lots of cards.  We went to my favorite restaurant, La Flor de Chile, for a typical Chilean meal of chorrillana and pisco sours with some of my friends, Nolan, Laura, and Ellen.  We took my host family out for an Italian meal dinner, and Esme brought her own little "purse" filled with a toothbrush, hand soap, shampoo, hairbrush, coloring things, a sweater, oh, and my host dad's gold wedding band. Casual, and normal.  We had a nice, relaxing day at the Reñaca beach (after waiting about an hour for the fog/clouds to clear).  We had a picnic and wine at the sand dunes in Concón for sunset, and took a crazy fast micro bus back to the hotel. We got coffee with my friends Geneva and Rachel, and they had to suffer through my Dad's 25 minute long story of how he met/married my mother. And the last night, we ate at a beautiful restaurant, Tierra de Fuego, that I've wanted to eat at since I got here! I was not disappointed. Yum. So good.

Picnic dinner at the sand dunes in Concón!

Overall, this trip was absolutely incredible.  It was an amazing experience to be able to show my parents where I've been living almost the past four months, and I'm so glad they were able to understand a little bit more of what I've been doing/experiencing since I've been down here.  A big thank you to both of you for helping me to make this experience possible and always being so supportive and understanding of me, and having you two down here is something I will never forget! Ciao for now, updates on my weekend in Pucón will come soon when my fingers can type again!

Sunset from Viña over Valpo

Updates

Wow! It's been awhile! I know! I'm sorry, I've really been slacking. Things have been busy around here! Now that there's a break in the madness, here's a quick update on what has been going on the past couple of weeks.

After getting back from Mendoza, it was back to normal Viña life for the next couple of weeks! Or so I thought... that first week was also the birthday week of my friend Katie, and naturally we had to celebrate!  After our class together on that Wednesday night, we went to Katie's house, had cake and coffee, got dolled up, and went to Café Journal like any reasonable Gringas would do. Plus Katie had never been on a Wednesday night, the most popular night, so it was yet another reason to go! Once we got there, we made it upstairs and ordered some drinks and a pizza! We had no idea what the pizza there would be like, especially since we have yet to find exceptional (or even half edible) pizza here, but we were very happily surprised to find that it was delicious!  However, even better than the delicious pizza in front of us was the table full of 20-30 good looking military men to our right. We couldn't decide if they were Chilean or not... they dressed a little swankier than Chileans, and just had a different look (one that we definitely weren't complaining about), so we came to the conclusion that they were not local. When they came to talk to us a little later, we were correct! Turns out that that upcoming weekend, there was a sailing competition in Viña, and there were teams from Columbia, Brazil, Italy, Chile, and more competing! Our new friends were from Columbia and Italy.  We weren't upset about it. At all. They wanted to dance, but since it really wasn't the time or place, they invited us to Ovo, a discoteca in the casino the following night! Fast forward 21ish hours, and we had just finished getting ready and were off for the night, looking quite fierce I might add! Most of our new friends were from the Italian sailing team, and that's who we ended up spending most of the time with at the discoteca.  Overall a really fun night of dancing and continuing the birthday celebration!

Lindsey and I ready for Bday action.

The birthday crew!

Also during this week, a care package from my Mom came in! Woot woot! I was SO excited. Peanut butter, Bath and Body Works lotions and soap, Nilla Wafers, and gum to name a couple of things.  If you want to see what my reaction was really like, see this link: http://thetimeistudiedabroad.tumblr.com/post/22995244130/when-someone-sends-me-a-care-package

That Saturday was also an excursion with my program, ISA, as well as the birthday party for my little host sister! Our ISA excursion took us to Con Con, Horcón, as well as a couple of other small stops along the coast. I had already been to all of the places they took us, but it was still a fun day with all of the ISA crew! Then when I got back to my house, my host family was just about to start the festivities for Esme's birthday! There were decorations everywhere in the house, with loads of candy and delicious things covering the table.  I had made chocolate chip cookies the night prior for the party, but since I left them out on the dining table that night and the day leading up to the party, they were all gone by the time it was party time! Oh well, at least someone enjoyed them! The party was really fun, we listened to Esme's favorite Disney singer on repeat (if I never hear the name "Violetta" again I wouldn't be sad), ate the most delicious cake ever, and had good quality time with family.

Esme blowing out her candles, 6 years old!

