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. 

wfbewlfjlkjaskl.

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!! 

Puerto Varas, Frutillar, Saltos and Camiones

This past weekend, made my way south to Puerto Varas, a German influenced town placed on a lake with a grand view of Volcán Osorno. 

Volcano Osorno in the distance. Beautiful. 

the harbor in Puerto Varas and the cerro we hiked in the background

On Saturday after napping from an all night bus ride and a cup of coffee, we made our way to Frutillar. A smaller town on the same lake, with famous German cake, a big music hall, and many beautiful little churches and German inspired buildings. 

Sitting out on the dock in Frutillar. So peaceful! 

Rebecca straight up eating palta on the micro

That night, we went out back to the place we had coffee for free pisco sours, which turned into a night of free drinking. Piscos, mint juleps, and margaritas. all to celebrate my girl Carlyn's birthday.

Carlyn's gratis birthday of piscos

On Sunday, after hiking the cerro, we made our way over for some ice cream and lunch. We met my good friend, Brian. A big ass smelly street dog who lived in Puerto Varas. I  made friends with him and played catch in the lake, trying to give him a de facto bath. It was quite the scene, many Chileans got what I'm sure a priceless show of a gringa playing with a smelly street dog.  In the end, we won his loyalty and he followed us around the rest of the trip. Oh smelly Brian (named for being a mix between a Bear and a Lion). So loyal, so happy to be with us, so smelly.

Brian, our big beautiful smelly dog 

Miss him. He's smelly though 

On Monday, we got on another micro and made our way to the Saltos de Petrohue, beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails. We wandered around and went on a few trails.

Saltos de Petrohue. 

So fucking blue and beautiful   

We slept in on Tuesday, then headed home.

Carlyn running to our ride, yes, that's a truck

 In a big rig.

Rebecca's host family "dad" and us chilling in the camión. 

Yes, I know. Rebecca's de facto host family's dad drives trucks for his job, and happened to be heading back to Temuco at the same time that we were heading home, so we caught a ride with him. It was a huge hike up to the truck, a real climb. And the ride was definitely bouncier than I thought (though that might have to do with it being a 20 year old truck), but overall, it was a great experience. My first big rig ride was a success. 

The trip was great. It was calm, and it was a lot of fun to just chill with other volunteers.

Dieciocho

Chilean Independence Day has come and past. A week long celebration of asados (bbq's), ramadas (a lot like a county fair), cueca dancing (traditional dance of Chile), empanadas (empanadas), and drinking (terremoto's). 

Lots of activities, lots of sleep, and lots of fun. 

The students really were the best part of it, as per normal. They danced, they dressed up, they played sports games, they flew kites. 

Here are kids at Dario Salas, getting their cueca on. 

Students getting their cueca on at Dario Salas 

So cute in their traditional dress

The man in the tan jacket is my head teacher, the teacher I work with. He couldn't dance cueca, and all the kids were cracking up. Though I can't dance either, I definitely had a chuckle or two, he just looked so ridiculous.

At Liceo Forestal Pehuen, they had a field day instead of a traditional dancing assembly. Tug of war, three legged races, bag races, and a few traditional games. 

tug of war

The interesting thing was the whole field day was by classes, so each competition had point values attached to it.
At the end of the day, they announced that if someone from your class shaved his/her head, that class would receive 5,000 points. Well, how many kids do you think wanted to shave their head at my not participating school?

Surprisingly, the kids were pretty into the day and were just having a great time and three kids shaved their heads. It was crazy! 

Look at all that hair on the ground!! It's the hair from all three of them.


On Friday of that week, there was a big Padre Las Casas wide DESFILE! or Parade. Which wasn't really all that much of a parade, it was them waiting on the main street of Padre for 2 hours past the start time, when fianlly they started, only to walk two or three blocks. It was strange.

The strangeness aside, everyone was dressed up in traditional garb, or in their respective school's finest! Everyone was looking good. It was great fun, since both of my schools were there, so I got to hang out with both my students.  

So cute, can't handle it. 

All the kids in red sweaters with the plaid skirts and grey tights are my Dario Salas kids. In fact, that tan building in the background is actually Dario Salas! 

Here is my host sister! She's looking beautiful! 

God. Too cute. Couldn't handle how cute some of my students were. the kid who has his eyes closed is one of my favorites, he's kind of a troublemaker, but he loves playing games. 

Some of the girls! This group is the group that always bugs me about the Professor and I being together. hahaha. Oh 12 year old girls. 

Dario Salas also had a band section! I had no idea! 

Now on to the Liceo kids, not looking quite as cute, but still they were all in such a good mood! It was fun to just hang out outside of the class.

cute!

Some of them dressed up for the desfile, looking fly!

I've never seen them quite so organized! It was impressive! 

Hahaha. They were yelling, trying to get my attention. 

Overall, they really are good kids.



Now, I leave with you one final picture of adorableness. Look at how cute these kids are!

Fiestas Patrias turned out to be a lot of fun. Getting involved with all the festivities, seeing the kids get really excited about something, it put a huge smile on my face. =] 

Valdivia

A beautiful flower finding it's way through the sand and the rocks in Niebla, Chile 

After buying a new pair of pants (and a new iPhone charging cord, yet another story), I met up with a few other program members to explore, speak English, and hang out in Valdivia, a city in Los Ríos, about 2 and a half hours south and west of Temuco.

While not quite as old warm charm as related to me by various sources, Valdivia is a lovely city situated pleasantly in between several rivers, maintaining river front walking paths and large bunches of birds fluttering about (pelicans! Those beautiful big lugs).

The view from our river front coffee shop boat

While not too much different from temuco in terms of shops, and general look, Valdivia has a lovely waterfront market, lots of coffee shops with mediocre coffee (had espresso on a river front boat-which was pretttty sweet). And delicious beer, being the city with the largest German influence in chile.

The beach at Niebla, where a wave caught me off guard, salting my newly purchased pants (it wasn't my weekend). 

After wandering the city on Friday afternoon and finding some food, we woke up on Saturdayand made our way to the ocean and a town called Niebla, full of old German forts and small town vibe. After, exploring a bit, we made our way to the kuntsmann cervecería, where I had a lovely sampler.

This is one of the old forts, see the cannons in the bottom left? Defending the river entrance into Valdivia

Here I am with the sampler at the Cervecería! Had a really good double bock there that was delicious. Also, a great blueberry beer.

After a chill afternoon of wandering and walking the promenades with all the Chileans, we went out for a friend's birthday, only to end up at this "Mexican" restaurant, where the DJ used smoke and bubbles. It was too hilarious, so I of course had to take a picture. 

We did eventually find our way to a British style pub with a cover band playing Beatles songs, they were actually pretty good! 

The long weekend in Valdivia was a much needed break to get out of Temuco, explore somewhere new, speak a little English, and really just enjoy all that Chile has to offer. Walking the promenades in Valdivia, watching the sun set across the river, seeing actual other runners out and about. Ultimately, Valdivia, while not the most exciting city, would be a lovely place to live. The people are so friendly, so full of life, and just really taking advantage of all the natural beauty that surrounds their city of rivers. 

A sunset along the promenade