ok, here it goes.

well, thurs night i took a bus for 11 hours SE to Pucon, we arrived at 8am and had a full day from there. we stayed in a really nice cabana, will cute rooms and i stayed with all girls i like. we went to have lunch made by some mapuche women, mapuche are one of the indigenous peoples of chile, who have had problems with political and racial oppresion. well anyways, the food was amazing, they use this fruit/seed to make it all and it was delicious. we ate with hand made dishes outside in a cute cabin like thing overlooking the river, it was gorgeous. then we explored the area/river awhile until we went to a bonfire at one of their houses. it was just a huge field with sheep, pigs, and dogs everywhere. we learned how to make yarn and weave, make sopapillas, play a game kinda like field hockey, learned a traditional dance and how to play ahorn mad of an antler and roast those fruit things on the fire. they were the nicest and most genuine people i think i have ever met. at the end we stood in a circle holding hands, to symbolize their belief that we are all connected and there is no end, they thanked us so so much for coming to learn about their culture and for caring and sharing time with them, it was just a really beautiful moment cause we were def the ones who should have been thankful. it was a really great day.

that night my roomates and i made pasta and just hung out, it was a really fun night, i like all my friends here alot :) then sat i went rafting! it was awesome. not too intense, but definately not something im used to. the guides name was the same as mine, even spelled the same, apparently its a typical guys name here....anyways, it was just soooo gorgeous, you could see the volcano (still active!) from the river and it was just a gorgeous day. we also got to jump off a cliff into the water and that was so fun. then after that my friends ashley vanessa and i went to look at the rest of pucon, it was kinda a letdown, really touristy, but there is a lake there that is just so so beautiful. then that night we went to dinner at a restaurant in town with the program and then just chilled in cabana again.

sun i didnt get to go to the hot springs with the program cause we had a bus that left at 3 to go 6 hours south to puerto montt to start our sothern adventure!. i went with 6 of my friends and then by chance like 8 others from my program were doing the same thing. so we took that bus and then stayed in a really sketchy hostel. it was creepy and dirty and overpriced. we went to get food but it was like 11, so we went to some sketchy bar where they like opened a peep hole first to let us in....bad sign number one. then inside they only had empanadas de carne...sweet. some creepy old drunk guys were flirting with some girls and just kept saying in english "pretty women" and when they left threw 1,000 pesos (only like 1.50) at the table haha. and then on the way home like a pack of 9 dogs walked us home, but they were fighting and it was kinda scary, they just kept surrounding us. anyways, so then we slept for like 4 hours and went to the airport.

after like 3 hours of delays (because there was no pilot??)...thats chile for you... we flew to punto arenas...its the 2nd southern most town in the world until u hit antartica! also! on the plane, i saw the andes, an erupting volcano, and a glacier! how cool is that?!! anyways we didnt stay in punto arenas til later, we then took a 3 hour bus more north to puerto natales. we stayed in a really cool hostel there with a guy names juan. he knew everything about the torres del paine and helped us plan our trip. then the next morning at 7 we took a 2 hour bus to the torres, they looked so intimidating from far away. the mountain was like all u could see and it was surrounded by gray clouds and just looked terryfying, the fact that we were going to hike that and live there the next few days was so daunting. umm so then i got into the park as a chilean :) that was a happy moment. then we took a catamaran to the left side of the park where glacier grey is. we checked into a refugio its like the step below a hostel, only this one was really nice. then we went on our first hike to see the glacier!

