October...

I seemed to have temporarily forgotten about my blog. But I am back! The month of October FLEW by. Actually my entire time in Chile has flown by. Teaching has been easier and enjoyable at times and frustrating at others. I started doing BeachBody Insanity workout which has made me feel so much better. It really is INSANE. Each video is between 40-60 minutes and I start to sweat within 2 minutes. It is a lot of plyometric and cardio work. There is no equipment necessary which is really nice because I can just do it in my apartment. I still go to Parque Bustamante every once in a while to be outside and get a change of scenery but I really like Insanity. Also, at the beginning of the month the TIPS from my school and I got together to create a "gift to Duoc" which is a brochure of English knowledge/advice for our students to give them little insights on English slang, food, culture, etc. We went to Trisha's and made fried Reineta (my favorite fish yum!), potatoes, a salad, and a fruit salad for dessert. That was really fun. It has been nice to have 4 other "gringa" girls at my school because we all help each other out and get along really well. Then we had our DUOC 44th Anniversary dinner at a hotel with super nice appetizers, drinks, and dinner. We all got dressed up and mingled with some of the other professors. Also, within the month of October, we had an asado at our apartment to celebrate our friend Ali's birthday. That was really fun to have people on our rooftop and enjoy some Choripan and Burgers. I thought October would be warm but it was definitely still chilly with some warm days here and there. At the end of October was Halloween, of course. Trisha, Holly and I dressed up as Belly Dancers and we went to a club to celebrate with our "disfraz". Towards the end of October, it finally got warmer and sunnier and it felt like spring was officially here.

At the end of October/Beginning of November, we had 2 "feriado" days off from school on Thursday and Friday. And I never teach on Wednesday so I had a 5 day weekend! I knew I wanted to go somewhere but I didn't know where. My friend Darío invited me to go camping in Cajón del Maipo. I immediately said yes. Camping in the Andes sounded wonderful. Darío, 4 of his Chilean friends and I all left on Thursday morning to take a bus up to Cajón del Maipo. We got there around 10:30 and began to "trek" around 10:45. We had to carry backpacks, food, tents, sleeping bags, and everything. We didn't know exactly where we were going so we got turned around a few times. It was difficult trekking with all our bags but it was all part of the adventure. It was also pretty hot while we were hiking. We hiked for about 6 hours and arrived at our campsite "Monumento natural el morado". The boys pitched the tents and we got settled in. We were pretty high up and once the sun went down it instantly got cold. The boys made a "parilla" grill and we ate choripan and pork the first night. Going to bed it was absolutely freezing and waking up it was ridiculously hot (typical of camping). We woke up the next day and immediately went in search for a natural water source. There was a river about 15 minutes from our campsite and we went there to bathe and drink some water. THe water was SUPER fresh and cold from all the snowmelt. We hung around there most of the day and then went back to the campsite for a siesta. Later that night it got even more cold than the first night that I couldn't even eat dinner because I was so cold. I just went inside the tent and tried to warm up. On Saturday we went back to the river for more water and decided to pack up and head back down to the base. We began to walk around 3:30 and realized we probably wouldn't make it with all of our bags by sunset so we got a ride down the base which was a huge help. The new campsite had more trees and was near more civilization so that was a huge help. Spaghetti was on the menu for the night and then the Chileans sang some typical songs which was entertaining. It was significantly warmer at the lower altitude and with all the trees so it was easier to sleep that night. On Sunday, the last day, we went to Baños Morales which are natural thermal baths. It was super nice out so  I finally got to tan and get a little bit of color! Overall it was a very fun camping experience! Extreme in the sense that it was hot, then cold, then freezing, and lots of walking with lots of bags. But that made it all even more memorable (and the fact that I was camping in the Andes!) :)