Geneva and I on the ISA excursion.

In other news, starting right after I got back from Mendoza, the weather FINALLY has started to actually feel like Spring! The sun has been out, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming, and it has been in the solid high 60's to low 70's for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Minus one or two days of rain. But I am not at ALL complaining. Also my computer charger decided to die last week, so that was unfortunate. The only way I could get it to work was if it was plugged into the outlet in our house's dining room, with the computer sitting on the table, and when the charger was plugged in, the cord had to be elevated or else it wouldn't charge. To fix this, I put our mayonnaise bottle underneath the cord to keep it up. Worked like a charm. First useful thing I've found in mayo since I've been here! Thankfully, my PARENTS are now here, so they were able to bring me a new charger! Yes yes, I know I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet, but my parents are currently here visiting me for 13 days! Best thing ever. It's been so amazing having them here. But their trip description will be for the next blog post, I promise there are good things coming. Sneak peak, my parents met my host family, and Poppa Swigs thought that he knew some Spanish... turns out the words he knows don't quite mean what he thought they meant! Whoops! On that crazy cliff hanger (I know, I should really write a novel), until next time!

Vino, Vino, y más Vino

This past weekend, I visited my third country in South America... Argentina! Because we had a holiday on Monday, my friends and I decided to take a long weekend in Mendoza, Argentina to visit bodegas (wineries), eat delicious meats, and just enjoy ourselves! It is about a 6 hour bus ride to and from Viña, not including the time spent with customs at the border. With customs, overall, about an 8 hour day of traveling! Oof! Thankfully the buses here are great, and "semi-cama" which means that the seats lean back so far that they are "semi-beds" and much more comfortable!

After a long day of bussing on Friday, we finally made it to Mendoza! Once we exchanged some money at the bus terminal, we caught two taxis and made our way to the hostel. Taxis in Mendoza are much easier to find and much cheaper than here in Viña! For example, a 10 minute taxi ride cost about 16 Argentinian Pesos, about the equivalent of a little more than $5.00USD! Awesome! Our hostel, Hostel Empedrado, was great... free glass of wine every night, called all of our taxis for us, 15 minute walk from the beautiful Plaza de Independencia, clean rooms/bathrooms, and crepes/pancakes with dulce de leche for breakfast. Oh yeah. The crepes/pancakes may or may not have been the #1 reason for us choosing this hostel, and it was well worth it! That night we were all pretty tired, and we split into two groups for dinner. Our group was 5 girls, and as we were about to leave, Gabi made friends with two British guys who were hanging out in the lobby! They ended up coming to dinner with us... and boy did we love listening to their wonderful accents the whole time! We all had some wine, pasta, and red meat. Yum. We really savor good, flavorful food when we can find it! After dinner we considered going out, but were pretty exhausted and opted instead to buy a bottle of wine (from the gas station no less, it was the only place we could really find open on the walk back), and relaxed on the terrace of our hostel! A great first evening in Argentina!

The next day we had made plans to go bike around some nearby wineries, which are called bodegas here.  We met up with our friend Nicole Weiss who is studying in Mendoza, caught a local bus to a town nearby called Maipú, which took us about 45 minutes to get too. Once there, we found the bike company we wanted to use, Maipú Bikes, got some bikes ($7.00USD each for the day), got some maps, marked out where we wanted to go, and were on our way! Thankfully these bikes were in much better condition that the ones we used in San Pedro de Atacama... no popped tires or pedals falling off this time! Our first bodega was also a museum, and really great! It was called "La Rural".  It was a little bit more expensive that the other bodegas in the area, but well worth it in the end of the tour (details further down). We paid 50 pesos each, about $10USD, and started the tour. It was in spanish, and thankfully I am now really comfortable with my spanish to the point that it really wouldn't have mattered if the tour were in english or spanish! At the end of the tour, we got to try a really good red wine. And then they proceeded to tell us that with our receipts for the tour, we could put the 50 pesos we paid towards any wine that we wanted! Since 50 pesos was only about $10USD, I figured that for a bottle from such a nice winery I would have to pay a little extra on top of that, but crazily enough, I got TWO bottles for under $10! And it's not cruddy wine! I got a Sauvignon Blanc and a sweet rose wine. Definitely not upset about it.  Bodega number two was on the complete opposite side of town, about a 11km bike ride. Not that far, but when you have 4 bottles of wine in a backpack on your back, that makes things a little harder (I was carrying Lindsey's too, it was her backpack we were using so I figured it was only fair)!  This winery was where we planning to eat lunch, and let me tell you, it was probably one of the best decisions our group has ever made. SO GOOD. The vineyard and area was so cute, much smaller than the first and was an old family vineyard. It was called Bodega Familia de Tomaso. The tables outside were positioned on top of old wine barrels, and we were immediately brought fresh bread with olive oil. Yes please. We ordered our food, and around the table had a mixture of fresh chicken with spices and rice, lasagna made with crepe layers instead of noodles (what I had), salads, lemonade made with mint leaves, tiramisu, warm brownies, etc. If your mouth isn't watering, you might want to go get yourself checked out, cuz mine is watering just thinking about it again! The tour after lunch was also really good, and we were able to try 4 wines at the end of the tour. At the end of the day, we made our way back to Maipú Bikes, and were greeted with homemade lemonade and grapefruit juice. I mean really!? Come on! Argentina really knows how to do it.

