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.

Dia del Amor con las ninas....

Yesterday we decided to have a little celebration for Valentine's Day at the hogar. We had the girls draw names out of a hat and then they had to make a card for the girl the drew for Valentine's day. It was wonderful chaos as are all of our activities at the hogar. I also had the idea to do potato art for the cards so we made some potato stamps with hearts and stars for them to use.

It's always hilarious to use paint with the girls because they LOVE it so much. They painted the sponges we used for sponge art as well as the potatoes more than they painted to actual cards, but it was still great.

Paiting the potato stamps

Doesn't she look terrified? She actually posed for this when I told her to look at me for the photo and said "Wait tia" and looked up again with this face for the photo!

This little stinker just painted her whole potato....

Once everyone had finished the cards, we had a big presentation where each girl gave their cards and a little bag of candy to another girl. We also made them hug or kiss on the cheek. The cutest was that 2 sister had each other (5 and 7 years old) and it was just insanely cute when they gave each other a big ole hug!

All of us with the cards in the TV room after the big reveal!!

After that we decorated brownies with tons of delicious sugary Valentine's day goodies. All in all,it was a super fun day.

Alos, right as I was leaving one of my favorite girls came running up to give me a hug goodbye and randomly said "Tia Romy, when do you have to go back to your country?"
It was super random, because they never ask me about that.  I replied in roughly 3 months and she gave me another big hug and said "Ok, but you at least have to stay until my birthday. It's on May 26. A lot of the other girls have birthdays around there too, but mine is on the 26th."
How am I ever going to leave them!!!!


Happy Valentine's Day!

PERU: The first few days...

I don't even know where to begin with this one! It was such an amazing trip and we saw so much!
We left for Peru on Friday at woke up at 3:30am to make our 6am flight. It was rough. Once we arrived in Cucso we immediately knew we were in a different place. It's so funny to see how different the countries in South America can be. They are pretty close in distance, but so different. One of the best things was that the people of Peru speak MUCH better Spanish so we could understand people!!! I've gotten pretty good at understanding Chilean Spanish, but it honestly just felt so good to not feel like an idiot and to be able to easily understand things. This is because they speak much slower than Chileans and say complete words.

So we arrived on Friday and had the weekend to see a bit of Cusco and get adjusted to the altitude, which I was definitely feeling on the first day. We were all a little weak and wobbly, but after having quite a few cups of cocoa tea and just taking it slow we started to adjust.

On Saturday we took a tour of the Sacred Valley and it was amazing. A little background on Cusco.... it was the Capital of the Incan Empire and was taken over by the Spanish in the 1500's. It's an amazing city because there are gorgeous green mountains everywhere and Incan ruins all around the city and in the city as well. Then the Spanish came and while they destroyed a lot of things, they did keep some intact, but also brought a European feeling to the city with a lot of the plazas, tiny streets and churches.

The Sacred Valley consists of about 3 towns and lots of rich valleys and areas that were big on farming villages in Cusco. We saw some really amazing stuff and it was a perfect little warm-up for Machu Picchu.

Views of the valley from the craft markets at Pisac.

Jess, Me, Elisabeth and Allison overlooking the Sacred Valley.

Views from Incan ruins

Incan's were big farmers and there argicultural terraces everywhere.

Looking out from the ruins on to the town of Ollantaytambo

Playing in the ruins

On Sunday we spent the day exploring the city and resting before the big hike! We also had our pre-hike meeting where the group had everything wrong that we ordered and told us that our extra porter could only take 2 kilos more when we were planning on 7..... after a small panic we got everything worked out and were good to go!


We woke up at 3:00am to arrive at 4am for our group pick up spot and we were the first ones there ready to go! We took a bus ride to the starting point and had a great little buffet breakfast at this amazing open air restaurant (the first of many good meals on this trip). Then another hour on a bumpy bus and we were ready to start the Inca Trail at 8,923ft.

The first part was super easy, flat and nice with some shade. We had 15 people in our group, 2 guides and 9 of the 15 people were part of our group from Chile. That day were hiked 12 km. It was really easy up until we got to lunch. There was a small incline, but not bad at all. After a few hours we got to our lunch tent and it was amazing! Our group had 23 porters and they set up a huge tent for meals with tables and chairs. We were all just expecting something simple and then they brought out this:

Appetizer: guacamole and chips
Drinks: juice, water and tea
1st course: Quinoa soup
2nd course: A buffet of rice, veggies, chicken in some sauce

It was insane! We knew we had picked a good company, but we were not expecting this kind of service and food! It was insane and got better and better every meal. We also knew then that we would not be loosing any weight on this treking adventure!

4am ready to go!

Our group at the start of the trail.

The nice flat part of the trail that did not last for very long.

So after lunch we were off again and this time it was uphill to our campsite. That was when I realized a) I should have worked out before this trip and b) all of that acclaimating I did in Colorado to higher altitudes did not stick with me. It was getting harder to go uphill especially with our giant packs. We made it in pretty good timing and arrived at our campsite for the night (at 9,8452 ft) with our tents all set up and an annoucement that happy hour would be in 20 minutes. (this was just popcorn and cookies, no drinks)

I also realized that day that my crazy sister had worn off on me (she has a fear of not having enough water) because I was told that I would probably only need a liter off water for the whole day, but I knew better. I filled up my 3 liter camelbak in the morning and then again at lunch..... in total that day I think I drink about 4.5 liters of water.

After another amazing meal we were in bed by 8:30 and praying it wouldn't rain tomorrow because we were waking up at 4am to start the hardest day.

