Two day excursion in the Andes Mountains!
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2009
1
15
17
Trip End
Jul 26, 2009
Cajon del Maipo, Chile
Friday, July 17, 2009
When we got there, we went straight to the restaurant for a meal of piscosours, bread with pebre, salad, corn, potato salad, chicken, beef, and dessert! The meal was delicious and I was able to sit and chat with people I haven't had the chance to get to know very well yet! Looking straight ahead, out of the glass windows, we could see the beautiful Andes mountains towering above us! After lunch, we had an hour to get aquainted with our cabin and bunkmates. My cabin mates actually could never find our key from our coordinator, so we hung out at another cabin chatting and listening to music until it was time to go zip-lining! I remember zip-lining over the Gulf of Mexico while I was in Cancun on my Spanish trip in high school, so I already knew how much fun it was. I finally convinced a couple of my friends that it would be fun, and they would regret it if they decided not to go just because they were afraid of heights. They finally decided to go and had a blast of course. The zip-lining (Tirolesa) went over the river rapids very close to the mountains! There were only 2 courses. The first followed the rapids for a while, and then we walked a little trail and set off on the next course to take us back across the river to the beginning! Though short, it was a great ride, and everyone enjoyed themselves!
Again, we had a break, but this time I had the chance to put my stuff inside and check out the cabin. It was very quaint. There were 7 of us girls in this specific cabin. There was a tiny kitchen, bathroom, dining room, and one bed downstairs. Upstairs there was a bunk bed and two other beds in one room and a queen bed in the master bedroom. Of course, I was stuck with the top bunk because I was the only one who didn't care where I slept - haha! It didn't make any difference to me, just as long as I had somewhere to sleep! After chilling in the cabin for a half hour, I walked with the girls to check out the others' cabins. Every cabin was different. Some were small with only 3 people in them and others were bigger with 8 people in them. We had a little pre-party in one of the group's cabins until it was time to head back to the restaurant for dinner. Everyone thought that dinner was going to be small, like the bread and avocado we're used to having for dinner/Once. Actually, we ended up having a meal of bread and pebre, salmon, and rice. It was good, but I was still kind of full from lunch. By the time dinner was finished it was pitch black outside. A few of us decided to go down by the river to sit and look at the stars! They were so gorgeous, and the stars twinkled so brightly! Laura, Matt, David, Andrew, and I starred at the sky and listened to the river next to us for about 30 minutes. We had expected it to get colder during the night, but it was still the perfect weather outside (felt kind of like a warm, fall evening). We returned to the restaurant that had since been turned into a dance floor. I danced with the rest of my group and a few other Chileans for a couple of hours and then returned to my cabin. We all stayed up chatting and laughing for a while and went to bed fairly early, around 2 AM.
The next morning, Friday, July 17, we made our way down to the restaurant for breakfast at 9:30 AM. For breakfast we had juice and bread with jam, eggs, and avocado of course. From there, we packed our bags, loaded them onto the buses, and met up with the tour guides to take us on a hike up in the mountains. We hiked up to see two waterfalls - how beautiful! Along the way there was this stream that was safe to drink from - man was that water delicious and refreshing! The hike lasted for an hour and a half! I stayed in the front most of the way. At the top, we waited for everyone to make it up the mountain before we headed back down! While waiting, we saw a condor fly over the mountain tops! I enjoyed sitting there, taking in the sun, and listening to the waterfall nearby. On the way back down the mountain, I ended up in the back group because I was playing photographer for others in my group. (I tend to do this a lot! I guess I must be pretty good! haha!) There were about ten people still behind Matthew and I when we decided to go ahead down the mountain by ourselves. We crossed the last bridge slowly so we could take pictures without anyone bugging us to keep going. At the end of the bridge, we realized that we had been locked in and couldn't get to the other side. I called another person in our group to make sure that we hadn't taken the wrong route and found out that we had to simply wait for the tour guide in the very back. We had a good laugh about that and five minutes or so later the rest of the group caught up with us.
After the long hike, it was back to the restaurant for lunch. This time we ate pasta with a type of chicken sauce and panqueques for dessert! Que rico! My table mates decided to go down to the river after eating. Again I played photographer for several others and then sat, enjoyed the scenery, and chatted with the others until it was time to go back to the bus to head home. On the way home, everyone was soooo tired, but we still had one more stop. We went to Concha y Toro (a winery near Santiago). It wasn't as big as the one in Casablanca, but it was very pretty and nice overall. We got to taste a white wine and a red wine (I only liked the red wine). There was this one part in our tour called Castillo del Diablo (the devil's castle). We went into a dark basement that was filled with this type of wine they make, and we listened to a story about how the devil is haunting the wine in this cellar. The Castillo del Diablo wine is in the top 10 wines in the world! After the short tour, everyone was ready to head back to Vina del Mar. It had been an exciting yet exhausting two days! We returned home around 8 PM that evening.
How great it was to spend a couple of days surrounded by these mountains!!! I don't have the words to describe how much fun I had! I continued to have fun that Friday night with my brother, Oscar, and his friends. He picked me up and took me to his apartment around midnight (that's usually when they start their partying). We hung out with friends at the apartment for a while, walked along the sea on San Martin, and eventually headed to a bar where we danced for a couple of hours. We stayed until the bar closed and went back to the apartment where we hung out and danced with more friends! I always have a great time hanging out with the Chileans! I will be very sad to leave both my new American and Chilean friends :( Hopefully we can keep in touch through Facebook and maybe I'll be able to visit soon!
