Our travels have finally begun!

The day we got home from our rent a car trip, Kelsey and I packed up and moved out of our apartment, it was so weird actually leaving after living there for so long! We moved all of our things over to 2 Poniente to hang out for the night and get our things ready to head to the airport. At 4am we headed to the bus station in Vina and then we were on our way to Santiago. We check our suitcases, which weighed about 60lbs each and we were only allowed about 45lbs....but we got out of paying the overweight fee, go us! We arrived in Arica, Chile about mid day and headed to our hostel. Arica is the northern most city in Chile, and known for its beaches. We headed to the beach for 2 days and got our plans together. We met some great guys from London, who we ended up singing karaoke with at a bar that night!! We then hopped onto a train and headed across the border into Peru. We from there got on a bus to Lima, it was a 20 hour overnight bus....long ride! But we made it here to Lima, we are staying in a little suburb outside of the main city of Lima. It is located right on the coast and yesterday we watched paragliders cruise the coast and walked around the city and ate a great lunch. today we are packing up our huge suitcases to head to the airport to both check our heavy luggage and to meet Chris and Erika at the airport! We are so excited to have everyone arrive and to begin our travels around Peru and head to MacchuPicchu! I will make sure I keep you all updated on where we are going and what we are all up to!

Cajon de Maipo (Failed attempt at hotsprings!)

The day after Thanksgiving Kelsey, Amanda, Ganes and I all decided we really wanted to head up to Cajo de Maipo. It is a valley in between the Andes just a few hours outside of Santiago. We decided the easiest way to do this on our time was to rent a car.....who knew this would turn into the craziest 24 hour road trip ever! So we go to Alamo to rent a car, and they do not have th pathfinder we are looking for, so we settle for a 4 door compact Peagout......it was a comfy fit with the four of us and our luggage to say the least! So we head out, taking our time, and not exactly knowing the directions.....great start! After about 5 hours we finally get on the right track and stop for dinner. For some reason we weren't in a hurry, but we should have been because it was getting dark..whoops! We finally make it to the gravel road, this gravel road winds for at least 30 km, every bump, every rock, we all feel through the bottom of our little compact! About 20 km in, Kels realizes we are running out of gas....soon the gas light comes on and we are still going up! So we decide to keep going to see if we can make it, at this point it is dusk. We come to our first obstacle, a lake over the road, but Ganes gets out, does the rock test, and we continue on. About 20 minutes later, now it is really dark...... we come to a river crossing the road, this time the rock test doesn't turn out so well...we cant cross this river, our car is not high enough off the ground. So we turn around and decided to go about 50km back to the closest town to get gas and go from there. After making it to the gas station, PEWWWFF, we ask everyone in the town about getting a ride up there, even these 14 year old boys sitting on a truck (we offered them alcohol, turns out all they wanted was a Coke!)....no one can help..So we decide to park and at least enjoy the amazing stars for a few hours. So we all get outside and lay on the ground for a few hours. The stars were incredible, we each saw at least 5 shooting stars, YAY!! We then get a little bit scared to set up the tent, so we cruise around looking for a hostel or campsite.....long story short that was not successful! Oh yeah and the cars starts to sound like a rice rocket.....the muffler has fallen off....so Ganes gets out to temporarily fix it. We then get back in and are a little freaked out, so we decide we should sleep in the car where we can lock the doors. WHAT A NIGHT! 4 grown people sleeping in a compact car....haha the pictures sure sum it it! So we wake up in the morning and decide to head back to the river crossing, but we still cannot cross, so we head down, but the road we were on was well worth it, it was beautiful! All in all it was an amazing trip, well worth it, unfortunately we never made it to the actual hotsprings but we have a pretty good story to tell now!

Estoy Agraziada por.....

Happy Thanksgiving friends and family! I had an amazing Thanksgiving down here in Chile, probably one of the most memorable thus far! In the morning, before the festivities as you can see by the photos, Kelsey and I decided to get some sun. We put our chairs in the pool, it was that warm! It is so bizarre being in a summer climate for the holidays....it seems like we should have been celebrating 4th of July! However, later we celebrated with all of us gringos of course, Chileans and French. We all contributed dishes of our choice to the final meal. Kelsey and I made very good homemade mashed potatoes, Ali and Erin did twice baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, crystal made an asparagus casserole, Dave handled the turkey and the stuffing and we had some great desserts. For what cooking utensils we had, lack of pots and pans, the smallest oven alive with no temperature monitor in the dirtiest kitchen ever, we made an AMAZING meal! It was the last night that all of us would all be together before we parted our separate ways to travel and go home for the holidays. We all went around the table and said what we were thankful for, in espanol of course. It was amazing to hear what everyone had to say and how much everyone really appreciates the happiness and joys in life. We all drank wine and gin and tonics and celebrated well into the next morning! The turkey finally cooked, after only 8 hours haha, we didnt eat until after midnight. And because the oven sucks so bad the oven smoked for all of those 8 hours filling the house with smoke..... but after a great round of hot potatoe with our baguettes in the kitchen we were all ready to eat a big feast and celebrate! I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving with your families in the states! I hope everyone is healthy and well, I cannot wait to catch up with you all as soon as I return to the states. As of right now, in 2 hours Kelsey and I are flying up to Northern Chile to have a few beach days before we meet up with Chris and Nick and Erika in Lima. I am so excited and cannot wait to update you all on our travels in Peru! CHAO!

PichiLemu! Surf Capital of South America

Last weekend we decided to head south to check out Pichilemu, Chile. It is a tiny little surf town on the Pacific coast of Chile. Near Pichilemu, is a place called Punta de Lobos. It is one of the best spots to surf in South America. When the waves are big here, they are HUGE. We enjoyed the weekend watching surfers, walking the beach, eating at an amazing coastal restaurant and enjoying one anothers company. Pichilemu is a great weekend trip from both Santiago and Vina del Mar, beautiful beaches, incredible waves and a one of a kind sunset!

