WE ARE ON EASTER ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!

we are really sad that plus 3 is over and we already miss all of our new friends, but brad and i are going to have an awesome time...

its hot here.. and sunny!!!

wow i didnt realize how tardy i have been with this. so much has happened since monday (well not really, but it seems like it has been forever since monday). so let's run down through each day...

tuesday:
today was our trip to isla negra (one of pablo nerudas homes). it was pretty neat except it was kinda cold and rainy that day. we ate at a fish place (which i did not care for but everyone else seemed to enjoy it okay). we really didn't do anything else except eat at our favorite empanada place. it was so good. i tried a new one called pollo picante which is like spicy cheese and chicken. it was delicious.

wednesday:
today we went bowling. that was the only thing we had going on all day. it was okay. i did terrible in the first game and i was actually doing decent in the second game, but then we had to leave. for dinner we went to a new place called hot chili peppers. it was okay, not the best ever. my mojito was pretty good. that night about 7 of us went to a few places (rufino, chucaro and this other bar/salsa club). it was a decent night i guess.

thursday:
our last full day in chile (well, for most everyone). i guess i should say our last full day on plus 3 adventure. today was amazing. we went horseback riding through all different areas. it was sooo soo soo soo much fun. i was proud of myself because i was the first one on the horses and i did really well. i think i enjoyed this horseback riding more than the one we did in nicaragua. after we got done riding they had a barbeque prepared for us. it was sooo good. the scenery was beautiful too. tonight we have our farewell dinner at diego's pizza (where we ate first day). then later im sure everyone is going to go out and party since its the last night here. brad and i have to catch a cab at 4:30 in the morning to take us into santiago so we can catch our flight to easter island woot woot. it is definitely going to be a long night....

btw - i keep meaning to get my pictures on facebook, but with the internet problems and everything its been hard to get it done and find the time to do it. hopefully i can do it once we get to the hotel on easter island...

until next time...

so yesterday was the most rewarding day of the trip that i´ve had. it began very sluggishly (well actually, i was up and at it pretty early compared to most). once people finally began to get moving around and everyone took a shower in jo´s shower since our wing had no hot water, we decided to go down to the beach where there are a lot of stalls of arts and craft souvenir type things. there were a lot of us who went to the beach. however, as many people were deciding to go back to the hotel, matt, mark and i decided to follow through with the original plans that we had mentioned we wanted to do and headed back to reñaca where the fish rocks and the sand dunes were. i had googled it earlier in the morning and it had said it was a 2.5 kilometer walk just into the town of reñaca and then we figured it was another mile to mile and a half to the place where we wanted to go. so we began walking.

we walked to the edge of vina and then decided to catch a bus to reñaca. when the bus started to go the wrong direction we just jumped off and walked the rest of the way. the walk was very very pretty and we got some amazing pictures. we even got to see seals or sea lions (we aren´t sure which). some parts of the walk were kind of dangerous though since we were walking on the side of the road or the side of the rocky cliffs.

anyways, we were so happy once we finally made it to the fish rocks (i´ll show everyone pictures later). mark immediately started climbing out the rocks with the fish on it. i made it a little bit of the way but waited for him to come back so i at least had a spot before i started to climb out too. matt was chicken (he claimed he was scared of heights as his reason for not going, but i said so what! i am too!). i ended up making it out to the rock right before the set of rocks with the fish on it which made me feel really proud.

after this adventure we went to the other side of the street and started climbing the sand dunes which are actually mountains of sand. you wouldn´t believe the size of them. it was a very difficult work out. it probably took us a good 20 minutes to 30 minutes to walk up there. once we were up there we were so glad that we had made it. the views were incredible! we knew everyone would be so disappointed that they hadn´t come with us. the way down was much easier. i decided to barrel roll down the hill which was really fun. i have a video of it. matt´s idea wasn´t as successful because he sort of swam down the hill face first which caused him to get so much sand in his shirt that he looked like he was pregnant. speaking of massive amounts of sand, the sand in all of our shoes probably weighed at least 20 lbs.

we joined the rest of the group for dinner that night at a place called fornini´s which is an italian place that a plus 3 chile group had gone before. it was pretty good. the chocolate mousse at the end was the best part....


monday´s adventures....

so today was our trip into santiago. it was pretty fun. first we had to go to the chilean stock exchange which was definitely informative and interesting. then we walked around a bit to see some of the sights.

for lunch we went to this fish market called mercado central (not to be confused with market central at pitt). it smelled disgusting. we ate family style except for the few of us who dont particularly like fish. my steak was delicious though!

after lunch we headed to this gigantic hill with the statue of the virgin mary on it (the famous one that everyone knows about). we had to take an incline up which was pretty cool, much better than the one we took in valpariso. the views at the top were incredible!! with the colors from the sky and the layer of smog, the pictures look amazing.

