Monday, January 26, 2009

Pucon Recap

When we made it to Pucon on Friday morning, we ended up finding a hostal very close to the bus station, and this was the view out of our window:

We went horseback riding that afternoon, and this is Aften on her horse (cause it's kind of hard to take a picture of myself on a horse):

The view from our ride:




Our guide took us to this random waterfall, and we thought that it would be a good idea to stand under it, IN ALL OF OUR CLOTHES. (we really didn't have that much of a choice)



This the huge hamburger I had for lunch. (Don't worry, I didn't eat it all)


Saturday, we had plans to climb the volcano. However, the weather was really bad and when the tour company came to pick up us at our hostal, they told us that our trip was cancelled and rescheduled for Sunday. We promptly went back to sleep. That afternoon, we went to a Mexican restaurant..yeah, in Chile, I know, strange...and these are my quesadillas:

And these are some pictures from the way back to the hostal:



Saturday afternoon, I went on a hidrospeed down a river. Okay, let me take a moment to explain hidrospeeding. Basically, it's a glorified kickboard. Riding rapids on a kickboard. I mean, I had a helmet and everything, but it was terrifying and satisfying and an adrenaline rush all at the same time. So, this was my attire for hidrospeeding:

Sunday morning, we climbed the beast of the volcano. It was terrible. Looking back on it, I can't believe I 1)made it to the top and 2)didn't die. Here's pictures from our trek:










The top of the volcano. Please note how cold I look:




And if you were on a huge mountain covered in snow, without trees, and without skis, how would you get off? You would sit down on your butt and slide, right? Yeah, that's what we did. It was absolutely AWESOME, and it was definitely worth the walk up:



And, because I thought this sign was awesome, and because it's all over Pucon, I'd like to share:

I'm just glad we didn't have to follow that green line while I was in Pucon.

The majority of our trip can be summed up in one word: lawsuit. Apparently, these people don't believe in signing waivers. Therefore, had any of us been hurt, they would have been held responsible. It was really weird for us, because we're used to signing our life away before doing anything dangerous.

Today, we got back to Viña, and I went to class (in a daze, I'm sure), and then took a four hour nap. I'm absolutely exhausted and have a nice red neck and face. Yay, sunburn!

And, in closing, I just realized that when I ate dinner tonight, I didn't cut my sandwich, I picked it up and bit it. Whoops.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you supposed to cut your sandwich?

Kristina said...

yeah...they don't pick things up

Joan said...

The Chilean court system would probably throw out all lawsuits as frivolous. Only in this country do people sue because of coffee too hot, ice too cold, sidewalk too rough, nothing to breathe but air, etc., etc. ad naseum.

Anonymous said...

Guess you really were chillin' in Chile, huh?