The "W" Torres del Paine, Patagonia Chile

Patagonia is the southern most tip of the South American continent. In order to get there from Santiago you must take a couple hour flight. Living in Chile and being so close to Patagonia, I knew that it was going to be my one "must-do" trip while down here. So I booked a round trip ticket to Punta Arenas from Santiago for about $200, a good deal! After I booked my ticket and told my buddy Crystal what I was planning on doing down there, she booked one along with me. Our plan for the trip was specifically to visit Torres del Paine National Park. Most pictures you see anywhere of Patagonia are taken at this amazing place! So in order to adequately see the park you must hike. So we decided to do what is called the "W Circuit." The W is a trek that is in the shape of a W, that is a total of about 80km for the entire trail. We only had about 3.5 days to see it all so we were a bit rushed. So we packed up our "mochillas" spanish for backpacks, with 4 days worth of food, all the warm clothes we owned, a tent, sleeping bags and mats (because we were camping of course! Much Cheaper!)

When we entered the park on Tuesday morning it was pouring down rain and very cold. We waited to board the catamaran that would take us across the lake to where we would begin the W. We arrived at about 1pm in the afternoon, it was pouring down rain, windy and cold. We headed out to set up camp. After our tent was adequately set, we headed off for the first leg of the trail, 11km each way, to see Glacier Grey and the icebergs. Besides the awful rain and wind and clouds, what we could see was incredible. It was the first time I have ever seen an iceberg and a glacier that goes right into a huge lake! Really amazing! We then headed back down to camp in the pouring rain, we are now sopping wet, shoes, jackets and all! Fortunately there is an octagon room called the kitchen where campers are able to hang out, cook meals and dry off. We stayed inside for as long as possible! When they were closing down we made friends with the workers and ended up drinking wine with them in the bar and after a few bottles of wine and pisco sours, Crystal and I ended up being able to sleep in a luxury tent with carpet and mats for free! Night one was a success! We were warm and dry, major plus!

Day two, the middle part of the W. Before we head out, our friend from the night before was working the breakfast shift in the restaurant and hooked us up with a huge free meal! We then packed up our tent and headed to Campamento Italiano, about 2 hours and 7.6 km. It was an overcast morning, no rain, and perfect hiking weather. We could just begin to see the mountain Paine Grande and the teal colored lakes. We made it to Italiano and dropped our bags at the shelter and headed up Valley Frances. This hike was 5.5km each way and about 2.5 hours each way. When we began, this was the most difficult part of the hike so far, but we had dropped our packs so we were doing ok. We got some great views from the look out of the glacier before the clouds rolled in. Within 15 minutes it was a monsoon. The hardest rain and wind I have felt at the same time in my whole life. There were parts of this trek I thought I would maybe die....but we made it back to the shelter sopping wet once again. We could ring water out of ever layer of clothing.....soaked to the bone. So we loaded up our packs and headed on to the refugio where we would camp. This trek was another 5.5km and 2.5 hours away. The weather began to clear so we began to dry. However, the wind was not letting down, there were points where Crystal and I were physically knocked down to the ground by the wind, some 100km an hour! The wind was causing a hurricane over the water! We just barely made it to the refugio before getting completely drenched once again. At this point we were inside drying off, dreading putting up our tent...so we decide not to. 3 other peoples tents have broken and blown away in the wind at this point....so we end up being able to squeeze into a big tent with 3 Chilean hiking guides! Not the most comfortable night of sleep, but we were warm and dry and never had to put up our tent!

Thursday we woke up to sun and blue skies, FINALLY!! It was more than we could have ever asked for, and we appreciated it so much coming from the storms we had just weathered for two days! So we headed to our next refugio, Chileno, were we would camp that night. The journey was about 11km and 5 hours of basically all up hill. This is were we began the ascent to the Torres, the main attraction of this national park. We made it to the refugio at around 330pm and the workers there told us to continue on to the lookout because the weather was good and who knows if it would hold for tomorrow. So we pitched our tent, left our bags, and continued another 5.5km straight up! At one point we were scaling a rock field of huge boulders to get to the lookout. Through snow, sun, wind and rain we finally MADE IT TO THE TOP!!! It was the most amazing feeling to know that we had done it! The sign that read "End of Trail" was very symbolic to Crystal and I, we had really done it! It was the hardest experience of my life, but the most rewarding at the same time! So we enjoyed the view, took a lot of pictures, the sun was out and patted ourselves on the pack for a job very well done. We then hiked back down to the camp where we waited to cook our meal. Turns out the cook liked us a lot and gave us this amazing left over pasta with chicken from their dinner! Crystal and I and our two friends from Cali and Colorado literally downed this 12lb pot of pasta! Then off to our tent, which we ACTUALLY slept in the third night!!

Friday we woke up, packed up our things and began the journey down. It was at least 6km all down hill which at this point was very hard on our knees, each step was a painful jab to the knee. Once we made it to the Torres Hotel we continued to walk 7.6km on the road to the entrance of the park. Friday again was a sunny, warm beautiful day. We definitely lucked out on weather the last 2 days. And after 80km of hiking, we successfully completed the "W" in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia!

What an incredible experience! I learned so much about myself those 4 days and appreciate so much more in life. At times I felt as if I could not take another step, but pushing myself to finish was a goal I never thought I could achieve. I am so proud of myself for kicking ass on this trek and now am one of the few people in the world that can say I successfully completed the "W" in 3.5 days! And after doing the trek and exploring one of the most beautiful places on earth I can only recommend that you yourself visit the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia Chile and see it firsthand. It is incredibly worth it!