Hey! So here I am with not even 2 months to go. Crazy right? It's definitely gonna fly by with all of the school work I have to do and soaking up my last stretch of time here. Today there are clouds and it is wonderful and tomorrow it's supposed to rain. It was funny because we had our hottest day on the first day of fall which was around 97 degrees.
I think I left on the 5th for my spring break! On the day my pigeons eggs hatched...so the chicks are kinda big now. There's poop everywhere. They were kind of habituated in a bird poop stash. They climbed out of the nest though...so maybe they got tired of that or my roommate scared them. They're pretty cute. So we got to the southern town called Punta Arenas in southern Chile. We arrived at 12am since the bus we needed doesn't run that late we spent the night in the airport to catch the 7am bus to Puerto Natales and then to Parque Torres del Paine/Patagonia area. It was a pretty small airport, so we went up stairs, rolled out our sleeping bags and managed to get as much sleep possible in that kind of situation. So we got up early, packed up and caught our bus which brought us to Puerto Natales and then we took a bus to the park. We arrived around 4:30 and began our hike at 5. We had about a 4 hour hike to go and it was probably the easiest we had since it was fairly dry and flat. In my group was one girl named Richelle and 2 guys, Luke and Adrian. It was cool because while hiking on a narrow path on the side of a hill, we were surprised by a herd of horses passing on our path. I'm not sure if they were wild or not, but no one was with them and they weren't equipped with anything either. So that was pretty awesome. Maybe around 50 or so had passed us? We got to our camp( Camp Serán) around 9 pm and made our dinners(mine being ramen) which tasted sooo good after a long day.
Day 2
This day was tough, but was kind of a warm up for what I was in for. We headed towards camp dickson. We lucked out with rain, until we got to camp, but then it started raining on arrival. This is the day I got my gnarly blister on the bottom/side of my heel. We had met some drunky/hardcore hikers who were planning on popping it for that night because they were going to pop this guys blister in their group who had a gnarlier blister than mine. They let me have some moleskin for it during the hike though. When they came for me at camp to be my blister popping doctor, I became aware that it had popped on it's on...and I was kinda grateful for that. That night Richelle and I stayed in the warm lodge...where we probably weren't supposed to be since we weren't paying to stay in the refuge....but it was warm and the camp rangers were cute and nice and shared wine with me. It was fun. Eventually I went to bed, but didn't get much sleep because of how cold I was. I also had to pee for half of the night ,but wasn't going to go out to the bathroom...now looking back it maybe would've been worth it ,but it was cold and rainy. I think the hike we did this day was a six hour hike
Day 3
This day was rough...because it rained a lot and it was muddy, but the hike was incredible and we began to see more of the glacier. We were headed to Camp Los Perros today and it rained a lot, was cold and muddddy! It was like an obstacle course. Streams /small rapids to cross, sketchy bridges, steep hills and slopes to go up and down...but we made it!!! We got to camp wet. My feet were soaked and muddy from crossing streams and dodging endless patches of deep mud. At our camp there was a little lodge that they let all the hikers take over to dry out our wet stuff...which space was pretty competitive for that. It was pretty crowded because the hikers that had gone to do the hike beyond that camp that day had hike a good 3 hours to the top of this mountain pass..on the other side the snow was too deep and the wind was too strong so they turned back...which sounded super sucky. It was iffy if the conditions would be better the next day so the rangers said that the next day, any hikers planning on doing this hike would have to meet with them at 8 am and we would do it together. One camp ranger stayed in front while one stayed with the last person in back. So we tried to get our things dry for the next day. I wasn't really feeling like meeting anyone and just went to bed as early as possible. It was hard to not get muddy, especially because I couldn't wear my hiking shoes anymore than i had to because they were just killing my feet so I was walking in pretty deep mud at times with my flip flops on...yea no wonder i had some infected owies.
Day 4
So we went off to do this hike that we didn't even know we'd succeed at...most difficult and awesome hike I've done. The first stretch was foresty, full of mud and streams. I was trying to appreciate the mud...and right as I did that I fell forward , hitting my knee on a rock which made it a little tender for the rest of the day, mostly on down hill. Then there was the part where I actually saw what I was climbing up...and it was really like a mountain. The people in front of me looked like tiny little things. Lots of the mountain was just rocky with water/streams running down it , but that eventually just became snow. I had know idea I would be hiking in snow.