and now, after an early morning, an exhausting day, and a long bus ride back, we are now at the hotel and probably going to get some dinner relatively soon and then maybe go out tonight.

until next time...

so its pretty early right now on our free sunday. everyone is still asleep. but i´m up and at it already. yesterday we went to valparaiso on our own (we even figured out how to take the subway there which is kinda cool). it was really fun. we ended up just walking around alot which some people complained about, but we ended up having a really good time. we started out by doing a boat tour of the bay area. it was really short but for 4 dollars it was nice to take some good pictures. we have been having a debate because a couple of the 9 people that went say they saw a penguin in the water but no one else saw it so we dont necessarily believe them. so after the boat tour we walked around to the little craft area right next to the boats. there were some pretty cool stuff there. after that we went back up the incline that we went on the other day to get back to the top of the hill. there is a bunch more little craft places up there that were nice. we spent a good amount of time looking around at those and then we began our adventure at the top of the hill. no one really knew where to go we just kept walking around but eventually we ended up finding some steps that led down to a beach. the water was pretty cold at the beach but it was really nice because there was a rocky area where we all sat down for a few minutes and enjoyed the view/beach. i even ended up having a full on conversation with these little kids who were wondering where we were from and asking all these questions about the united states. so after the beach we all went back to the hotel and mostly got on the computer and stuff. brad, mark and i went to mcdonalds to use the internet there to check email and look at facebook pictures that jo had put up. after that we decided to go to dinner at tiki tacos, which was pretty good. i think the best thing was the brownie tiki taco (brownie sundae) that brendan and i split. it was yummy. then for the rest of the night we all pretty must just chilled and watched tv or movies. pretty uneventful night.

so today we are thinking about going back to reñaca which is a beach area and has some really cool rocks that we walked out on the other day (avoiding possible death). and then tonight we have a group dinner at an italian place yum yum.

happy mothers day, colleen! (and happy anniversary too)

yeah so we are still having internet problems and it seems the best way to use the internet is to go to mcdonalds. so thats where im at right now because we got back earlier tonight than most nights. lets see, yesterday we went to our first company visit at codelco. it was pretty cool but it was a good lil drive away. lets see then we had another lecture at the school. mimo made it great as usual. then we went to a soccer game. the soccer game was really intense and totally different than any soccer game in the united states. the people are really into it. then today we had two company visits, one of which was mine. first we went to vina indomita which was my group's company. it was awesome. it was very pretty and everything. the lady who gave us the tour was very smart and good at speaking english. we then had lunch at a traditional chilean restuarant. it was pretty good. i think i literally ate a whole chicken though. lets see then after lunch we went to the next company visit which was lan airlines. it was pretty cool to see the big planes and see them doing the modifications to the wings. and now here i am!

btw, i think im pretty much the worse person to operate the showers at the hotel because last night when i was trying to take a shower i couldnt get the water at the perfect temperature. first it was smoldering hot and then brendan came in and turned it way up but then that just made it flood again. so then because i couldnt actually get under the smoldering hot water i decided to turn the cold on too but that turned all the water off somehow. it was at this point that i decided to just take a cold shower. i had goosebumps for the whole 5 minutes i was in there and about 30 minutes after it. it was terrible.

tomorrow is the day at the farm! yay! a day of relaxation... and its viernes!

So Chile has been awesome so far...

We arrived Sunday morning after a very long and exhausting flight during which I probably only slept about 2 hours. It was a relief to land. Of course, then we had to go through some ridiculously long lines for paying our entry fee and the passport control. Anyways, after about an hour we went out to the bus (which was really nice and has a nice bathroom inside the bus) and drove to Vina del Mar. On the bus ride pretty much everyone passed out because everyone was exhausted.

So after arriving at the hotel, we had a free day so we started walking around Vina. It was fun. We went to the beach (which is really cool) and then went to a pizza place for lunch. The pizza was really good except it was hard to just order a plain pizza with just sauce and cheese because they don't just call tomato sauce that. So then we walked around for a while more and later went back to the hotel where everyone again crashed and slept for a few hours. Later that night we went to this place called Margaritas. It was our first group meal. It was pretty good.

The next day....

We spent the whole day at the school (which is immaculate I must add). The university is on a hill that overlooks the ocean (pretty much the ideal place to go to school). The lectures were pretty good. He kept it interesting. Later we went on a tour of Vina and Valparaiso. We went to a lot of places that will be seen by the pictures I am going to post to facebook later today (hopefully). Last night Arturo (one of Chilean students) took us to a bar to hang out. It was fun for a while. Then we went to sleep. The end.