Well the week after Buenos Aires, one of my best friends from studying in Ecuador came and visited Jen and I in Santiago. Maureen is one of those crazy people that just makes you laugh and laugh so she was really good to have around. Jen and I really enjoy making fancy foods for dinner so we made some fresh spring rolls one night and a different time we made really yummy stir fry. We explored Santiago and went out most nights, it was a good time. On the friday before she left we went to Valparaiso, which is only about an 1 1/2 hours from Santiago. We sort of just wandered around aimlessly and landed at one of Pablo Neruda's houses (i have now been to all three in Chile!) which was pretty cool like all of his other houses.. have i mentioned that i am in love with mr. neruda? he wasn't attractive by any means but he had really good taste and was an amazing poet! i can understand why he was such a ladies man! We also went on one of the famous ascensores (elevators) in valparaiso, it was made in 1893 or something and i wasn't extremely confident in how it was working, but we made it up and down and got a good view of the city plus of the port which literally looked like LEGO mania. it was cool.
On Saturday, I left for Patagonia, Chile which is almost to the very southernmost point of the continent. I flew into Punto Arenas and while on the shuttle bus from the airport to the city to meet my two friends Sam and Gabe I realized I didn't have my passport anymore. I realized that it must have come out on the plane or something. The guys and I had to catch a bus to puerto natales a different city in a few hours so I tried my best to contact the airport and airline to see if they had my passport, but in the end i couldn't get through to anyone and just decided I would deal with it when I got back. A week later when i returned to civilization, good old Punto Arenas airport had my passport stored and waiting for me! :)
So Gabe, Sam, and I got to Puerto Natales pretty late and stayed in a hostel, ready to leave at 7 in the morning to go to the national park torres del paine. That night we walked around town, laid by the port and looked at the AMAZING stars! We could see the milky way and everything!
So the next day we arrived and started our hike at about noon. We decided to do the circuit which is supposed to take at least 7 days, but we were going to do it in 6 days. We needed to 10 kms to get to the goal campsite. The map said it was supposed to take 10 hours. We all carried our big packs but were prepared, i already had my hiking boots all broken in and had done the inca trail before.. Anyways, i hiked really fast to keep up with the guys and my feet were hurting but i didn't want to stop because i wanted to get to the campsite before dark. When i finally got to the campsite, i was really afraid to take off my shoes. i knew that my toes were going to be black and my heel was hurting pretty bad. my sock was bloody and i had a huge blister that ripped of my heel about an inch in diameter. Both of my toenails were absolutely black with blisters beginning to form underneath of them. BUT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!! I was in pain, but i continued to hike the most beautiful place i have ever seen. there were tough parts, but for the most part it was easy going just a lot of walking. 4-9 hours a day. The best day was the third day, which was supposed to be the hardest because we had to climb up and down a mountain so it said. i didn't think it was so bad and when i got to the top of the mountain IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING VIEW EVER!! Grey's glacier in all it's glory, and it was a perfectly clear day. i don't know how to explain it and the pictures don't do it justice, but it was just the most beautiful thing ever. As i climbed down the mountain, the views of the glacier just kept getting better and better and different angles and it was just so cool. Later as we were getting to the end of the glacier we had to cross this crazy avalanche thing. i sort of thought i was going to die.. there was no bridge because the avalanche had destroyed it and we had to crawl across this ice slide with our packs and then up a rocky sandy hill to get back on the trail. If you were to slide down this avalanche you would slide right into the glacier. it was probably one of the most dangerous things i have ever done. The next day my feet were really hurting and when we stopped at this lodge called pehoe where my friend gabe was waiting for me. I took off my boot and started crying. my toe was absolutely disgusting and deformed and i didn't know what to do. poor gabe didn't know what to do with me so just offered me chocolate! haha. There was some doctor nurse man there and he fixed up both of my feet for me and gave me some really nice pain killers! Thanks Dr. Rodrigo! Anyways, the last two days I didn't really complete the whole hike, which is upsetting but i don't regret it. i don't think my feet could handle anymore. so i kind of split up from sam and gabe and hung out with some friendly israelis instead! It was a good time and i made my way back to puerto natales a day early where i hung out with some people i met from valparaiso!
Unfortunately, i got 2 emails with really bad news; my friend's mom had a brain aneurysm and is in a coma and one of my first friends from the university was killed in her house in Madison, so i just became really sad and all i could think about was my friends and the people that were affected. I couldn't concentrate on studying for the two exams i had that Tuesday and in the end i ended up failing one. I just had no motivation to do anything except mope around or lay in my bed. It was pretty bad. But now I feel way better. I am still sad about these things and praying for the best for my friends, but I am going to continue trying to enjoy my experience here instead of dwelling on the negative things going on in the world. In a way it's cool because I still have all these thoughts flying all around my head and i have these moments where i feel all philosophical and i am finally writing in my journal again which i hadn't been doing this whole semester.
So once my feet are healed I am going to start doing yoga i think and meditating ASAP. I am going to go to some museums soon and just walk around. The weather is slowly getting colder and I don't want it to get to the day where it is cold and rainy and i will just be sitting here looking out my window like, merrrr... why didn't i take advantage of that weather before!
I signed up for my classes for fall semester and they weren't really offering everything i wanted so that was irritating, but it won't affect my graduation plans. I am taking;
french 101- giving another language a try
biology of the mind
Topics in psychology- social systems and law (may change if they open other classes)
Writing Travels
History of Germany- i think i'll have to drop it because once i sign up for my research i will be over the amount of credits allowed in one semester
research in my prejudice and stereotyping lab.
So it should be a good semester.
For those of you who didn't recieve my patagonia pictures, send me an email, because they are awesome!!
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