At parts it was over a foot deep too. Luckily, the weather was being much better that day. The view while going up the mountain was absolutely incredible. I would look at an area and it would just all be white.. and made me feel like I was in another world. I made it to the top. Going down hill was probably more intense, plus hurt my knee. It was very steep, slippery and kinda windy, but it was so incredibly beautiful. At the foot of the mountain was an amazing view of a blue glacier. I didn't even really know what a glacier looked like or that it looked so incredible in person. The last third of the hike was back in the woods ,but there were little views of the glacier that would surprise me every now and then. I was having a rough time on the way down. I just kept falling and falling and falling and falling. I also probably rolled my ankles a couple of times, but after 5 hours, I made it! I reunited with my group and we decided to hike the next 3 hours to the next camp that had a lot more to offer(such as a lodge and a little shop) since this camp was kinda plain and not in a very good area. So we did that. My feet...were just terrible and felt sooo manyy different versions of pain with every step...but we made it. This was a really nice camp...for the people paying to stay in the lodge at least. They had a bar, shop and restaurant. It was kind of difficult to meet people because I was sharing wine with my friend and she's kinda a conversation/attention hog so I barely would get words in. Just as I was getting kind of annoyed and had to go back to the shop for something, I think he was a worker who had stopped after seeing my face and had to touch it and then tried kissing me ,but I told him no. He's probably tried kissing all the white blonde girls there. Anyways, it was a fun and lame night.
Day 5
We had a shorter hike this day. I think it was like a 3.5 hour hike. Weather was finally good this day. We still were getting awesome views of the glacier and glacier ice and the lake and just beauty. It was alll so cool. The camp we got to was at the foot of a valley and was soooo windy. Maybe the windiest I've ever experienced. This area was beautiful, there was a boat, the valley, so much space, and alll of these cute colorful tents. This night didn't really differ from the others. We had finished Circuit O and Richelle and I were going to do the "w" which is a much more popular and shorter hike the next day and the guys were going to split off to do the "q". I went to bed that night and realized how painful it was for anything to be touching my big fat ex blister that I had gotten the 2nd day.
I woke up the next morning and kinda discovered that it seemed fairly infected and hurt a lot. It was shitty because I didn't really have soap ,but I managed to drowned it with antibiotic ointment. So it came down to a decision. There was a ferry that would come and go to that camp every so many hours and go to an area where buses picked up/dropped off campers. So I could take that...and go back to the city, or continue hiking and have no access to leave for 2 more nights. So I chose to go. I left with 2 other people in my program who had planned to leave that day. We arrived and they got on a bus, I waited because I had a 2 way ticket but my bus wasn't there....and it didn't show up for like 5 hours... so I went and wrote in small, pricey cafe with some coffee. It felt pretty good though. My bus came and I got into town maybe around 11? I needed to find a hostel. I didn't really want to walk at night ,but I should've at least walked a block to find a different hostel than the one right across the street that cost like a million dollars. But it was comforting to have that and have more control over my foot situation...plus, in the morning I got to shower ...which I hadn't for 5 days. So then I left that afternoon to punta arenas to spend another night at a different hostel. I was very short on money because of the dumb hostel I stayed at and could only make sure to spend it on a hostel and for transportation to the airport the next day. I got to Punta Arenas, found a cheaper hostel, paid for a shuttle to the airport the next day and went to go find beer to buy with the dollar I had left. I walked around the town a lot and it was pretty cute and quaint. There's not a beach, but lots of boats and it's a pretty cool area. It was kind of a tease walking around with no money. I went back to my hostel to make dinner out of leftovers from my hiking trip...carrot, dehydrated veggie meat and instant mashed potatoes. It was pretty gross, but it was good to have food. It sucked though because the beer I had was seriously the most disgusting beer I've had in my life. I met some nice people at that hostel and went to bed early. I woke up the next day and just didn't have a lot to do. I had to check out of the hostel, all I had to eat was a stash of carrots....really bitter carrots and just had my journal. So I wrote a lot. I hung outside when I could, but it was rainy so I stayed at the bus station for like 8 hours on and off, waiting for my ride to the airport at 8 pm. Eventually that happened. My driver was awesome...and scary. He had asked about my adventure and then managed to show me pictures of himself at Torres del Paine on facebook from like 10 years ago. Then I mentioned to him that I liked to salsa and he got so excited. He blasted on his salsa cd, began hollaring and dancing to the music. It brightened my very non eventful day. I got to the airport...to spend the night once again since our airplane would leave around 6am on Saturday. I hung around waiting to meet with Richelle. A young guy who worked at a chocolate shop began talking to me since he was pretty bored and there wasn't anyone interested in his shop. So he was good company for the next 2.5 hours and even offered me some chocolate samples which....I appreciated so much, only having had eaten terrible carrots that day. So the night past and I spent the night there and shinanigans. The next day I arrived in Santiago and that was the end of that trip!It was cool on my hike because we could drink the stream water...and it was the best water I've had in my life and you didn't have to worry about purifying water or anything since it was just water coming from the glacier and snow.
