Puerto Varas: Chile is full of volcanoes

Hanging out with volcanoes is pretty routine for me.

This past weekend, we had our third and final excursion with our program. We went to Frutillar to see a German museum and a lake, and we made a stop at a mercado in Puerto Montt to do some souvenir shopping, but the city we spent the most time in was Puerto Varas, a lake city with amazing views of some of Chile's finest volcanoes. We also visited Río Petrohué, which had more amazing views and some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen in my life.

The coast of Lago Llanquihue with two volcanoes in the distance!

Los saltos del Río Petrohué

A beautiful lagoon of glacial water.

I may or may not have taken a swim in this gorgeous turquoise paradise. Unsurprisingly, the water was freezing! Still, how often do you get a chance to take a dip in the shadow of three Chilean volcanoes?

As y'all can probably tell from my photos, Chile is amazing and every day I get sadder and sadder about leaving it in a mere three weeks. And at the same time I get more and more excited to return to my awesome life in the states. Aside from feeling slightly conflicted, what I really feel is overwhelmingly thankful. So in honor of Thanksgiving, and also because I think about this a lot, I have to say: I am so lucky to be here, and so lucky to have amazing friends and family in Chile and in the US. I hope everyone back home had a great holiday season!

La Isla de Chiloé + más

Hello blog-readers! Sorry it's been awhile since my last update. Here's what I've been doing:

1. La Isla de Chiloé

Last weekend, I went with three of my amigas to this gorgeous island in Southern Chile. Chiloé is famous for its houses on stilts, its food, and its rain. Somehow we picked the MOST AMAZING WEEKEND to visit and it didn't rain once!

The first thing we did was take a series of busses (okay, only two busses) and a ferry to this tiny pueblo called Chepu, which is the location of Chepu Adventures, a little adventure tourist company run by a couple from Santiago. We slept in a cabin next to the river and woke up at 5 AM to kayak at dawn!

Ready to kayak at 5:15 AM! Rachel, me, Kerry and Danit. Photo taken by Fernando, the dueño of Chepu Adventures.

Sunrise. Photo by Kerry.

I'm in the front of the kayak on the right. Danit is behind me, and Rachel is on the left. Photo by Kerry.

Needless to say, Chepu was AMAZING. Plus, all of their cabins were powered by wind/solar power, and they had recycling and a compost bin! Hardly anyone recycles in Chile, so we were pleasantly surprised by how eco they were.

After that, we took a bus to Castro, the main city on Chiloé. We found a cute little hostel and spent the next day eating and exploring the city in the SUN!

Me with some palafitos (houses on stilts). Photo by Danit.

one of the many famous churches on the island. Photo by Danit.

Train plaza! Photo by Kerry.

It was a beautiful, relaxing weekend on an island full of culture and natural beauty.

2. HARRY POTTER AT MIDNIGHT!!!

When I realized that the first part of the 7th HP movie would premiere during my study abroad experience, I was a little heartbroken that I wouldn't get to see it at midnight. So imagine my SHEER DELIGHT AND EXCITEMENT when I found out that not only was there a midnight showing, but it was a full 24 HOURS before the premiere in the US! This magical moment took place last night, and was all that I could've hoped for. Around 20 of the students in my program went- my friend Erin drew a scar on my forehead and I put some tape on my glasses, so I felt adequately nerdy. The movie itself was AWESOME!! I don't want to spoil anything for those estadounidenses who haven't seen it yet, but I was enthralled the whole time. Seriously cannot wait for part two.

3. NEW CAMERA!!!!

After my camera was robbed during my spring break, my dad sent me a new camera. I waited and waited, and it did not arrive, so I finally accepted that it was lost in the mail (despite my program director's insistence that Correo Chile never loses anything) until....

I GOT IT TODAY!!!!!!!!! So, blog readers, expect a LOT more pictures from me. Today, of course, I had to go on a little photo adventure.

