Happy (Belated) New Year!!!

In celebration/anticipation of the New Year, we had a classic Chilean asado (barbeque). That meant plates were out of the story and mainly bread and meat was eaten. There was an appetizer of sausage on rolls, followed by strips of steak. We later resorted to plates for other food (potatoes, fruit, etc.). We then goofed off on the patio with music off of you tube (music we grew up with in the '9os...like Britney Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys...which virtually everyone knew). Min made the mistake of displaying his mad Michael-Jackson-dancing-imitation skills and Merle (a three year old) beat the rest of us soundly in a dance contest...

Close to midnight we went down to town on the beach by the lake to watch the fireworks with the rest of the town of Pucon. It was awesome! Music (all Spanish, except for one Katy Perry song) was blasting and people were passing around champagne bottles. One group behind us opened theirs, which promptly sprayed all over us (I got the brunt of the blow...my hair smelled like champagne for the rest of the night...). In true Chilean fashion, the fireworks started late, but they were the best! They have fewer fire restrictions so they were definitely closer, and thus looked bigger! In short: AWESOME!!

El Volcan

Unfortunatly, due to an unstable internet connection, and a road trip on which laptops were forebidden (I thus could not borrow), and expensive (and full) internet cafes, I failed to do what I said I would, which was keep up my blog. But I will instead now post posts...and thus fulfill my initial idea...

The Volcano...

On the 31st (yes, the last day I posted) those of us who hadn't been to Chile before went to climb the local volcano. When we got up in the morning it was the first time we could actually see the volcano. Yeah there was a little tiny cloud shrouding the top, but it finally proved that all the pictures we had seen were not a photo-shopped scam for tourists, that there really was a volcano, and it was pretty!!

One of our guides, Nico, was one of the raft guides I met over the summer at Cascade, so it was awesome seeing him. However, he bore words of doom... "See that cloud at the top. Bad news. Bad weather is coming. We will have to be quick." See? Doom...

Anyway, so luckily one of the ski lifts was open (it took approximately 1 hour off of our climb time), but we had to pay for it, and only a few of us had money (not thinking it would be open, and not taking anything extra with us). But the lift operators were nice and took what we had. It was fast, noisy, and sketchy. And mind you we didn't have skis or snowboards on, so you can't zoom out of the way on the snow. No. You had to run, in very big, clunky, hiking boots that aren't meant to be run in...with a huge pack with a pick axe. It must have been amusing watching us... (Picture; left to right: Jessie, Will, Mackenzie, Min, Carly, and me).

And so, following directly in the footprints of the guide with our gear and our pick axes up mountain and ready to scream bloody murder if we slipped, we began our trek up the mountain. Slowly visibility grew less and less. It was interesting, because the sun was bright, and reflected off the snow, and as clouds gathered around us (and towards the one at the top), the light reflected in the clouds...it was weird. And then there was white...everywhere! EVERYWHERE!! Depth perception was difficult, and concentration narrowed to the footprints ahead. We ultimately only got halfway up the mountain. We took a break for lunch (cold hands...and in the process, let's not slip down the mountain and follow the almost fate of Mackenzie's water bottle (the guide ~100m down the mountain caught it)...). The guides from all the different groups and companies confrenced and we turned around.

The going down was probably the best part. Totally and completely terrifying, but awesome none the less. We were given little plastic slabs shaped like a butt-print that we sat on and slid down on. Yes. EXTREME SLEDDING!! I was terrified after I got turned around on the first leg (I was going backwards...unable to see ANYTHIING) and went toboggan style with a guide until the last leg, which I did by myself.

The kids who went before did not quite buy our story of terror and extreme awesomeness. We had them somewhat going until they heard we had the aid of the ski lift (they didn't last year), and that we only went half way and turned around. Then we completely lost any respect we could have gained on that trip.

Despite the dreary weather (the doom predicted early on an otherwise clear, perfect day) it was pretty awesome. Now I can say I climbed a volcano! (No one needs to know we turned around and had the help of a ski-lift, do they?? I though not.)

We are about 4 hours different (from Mountain Time Zone) ... so it is now 5:20 pm.

After we got in at about 2:00 pm on the 28th, we ate lunch and ran a section of the river. Thankfully they have Little Heroes (my boat), and I have all my gear, so I was as comfortable running a new river as I was going to be. The first day was sketchy, to say the least. I had to relearn how to paddle (well) and blindly run rapids. There are some others here though, who are about my level though, so we were able to be in a group together. The main difference (besides completely new rapids) is the coldness. It's FREEZING!! And it was raining. If we were anywhere but Chile, I'd describe the conditions as close to miserable. But there's a price you pay for the amazing levels and colors of surrounding green. It is so beautiful. The few moments when the sun has come out, it has been amazing.

Unfortunately, those of us who got out early had a mishap. We diligantly tied up all the boats and made sure they could not move at all on the rack. We were going down this one-car wide bumpy, windey road to go pick up the others, when we noticed the side boats were falling off. After immediately moving over to the side of the road we noticed that of the 5 boats we were supposed to have, we only had 4. One of the kids says "oh...it's the blue Diesel" so we leave 2 kids with the boats and re-trace the road looking for the blue Diesel. We cannot find it. On our way back, we catch up to Kenneth (with the van, looking for us, after leaving the other kids at the take out (with another instructor). We pick up our kids (we'd passed the turn-off for home as well) and get the others, and some of the adults take off in the truck looking for the blue Diesel. They do not find it either. The next day, we have a lesson on tying down boats on any and all crafts, and we attempt to move on and accept that we really screwed up.

Then, the next day, we were running the same section of the river when we got to our initial take out place. They found the boat, where we first tied it up. And it was not blue, but green. So life is good now.

The first evening I joined a group of adults staying here, also, with Tom and Debbie and walked down to town. It was incredible. We took various shortcuts (lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my) we ended up at the top of the cemetery, overlooking the town. The cemetery was beautiful, and the view was incredible, we could only imagine (as we don't actually know) what the view would be like without clouds. (I will add pictures later.)

P.S. Later...I think it worked!! (The pictures)

Hello...I'm here!!

Hello! So I found the computer and thought... ok, this'll be easy... yeah.

All the settings are in Spanish and the keyboard is spanish, so I keep hitting the wrong keys. They are generally in the same spot, but the shift key is small and there's a key with "Bloq" and "Mayus" written on it between the shift and tab keys *... and generally 3 symbols on the top row rather than our usual 2 so it took me forever to find the "@" to log in. The symbols are found in the same place (the star above the eight for example), but it appears (is printed) somewhere else. Same with the parentheses. Luckily now all the parts on my blog are now in English, so I should be able to navigate. 

The plane rides were ever so much fun!! I slept in random spurts on the plane from Los Angeles to Santiago. Ultimately, not enough. For whatever reason, I sleep very well in a car, but not an airplane. Anyway... the plane. There were these AWESOME touch-screens that had music galore and lots of movies. Needless to say, I spent most of my time in the music. You could also use a remote which also controlled the lights. It was pretty sweet.

Also, at this point, I do not know how to put my SD card (w/pictures) on this Spanish Mac, so I will have to edit later and add pictures (I have been taking them!!!).