My next adventure was this last weekend. I went to a beach town (el Tabo) with some friends, my friends boyfriend and his friend. We rented a cabin for a night and it was awesome. We spent some good time on the beach, relaxing, walking and playing soccer. I had a blast and everyone was impressed with my soccer moves so I'm glad I can still do some things. The guys were pretty into playing music. There was a guy who would sing, and there were two guitars and 2 odd percussion instruments. One being the güira which I think takes special talent to make sound good...since I had to play it and I'm pretty sure I wasn't making it work. It's kinda like scratching a cheese grate with a fork? I'll post a picture of it. I had lots of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone while having drinks and eating bread with avocado and grilled veggies. I brought vegan brownies for everyone to enjoy too. The cabins were pretty cute. We saw some exciting wild life. I found a really cool moth and we also saw a tarantula -like spider which was creepy since it was right after I had gone under the porch to grab keys I had dropped. One of the most fun weekends I've had here. I also danced a lot and just had a blast. It was a lot of fun getting hanging out with the girls in my program and the guys and just being goofy and jolly.
I think I left on the 5th for my spring break! On the day my pigeons eggs hatched...so the chicks are kinda big now. There's poop everywhere. They were kind of habituated in a bird poop stash. They climbed out of the nest though...so maybe they got tired of that or my roommate scared them. They're pretty cute. So we got to the southern town called Punta Arenas in southern Chile. We arrived at 12am since the bus we needed doesn't run that late we spent the night in the airport to catch the 7am bus to Puerto Natales and then to Parque Torres del Paine/Patagonia area. It was a pretty small airport, so we went up stairs, rolled out our sleeping bags and managed to get as much sleep possible in that kind of situation. So we got up early, packed up and caught our bus which brought us to Puerto Natales and then we took a bus to the park. We arrived around 4:30 and began our hike at 5. We had about a 4 hour hike to go and it was probably the easiest we had since it was fairly dry and flat. In my group was one girl named Richelle and 2 guys, Luke and Adrian. It was cool because while hiking on a narrow path on the side of a hill, we were surprised by a herd of horses passing on our path. I'm not sure if they were wild or not, but no one was with them and they weren't equipped with anything either. So that was pretty awesome. Maybe around 50 or so had passed us? We got to our camp( Camp Serán) around 9 pm and made our dinners(mine being ramen) which tasted sooo good after a long day.