ok so this day was one of the best/scariest/strangest of my life. we walked for about 4 hours in the rain and cold to see the glacier. it was absolutely amazing. bigger than i couldve even imagined. we saw icebergs, they looked fake, they were like food color/jello blue. and they were fucknig huge. and the glacier was just gigantic, my pictures dont do it any justice. u see it and it really does take your breath away and just kinda changes ur view of the world. well maybe just me. but it was incredible. which then led to my downfall. because some other girls and i wanted to keep going to get closer, cause it u go the right way u can actually touch it. so we kept going, and after about and hour more of really hard hiking through brush and in pouring rain now, we realized we werent even close to the glacier (it just kept seeing to get farther....) and that we couldnt make it home b4 dark. so we tried to get back as fast as we could, literally like running sometimes on the flat parts. but it def turned dark b4 we could get back. so the woman i was with/leading (she is 45 and really awesome, but acts like shes 20) started panicking and it was almost impossible to see the path and it was freezing and there really are pumas in the forests there, so needless to say, i started to get scared. anyways, by total luck, we ran into 3 boys in our program who had lights and they led us back. i also just want to point out that all i had eaten within that day and the day before was a small quesadilla and an apple....and then i hiked literally 8 hours straight, not once sitting. and for some reason when it was all done, i just laughed and wasnt tired or upset, well except that i was so wet and cold, but i was actually proud we made it and was still really happy with the day. ok so anyways, then we made waaay too little pasta in the communal cabin thing, we all ravaged around the one pot, it was really funny watching us all 7 of us around this little pot. then i hung my clothes by the fire, considering thats all i had to wear all week....and then passed the fuck out.

then wed we took the boat back to the center of the park, took a bus to the right side, and then a shuttle to the base of the next trail. we found out there that the refugio we wanted to stay in, closed that day...por supuesto. but we found out b4 we hiked two hours straight uphill so that was nice. so instead we just stayed at another refugio and chilled that day. we were kinda bummed that we lost a day hiking, but in the end i think it was a blessing in disguise. it was a really gross cold and rainy day and we were all tired, hungry, wet and sore. so it was so great to get a real dinner, a fire and just sit. we had a great bonding day too i think. and it was really cool to see all the different types of people from around the world that were there. we met a girl from germany and some guys from australia, isreal, holland. it was cool.

hmm, then thurs we got up really early to see the sunrise on the torres (when i say torres i mean the 3 big towers in the mountains) it was a beautiful red/pink/purple sunrise, which yet again my camera does no justice to. then we hiked 4 1/2 hours up to the top. that was the hardest hike i have ever done. it was literally like rock climbing the last 45 mins. i honestly didnt think my body would make it up there. it was cool tho cause we went from ground level, following an absolutely gorgeous, fresh, bight blue river (too bad my camera sucked at getting the color) then up to the side of a mountain where we could see all kinds of waterfalls down the opposite mountain and then finally we were up to the top snowy parts and then at the top! the torres actually looked smaller from there than from far away, it was strange. but we lucked out and had a gorgeous sunny day. that was prob one of the best moments of my life. everyone at the top was just so happy to be there, it was such a positive energy. we were all proud of ourselves and awestruck by all the beauty we could see and it was just so cool to see other people experiencing the same great thing as me.

so then we worked our way down and ate lunch halfway down the mountain. then just walked all the rest of the way. it was so so so so pretty. you could see for miles. 3 different lakes, lots of mountain ranges, waterfalls, rivers, the perfect sky, it was alll soooooooo gorgeous. i cant even describe it. ive never felt so lucky to be alive. not to get all cheesy, but i really do think everyone should get to experience that place. it changes u i swear. ok so then we hung out at the cool hostel the rest of the asfternoon, took the same buses back to puerto natales and stayed in the same hostel with juan and cooked more pasta hah. then fri we went to punto arenas (the southern town) we stayed at this absolutely adorable hostel with a woman named elbia. she was so so nice to us and just wanted to help and talk to us. we played kings in the common room, that was hilarious and then we went to a restauurant called santinos that some awesome chilean photographer told us to meet him at. we had drinks called glacial and lago grey (places at the torres) and they just looked really cool. we also saw the cool photographer (vincente haha) then we went home, some friends drank more, but i feel asleep...

then sat we just flew to santiago and took a bus back to vina and i was finally home.
so that was my trip. i think i cant really get across how awesome it was cause it was just (dorky moment coming up!) it was really a great personal trip. i think i grew a lot, moved on alot, got to understand myself and really appreciate life. i could go on about really boring and cheesy things i realized, but i just dont want to type anymore.

so if u read this. thanks, i appreciate u caring. i hope u can experience something that makes u excited to live like this trip did for me!

much much love from chile!