Halloween and Mom´s Visit!

As I scroll through Facebook, friends at home are bundling up with Pumpkin spice lattes and scarves (jealous!) But...things are warming up here finally, yes! I've really been enjoying the sunshine and blooming flowers.  A warm Halloween without a snow flake in sight, now that's a first! The night before my Mom was due to arrive in Santiago, our friend Noah and the other Gringos were having a Halloween party. Erin, Emy, Taylor and I dressed up as the band Kiss but with a twist. We wore Hershey labels and a silver ribbon in our hair and were "Hershey's Kisses." It was fun painting our faces and walking through town to the party...we sure got some looks! The party was fun, Noah and the old ChACEers were Disney Villains and the new group that arrived a few weeks ago were the Mario Kart video game players. We had fun dancing and hanging out with friends.

That next morning, Sunday I met Mom in the lobby of my apartment. I met her just as she was attempting to explain to the doorman who she was in Spanish. (I had her write down things to say just in case!) After catching up a bit and unloading her suitcase with things for me...(peanut butter and Quest bars, yesss!) we took a bus to the nearby mall, Parque Arauco and took a tour bus of the city. The tour was a hop on and hop off tour. We first stopped at Bella Vista, a great bohemian part of the city with fun little restaurants and bars. Then, we road a funicular, which is like a wooden train cart that goes up on a track, to the top of Cerro San Cristobal where the statue of the Virgin Mary is. When we got to the top we took in the smoggy, yet pretty view of the city and the Andes and Mom ate her first Chilean pino empanada. A pino empanada is a typical kind with meat, onion, hard boiled egg and an olive. The next stop was Plaza de Armas where we walked through the popular square and visited the huge cathedral with beautiful stained glass windows.  From there we walked through the street vendors, visited the Mercado Central with the fish market, and La Vega, with fresh fruits and vegetables. Finally after a long city tour, we ate dinner in the Bella Vista area and Mom had her first Chilean drink, the Pisco Sour!

On Monday, my Mom's friend Karen arrived in the morning and we hopped on a bus to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.  The morning was a bit cloudy, but we still got to explore the city of colorful houses and hills and take lots of pictures of the cool graffiti.  After exploring the port city, we took a bus to Vina del Mar and walked along the beach. The sun finally came out and we took off our shoes and socks and dipped our feet into the cold ocean to cool off. Before heading back to Santiago we enjoyed drinks in the sun at a cool little restaurant on the beach. That night we all went to bed early and got ready for our flight to Pucon the next day.