Day 2
This day was tough, but was kind of a warm up for what I was in for. We headed towards camp dickson. We lucked out with rain, until we got to camp, but then it started raining on arrival. This is the day I got my gnarly blister on the bottom/side of my heel. We had met some drunky/hardcore hikers who were planning on popping it for that night because they were going to pop this guys blister in their group who had a gnarlier blister than mine. They let me have some moleskin for it during the hike though. When they came for me at camp to be my blister popping doctor, I became aware that it had popped on it's on...and I was kinda grateful for that. That night Richelle and I stayed in the warm lodge...where we probably weren't supposed to be since we weren't paying to stay in the refuge....but it was warm and the camp rangers were cute and nice and shared wine with me. It was fun. Eventually I went to bed, but didn't get much sleep because of how cold I was. I also had to pee for half of the night ,but wasn't going to go out to the bathroom...now looking back it maybe would've been worth it ,but it was cold and rainy. I think the hike we did this day was a six hour hike
Day 3
This day was rough...because it rained a lot and it was muddy, but the hike was incredible and we began to see more of the glacier. We were headed to Camp Los Perros today and it rained a lot, was cold and muddddy! It was like an obstacle course. Streams /small rapids to cross, sketchy bridges, steep hills and slopes to go up and down...but we made it!!! We got to camp wet. My feet were soaked and muddy from crossing streams and dodging endless patches of deep mud. At our camp there was a little lodge that they let all the hikers take over to dry out our wet stuff...which space was pretty competitive for that. It was pretty crowded because the hikers that had gone to do the hike beyond that camp that day had hike a good 3 hours to the top of this mountain pass..on the other side the snow was too deep and the wind was too strong so they turned back...which sounded super sucky. It was iffy if the conditions would be better the next day so the rangers said that the next day, any hikers planning on doing this hike would have to meet with them at 8 am and we would do it together. One camp ranger stayed in front while one stayed with the last person in back. So we tried to get our things dry for the next day. I wasn't really feeling like meeting anyone and just went to bed as early as possible. It was hard to not get muddy, especially because I couldn't wear my hiking shoes anymore than i had to because they were just killing my feet so I was walking in pretty deep mud at times with my flip flops on...yea no wonder i had some infected owies.
Day 4
So we went off to do this hike that we didn't even know we'd succeed at...most difficult and awesome hike I've done. The first stretch was foresty, full of mud and streams. I was trying to appreciate the mud...and right as I did that I fell forward , hitting my knee on a rock which made it a little tender for the rest of the day, mostly on down hill. Then there was the part where I actually saw what I was climbing up...and it was really like a mountain. The people in front of me looked like tiny little things. Lots of the mountain was just rocky with water/streams running down it , but that eventually just became snow. I had know idea I would be hiking in snow.
At parts it was over a foot deep too. Luckily, the weather was being much better that day. The view while going up the mountain was absolutely incredible. I would look at an area and it would just all be white.. and made me feel like I was in another world. I made it to the top. Going down hill was probably more intense, plus hurt my knee. It was very steep, slippery and kinda windy, but it was so incredibly beautiful. At the foot of the mountain was an amazing view of a blue glacier. I didn't even really know what a glacier looked like or that it looked so incredible in person. The last third of the hike was back in the woods ,but there were little views of the glacier that would surprise me every now and then. I was having a rough time on the way down. I just kept falling and falling and falling and falling. I also probably rolled my ankles a couple of times, but after 5 hours, I made it! I reunited with my group and we decided to hike the next 3 hours to the next camp that had a lot more to offer(such as a lodge and a little shop) since this camp was kinda plain and not in a very good area. So we did that. My feet...were just terrible and felt sooo manyy different versions of pain with every step...but we made it. This was a really nice camp...for the people paying to stay in the lodge at least. They had a bar, shop and restaurant. It was kind of difficult to meet people because I was sharing wine with my friend and she's kinda a conversation/attention hog so I barely would get words in. Just as I was getting kind of annoyed and had to go back to the shop for something, I think he was a worker who had stopped after seeing my face and had to touch it and then tried kissing me ,but I told him no. He's probably tried kissing all the white blonde girls there. Anyways, it was a fun and lame night.
Day 5
We had a shorter hike this day. I think it was like a 3.5 hour hike. Weather was finally good this day. We still were getting awesome views of the glacier and glacier ice and the lake and just beauty. It was alll so cool. The camp we got to was at the foot of a valley and was soooo windy. Maybe the windiest I've ever experienced. This area was beautiful, there was a boat, the valley, so much space, and alll of these cute colorful tents. This night didn't really differ from the others. We had finished Circuit O and Richelle and I were going to do the "w" which is a much more popular and shorter hike the next day and the guys were going to split off to do the "q". I went to bed that night and realized how painful it was for anything to be touching my big fat ex blister that I had gotten the 2nd day.
