Jones y Pucón

Another vacation is sadly over, but I guess I have no right to complain ...2009 has been full of fun adventures and this week was another one to add to my favorites. For those of you that don't know, Kayla Jones arrived on Friday, September 11 and just left tonight. My host mother, Eva, was sweet enough to get up early with me on Friday morning to pick her up at the airport. Eva had 'met' Kayla briefly on Skype a few nights before, so we both waited anxiously for her to exit the international flight gates.

We came back to my new house and she was immediately immersed into my new life, and especially the Chilean culture. We ate breakfast and rested for a little while, but then we headed to school for my last day before 'spring break.' Little did she know that she would be joining me in a Freshman and 8th grade class, including fun Chilean Independence Day celebrations through out the entire school. We only spent about an hour doing real school work, and then joined the rest of the school outside on the patio for empanadas, music, and cueca (the typical Chilean dance). After school, we also had a party for the teachers to celebrate Fiestas Patrias a week early, including empanadas and wine! Only in South America is wine served at school, hahah.

On Friday evening we laid low at the house because, ironically, September 11th is a dangerous day in Chile. Back in 1973 when Chile was ruled by a communist government (I think...I could be getting my history a little backwards, Paula-help me if I'm telling this wrong!), the military invaded the government buildings in an effort to take over the government. To date, many Chileans still act out on this day in rememberance of the military take-over. It's basically just people doing stupid stuff in the street like starting fires or cutting out electricity. Fortunately we live in a safe neighborhood and my family reassured us that nothing would happen to us. It worked out well, too, because it gave Kayla a chance to relax after a long flight and festivities at school.

Saturday the girls (Camila, Kayla and I) went out and explored a little bit of Santiago before getting on our overnight bus at 11pm to head south to Pucón. When we arrived Sunday, we were sad to find it raining the ENTIRE day. We literally didn't do anything in Pucón on Sunday except read, sleep and try to warm up by the one heater in the entire hostel.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up the rest of the week and we fell in love with Pucón and the surrounding areas. On Monday we went whitewater rafting, and it was awesome! I might even say it was the best whitewater rafting I've done. The New River in West Virginia has some competition after rafting the lower Trancura. We also met some other gringas and a German girl, so it was fun making friends and hanging out with others on our adventure. On Tuesday, we went canopying (basically climbing trees and gliding across steel lines between trees). It was a blast and brought me back to my Young Life days when I would go ziplining at camp...only this time we were much higher up and we ziplined across rivers! On our final day in the south, we hiked part of the Parque Nacional Huerquehue, about an hour outside of town. It was a pretty intense hike, but had absolutely amazing views of Volcán Villarica (shown above). I think I remembered some of the scenes from Todd's old Chile photos. Kayla nicknamed me 'Super Monkey' because apparently I not only walk fast, but take long, fast strides hiking as well (if only I could run, dang it). Despite the mud, I was able to keep up with our German friend in her waterproof boots. Needless to say though, Kayla and I are a bad combination together. Everyone knows me for being clumsy or 'torpe', but I think Kayla might've had me beat on this trip. I fell twice, but she fell three times. We were both covered in dirt and mud by the end, haha. TRECE TRECE :) Good news is the hostel let us rinse off and change clothes even though we'd already checked out so we could get on the bus somewhat clean.

Thursday morning we got home and read and slept practically the entire day. There were two old women on the bus the night before that didn't shut up the whole night, so we didn't sleep much. It was nice to have a lazy day Thursday to get ready for the Fiestas Patrias festivities on Friday. We had so much fun celebrating Chile's Independence Day with the Soto/Muñoz families! Sergio and his brother-in-law, Patricio, grilled out the entire day, and we ate lots of choripan, steak, potatoes, empanadas, etc. My host parents also danced cueca for a while and we toasted with lots of Chilean wine and chicha!

Yesterday Kayla and I went out on our own. Eva offered me her car again, so I actually navigated our way through Santiago. I never thought I'd know such a big city so well! We did make a few U-turns, but we still managed very well. And today my family took her out to lunch before she had to head to the airport. It was so much fun! I'm so glad Kayla got to spend time down here with me, but I'm also so grateful that she got to know and love my host family and the culture as much as I do. We talked about how it's so much different experiencing it than the stories I try to tell everyone all the time. She knew I loved living with this family, but only now can she fully understand it. I think it was hard for everyone to say goodbye this evening!

Tomorrow means back to work, but I can't believe in a month I'll be home for Jessica and Bryan's wedding! Time is going by too fast!!

Keep checking my Picasa album, titled 'Jones y Pucón' for our pictures from the week. I've uploaded the photos from my camera, but I'm also waiting to get some from Kayla when she gets home.

On another note, I keep jumping every few minutes as I sit here writing this blog. My host father, Sergio, is watching a tennis match and yelling whenever the Chilean player gets a point. It's so funny because it reminds me of Dad yelling and getting excited watching a Hokie football game, hahah.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the Fall and football...have fun at those tailgates for me :)

Lots of love,

LG