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There was some warning in the last entry I might be busy to write for awhile.. I think it has been about a month since I've written, WAY over due. Sorry! The problem is that I have my own journal in english and two spanish journals for school to keep up with.
Catch up time....
Thursday October 16th- Left with three girls in my program south to Puerto Montt. We saw a beautiful sunset from the bus window while we passed Volcan Osorno. We met some local cops and went out with them to a pub.
Friday Octoer 17th- We walked by the water, saw some cool graffiti at the local skatepark, several statues and an old train depot. It was beautiful to see locals gathering oyesters at the waterfront. In the mid afternoon we took the ferry to island Chiloe. Dolfins, sea lions and birds were around the ferry and the view of the mountain range was spectacular. Once we arrived in Ancud, Chiloe I felt like the spinning image of my mother.. eating my healthy salad for lunch while overlooking the guide book for the group. After lunch the four of us searched for the bus that would take us to Penguinera--> penguins! A small bus depot.. don't even think it's fair to call it a depot, much more of a parking lot was finally discovered wedged between two large buildings. We were told there was a bus going out the 45 minute route to the penguins but no return, we took our chances. The guides for seeing the Penguins were notified of our arrival and we hopped in the back of the pick up truck once we got off the bus. It was a short 10 minute ride with a beautiful ocean view on our right and baby piglets scampering around on our left. When we got onto the beach we put on the waterproof jump suits for the "wild" boatride to see the penguin islands.. just kidding, extremely calm boat ride but we did have to get decked out in gear for some reason. Life jackets and all. Our guide was really nice and studies spanish so there was plenty of spanglish during the whole ride. We saw the cute little penguins, they were much smaller than I'd imaged, sea otters and great bird life. After the boatride we met photographers for the guide book we'd been following "Lonely Planet" and got asked questions about our trip, Chile and class. I had the book with me and we had several pictures taken of us for the largest newspaper in Chile "El Mercurio" .. we had to put the space suits back on and do a baywatch type walk, unreal really. Then went back on the boat, round two free of charge to 'see the penguins for the first time' and get photographed. Very weird.. but hillarious. The article was in the following week's newspaper with just one of the photos, they jumpled what states we were from but I was quoted (and the interview was in spanish mind you) which was super funny for me. One of those 'oh right, I'm living in CHILE..' moments. After all the hype we ate empanadas at a restaurant on the beach with a panoramic view of the ocean. We got a ride back into town with one of the guides from the penguin excursion just in time to make our bus to Castro, Chiloe. We used the guide to point us toward a good hostel and went grocery shopping for the following two nights.
Saturday October 18th- Took a bus to Cucao, the National Park in Chiloe. Our bus driver drove a little too fast for me.. honking at cows in the middle of the road as if they can move fast at all. In the park there were beautiful trees, blooming flowers and trees roots you couldn't see to the bottom of! The weather could have been better but it wasn't a problem. Then we did the walk to the beach with our packed tuna sandwiches. The sand dunes were huge and beautiful.We touched our toes in the great pacific.. That night we went to a restaurant made of an old boat. I had the best meal in Chile yet.. salmon and sauteed veggies. We then went to a Kareoke Bar that had a live band as well and met some locals who took us to a discoteque right on the water.
Sunday October 19th- Woke up and had to leave for the bus ride back to Valdivia, 7 hours total from the capital Castro of Chiloe. That night when I got back to my host family I got my hair trimmed by a friend of the family, my host family took pictures and laughed at me because they could tell I was scared having someone I didn't know cut my hair. Crazy foreigner.
Bed time! More tomorrow I hope..
Chao, T :)
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