Sitting down for dinner on the first night.

Views from the tent

Me, Bri and Jess at our campsite on the first night

DAY 2: "The difficult day"

We woke up bright and early the next day, slightly rested (it was freezing and the sleeping mats did not help much), and ready to go after a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fruit salad! On day two we were going for 16km in total and reaching 13,779ft at Dead Woman's Pass (great name right?) before lunch. This was known as the toughest day, and it definitely was, but it wasn't horrible! The first part of the day was steep and very hard especially first thing in the morning. I was definitely not in the front of the group.....

Then at half way point we had a snack and got ready for the last 2 hours to the pass. It was actually less steep, but so much harder to breathe because of the high altitude, but....................
WE MADE IT! It was worth it, the views were amazing.
To celebrate lots of jumping photos were taken....

Views from the top of Dead Woman's Pass

Celebratory high 5 with Tia Bri!

Jumping pic at Dead Woman's Pass with all of the girls

The whole VE gang at the top

After a nice rest at the top we head down for 2 hours (on original Incan stairs) to get to our lunch spot for the day. It was a nice change of pace, but it was a little hard on the knees. Little did I know this was nothing compared to "the day of 3,000 stairs". It was also our first encounter with the rain (we went a week before the closed for rainy season so this was to be expected), which meant it was time to bust out the ponchos!

Jess, Elisabeth, Allison and I in our sweet ponchos

We were also getting a bit tired and silly..... and then we realized we looked like turtles in our packs and ponchos and thus came the need for this gem of a photo....


"The hunch back of Machu Pichhu"

At the bottom of the steps we had a quick lunch and then it was back uphill for another 2 hours to some ruins and our next campsite. We really did have an amazing guide who was so nice and knowlegable of everything in the area so we definitely had an hour or two of Incan education everyday, which really made us appreciate everything even more.

Incan Ruins

Jess, Elisabeth and I

Allison and I leaving the ruins

It was here that we also entered the "Cloud Jungle" and we were basically surrounded by clouds that kept coming and going and sometimes we were so high up that we were in low hanging clouds. It was just cool..... a cloud jungle. Doesn't that sound cool?

Anyway, a short hike from the ruins and we were at our campsite for another amazing meal and a cake!! They baked a cake in the mountains without energry...... over a fire.... and it was pretty good. It was a birthday cake for our friend Sebastian who turned 19 on the first day of the trek!

Once again we were in bed by 8:30pm. This time we were a lot higher up and since I was freezing the night before I literally wore every piece of clean clothing I had to bed and all of my jackets and two hats. I was not cold that night, but I surprisingly wasn't hot either!

We were half way there! It was so amazing so far and our excitement for the big ending with Machu Picchu was getting bigger everyday!

Today it just clicked....

I know I owe an update on my trip to Peru and I swear I am working on it! It has just been kind of a busy week, but it's coming. In the mean time, here's a quick update on what's going on at the hogar because there have been some pretty great moments lately....

It's summertime here meaning the girls are out of school so a lot of days are really crazy because it's hot as anything and they get bored very easily. So we've been doing a lot of activities lately and a lot of summer reading, but there are a few moments that I really feel like I will always remember from this week....

1. Yesterday, the girls were in the dining room preparing a dance for a big visitor this week. They decided to sing "I can show you the world" (from Aladin) and create a dance to it. So I walk in and they are all singing it (in spanish) and so I join in and we're all spinning and dancing and singing at the top of our lungs. It was just one of those moments that felt so right and so fun. It was perfect.

2. Today one of the older girls (16 years old) was just off today and yesterday actually. She is normally just funny and playful and the past 2 days she's been kind of sad. So I have asked her what's going on and she kept saying she was fine, but I finally got it out of her this afternoon. She  was upset about a boy! So that led in to a 30 minute conversation about her boy issues ( a boy is not calling her back and giving her mixed signals). So we sat and talked about this boy, and a few others, for a while and it was so great! I always want to relate to the older girls and be there for them too, but a lot of the time the language barrier just gets to be too much. They speak so much slang it's hard to understand sometimes, but today it just clicked! We were just chatting like old pals about boys. I understood everything and she understood me too!

I hope the good moments continue this week! We're off to the pool tomorrow from 9:30am - 7pm. Suuuuppppper long day! Oye!

Quick Update!

It's been a CRAZY couple of weeks that is still crazy, but here's a quick update:

 I moved! I'm out of the huge apartment with 6 other girls and now living in a better neighborhood surrounded by lots of cute restaurants, bars and cafes and TREES on the street! It feels like home and it's right next to a nice little park and hills to hike. It's me and another volunteer, Jess, and.............. our 33 year old policeman roomie. Yes, it's hilar and his little dog, Bruce.
(Pictures to come)

Hogar update.... we've started our summer reading program and it's going great. The girls actually love getting the books! We're (all) struggling with reading some of them, but it's only the first week and they are really excited so it's great news. Today we read a book in a goup about a birthday party of a little pig and then make cookies (they are similar to birthday cake right?)


Guess what the best news is......... I will be here in like 4 days!

I'm off to Peru for 10 days this Friday!!!!! I can't wait! A big group of us are going, but we're all traveling in smaller groups. We are going to Cusco for 3 days and then hiking the Inca trail for 4 days..... a little worried about that one! Then we're off to Lake Titicaca for 2 days to stay on a floating island with some locals. Should be interesting......

Only draw back... it's rainy season! Oh well, I've got my super cool poncho all packed!
Ciao!