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...