Old way of straining wine.

Bodega #1

Beautiful vineyards and flowers at Bodega #2

The lunch crew!

More vineyards and flowers.

We made our way back to the hostel that night, all exhausted from the biking, wine, and sun, and showered up! That night we had signed up to participate in the asado that our hostel was having. After having had two asados at hostels in my time here in South America, I feel I can now give the advice that you should always, always, always sign up for the asados they provide. It is usually all you can eat delicious meats, salads, wine, etc. etc. for a really good price. We paid about $13.00USD for more food than one person should ever consume. So amazing. Also a fun note, my friend Lisa Parker, who is studying in Mendoza, came over for the asado! Lisa and I met in our spanish class of Winter Quarter 2012, and also had spanish together during Spring Quarter, and enjoyed getting to know each other! After consuming my own body weight in wine and meat, we all decided to go out on the town for a little. After a little we ended up getting separated, and Lisa and I decided to buy some alfajores and talk a bit! For those of you who don't know what alfajores are, they are delicious. Eat some if you come here. They are this soft cookie-ish, graham cracker-ish things filled with dulce de leche/manjar (similar to caramel), and usually covered in chocolate. I prefer when they are covered with white chocolate, but they are incredible either way. In appearance, they remind me of my Dad and brother's favorite Southern snack food, moon pies... but the flavor and taste is much much better! Lisa had to meet up with her parents the next morning at the airport, and I was pretty tired anyway, so we caught taxis and went our separate ways! Another great night!

Sunday morning some of us had planned on going to some hot springs in a town called Cachueta, about an hour from Mendoza! Lindsey and I ended up going by ourselves... you know what they say about how good the wine is in Mendoza... it may have affected some of our traveling companions a little bit too much! Regardless, we had a lot of fun! The hot springs were actually really nice, a lot of locals (as in Argentinians) were there, in fact, it appeared as though there were very few tourists! We had arrived around 11:30am, and our bus wasn't schedule to leave until 6:45pm... after about 3 hours though, we were ready to go home! The springs were beautiful and we were definitely enjoying them, but there's only so long that someone can enjoy them! Thankfully, we were able to switch our bus tickets to the earlier bus. While waiting for that bus to arrive, Linds and I decided that we wanted to splurge a little bit and buy some junk food, so we got ourselves some Coca-Cola's and lollipops, found a nice bench to sit on, and enjoyed our purchases! After we got back to the hostel, we took a very windy walk around Mendoza, showered, and got ready to go to dinner with Katherine and Kassi as well! A woman from our hostel recommended a restaurant with delicious pasta, and we all decided to share four different dishes four ways, and man was it delicious! Accompanied by wine, chocolate mousse and fruit ice cream, that was definitely a dinner to write home about! After so much food, it goes without saying that we were carrying gigantic food babies, so we went back to the hostel, all laid on Katherine and Kassi's queen bed, and just vegged and talked!

Coke and Lollipops at the bus station!

Exploring Mendoza! National Bank.

Bed came pretty early that night since we were all so full and exhausted. The next day consisted of yet another glorious eight hours traveling in bus, but regardless of the amount of time spent in the buses, this trip was very relaxing and the food was amazing. Definitely a nice change of pace with the latter!!!