Me with my favorite piece of graffiti in Valdivia. There are actual pages from poetry books pasted onto the wall. And obviously, the giraffe.

More to come!!!

Besitos,
Marie

Bariloche: Chocolate Paradaise

The first picture is me eating a chocolate giraffe on a mountain in northern Patagonia; the second is of my friend Rachel & I eating chocolate in front of a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. (The chocolatería that the fountain is in is called RapaNui, which is the native name for Easter Island. It was one of my favorite chocolate shops because there was ANOTHER chocolate fountain inside, as well as a cafe and ice cream shop.)

Clearly, my weekend in Bariloche was awesome. Not only did I eat more delicious chocolate than I ever have in my life, but I saw some truly breathtaking mountains and had a really fun time exploring the cute little mountain town.

When Jeff, Rachel and I rolled into Bariloche on Thursday afternoon, it was pretty cloudy, but we still had ganas to eat some chocolate. Rachel and I discovered the most delicious chocolate in the world, which only cost 3 Argentinian pesos (around 75 cents). I also bought a book of Pablo Neruda poetry. (In Chile, there's an "entertainment tax" on books, music and movies, so it was a lot cheaper to buy a book in another country.) We also made dinner in our hostel, which made me realize how much I miss cooking, even if all I know how to make is stir fry and grilled cheese.

That night, we attempted to experience the Bariloche nightlife. Our friends had told us about a reggae bar called La Cantina, so we figured we would check it out. Around 11:30 we left our hostel and walked around for an hour in the windy, windy cold night trying to find this elusive bar. We finally did find it an hour later and realized we had actually walked past it at least 3 times during our search, but didn't notice because the whole building (including the sign) is black and there were no lights on. Turns out the bar doesn't even open until one in the morning. We were SO COLD at this point that the thought of being outside for half an hour longer was too much to handle, so we bought some chips at a gas station and walked back to our hostel, where we fell asleep like losers.

The next day (after buying more chocolate, por supuesto) we set out to find a place to hike. We were directed to Nahuel Huapi National Park, so we hopped onto a city bus (the most crowded bus of my life- I could hardly fit both my feet on the ground) and went to Lago Gutierrez, the gorgeous lake that borders the park.
We found this sweet tree to picnic on. I should mention that it was raining the whole morning and at this point it was still drizzling and very foggy. I knew we were surrounded by mountains, but we could hardly see any of them. Still, it was a great view.

Despite the rain, we trekked a little more to the national park. We hiked to a waterfall and then up to a viewpoint. The more we walked, the more the sun came out, so when we got to the summit, it was an awesome view.
There were even two stray dogs that hiked all the way back down with us!

When we got back into town, 5 of our friends had arrived so we all hung around our hostel for awhile and then finally experienced some nightlife. The next day, the 8 of us went to Cerro Campanario to see what National Geographic calls one of the top 10 views in the world.

It was SO COOL. Neither words nor pictures can describe how great the mountains and lakes of northern Patagonia are. Or how windy it is.
Bariloche is the windiest place I have ever been!

The rest of the weekend was spent eating chocolate (como siempre), relaxing in our hostel with other international travelers, chilling by a lake, and eating more chocolate. Basically it was a perfect weekend.

BUT I am very happy to be back in Chile, where I understand the currency and where I feel more direction-savy and where I have more clean clothes.

Yesterday I went with 3 of my friends to the cine to inquire about Harry Potter tickets and received the most exciting news of my life: THERE IS A MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF HP7 IN VALDIVIA AND IT IS A WHOLE 24 HOURS BEFORE THE MIDNIGHT SHOWING IN THE US!!! It gets better: the ticket only cost me around 7 USD and I got a free movie poster when I bought my ticket! I am so nerdy and happy. The theater employee warned us that we would have to show up early to get in line, and when we asked how early, she responded with, "around 40 minutes." Ha! If only she knew that I spent 3.5 hours in line last summer for the 6th movie. I think I might have to watch the trailer now...