So we got to our hostel really late the first night and then had to wake up fairly early, so the bus ride to the first place was full of grumpy-gills. It was beautiful bus ride though, with great views of the ocean and mountains at different points. Our first destination was a boat ride on the ocean, that I wasn't sold on at first but ended up being the best part of the trip. We saw tons of birds, penguins (that was one of my goals before leaving Chile, CHECK!), and (the best part, by far) tons of dolphins!!
The Pacific Ocean, in all it's glory.
My lovely CIEE group (well about half of them)
Birds of some interesting species, I'm sure
Cool rock features!
Sea lions!
The other half of the lovely CIEE group
More birds
Penguins!!
Bird poop.. and also some neat looking birds
and the best part, DOLPHINS
So close we could almost touch them!
And we saw them jump out of the water a few times. It was awesome. We probably saw at least 30. The tour guide said we were really lucky because usually, on good days, you only see like 1 or 2. It was so cooool.
We got to get off the boat for a little bit and climbed up to a lighthouse
Me being cool in my lifejacket
Safety first!!
So then we did a lot of eating and other boring stuff until nightfall when we went to a really cool observatory. We saw a bunch of constellations and star clusters and other stuff. We also got to look at the moon through an enormous telescope. It was really interesting because all the constellations were upside down (proof that the southern hemisphere dwellers live upside-down *cough..Tom*)
The stars were amazing though because we were outside of city lights so it was really really awesome!
Sorry, I didn't think to pose by the giant telescope so I had to steal this one.
As it turns out the biggest telescope is in Chile and is owned by the US i believe, but the EU is constructing a bigger telescope in Chile (damn Europeans!!!) that will be like x400 more powerful or something crazy. Anyway, I never knew that Chile was such a popular place for telescopes, something about the lack of city lights, the high elevation, and the clear skies (once you get out of Santiago)
Okay cool so we got home really late again, but then we got to sleep in a little bit the next morning before we went on a bike ride through Vicuña, which is just a small little town. It was pretty awesome because our group was followed by a "vehiculo de apoyo" (support vehicle) which was loaded with delicious snacks and water, and there was even a guy to slice the apples and pears!! (like I said, elementary school trip.) We broke into 3 groups: A, B, and 'mas o menos' ('more or less', or the group that wasn't so good at biking.) For some unknown reason A and B were not broken up based on ability, it was based on some arbitrary guideline, but then were paced according to ability. Essentially what this means is that I was really bored in the B group. But the second day of biking was more fun, so more on biking later.
That night Karl, Mimi, Nicola and I played hearts, listened to music and hung out with the group. Then afterward we went to a concert in the town plaza. Being gringos in a small Chilean town meant we had no chance of blending in whatsoever, so we just embraced that. I'm sure we were quite a spectacle but we had fun.
Hearts!
Cutest little kid danced with me on stage!! It was adorable :D
So the next morning was an early morning and we biked for pretty much the whole day. I also really enjoyed this part.
So there is one other person here from CU Boulder, his name is Nick. Nick and I were both [really bored together] in the B group on the first day, so, learning from our mistakes, we promptly asserted ourselves into the A group. However, we soon realized that the A group's strategy was to bike as hard as they could for as long as they could and then rest. Nick and I thought this was stupid, so we made the A minus group. We never lost the A group, we just biked at a steady pace and then caught up to them on the rests. The motto of A- group was "downshift!!!" as there were a lot of hills. Anyway this was great fun and there were lots of jokes involved. After the bike ride we ate the most delicious pasta ever in the world (we were really hungry) and then went back on the buses. We were supposed to go see a petrified wood forest but we didn't have time (buuuuuuumer.. not really because its petrified wood..) but we did have time to go see some hieroglyphics and climb on some rocks.
Vehiculo de apoyo, yumm
Aw, me and Mimi
Us after the bike ride, look how much we love each other!
Climbing rocks, i'm pretty sure i took pictures of the hieroglyphics but i can't find any! Anyway take my word that they were cool
Some random photo stop along the way.
That's pretty much it by way of excitement. The next day the itinerary says we went to a very interesting ecological site, but i don't remember that at all so it might have been part of the "behind schedule" thing. I remember us eating a delicious lunch, hanging out in a beach town that was still partially destroyed from the 2010 earthquake and then getting back on the bus and heading home to Santiago. The bus ride home was tons of fun, I really love the CIEE group. Mimi and I (and Karl when we needed a scientist) talked about everything from the causes of war and bargaining failures to societal pressures of body image to renewable energy. It was super interesting, but did not help me prepare for my history test the next day at all! (Grade on that still pending....)
(Editors note: I ended up getting a B- on my history test, FOR THE WIN!)
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