After a quick airplane ride of about an hour, we landed in Temuco on Tuesday . We then took a two hour bus ride to Pucon. The drive was spectacular! It was very green with winding rivers and forests.  Our hotel was great. It was located right on Lago (lake) Villarrica  and close to town. We had a porch that overlooked the black sand beach of the lake. After checking out the hotel, we went and grabbed lunch outside at a nice cafe called Cassis. It was delicious and the weather was gorgeous. We walked through town and checked out some neat little artisan shops and booked some tours for the next few days. My Spanish improved a lot over the past week because I did a lot of translating for my Mom and Karen, especially while booking the tours.  After a good night's sleep, Wednesday while Karen went to our little gym to work out, my Mom and I explored the beach and walked some cool trails through the woods. It was very peaceful.  For lunch we tried out an Arabian restaurant owned by Palestinian immigrants and had some yummy authentic Middle Eastern dishes like pita bread and falafel. That afternoon we went on a rafting tour! Luckily, (for Mom and Karen) our guide spoke English. We were in the English raft, and there was another raft guided in Spanish. In our boat was a couple on their honeymoon from Ireland. After practicing a few stroke movements as a team, we hit the river! The surrounding area was beautiful. In between the rapids, we got to enjoy the green mountains and the view of the white topped Volcan (Volcano) Villarrica.  After rafting, we enjoyed some Pisco Sours and I talked with two girls from Venezuela. We agreed to meet up later at a popular bar called Mamas Y Tapas.  After making some yummy nachos and enjoying a glass of vino on our patio, we when to Mamas Y Tapas for drinks. It was fun and good practice for me since I spoke Spanish to my new Venezuelan friends. A man at the bar who called himself the "Conductor" and coordinator of the streets of Pucon had eyes for Mom and bought her a drink. I translated for them a bit too! Overall, it was a fun night.
Thursday was very rainy and cold, so it was a perfect day to go to the hot springs!  We went to Termas Geometricas about two hours drive from Pucon.  There were many different pools with different temperatures in a jungley-canyon. At the top of all the pools there was a large water fall as well.  After a nice, long soak, we snoozed on the bus back home. We got into town around 9pm and went to our tour company to try on our gear for our next adventure...climbing Volcan Villarica! It is one of Chile's most active volcanos at 9,383 feet. We woke up early the next morning and met up with my roommate Emy and our friend Dave at the tour place at 6:30a.m. We got on all our gear which included snow pants, a parka, hat, gloves, helmet, and a back pack with crampons and an icepick! We drove about thirty minutes to the base of the volcano and began our trek with about 200 other people who also had the goal of ascending the volcano. After about an hour of hiking in the dirt, we put on our crampons. The crampons were metal daggers that wrapped around our hiking boots to help us hike in the deep snow. We also used our icepicks as a sort of hiking stick, and if we fell while hiking the steep slope, we were instructed to quickly dig the icepick in to stop us from tumbling down...yikes! The hike up was pretty tough, once the sun came out it was hot, and most of us hiked in t-shirts. After five grueling hours, and a few snack breaks, we all summited the volcano. The top of the volcano was fuming a sulfur mixture which burned your nostrils a bit, but it was a great view. From the top you could see the regions' three lakes and the Andes mountain range along with a few more volcanos in the distance. The way down the volcano was the best part. We attached plastic discs to our pants and sledded down the whole way! It was a blast! The only way to break was to use your icepick to dig into the snow. Needless to say, there were some crashes, but all in good fun. The sledding down definitely made the hike up worth it.
 That night, we were exhausted and all wanted a big juicy steak. My mom, Karen, Emy, Dave and I met up with Noah and Ryan for dinner at a highly recommended place called La Maga. We all split a parrillada which is grilled beef, sausage, chicken, and ribs turned slowly over a wood fire. Yummy! After dinner, we ate ice cream and walked back to the hotel. Then, Emy, Dave, Noah and Ryan and I drank some wine and walked on the beach and talked.
Saturday morning we took the bus to Temuco, then flew back to Santiago. When we landed we checked into the Holiday Inn across from the airport, then took a taxi towards Concha y Toro winery in Pirque, about 30 minutes south of Santiago. We were a little early for our tour, so our driver took us to a delicious Chilean restaurant. I finally tried Pastel de Choclo which is a sweet cornbread type dish with vegetables and chicken. It was yummy! Then we headed to the winery.  Concha y Toro produces the most wine in Latin America and started in the 1800's by aristocratic Chileans. The wine tour was great! It was a beautiful, sunny day to walk around in the vineyards. Our tour guide was actually from Thornton, Colorado, and we graduated in the same year! Small world.  We tried three different types of wine and toured the cellar where the wines are stored at specific temperatures and humidity levels. We then went into a special cellar called Casillero del Diablo which means the "Devil's Cellar." There is a rumor that the Devil lives there, and if anyone tries to steal wine, he'll come after you! After the tour I bought a Rose Syrah from the "Devil's Cellar"  to bring back for Bill and I.  Next, since Karen hadn't really seen much of Santiago yet, our driver dropped us off at Plaza de Armas in downtown Santiago. There were a lot of fun street performers, like clowns, comedians, and a really good Michael Jackson impersonator singing "Billie Jean." We walked around and Mom and Karen bought little souvenirs from the street vendors. Then, while waiting to cross the street, I heard a zapping noise. Karen suddenly yelled, and as I spun around a guy was trying to cut her silver chain necklace off her neck! We must have yelled loud enough because he ran off immediately. Luckily he didn't get Karen's necklace, and just scared us a bit. After that, we decided we'd had enough excitement, so we took the metro to Bella Vista area and had our last dinner in Santiago of pizza and Pisco Sours.  That night we slept all slept in the hotel near the airport, since Mom and Karen had an early flight the next day to Peru for their Machu Pichu trip.  In the morning, there was some confusion with American Airlines canceling Karen's trip to Lima, Peru. So, after running around the airport and over $1,000 dollars later buying a new ticket, I said good bye to my Mom and Karen.

Later that day, I prepped my meals for the week since I started back on my Bombshell plan. I'm excited to get back on track since my friend Sarah and I want to compete in April together in a bikini competition.  Then, I met up with my new Venezuelan friends I met in Pucon for coffee near my apartment. They were visiting Santiago for a few days before returning to Venezuela, so we decided to meet. It was cool to be able to hang out with them, especially since I'm not exactly fluent in Spanish. It felt good to know that the girls wanted to hang out with me, even though there was a bit of a language barrier!  One of the girls, Andreina, is studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland starting in January. She invited me to visit, a long with visiting Venezuela some day!

On to a new week! It will be nice to get back into the swing of things at school. Only four more weeks until I come home. Time has really flown by! I'm really proud of myself for sticking it out and staying in Chile. There were definitely times where I wanted nothing more than to come home. But, I don't regret a thing. I've learned so much about myself and have had amazing experiences. The next couple weekends are already filled with fun new things.

Until the next adventure,

Ciara