I woke up the next morning and kinda discovered that it seemed fairly infected and hurt a lot. It was shitty because I didn't really have soap ,but I managed to drowned it with antibiotic ointment. So it came down to a decision. There was a ferry that would come and go to that camp every so many hours and go to an area where buses picked up/dropped off campers. So I could take that...and go back to the city, or continue hiking and have no access to leave for 2 more nights. So I chose to go. I left with 2 other people in my program who had planned to leave that day. We arrived and they got on a bus, I waited because I had a 2 way ticket but my bus wasn't there....and it didn't show up for like 5 hours... so I went and wrote in small, pricey cafe with some coffee. It felt pretty good though. My bus came and I got into town maybe around 11? I needed to find a hostel. I didn't really want to walk at night ,but I should've at least walked a block to find a different hostel than the one right across the street that cost like a million dollars. But it was comforting to have that and have more control over my foot situation...plus, in the morning I got to shower ...which I hadn't for 5 days. So then I left that afternoon to punta arenas to spend another night at a different hostel. I was very short on money because of the dumb hostel I stayed at and could only make sure to spend it on a hostel and for transportation to the airport the next day. I got to Punta Arenas, found a cheaper hostel, paid for a shuttle to the airport the next day and went to go find beer to buy with the dollar I had left. I walked around the town a lot and it was pretty cute and quaint. There's not a beach, but lots of boats and it's a pretty cool area. It was kind of a tease walking around with no money. I went back to my hostel to make dinner out of leftovers from my hiking trip...carrot, dehydrated veggie meat and instant mashed potatoes. It was pretty gross, but it was good to have food. It sucked though because the beer I had was seriously the most disgusting beer I've had in my life. I met some nice people at that hostel and went to bed early. I woke up the next day and just didn't have a lot to do. I had to check out of the hostel, all I had to eat was a stash of carrots....really bitter carrots and just had my journal. So I wrote a lot. I hung outside when I could, but it was rainy so I stayed at the bus station for like 8 hours on and off, waiting for my ride to the airport at 8 pm. Eventually that happened. My driver was awesome...and scary. He had asked about my adventure and then managed to show me pictures of himself at Torres del Paine on facebook from like 10 years ago. Then I mentioned to him that I liked to salsa and he got so excited. He blasted on his salsa cd, began hollaring and dancing to the music. It brightened my very non eventful day. I got to the airport...to spend the night once again since our airplane would leave around 6am on Saturday. I hung around waiting to meet with Richelle. A young guy who worked at a chocolate shop began talking to me since he was pretty bored and there wasn't anyone interested in his shop. So he was good company for the next 2.5 hours and even offered me some chocolate samples which....I appreciated so much, only having had eaten terrible carrots that day. So the night past and I spent the night there and shinanigans. The next day I arrived in Santiago and that was the end of that trip!It was cool on my hike because we could drink the stream water...and it was the best water I've had in my life and you didn't have to worry about purifying water or anything since it was just water coming from the glacier and snow.
My next adventure was this last weekend. I went to a beach town (el Tabo) with some friends, my friends boyfriend and his friend. We rented a cabin for a night and it was awesome. We spent some good time on the beach, relaxing, walking and playing soccer. I had a blast and everyone was impressed with my soccer moves so I'm glad I can still do some things. The guys were pretty into playing music. There was a guy who would sing, and there were two guitars and 2 odd percussion instruments. One being the güira which I think takes special talent to make sound good...since I had to play it and I'm pretty sure I wasn't making it work. It's kinda like scratching a cheese grate with a fork? I'll post a picture of it. I had lots of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone while having drinks and eating bread with avocado and grilled veggies. I brought vegan brownies for everyone to enjoy too. The cabins were pretty cute. We saw some exciting wild life. I found a really cool moth and we also saw a tarantula -like spider which was creepy since it was right after I had gone under the porch to grab keys I had dropped. One of the most fun weekends I've had here. I also danced a lot and just had a blast. It was a lot of fun getting hanging out with the girls in my program and the guys and just being goofy and jolly.