I know this is pretty late, and I still have some updates about this week and weekend, so hopefully I can get that next one started soon! Until next time!

TREMBLOR! And Sergio.

Two blog posts in one day, woah! Excessive, I know, but I have to document this.

I FELT MY FIRST TREMBLOR/EARTHQUAKE today in Chile! Woah! It was a 5.7 magnitude from origination! Since my house usually shakes even when a truck drives by, at first I figured it was nothing more, but considering it lasted about 10-15 seconds and was a bit stronger than when a truck goes by, I figured it was actually the real deal this time! It was actually pretty cool to experience, but I think I'd be okay if that was my first and only while here in Chile!

Also, for those of you who are consistent blog followers, I ran into my old man friend Sergio again tonight on my walk back from class! ¡Que raro! Naturally he asked me what I thought of the presidential debate that happened at DU (yes, he remember I went there...) and how my spanish is going.  He also offered to help me practice my spanish more. I kindly declined, as I was getting more and more of a weird/creepy vibe from him... but regardless, interesting to see him again!

How's that for a day of events!?

Árbol de Dinero? No.

Querido Chile, no estoy hecho de dinero. Y yo no tengo un árbol hecho de dinero tampoco. For my non spanish speaking parents, grandparents, and friends... translation: Dearest Chile, I'm not made of money. And I don't have a tree made of money either. While I can certainly find several things pretty cheap down here, there are some things that are just ridiculously priced! I know some of them are rather American, and are therefore imported... but still. Just to complain a little more, here are some examples:

Peanut butter: $5.25-$8.00 USD.  This is very American. People here don't like peanut butter. But they should, because it's the greatest food/condiment ever. Enough said. Plus it tastes great with everything. Okay there, now enough said.

Vitamins: $10.00 USD for a bottle of 60 Vitamin C pills. At the beginning of my time here, when I seemed to have a cold every other 4 days, I thought this would be a good investment. It was, but man, much more than I would've liked to have paid.

Sunscreen: $28.00 USD. Ouch. After going skiing in the Andes and frying my face, I decided I needed some of this. The small bottles were like $15, and weren't even half of the size of the bottle I bought. You can find cheaper, but the bottles are smaller, so I figured I met as well buy the big momma. While this is crazy expensive, it's worth saving the skin!

Tampons: $8.00 USD for a pack of 18. Really!? It's not like I even have the option of whether or not to buy these! All women need these things, so why so much!? Do Chilean women not have periods!? What the stink. Not cool.

Earplugs: $5.00 USD for ONE PAIR.  TWO earplugs. And they have strings attached to them. What?

Pencils: $5.00 USD and only come in packs of two. At least for mechanical. I couldn't find any others at the stores I visited!

Chocolate chips: I can't even tell you how much these cost, because they are not sold in any grocery stores. Yup. Nowhere. If you want to purchase these, you must go to a special store that specifically sells baking foods/items!

Snickers bars: $2.00 USD... Okay so that's not too terrible, I'm just used to grabbing my Snickers from the Tennis Center whenever I want and using the 50% off employee discount, so in this case I'm just spoiled. Well, I guess I'm kind of spoiled in all the cases, but you catch my drift.

Small cup of hot chocolate: $4.00 USD. Why a small cup of hot chocolate costs more than an alcoholic beverage here still does not make sense to me... but DANG these Chileans know how to make good hot chocolate. I can't get enough. Sorry bank account, this cost isn't going anywhere!

So for those of you thinking of traveling or studying in Chile in the future, make sure to pack accordingly. Yes it'll take up space in your suitcases, but it will be worth saving the money, I promise!

Perú

"Though we may travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or find it not." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

What an incredible and life changing week I just had, and it couldn't have been with better company, thanks to the lovely Rachel Romero! Where to start, where to start. I guess I'll go with a day-by-day description in hopes that I can be a bit more organized with my thoughts. Here goes!

