Six Weeks Left

I've got six weeks left here in Chile, and what an eventful end it's going to be! This weekend was a really tame and lazy weekend for me. I don't have any pressing projects to do, and even with the intent to get ahead on my history paper I only got a intro started and a few pages of references up. But it's quite alright, most of my stressful work is over with and most things aren't due until the end of the semester now so I have time. :) Although by the way everything else has gone, it's still going to fly by. Anyway, while this weekend has been pretty lame to write about, I have yet to explain last weekend in Pucón.


So obviously, last weekend we took a trip to Pucón. By we, I mean all of the program, it's our last trip with all of us being together and one of the last events with the program. The weekend started off with a very long overnight bus ride to the city of Pucón where we stayed in some really nice cabins. The bus ride was nothing worth mentioning other than the fact that it was the most uncomfortable bus ride that I've ever been on in regards of attempting to sleep. Shorter people had issues, meaning that those of us with taller statures were basically out of luck, but after a fitful night of off and on sleeping we made it and we're all young enough to bounce back from it easily anyway.



After settling into our cabins and eating breakfast we made our way to the bus for the ride to the city of Currahuehue where we met with a Mapuche family there, toured their museum and then were welcomed into their home for lunch and activities. Their home included a large portion of land where we played games, explored the riverbank, learned a mapuche game similar to hockey, took a weaving workshop, learned to dance, and of course ate some amazing food. Our hosts were wonderful and were happy to share their culture with us and we were all grateful for their hospitality.


The next day, Saturday, was an activity day where we chose our activities the night before. We had the option to climb a volcano, go rafting, and canopy (ziplining) among a few other things we could have done on our own. I chose to do the canopy activity because it was more economical and I've always wanted to do it. The volcano sounded interesting, but it was expensive, and in the end I'm glad I didn't do it because they had to turn back early due to the weather from the night before and the scattered showers appearing later on. I was one of six girls that chose to do our activity, which didn't last long enough, but was amazing as well. If you ever have the chance, I strongly recommend ziplining, I know I will take the opportunity to do it again should it present itself. After our activities we were given some free time before heading to a nice restaurant for dinner where I had an amazing steak and potatoes dish with a bottle of wine that my table bought and shared.



On Sunday, our last day there before heading out later on in the evening for another overnight bus ride back to Viña we did a two short hikes to see some waterfalls in the area and then spent a few hours of the afternoon lazing around in the hot springs. Afterwards we went back to our cabins to pack up before being served a "classy" asado (barbecue) at the resorts castle kitchen. Once we finished there we hopped on the bus to head back, and a second uncomfortable fitful overnight on the bus ensued.


Not really an adventurous weekend but it was still nice and relaxing. Our trips with the program seem to have been high end which is a blessing in some ways, but then you realize how much cheaper the trip could have been with a slightly ritzier locales. Oh well.

Wednesday night I will be spending the night with a group of gals from the program at the airport anxiously waiting for our morning flight to Peru where we will visit Cusco and Machu Picchu. :) Super excited and I hope that everything goes as planned. We won't want a repeat adventure of Patagonia since we won't have as much room for improvisation.