LATE Volcán Villarica, CHILE

The ride to the base starting point 

Yeah, that's what we're climbing. 

I have zero to none photos of the ascent. I cannot be blamed. I was tweaking. 

Crampons. Slippery slopes. Ice picks with little explanation of how to use them. 

Mix that with a fear of heights and general nervousness walking on slippery slope and you have an ascent filled with watching the person's feet in front of me and just me repeatedly thinking, if you fall Lucy, don't let go of the ice pick. Don't let go of the ice pick.

Don't let go of the ice pick. 

Oh and, if your crampons are on, don't fucking use your feet to stop your fall or youll break your legs. 

The ascent, needless to say, was terrifying. After hearing countless stories of people slipping and dying, and e, myself experiencing the harrowing heights and slopes, I was freaked. 

BUT.

Through it all, I somehow made it to the top. 

While the crampons definitely made it easier, I promised myself not to do something quite that scary for quite a while. 

Here I am at the top in my little helmet. 

Full snow gear with our guide. 

Alive. 

Near the crater. 

This is us that afternoon. A bit sunburnt. A bit slap happy. 

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Bogotá, Colombia

After a flight through the night, a few good bits of veritable Lucy travel ju-ju, I landed in Bogotá, Colombia.

Upon arriving at my hostel, the Musicology hostel-I'm in the reggae room, I wandered a bit around the old town and have so far found Bogotá to be an enchanting city. 

I'm staying in the Candelaria district, with cobblestone streets, churches from the 1500s, and winding streets. The streets are cleaner than Santiago, brighter than Santiago, and overall just more livelier. 

Bogotans are out and about on the streets, laughing and wandering. The people seem like they like living here, which is really demonstrative of the energy of the city. They even have streets closed off, whole streets that they've shut down 24/7 for foot and bike traffic. On Sundays, they have even more streets closed off, as allegedly the whole city takes to their bikes. 

This city feels safe and livable. I like it so far. 

Today, I took a run only to find that we are high up here. Altitude sickness is a problem. Truckee is a bit over 5,000 feet, but Bogotá is the third highest city in South America at 8,600 feet just for the normal part of the city. I did a bit over 3 miles and I was tired. Rough. For some dumb reason, I then decided to climb the mountain, Cerro Monserrate, an hour and a half and 1500 more elevation feet. I almost died. I had to take breaks every 30 steps of crazy intense stairs and had some serious low blood pressures issues as I made my way up, suffering with the other climbers. It became a personal goal to make it to the top, and it was probably the hardest "hike," if you can call a stone pathway full of stairs a hike, of my life. 

the church at the top 

the view of Bogota 

More Bogota 

Walked around a lot today and went to a few museums. Here are some pics of my new favorite and only Colombian painter, Fernando Botero. He likes to distort images and essentially make people, things and animals larger. It's just so fun, you can't help but laugh. 

Mona Lisa Botero style 

Another famous Botero 

I'm thinking I'm heading out of Bogotá tomorrow, to make my way North, so we'll see how that goes!!