Sunday, September 30th: Went to bed Saturday night around 11pm with the alarm set for 4am since I needed to leave for the bus station at 4:30am.  I was so excited for the trip, that I didn't end up being able to fall asleep until about 1:30 or 2am! Oh well, as we say here in Chile, ¡así es la vida! Got to the bus station safe and sound around 4:50am, and got on the bus ready for a nice nap on the way to the airport! Once on the bus, all was good. Minus the scary, drunk bum chasing and banging on the bus to try and get on. But besides that, all was good :) Made it to the airport, went through customs, casually got hit on by the customs officer, and then treated myself to a muffin and coffee from the Ruby Tuesday café (yes, there are Ruby Tuesday café's here in Chile). Once in Lima, I waited for about 20-30 minutes and then Rachel walked up to our gate, and the long awaited reunion occurred! BAH! It was everything we dreamed of and more, ha! Once we were in Cusco, we were looking for our taxi driver from the hostel, and after a little confusion of where we actually were, we walked outside the airport gate and saw him there with my name on a board! Kyle Fwigart a Pariwana Hostal. Yup, that's me. Our hostel was great, really big with a bar/restaurant, a little plaza in the middle, and our room was perfect! Two twin beds with the bathroom literally a 15 second walk out our door, and in the quietest part as well! And only a 5 minute walk to the beautiful Plaza de Armas! Que suerte. 

La Plaza de Armas

After resting a bit and getting settled in, we met up with a fellow DU student, Hannah! Hannah is studying in Cusco, and is in the PLP program with Rachel! We met in La Plaza de Armas, and the three of us as well as Hannah's friend who was also studying in Cusco all went on a trek to find the restaurant with the supposed best sangria in all of Cusco, called La Bodega 138! Alas, once we did find it, it was closed! However, all was good, we ended up eating at another awesome and character filled restaurant called Los Perros.  There were no seats at this place, only couches and tables! The food was delicious, we all shared a bottle of red wine and some Peruvian wontons, and then Rachel and I shared a sausage and mashed potato mixture. DE-licious. Needless to say, we went home VERY satisfied that night. 

Monday, October 1st: First things first, this day is Momma Swig's birthday, so it was bound to be a great one! Unfortunately I couldn't be home to celebrate with her, but next year is the big one (she's turning 30! woah!), so you know I'll all be there! This day was our Cusco exploration day. Being broke college students as it is, Rachel and I decided to do our own thing and tour ourselves around rather than go with a company.  The night before, we had seen a lighted figure of Christ on a hill fairly close to town, and decided we should hike to it! We named the figure, "Jesús en la Luz", and went on our way that morning! On the way, we found a little church with a couple of locals hanging around it, and stopped to take a couple pictures of the view. After a little, two Peruvian women asked us if we would like to take a photo with their baby llama, llama, and goat! Of course we knew there'd be a fee, so we asked how much it would cost, and they said whatever we felt like giving. We figured that was alright, and both went to take a photo! It definitely made for good photos... but, the baby llama still had a crunchy umbilical cord on it and may or may not have peed on me just a little. Oh yeah, that happened. The women were also not happy with the 5 soles (about $2USD) we had given them, and so we ended up giving a little more than we had wished. Oh well, all for a good photo right!? 

After running away from the slightly perturbed women, we continued our way up to Jesús en la Luz. We walked up several stairs, and then made it to a place where we saw a small welcome hut and many more tourists! There was a place to drive, so they had all been taken there by tours. We were just about to begin walking around when a man came up to us and asked to see our tickets... which we did not have. He said oh no problem, you can buy them here! When we asked how much they were, we had to ask him to repeat, because there was no way we had heard correctly. Wait, 70 soles ($35USD) to walk around Jesus and some Incan remains!? Uh, I don't think so. We said we would leave and walk back down. But, being the criminals/cheapskates that we are, we decided to walk down a ways to where the man couldn't see us, wait a bit, and then we would sneak up a way that didn't have as good of a path. We saw a local man go up that way, and figured, hey, if he can do it, so can we! After 5 minutes of hiding out, we snuck up that way, got to see Jesús and a great view, and all for free! Woot woot! 

