demasio disfrutar... too much fun!

Well helooo,
I was so busy in my last weeks in chile, that I have not gotten time to sit down and right a blog. So, before lunch, which has now changed to 12 o clock, and will contain rice and beans, I am sitting at our lovely leos computer writing to all of you! And let me tell you, it was so hard to leave chile. But first, I am going to tell you about my trip to the south.
We started with a 12 hour bus ride to Chiloe, an island in the south of Chile. The island is known for houses on stilts, witchcraft and myths. However, I know the island as being green, relaxed and beautiful. Definitly a place i could imagine living, it is just too beautiful. To get to this island, you arrive in a main port city and take a fiary in your bus to the other side. Every once in a while, you will see dolphins jumping alongside the ferry, but I only saw seals and penguins. Haha, penguins, thats a different story. Anyways, we stayed in this beautiful hostel called nuevo mundo, and in the mornings for breakfast they made fresh jam and fresh bread. A different attraction of the city (we stayed in ancud) is the market place. Here, you can get fresh fish at good prices but more importantly there were so many stores filled with wool, and it was all handmade. You saw hats, slippers, socks, penguins, dolls, scarves, sweaters, purses, bags, dresses, anything you can think of! The best part is in all of these whops (there is probably forty) the women are sitting in the back just knitting and waiting. It is too beautiful.
Well, the main attraction of Chiloe was the tour we took. All the girls (natael, katelynn, alysha and hanna) set off with our guide Brit (thats my name, not what I am), into the distance. WE drove to this pasture without a trail and began our hike along the coast. We walked through all the green, saw horses sheep and a lonely farm. However, before we knew it we arrived upon the breathtaking ocean scene. The waves were crashing, the water was dark blue, you could see the white of the ocean and the rocks were standing tall. It was so beautiful. We continued our walk along the coast, so we were basically walking on little rocks. We found treasures such as large sea shells and sea weed so long you could jump roap with it. After leaving the ocean, we followd the way of the sheep to try to get to our final destination, lunch. To do this, we walked through trees and more pasture. There was one part where we could not find a way out, so brit told us to follow the way of the sheep. We found an opening through a barbed wire fence that had wool covering the barbed wire so many sheep have crawled through it. After this, we climbed up a small stream, and if you were not careful you feet would get stick in the thick mud, and you might lose a shoe. So, the hike was pure scenery and we wound up eating a smoke salmon quiche for lunch and continued our journey. We drove to a boat where we got on to go look at penguins! And oh, they were so cute. black and white and living the life in chile. They walk cute, and sometimes blend into the rock. Also on penguin island we saw two sea otters putting on a show, birds with red feet, seagulls, and other species of animals. It was too much fun, and I love penguins. Our guide was ridiculously smart and he told us about the giant earthquack in chile, which actually brought more damage with a gigantic tsunami. And after about three days in chiloe, we went to Pucon.
Pucon is a very touristy spots town. In this town, you can climb valcones, go rafting, go fishing, hydrospeed, canopý adventure, hot springs, horse back riding to Mapuche reserves and I am sure much more. The town was absolutely beautiful because over the city lumes a huge valcano. One that I climbed. Haha, in pucon i chose to go hydrospeeding and climb the volcano. Hydrospeed is a lot like rafting however, you are solo, and in the water with an oversized kick bored. So, your body serves as the raft, and you get very personal with the rapids. It was so much fun hoever, the other girls chose to go rafting and I went without them with a guide. It was not too bad to have a break. When we came home from our activities, we were all a little bit soar and looking forward to getting up at 5 in the morning to go to the valcono. So, they next day after getting up, three of us (me, hana and alysha) embarked on our valcano adventure. we woar waterproof suits, helmets big boots, warm clothes and sunscreen. The valcano of 5000 meters did not look to difficult however, it was so trying! Our friend alysha did not make it to the top. and she stopped with a few other people after lunch. The rest of the group kept climbing, slowly but surely. It took us about 7 hours to get to the top of valcano villarica. To make it to the top, you walk in a zig zag pattern. During one part, we put on our crampons to stop slipping in the snow. Well, the journey up the valcano was so hard, but the entire time you were above the clouds. You looked down and saw the clouds looming over pucon. I could see the incan empire amidst all the clouds, having fun in their green hills. So we killed ourselves to make it to the top of the valcano, however going down was so much better. We strapped these duck tape things to our butts, and slid down. It was like the alpine slide, but with ducktape snow and butt shoots. Haha, it was so fast and so much easier. I was overjoyed to have accomplished making it to the top of the valc, and only too happe to get in the van to go home after making it down.
A funny thing about chile is that you never have to sign a waiver or a consent form.
Anyways, the final day in pucon we went to the beach. The beach is very special because it is made of entirely black valconic rock, and it is the beach of a lake. So the water is warm, and the sand is black. Haha, it was also wonderful to catch some rays on the valcano beach.

So, that was my trip to south of chile, a place I definitly want to take all of my family and friends to. When I came home, I had 4 more days untill I left chile. It was filled with family, friends and food. I could not have asked for anything more other than a little bit of sun, because it was also cloudy.
On friday night I went to zapallar to have a going away barbeque with my friends. Here, we ate chorripan, meat and drank wine. Haha, I am positive between about 10 people we drank 12 liters of boxed red wine. WAY TOO MUCH! however, it was a loving wonderful very fun party anyways.
On Saturday, I made empanadas with my what chile would say, mother in law. She taught me the old way to make them which involves boiling salt water and putting it in the pot of flow before you put in the melted butter. It made for a wonderful dough, and we filled it with pino meat. Everyone loved the empanadas made by gringa hands with gringa love. They told me all people from abroad love empanandas, and pizza is ordinary and I should go home and start and empanada business with chilean wine with fruit in it instead of pizza. I promptly disagreed. haha. well I must tell you it was so difficult to tell everyone good bye, but my pain was filled with love and excitement to be in brasil. And leo and his family is as wonderful as you can imagine. I am off to go eat lunch and try to communicate portugues to spanish.

I hope this message makes sense, I know it is long, and I rushed through it. Love you!
Un abrazo,
xoxo... kati