Mas aventuras

The first weekend that Christy came in was fun. We went to a Kunstmann for a delicous freaking dinner and beers, a movie, The Invasion haha, then had a spectacular night at Copa. The next day we chilled. Went out and had a slumber party with Allison one night. Some beach time. Then the Bunker one night, and I'm not really sure what else (I'm writing this quick and from 3 weeks ago so my memory has slipped sorry).

So this last week was amazingly wonderful, as every weekend is, and also jam packed. This last weekend we doubled up our class time for three days so we could have an extra two days off for the weekend. It worked out lovely and we got out of class on Wednesday.

That Wednesday we had a discussion at Christy's cabana and picked delicious black berries on the way to see Unstoppable, hit the Clover as usual and then just four of us went out to a couple discotecas. It was a fun night like usual with some hysterical stories that hopefully I'll remember 10 years down the road (I feel like everything is happening so fast that it is just one big blur where all I will know is that I once travelled to South America). Then Kate and I basically took a two hour power nap before waking up and packing for Pucon. So that Thursday morning we headed out to Pucon to start some amazing times. We got in and tried to figure everything out. Pucon is an amazing town that's small gorgeous, unique, with SOOO much to do around it--you know that's the truth because there is 12 tourist companies on every block. Nonetheless it was hard to decide what to so but we decided to do canopying, rafting, and hydrospeeding (sadly not hike the Volcan Villarica for $80-though we hear it's worth it- and horseback riding). So we went to the hostal and then met up to go canopying.

The canopying is the longest zipline tour in Southern America that is 3400 m with heights of 120 m and speeds of 30-70 km/hour. After our bus ride to the hot springs, where you get your gear for the canopy line, we got dressed and loaded into the vehicles (look at the packed truck) to pretty much go drifting up to the canopy start-Scotty you'd be thrilled by their driving here. Then once at the top they dropped us off with no instructions so everyone just waited till they came back 15 minutes later with more people. Now the good part. The ride was GORGEOUS! And I nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard at Kate and Allison spooning their way down one of their circuits and Maddy almost having a heart attack because I wasn't slowing down soon enough. The sun was out and gorgeous and we could not have been happier. We met these three guys too who we saw the next day. Ziplining was great to say the least. After the fun we were planning on going out but instead got some bread, chicken, cheese, and apples from the market and crashed at the hostal.

We woke up the next morning and Allison and I met our roomies. One girl from Wisconsin who's studying in Buenos Aires for a year and another girl who's volcanoe hike got cancelled due to smoke. The volcanoe sounded amazing though- 5 hour intense hike through volcanic rock, sand, and snow. Then the crater is huge at the top and you can see the smoke billowing constantly. Then on the way down they give you a plastic sled you clip onto your pack about the size of Grandma Nocky's frying pan and you slide down the volcanoe off and on. Sounds great and Mitchell and I want to do it after out internship going up to Santiago but we'll see how money allows. We ate the most amazing delicious organic dinner at our vegetarian hostal. Almost keeled over when I saw the multi grain bread.

Anyways....We went rafting. Rafting. Rafting. Freaking white water rafting like I'd never been in my ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!! I left my camera since Allison took her waterproof one and we went to the Upper Trancura River that was class IV with one class V. And it was impresionante! First off the people were really nice and were impressed that girls from the United States could speak spanish and kept asking us if we understood what was going on in the safety demos. Then we got our gear and wet suits on and loaded up with out guide Luchin. (The 2 kayaker guys there were awesome and there was a guy who worked there from Boise, Idaho). Our guide was amazing and I was stoked because Marcos-kayaker guy 1- told us that we got the crazy guide which always ensures a great trip.

Rafting was spectacular....don't know what else to say. The views were gorgeous and the rapids splendid. We did stuff there that we would never be able to do in the United States. We went and paddled into the rapids after passing and got everyone into the front part of the raft and got dunked under water for what seemed like 20 seconds but I don't really know how long (Allison's face was priceless). Then we literally rafted onto a ginormous rock that was at probably a bit more than a 45 degree angle to all almost fall off and barely make it off with just one guy falling in. [People fell off 4 times and I fell off when the raft doubled in half and and the Osorno man took my spot=quite hilarious]. Then we stood on the outside of the raft with our oars for balance and went down one of the little class threes seeing who could stand the longest. Then we hiked part of the way and jumped off a waterfall into the rapids. It was spectacular. It was a fun day for first because Kate had never been rafting, and all three of the other girls had never jumped off rocks or from one that high- all you Idahoans reading have probably done higher but I've never gone into the rapids right after so that was new for me too.- And then we also abandoned the raft and bombed down a class II rapid in our wetsuits. It was so fun. At the end we were taking pictures (we had the most amazing pictures from the whole trip with all these little adventures) and everyone everyone that went rafting was jumping in the picture and took us all down in the water...just fun people, a fun time, and an unforgettable experience.

Sadly our bus that was supposed to leave at 10:30 at night left at 7:15 instead so we couldn't go hydrospeeding-but that's ok because I think Mitchell and I have a date for doing it on the way up to Santiago. But I was beyond heartbroken because I had my eyes set on it so hopefully I still get to do it before I go leave. So instead of hidrospeeding we went around the town and were planning to go to the black sand beach, BUT Allison's camera got stolen.....

Sooooo we looked for it and what not, but she accidently left it on a shelf; Kate and I both felt bad because it was an amazing camera and it had some SWEET pictures. Hence there will be no rafting pictures since it was her camera and also none of me canopying because we switched our photo skills. Allison is just now getting over it pretty completely so we're happy because she was beyond down when she found out. So while we went and saw the beach there wasn't time to do much so we went back and mourned the death of the camera over a couple pitchers of beer and a case of raspberries before the bus. RIP la camera de Allison.

Saturday was nice but I can't remember for the life of me what we did. I'll come back and edit this once I talk to the girlies.

Saturday we had a little girl pow wow an Miss Techy Allison taught me to do more stuff on my computer in half an hour than I'd taught myself in the past 5 years. That night we were going to go do girls night but the others were pooped so I went out with the boys to the casino and karaoke. We also saw some friends of ours at the Bunker before we went out and talked to them shortly, but I came late because I went from pajama mode to Adrian's "dress to impress" in five minutes. The casino was fun, although I didn't gamble, and Brian was the only one who walked away with some money. It's kind of crazy gambling in a different language or seeing different games that you're not used to. The casino is also the place appearantly for all the crazy, gambling, chainsmokers to go.

The next day we woke up and hit Niebla beach in the morn to get a tan on. It was super fun. We met more people. These guys went cliff jumping. On the beach the group played volleyball, Brian skim boarded, I played soccer with some guys. It was pretty hilarious slash scary asking those guys to play because I walked up and said hi then asked to play. The convo went like this: "You want to play what?" -"Is it ok if I play soccer with you guys?" -"You want to play soccer?" -"Yes I want to play soccer." -awkward silence when they all looked at each other. -"I'm not amazing but ok." -"Yeah you can." Then we played and they were surprised a girl could actually play. There were people on the beach yelling at me because I was a girl playing (weird because usually I play on a field and it isn't strange there because I knew people going in). Anyway it was a super fun day!! Came back home and besides the money lost on sunscreen I still got burnt.

The week was fun as always and we had our spanish class for history which was really interesting. And I know I'm one weekend behind but I have stuff to do out the ying yang and sleep is singing to me so I'll write later to tell you all about Noche de Valdivia weekend. Love and miss you all!