Christo Blanco, a.k.a. Jesús en la Luz

 After this, we made our way back to the square to begin to try to find the restaurant from the night prior, La Bodega 138, to eat lunch! However, on the way we were surprised to arrive and see a parade with music going on! Apparently it was "Día del adulto mayor", basically a day for elderly people! How great that they have that, I think we should too in the states! After watching for awhile, we decided we were very hungry and went on our way to find the restaurant. Alas, being the American gringas that we are, we spent an hour looking for it after getting lost, and then when we finally did find it, it was still closed! GAH! Thankfully there was another delicious looking restaurant on the same corner, where we decided we deserved a glass of wine and shared a salad and sandwich. Then we went back to the hostel, rested, and then set off to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring a local mercado. We then had our first group meeting for our trek at 7pm, where we were briefed on all that would be happening in the upcoming days and got to meet the rest of the people in our group! We were with quite the amazing group of people.  One of the couples, Hala and Gabriel, are both international lawyers from Ottawa, Canada who were spending two weeks in Peru! They had both worked in the middle east in the past and were really interesting to talk to and get to know! The other couple was on their one year anniversary trip, celebrating the honeymoon they didn't get to go on! Their names were Kenric and Beth.  Both are doctors in the Navy, Kenric a radiologist and Beth an anesthesiologist. They were super fun, and absolutely hilarious. So here Rachel and I were, surrounded by lawyers and doctors, about to embark on the journey of a lifetime! The group deemed us the translators, which was a title and position we were happy to hold among such an accomplished group. We also got to meet our guide, James! He was definitely the best guide we could have asked for. After the meeting, we were VERY determined to finally go to the elusive La Bodega 138, so we were off to find it. Since we had really figured out where it was earlier, it was not difficult to get to, and thankfully, WAS OPEN! Woohoo! Definitely well worth the wait. We shared a jar of delicious sangria, a medium pizza, and unlimited garlic bread with the best sauces, all for under $25USD. SO good. Then it was off to bed, because we had to be ready at 5am the next day! With our bellies full and our bodies tired from a full day on the town, we passed out.

Tuesday, October 2nd: Per usual here in South America, we were told to be ready at 5am, and didn't end up getting picked up until 5:40am! We were told it was due to a flat tire... but I really wouldn't be surprised if it was just the usual lateness that people seem to have here! We then embarked on a two hour drive to a small town called Quishuarani, stopping along the way at a small market to buy gifts for local kids along the trails, and then we started our trek, 14km or almost 9 miles today.  Before we started however, we met our cook and porters! The porters accompanied the mules that carried the food, tents, etc. to and from all the places we needed to go, and the cook walked with them as well.  However, I'm not so sure I should say they were walking... we always had about a 45 minute to 1 hour lead on them, but they always passed us and had everything set up at the lunchsites/campsites well before we arrived! They were so impressive. It was hard adjusting to the altitude at first,  but I was able to start readjusting to Colorado type elevations after awhile.  Starting at about 12,000 feet coming from sea level really isn't that easy of a thing to do! The hike was beautiful, we got to see several lagunas and beautiful things along the way! Our campsite that night was about 12,500 feet, so still pretty high up there! Alfredo, the cook, and the porters (who helped cook) made absolutely amazing food the entire trip. It was serious gourmet eating up there in the mountains, even though we were the only people for miles around us! Before and after most of our meals, we played cards as a group! James taught us all a group called "Steal the Llama," which I didn't really understand/wasn't very good at, but everyone else seemed to like it a lot! After a long day of hiking and lots of tea/food in our stomachs, we were yet again ready to pass out. Oh, and did I mention how much tea we drank? When you drink that much tea, you really gotta go to the bathroom. And when you gotta go to the bathroom in the middle of nowhere, what do you do? As James would say, you pick a flower! AKA, you go and find somewhere secretive, and do your business. Picking flowers was rather cold way up there in the mountains! While we were a bit colder this time than in the hostel, when you're that exhausted, the temperature doesn't really matter all that much, you just pass out! Below are some photos from day 1.

Laguna in the background!

Giving a sparkly barrette to a local girl, and a tortuga to the boy!

Wednesday, October 3rd: We were pleasantly surprised this morning when we were awoken with warm teas delivered to our tents! After struggling to get out of our warm sleeping bags to change clothes, we put our stuff together and went to breakfast. Then we got started on what was going to be our longest day of hiking, 16km or about 10 miles, with our highest elevation as well! Before getting to the hardest part of the hike though, we were invited into the home of a local family along the path.  It was an elderly couple who also lived with their daughter and her family.  They told us (in Quechua, the local language) about how they lived, what their daily routines entailed, and many other things! They were so inviting and adorable.  Below is a photo of their grandson, also a cutie!

