This past weekend was so much fun! On Friday night, at 7:00, I met Sarah Grace, Elizabeth, and Laura Kate to walk to the bus station together. I was loaded down with my bookbag full of clothes & some books. We met everyone else at Lider (Chilean Wal-Mart) to get a few snacks for the bus ride. Then we went to the bus station to wait for our 8:30 bus. We were extremely early because we did not want a repeat of our Santiago experience, especially since this ticket was much more expensive and since the next bus left in another 24 hours. Our bus left late so we made the bus on time...obviously. The bus ride was pretty interesting...one time I woke up to the attendant putting a blanket on me so that was a little creepy but overall it was okay because I got some sleep. We arrived in Pucon 12 hours later at 9:20 am. We literally walked a few steps to the building beside the bus station which just so happened to be our hostil. It was actually nice compared to other ones I've heard about. Our rooms weren't ready yet so we went a few blocks into town and ate breakfast at a cafe. Then I met Elizabeth's family friends that live an hour away in Tumocu...they haven't seen her since she was a baby so they came to visit. We went back to the hostil and changed into bathing suits to go on our tour of the city/visit to the hot springs. Our tour left at 2:30 and we went to a Mapuchi reservation first. To get there we had to get out of the van and walk across a not-so-sturdy bridge...once we were walking and a car drove across it and we had to squeeze up against the sides so it didn't hit us...not so fun but it all worked out. This Ruca Mapuchi was much more interesting than the other one we went to. There were little shops and lots to do but we were there for just a little while. We left there and went to a waterfall, then a lake, then two more waterfalls. To get to the last one, we climbed this hill through the forest and were able to stand at the top of one waterfall & look at another one behind it. It was really cool! After the waterfalls we went to the hot springs! It was extremely hot but we found one pool that wasn't too hot & nobody was in there because it was kind of shallow so it became the "gringo pool." We were there for 2 hours then we left and went back to the hostil.
Back at the hostil a barbecue was going on. Tara, Elizabeth, LK, SG, & I went to the grocery store to get lunch for the next day then joined everyone out back for the festivities. We now have some good British friends...they were also staying at the hostil, they're probs in their 30s & they're hilarious. We left at 11 or so to go to bed because we had to be up at 4 the next morning.
On Sunday we woke up at 4 because we had to be ready by 4:30. It was a little bit of a disaster for a little while during the getting ready time because everyone was running around in a hurry but we all made it on the bus and drove for a while to the base of the mountain in full gear. Once we got there, the guides attached picks & sleds to our special backpacks and with only an introduction of names, we began our hike. No safety briefing. No signing of release forms. Welome to a country other than America. The first hill was so steep and after a while I was breathing heavily trying to catch my breath thinking...oh great, I forgot my inhaler back in Vina...awesome. Needless to say, I quickly fell to the back of the group. All was well though because one of the very kind guide assistants, Nicolas, walked a little slower with me. After the second stop Anna Grace & Gardner joined us at our slower pace. Nicolas got mad at us sometimes for being slow and yelled at us to hurry up so we could catch up to everyone else but that never really happened. The main guide was literally running up thr mountain and we just wanted to enjoy the scenery at a calmer pace. Once we hiked up this giant mountain of snow it was time for another break & Nicolas said we were only half way. It had been hours and we hadn't just hiked up a little hill. We had hiked up a mountain and we were about to have to hike up basically another mountain on top of this one to get to the mouth of the volcano. We started to go for it but decided to turn around when the British people came back down. They said it wasn't very safe because of the wind and ice as well as on-coming storm so we started making the treck back down the mountain with Nicolas while all the brave people went up. I was a little disappointed in myself but we made it very far so I didn't feel too bad. We actually had a good time going down the mountain. No pressure to hurry...we just relaxed and joked the whole time. Nicolas was constantly laughing at us and he only got mad when we "accidently" slid down the snow when we weren't supposed to. We made it down to some rocks and we stayed there for over an hour waiting for everyone else then we started walking again. Finally they all caught up because they got to slide down the snow on their boards since the ice had melted my the time they came down. We kept going while they took a break and everyone met up at the bottom. It was so much fun & challenging! I'm glad we did it!
After that we went back to the hostil, showered, and went to dinner. Then at 8:30 we boarded our bus and drove through the night back to Vina. This morning, we got here and I rested for a while then had lunch with the fam. Next Elixabeth, SG, LK, & I went to the beach. Overall it was a great weekend!! Such a neat experience :)
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