Finally Ready…

… to go back home.

It’s not that I’ve suddenly had a complete change of heart and hate Santiago, quite the opposite actually. But just a few days ago, I all of a sudden realized that I think it’s time for me to go back home. Not sure how I feel about going back to Syracuse where I’ll be taking 6 classes instead of 3 like I am here… but I am so ready to just go home and sit on my couch for days and days with my family bringing me all my favorite food.

And that is not to say that I didn’t have an incredible time last weekend. Our entire group went to Pucon which is a 10 hour bus ride to the South. One of the best parts was that it was entirely paid for by Syracuse University. 5 star hotel, which was actually just a bunch of quaint little cabins. Syracuse even paid for a fondue dinner and an asado (you should all know what that means by now) the next night. Breakfast was brought to our cabins each morning. And the first day we went on a tour of some beautiful waterfalls and then to some hot springs.

The waterfalls were gorgeous, but I couldn’t make it up to see all of them because it was a big climb and I am currently sporting a really sexy knee brace. But I did get to see some!

And before we went to the waterfalls, we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view of a beautiful lake. Where we discovered that we could walk on water…

It was such a beautiful scene, so serene and peaceful. I can totally imagine having a little summer house in Pucon…

After the waterfalls we were taken to some hot springs. The day was hot and the water was even hotter, but it was wonderful. The springs did wonders for my messed up knee.

And to escape from the heat, some of the people in our group decided to go into the cold river instead…

The river wanted to take Mike with it

The next day was the day to climb the volcano. The volcano that I said I would climb no matter what. Also the volcano that I am so happy I did not end up climbing. Of course I would have loved to if I didn’t have this knee problem, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten up for more than 10 minutes with this stupid knee according to what my friends told me. Apparently it took them 5 hours to climb and it was so vertical that they had to use ice picks to help them at some points. Ice picks? But I thought it was spring here in Chile? Well, the volcano actually has about 9 feet of compact snow on it. So my friends were just casually walking on top of 9 feet of snow on a volcano. But what they said was the best part was that to get down the volcano it only took about an hour because they slid down the entire way!

the volcano they climbed

But I had a great day as well. I went with some of my friends to the nearby lake. We laid on the beach and chatted. What a perfect day. Then we all went to a restaurant that is famous for its great North American food. Que perfecto, I haven’t had pad thai in months!

The next day, while the volcano climbers were too sore to do anything but go to the lake, the rest of us went horseback riding. I’ve been redeveloping my love for horses while I’ve been here. I’ve always loved them, until once when I was in Canada about 7 years ago and a horse decided to lie down and scratch its back while I was still sitting on it…

But anyway, this ride was amazing. The horses were all very well trained and well taken care of. I know this because one of my friends has been riding horses her entire life. She is also the friend that turned into a lobster the day before because she didn’t take the sunscreen I offered her…

We rode for about 2 hours. The 2 guides even let us gallop a little even though 2 girls had never ridden a horse before in their lives. I’ve ridden a horse at least once a year for most of my life but no one has ever let me gallop. It was such an incredible feeling, almost like flying through the air on this majestic animal.

My horses name was treinta y ocho…that means 38. How creative. But she was a wonderful horse that was very content in following the rest of the horses without me having to do much. At least in the beginning… Then she decided to act out a little bit – something the guides said she never does. I guess we just had a special connection.

We rode through beautiful scenery. Some people in our group said they wouldn’t want to ride on a horse because wherever the horse takes them, they can hike that themselves. But I think being on the back of a horse makes the experience so much better because you’re sharing it with that wonderful animal.

Most of my photos are either crooked or blurry because it is extremely difficult trying to take photos while on a moving horse. Especially once my horse decided to be an individual and not just follow the crowd.

My beautiful horse:

And this horse, while gorgeous, was not the nicest.

This horse tried to bite a lot of the other horses. And on our last gallop, just a few minutes away from the stable, his saddle broke. And my friend fell off. Such a scary experience, I can’t imagine how terrified she must have been because apparently she was riding basically on the side of the horse for a few seconds until she just fell. Reminds me of my bicycle crash just 20 seconds before the end of our bike tour in Mendoza, but obviously this was worse.

To make her feel a little better, we went out for ice cream and brownies after. Yum.

Unfortunately, this was our last day in Pucon. We left that night so that we could make it back in time for classes on Monday. Yay…

But the week ended up not being too bad. The test in my Chilean class that I was certain I was going to fail, didn’t actually go that badly. I go the highest score out of my friends and not a bad grade at all. However, this was most likely due to a positive gringo tax.

If I haven’t explained gringo tax before, im sorry. Gringo tax isn’t a real thing. It just means that sometimes people charge us more for some things because we are obviously gringos and they assume all gringos have a lot of money. But a positive gringo tax was the fact that our teacher bumped up our grades because we clearly had no idea what was going on in that class. Unfortunately, one of my friends is from the Dominican Republic. But that’s not the unfortunate part. The unfortunate part is that her last name clearly shows that she speaks Spanish, so our teacher didn’t know that she was just a gringo like us. So her grade was the grade we all should have gotten, but instead we got a positive gringo tax added on. I feel bad for her, but I am also definitely not complaining about my grade. Now if only I can do that well on the final for that class which is in just a few days…

I got the grade back on Wednesday, and on the Thursday I had a good day as well. I booked my flight to Patagonia!! Even though, because of my knee, I can’t do the famous W-circuit that most people do, two of my friends and I are still going down there to explore the greatness of Patagonia without doing the 5-day hike. Personally, I think this is even better because we’ll get to see so much more.

And that same day, we went to a Peruvian restaurant after class. The food was muy rico (delicious). Definitely going to become part of my diet back in the States.

I never thought I would miss food from back home so much, even crappy Chinese food. And don’t even get me started on bubble tea or caprese salad…

We talk about the food we miss way too much here. Which is why I ordered 180 pieces of sushi for my pool party this weekend!

Not really a pool party in the sense that we went wild… or that we actually swam.

It was warm but not sunny so only the boys went in the water. But it was a really nice and relaxing with all my friends nonetheless. And eating yummy sushi. Or suchi, as they say here in Santiago. Then we took a little field trip 5 blocks away to an ice cream store that sells hand-made ice cream.

Hand-made raspberry/blueberry, passion fruit, and manjar (dulce de leche) ice cream. Deliciouso!

And everyone left fairly early because most of us haven’t even started our essay that is due tomorrow. Including me. Woops.

And I have a final this Wednesday. But my grandma is coming on Tuesday and there is nothing else that seems at all important in my life at the moment. So excited to see her! I am definitely starting to miss home more than I ever have during this entire trip. 

Tomorrow the one-month countdown begins!