horrible, no good, very bad day.

Today was not the best of days. Everything at the hogar was just not going well. Lots of misunderstandings and frustrations all day. I was almost in tears at one point and toward the end of the day. I was sitting in the kitchen helping to prepare once (the pre-dinner snack) and literally mid sentence complaining about everything that had happened when one of the girls came running in saying "Tia Romy, Tia Romy, tengo algo para ti!" (I have something for you). She handed me a card and on the inside it had a huge heart and said the following:

Tia Romy, te quiero mucho con todo mi corazon.
te quiero mucho tia.
de, Suzy

Which translates to.....
Tia Romy, I love you so much with all of my hear.
I love you so much tia.
From, Suzy.

Complete with giant hearts and stars galore.

I almost started crying again, but this time it was a good thing. I picked her up and hugged her forever and told her how she just made my day. The best part was no one even told her to make the card, she just wanted to. She's 7 and is very hot and cold some days with me so it really meant the world to me. She's never been so sweet and loving with me before.

So we hugged some more and I took some pictures with her and the card. That then led to a silly self photo shoot of the two of us making funny faces and then cracking up together after each one.
Needless to say, it turned my day right around.

Field Trip Fridays

Summer has now come to an end here in Chile and school has started back up for the kids. (It's still a million degrees outside though so my summer is still going strong) With the girls back in school, the hogar is changing as well. It was really relaxed during the summer with lazy days and lots of playing outside. While I am excited to see more structure come back with homework time and picking the girls up from school, I am sad to see summer fun go. 

During the summer we would go to the pool every Thursday with all of the girls. I couldn't go most of the time because I have Spanish classes on Thursday, but the few times I did make it we had the best time. It's so fun to watch a kid getting excited about a pool. It's literally the greatest thing in the world to them and they were all so cute in their bathing suits. Everyday Thursday after lunch when they put them on they would run up to us and show off their suits. Even after the 10th time of seeing a 5 year olds little neon green one piece I still wasn't pretending to be excited when she proudly showed it off to me.

The girls sleeping on the bus there... I just thought they looked hilarious.
If you put them on a bus or a car they all fall asleep in 10 minutes.

Cheesin it.

S and I in the pool

Playing in the pool

Tia Bri and I

We also had a field trip of some sorts on Fridays. My favorite one was the trip out of the city for about an hour to a random lake and camp site. Sixteen girls and 4 tias, including Briana and myself, loaded up in a mini van and headed out. We had a pinic by the lake and then everyone swam for hours. It was a perfect day, sometimes their lives are so weird and complicated and that day they were just kids playing at a lake. Smiling, laughing and having fun. It was perfect.

Kayaking in Patagonia

Last week I headed south for what I considered to be an intense camping and kayaking trip. My friend Elisabeth, her boyfriend and 3 of his friends were going to go on a 4 day kayaking trip and invited me to tag along. I had kayaked a lot at home so I said absolutely, I'm in!

One of the reasons this trip was so special, is because it is in one of the most beautifual places in the world.... Patagonia.  The trip had us starting out in the top of the Patagonia mountains and kayaking through canals and rivers that were in the middle of no where. The government is talking about putting a new road in that will connect this area to make it easily accessible, but it will also take away so much of the natural beauty of this place. This is also one of the main reasons they wanted to go, to see everything in it's natural state before the new road will be put in.

Our trip started with an overnight bus ride to Panguipulli, Chile, where Vicente's family has a house and we also needed to pick up his car there. So we got in and showered (for the last time for the next 4 days) and headed even further south. We drove for most of the day and met up with the rest of the group, took a ferry, and then drove for another 3 hours (on dirt roads) to our drop in point in Hornopiern. Talk about remote, we were in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful.

Sunset on the ferry to Hornopiren

Views of the moutains at dusk

So the next morning we got up and drove another 2 hours to our actual drop in point on the water. Now, if you have ever taken a kayak trip before you know there is not much room in the kayaks for your things. I had never been on a kayak trip and I am a notorious over packer. So we spent a good 2 hours packing the kayaks, repacking and getting it all ready. Finally, after leaving many things behind we were off!

I have kayaked a lot, but normally in a single kayak and this time I was in a double with Elisabeth's boyfriend's room mate, Manuel. He is a super outdoorsey person and really nice, but he doesn't speak much English and my Spanish is ok, but still not the best. So we were in for an adventure in all aspects.

Elisabeth and I getting ready to head out.... it was instense kayaking. we had to wear the kayak skirts.

We kayaked for about 26km that day.... so roughly 16.5 miles. It was amazing, but so hard! We were in the ocean, but in the canals, so we did have land on both sides, but it was still kind of rough waters. It was also raining. My arms were KILLING ME by the end of the day. Parts of my arms were tired that I didn't even know I could use when exercising.

It didn't matter.... it was gorgeous. We were alone in the water, surrounded by huge green lush mountains that shot up out of the water and were covered in waterfalls in every direction. Sea lions and dolphins were swimming and playing all around us.

We arrived at our campsite for the night cold and soaked to the core, but happy to be there. So we hopped in the hot springs to warm up and it was perfect. The campsite was at the end of a little lagoon and it was amazing. It was just our group and 2 guys that "worked" there. The name is Fiordo Quintupeu.... if you want to read about it or practice some spanish you can check it out here.