After this little and much welcomed detour, we went on our way. We hiked until about 11:30am, stopped for lunch, had a nice little siesta in the tent, and again went on our way. This time however, we were walking to the hardest part of our hike, over Auroracasa Pass! After a lot of heavy breathing and small breaks, we made it to the top, 4600 meters or 15134 feet! Woo! I can now officially say I've hiked a 14er, make that a 15er, in Peru! We regained our strength here, while also freezing our butts off, and also got to make a small pile of rocks (I forget the word they use for it in Peru!) with our wishes underneath. We made a small ceremony at the top, and passed around three Coca leaves (yes, the leaves used to make cocaine, among other things!).  The tradition is to have the three leaves, and make three wishes. The first wish is for the person you love most in the world, the second wish is for your family, and the third wish is for your friends and other people in the world.  After we passed around the three leaves, we all picked up a rock, set the leaves on the ground, and made the rock pile on top the leaves. Because this path is so rarely traveled, the piles stay where they are unless bothered by rain or wind, and that is very good luck for the wishes!

Our group at the top of Auroracasa pass! Gabriel, Hala, me, Rachel, Kenric, and Beth!

From here we made our descent in hopes for warmer temperatures, but unfortunately in remained very very cold, as you can see from how much clothing I'm wearing below! Two pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a heavy jacket, rain jacket, headband, and gloves! Brrr!

Brrrrr!!!

This night after making it to our campsite (3900 meters, about 12000 feet), and after yet another delicious meal, we got to have a campfire and a delicious tea called macho tea! The macho tea had a little bit of Peruvian rum in it, and while it definitely wasn't very strong, it and the fire still helped to warm up our bodies a little! Both of the couples ended up going to bed a little early, but Rachel and I weren't all that tired, so stayed up talking to James, sharing stories, and practicing our spanish! A very fun and memorable evening :)

Thursday, October 4th: This was an easy day of walking! We got to wake up at 6:30 today, very nice to sleep in! Then we had breakfast, packed up, and went on our way. Because we had gained so much elevation the day prior, this day was simply four hours of hiking all downhill. I thought I would be glad to have downhill, but my poor ankles and knees were absolutely killing me! We made it to the lunch spot, and also the spot that our hiking would finish.  After our last yummy lunch by Alfredo, we said our goodbyes to him and the porters, and a bus picked us up and took us to a town called Ollantaytambo where we would catch the train to Aguas Calientes, the town before Machu Picchu! We had a little time to kill in Ollantaytambo, so Rachel, Ken, Beth and I decided that a pisco sour was a necessary congratulatory gift to ourselves. We also might have had chocolate banana pancakes. Yeah... definitely one of the best meals I've had so far while in South America :) After waiting a little bit longer, the four of us caught the 4pm train to Aguas Calientes, while James, Hala, and Gabriel were waiting for the later train. The train ride was quite the experience! After being in the mountains by ourselves for a couple days, it was kind of weird being back in the touristy swing of things. Less than 30 seconds after our train had left, practically EVERYone had their cameras out, were hanging out the windows, leaning over other people, and basically being just ridiculous in order to get pictures! I won't deny that the paisaje was beautiful, it's just... really people? Really? We found it almost more entertaining to watch all of the people in the train rather than enjoying the views! Upon our arrival to Aguas Calientes, someone from our travel company met us at the train station, and took us to the hostel. We got our things settled down, and decided we deserved a quick dip in the local hot springs! Our new friend Jonathan, from the travel company, walked us up to where it was. We paid our 10soles (about $4USD) to get in, and made our way up! Once we did arrive, we noticed that we were definitely the only tourists there. This was a very local spot! Unfortunately, the water was not as hot as we had been hoping, and the water quality was... well, let's just say I'm glad it was fairly dark so I couldn't see as well as normally. After this, we went back to the hostel, and enjoyed a shower and dinner.  James called, and unfortunately informed us that they were not going to be able to make it that night! That meant that they would have to take the 5am train ride the next morning, and that we would have to arrive at Machu Picchu 2 hours later than expected. Oh well, on the bright side, we were going to get to sleep in a little longer than originally planned!

