Extraño las bananas.

Chilean life lesson #37: Never show up to South America without your best good hiking boots and your sporkife.

Well, I should probably catch you up on the latest of my traverses through South America. This weekend we hit up a quaint little town in the South of Chile they like to call Pucón.

I grew really fond of all the time spent on buses. They treat you like royalty. First comes the prepackaged manjar cookie. They draw your curtains for you at naptime. Then play Latin American pop music really loud. Sometimes they wake you up so that they can tuck you into bed. Then you get to watch movies that you would never, ever have the opportunity to watch otherwise.

The first day we hit up some of the special little treasures around Púcon, swam in a lake, explored some lagunas. I lost track of all the waterfalls. It was the good soul melting kind of beautiful. We finished the day lounging around some natural hotsprings.

I woke up the next morning at the crack of something to hike the smokin' volcano nestled up next to the town, but the guide told us that it was too foggy to summit that day and to try again next time.

Instead a couple of friends and I decided to spend the day and possibly camp Parque Nacional. Of course rather than taking the bus like normal human beings we decided that it would be just the right amount of ambitious to bike the 38 kilometers up the rocky mountain. Well, we gave it the ol' college try and hitchiked the rest of the way with a new Chilean pal that worked with "cars and cows." Thanks Luís!

Okay, and I can just say mmmhmm? Our journey took us through some rural back roads where we saw lots of the indigenous campesinos and Mapuche villages were. The inhabitants live and work completely off the land. We ate wild blackberries off the road and pet some mountain goats and watched the cow carts stroll by. It all felt so harmonious.

I tried to rewrangle our group for hiking the next morning, but come 8:30 AM the next morning only two of us braved the lack of sleep we all got the night before to catch the bus to Caburga.

My friend Drew and I spent the day hiking Huerquehue National Park. Again it was unreal how beautiful everything is.

Here is Drew with our adopto-puppy that followed us all 10 miles up and down the mountain. You sly dog.

Here I am sitting pensively by a river.

How many perfect days does a person get in a lifetime?

Keep it Real

Smo.

Yes, a lot butter of the peanut pleases me.

It's a tough life here. I've been so busy lying on the beach and drinking mango leche,

that I barely have the time to tell you about all the lying on the beach and drinking mango leche.

Here I am with a spoon warding off stray dogs on the beach from eating birthday cheesecake. It's just a thing you do sometimes.

Here I am making an 'E' in La Campana National Park.

It spells CHILE, cachai?

Our new Chilean friends escorted us to the summit to witness the glory of the mountains.

They forgot to tell us that 7 hours of scaling up and down rocky walls. Most of the time we could think about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for us at the bottom. Who could blame us? But trust me when I say

BA! literally:

As a celebration for 3 whole weeks living in South America, I bought a ticket to the one and only, Patagonia. And for now that's all I'm going to say about that so don't touch that dial!

Especially if you are watching Mean Girls dubbed over in Spanish right now because your Chilean mama told you to improve your listening skills. Don't touch it. jajaja.

Keep it Real

Smo.

Tía Portabella

This morning I wake up to go to my first day of Chilean class. Cancelled. No prior notice. No big, it's only the first day. Why not cancel the next one too? Don't mention it. And while we're at it, let's cancel all of the classes in the department for funsies. We'll just take the week off. Nope, no worries. Instead I took the micro into Valpo and hung out out on the ISA balcony for a couple hours, chatting with some amigos and enjoying the pasta mamá chilena made me the night before. I really needed the break after my 4 day weekend after my 2 months of break. Phew.

They have a saying here. "Quien se apura pierde el tiempo." It means he who rushes, loses time. I'm pretty sure that all of Chile operates on this principle. Time seems to run in endless supplies here. Life moves a little slower. I'm pretty sure was supposed to be like that. At first, I didn't know how to handle it. In America, we are taught to keep ourselves busy. Free time is associated with boredom. Free time is "I should be doing something else" rather living in the now. American time is measured in productivity and tangible quantities whereas Chilean time is...pure. It took me but a few days to get into the rhythm.

Tonight one of the Chilean girls we met at church invited some girls to an all girl's orphanage that's right up the street from Bailey and I. We walked over their together and stayed and played with the niñas for a few hours or so. God, it was so powerful. In fact, I plan on going back every Wednesday. I didn't really know any of their stories or how they got there, but I could tell their had been a lot of hostility in their past. They needed so much love. During my time there, I kept how much more real and beautiful it is to be spending my days with moments such as these rather than cooped up in my room working on homework or going to meetings. No matter how you look at it, college life is a very "me-oriented" place. Oftentimes, I find myself stumbling through the semester just trying to catch up. How many times have I given myself a guilt trip for spending time on homework or a job when I could have been doing something so much greater with my time? The other stuff is just fillers, right? I find myself playing the cost benefit-analysis game with how I chose to spend my time. I wish I would quit it.

Here's my advice: Stop driving yourself insane. You are exactly where you are supposed to be so live that way. Live free. Live well. Live now, and quit trying to catch up. God gave us life with so much beauty and time to live so don't squander it on lavish entertainment or distractions, or worse compare it to someone else's. I know that wherever I am, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

If you'll excuse me the sunset is calling my name again and I must go.

Keep it Real

Smo.

Falta la palta.

Sometimes no matter hard you fight it, things slip through the Spanish cracks. I can't tell you how many blank stares I have had the pleasure of receiving. If I had a nickel.

Like apparently the Chilean student that's been living in our house for the last two days.

Me: So where are you living for the next semester?

Nicholas: Here. In this house. In the room next to yours.

Or how I've been asked by three different family members and friends about the depression I apparently have. I still have no idea why.

Or: I've had too much sangría. I meant watermelon.

I usually resort to one of my go to's like talking about fútbol or laughing at the dog, who, let's be honest, is not all that funny.

My arms are so drug store. I meant sunburned.

ohhhhh boy.

Nos Vemos.

Keep it Real

Smo.