We were planning on going out again the next day, but the weather was going to be bad so we decided to stay a day and rest and then hope for better weather on the following day. So we slept in late and explored and enjoyed the hot springs a few more times.

On Sunday morning, we got up early and headed out. It was raining again, but it didn't matter. We were going to be wet anyway in the kayaks. So we left the campsite and on our way out saw roughly 200 sea lions all playing on some rocks and swimming in the water. It was incredible.

That day we went about 20km and it was rough. There were some serious swells in the ocean, for a kayak and for some reason I could not find my balance. Manuel was about to kill me because I kept almost flipping us. It was stressful! But, then you looked up and realized where you were and everything was ok again. Our end point that day was a marine research center where we would catch a boat to a ferry to take us back. We had more planned, but the weather was only getting worse and the waters would be getting rougher so we decided to head back early.

(I don't have any pictures from the kayaks because my camera is not waterproof, but Manuel took lots and promised to share so I'll have to update with pics from there at a later day)

So we headed back on a boat with a local fisherman and then to the ferry to get back to our cars. After one more night in Hornopiern, we headed to Panguipulli once again and relaxed for a day before heading back to Santiago.

We passed the biggest waterfall I have ever seen in one of our boat rides.

Elisabeth and I on the fisherman's boat..... I had on a trash bag because my raincoat was soaked to the core.

Another gorgeous waterfall near our ferry pickup.

Rainbows :)

Views from the ferry

It was such an amazing trip. Something that is probably truly a once in a lifetime trip. It was even more special because we were with friends and locals. You can do something similar with a guide (and pay an insane amount of money), but this was special. We stayed in Vicente's house in Panguipulli with his family for 2 nights and it felt so nice to be in a home with a family. (Made me a little homesick.... Mom, don't start crying reading this) Overall, it was just beautiful!

Machu Picchu Part 2

This is a very delayed continuation.... but none the less, here it is.

DAY 3:
We woke up early again on day 3 to begin our "short" day of hiking. We were going to climb up for another 3 hours and then..... 3,000 STEPS DOWNHILL. It was actually as bad as it sounds. They were the original steps from the Inca trail too, so a little rough and rocky and with only a little bit of drizzle that day they were wet. It was great though, we were so close to the finish line. We only had to hike to lunch and then we were going to visit some more ruins and then go to bed early for the big day at Machu Picchu.

Before lunch we had the option to go to one set of small ruins that were like 30 more minutes of hiking. At first, we all said no. The 3,000 steps were really hard, but then we came to our senses and went. It was so worth it. GORGEOUS views and ruins.

Llamas wandering around the ruins...

Gorgeous views of the valleys

Our whole group at the end of day 3

Allison, Jess, Eli and I in all of our gear.

After a 30 minute hike to our tents we dropped our bags, ate some lunch and headed out to see more sites. We were close to Machu Picchu so there were a lot more ruins all in this one area to protect Machu Picchu.

If you remember how earlier I was saying how insanely good our food was..... here's a little proof:

After that nice meal we were off to one of the biggest ruin sites on the trail.
How cool is this?

More amazing ruins

Allison and I

Looking out in the valley

Then we started to get a little tired and weird. We were done hiking, it was raining and we were all exhausted!

Singing in the rain in giant ponchos and umbrellas :)

The German boys

So we headed back to the tents, relaxed a bit and went to bed super early because the last day we were waking up at 3:30am. Yep, 3:30. We had to then get in a line (and be the first ones there to get a seat under the covered walk) and wait in line for an hour. Then hike for 1 more hour and go over "the last gringa killer", a set of very scary, scary steep stairs that you used your hands to climb and then..... We reached the Sun Gate!!!

The Sun Gate is the official entrance in to Machu Picchu and supposed you can see the sun rise through it, but it was cloudy and foggy so we didn't get the sun, but it did break for just a minute to see MP.

Our whole group at the Sun Gate

We made it!

After that, we had to go get our tickets stamped and check our bags, then we were in. We finally made it! It felt so, so good! And it felt so good that we had hiked it. We did it.

We had a 2 hour tour with our guide..... I will be honest we sat in the grass for 30 minutes and I fell asleep for part of it. I was just so tired! About 5 other people did the same so I didn't feel so bad.

Temples in Machu Picchu

Following our tour, we were off to guess what...... hike again!!! A few of us had signed up to do Wayinpicchu, the smaller mountain beside MP that gives you amazing views, but it is very steep and scary to do. Good news, it only took about an hour.

Bri and I were a bit worried about hiking again....

Views of MP from Waynapicchu

More MP Views

Once we came back down and met up with everyone it was time for the traditional Machu Picchu photo shoot... and we had fun with it. Here were my favorites.....

Jumping pic..... on the first try too.

Llama sock pics

Looking over MP

Abuela pic

We were there from 6am - 4pm and it was amazing. Every second of it. It got better as the day went on because most people didn't stay that long so by the end of the day it was not nearly as crowded. It really is one of the wonders of the world and just amazing. I want to go back!!

At the end of the day, we loaded up and took the bus down to Agua Calientes, the small town at the bottom of the mountian, ate some yummy local food and hopped on the train back to Cusco.

Exhausted, really smelly and wet, but all in all it was by far one of the most amazing things that I have ever done.