Friday, October 5th: Finally the day had arrived! The reason for the trip! MACHU PICCHU!!! We were supposed to be woken up at 5:30am, and be ready for breakfast and to go by 6:30am.  We heard a knock that morning, and got up as planned. After we had washed our faces and brushed our teeth, Rachel looked at her phone clock and said it was only 4:45am... we decided her phone must be an hour slow and continued getting ready! Then we went downstairs, packed and ready to go. After eating breakfast, Ken and Beth still weren't down, and we were starting to get worried! At about 6:35am, they finally came downstairs! It wasn't that important they were late, especially considering the other group wasn't even there yet. However, once we started talking to the two of them, they said, "You know it's only just now 5:35am, right?" And we said, no, no, we weren't supposed to be woken up until 5:30am, plus the clocks down here say it's 6:35am! But ohhhh wait. Apparently our clock reading skills had been altered from the high altitude the past couple days. It was in fact only 5:35am, not 6:35am.  Upset at ourselves for not sleeping in the extra hour, we moved forward, had another cup of tea, and just waited for the others to arrive! Once they did, we had a nice little reunion, and finally (drumroll please) we took the bus up to Machu Picchu! Wahoo! We made it there, checked in, and were in! First thing was first, we had to get the ever popular tourist photo that everyone has! James told us that days liek that day were his favorite, when there were clouds coming down and covering parts of the remains, super cool! Check it out below!

Machu Picchu, with Waynapicchu in the background! 

My Machu Picchu picture!

James told us that in Quechua, the language that had been spoken by the Inca's and still is spoken by several people in Peru, Machu Picchu means old mountain.  Fun fact: Machu Picchu isn't actually the name of this abandoned Inca city, in fact, it is the name of a mountain behind the remains.  When Hiram Bingham was exploring Peru, he was not even looking for this area, he was looking for another city which was said to be one of the last places that the Spanish made it to. During his travels, a boy from the mountains came down to where Bingham was camping, and kept saying Machu Picchu, Machu Picchu, and pointing up towards the mountains and clouds! Bingham, with no other plans, decided to follow the boy up. And once up, he found what we now know as Machu Picchu! Unfortunately, the actual name of the city is unknown, and potentially even forever lost. This city was specifically reserved for the wealthy and royalty of the Inca empire, and was impecibly designed! Because it is located in an incredibly rainy area, it is incredible how the buildings and landscape is able to remain practically unharmed from weathering and natural disasters. This is mainly because of the impressive landscaping and drainage system that had been constructed. There is a drainage system throughout the entire city, that redirects any and all water to the agriculture areas or off the side of the mountain rather than flooding the area! Also, all doors and windows are built with an inclination, and the corners of buildings are with one rock rather than two rocks meeting at the corner, all in efforts to prevent destruction from earthquakes and other natural occurrences!  See some of the buildings below.

After being more and more impressed with the advanced community that the Inca's had there, it was time to hike Waynapicchu! No big deal, we were only going to hike up 1500 steep, steep stairs after having just finished walking about 25-30 miles in the past 3.5 days. Phew. Did I mention it was steep? Yeah, meaning there were steel cables, ropes, and other things on the side in order to assist hikers going up and down! At one point the stairs were so skinny and steep that many people were going down slowly backwards... Elizabeth may or may not have even crab walked down in order to not fall! At the end of that section of stairs, my legs were definitely shaking.  Despite the leg shaking and sore ankles/knees, the view we were granted at the top was more than worth it! It was a birds eye view of all of the lost city as well as the beautiful surrounding landscape. See below!

Rachel and I admiring the view.

We made our way back down, paid for the bus, and were back to the hostel right on time for lunch.  After that, all that was left was getting back to Cusco.  2 hour train ride to Ollantaytambo, and then about a 2-3 hour bus drive from there to Cusco.  We were pretty exhausted at this point, but really wanted to make the best of our last night together and in Peru, so naturally, we showered and got ready, put a little make up on for the first time in a week, and made our way out!  We had talked with James earlier, and he wanted to go out as well, so we met him at the fountain in La Plaza de Armas, and then we went to a bar/discoteca really nearby.  It was great! There was a fun mix of locals and tourists, the music was great, and the mojitos were even better. We spent the night dancing, laughing, and just having a great time! With such early flights the next morning (Rachel caught a taxi at 6am, me at 8am), we were definitely at exhaustion level, but the memories we had made in the past week will never be forgotten!  Thanks to Rachel, James, and everyone in the group for making this experience so unforgettable! My own words cannot even describe how life changing this past week was for me.  Much love to all of you, and since this has probably been the longest blogpost in the history of this blog, and I'm officially out of things to say, I'll let someone else's words sum up this week for me.

"To travel is to awaken." -Lily Tsay