Good evening! Quite a lot has happened in the last few days. First of all, dad´s birthday bike ride to the top of Parque Metropolitano got cancelled upon discovering that all municipal workers in the city were on strike - maaaaaaaajor bummer. Nina and I tried to charm the workers at the padlocked gate into letting us in, but no go:(. Instead, we opted to ride along the string of green spaces through the middle of town in an effort to both see some of Santiago and get some ejercicio. However, the intense heat, as well as the chaos of all the traffic honking and burping exhaust alongside us, left us pretty beat after only a couple of hours, so we retreated to Bellavista to enjoy a few drinks. Until I get to experience Parque Metropolitano, Parque 3 de febrero in Buenos Aires still wins my heart for best green space in a large Latin American city. Dinner was super tasty and fun as Jonathan, Mitzi, Nina, Jenny, dad, and I reminisced about our trip, ate awesome ceviche, and told stories of our favorite memories of dad.
The next day I was forced to say goodbye to Poppa T after we humped around Providencia trying to find an ATM that would accept our cards and give us some dinero. I DO NOT understand banks here. The never seem to be open. Evidentally, they all open at 9 and close by 2. Im thinking life as a Chilean bank teller may not be so bad... That was about as exciting as our day got since the whole city was on strike once again and all museums, etc were closed. Plus, city life was becoming rather overwhelming for me. I think my soul belongs in a small place - at least for now. I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to travel here for two weeks with my dad. There were a few times when we drove each other nuts, but for the most part we were able to enjoy each other´s company in one of the most stunning settings Ive ever laid my eyes on. Beautiful day after beautiful day, we hiked, biked, climbed, ate, drank, and laughed our way through Argentina and Chile. I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing father!
And things are coming together as I set off sans-Poppa T on my South American adventure. First off, I should introduce Nina and Jenny (whom dad has taken to calling the "Blonde-oh-sans) seeing as how I have mentioned them a few times and they are now very important players in my trip for the next few weeks. They are from San Fran and Chicago, respectively, went to school together at the Universtiy of Denver, and are here in SA for 6 weeks traveling as they, too, try to figure out what comes next. We had a grand time together on the REI portion of our trip, and figured, heck, let´s keep the fun rolling. So we rented a car as it´s actually cheaper to rent a car for a week and split it between three people than bussing it, and means we can go to more obscure places(!), bought some food at the supermercado and headed West. En route, we named our vehicle "Big Mama" due to it´s relative large size and in honor of my own Big Mama who Im convinced is watching over me and cheering me on. We plan on spending a week driving around Chile before dropping off the car and hopping a bus back to Argentina for a couple of weeks.
We are currently in a heavenly hotel outside the small town of Limache, Chile at the base of Parque Nacional La Campaña. This place is amazing. Roses in bloom everywhere, cherry trees with plump juicy fruit surrounding the grounds, and a child´s playground to rival any place I ever got to play growing up. Yesterday, we chillaxed by the pool after feeling rather proud of ourselves for managing to navigate the roads out of Santiago (thanks to Jenny´s superb driving skills),and then went for a short walk in an attempt to find some trail that the guy at the front desk told me about. Unfortuantely, it appears that my Spanish skills failed me as the trail was never found, BUT we did get to feast on quite a few cherries as we lost ourselves in a cherry orchard and then had a grand time on the seesaw and swings.
And then today we hit a great high as we trekked 1400 meters over 7 km in the parque to the top of Cerro La Campaña. We made it just 100 meters shy of the top when we decided it was best to stop where we were as it was incredibly steep and rocky and my desire to bust my head open in the middle of nowhere Chile was more or less nonexistent. The climb up was not so much the issue, it was looking down and realizing just how many crumbly rocks we would have to navigate over to make it back safely that left Jenny and me feeling nervous. (Read my post regarding Volcan Villarica if you need to fully understand my fear of heights.) But making it here was more than enough for us. It was an incredible journey up. It was steep, rocky, and rather slick at points, but the view was so freaking awesome and the three of us all felt so strong going up - as if our bodies were truly happy that we were pushing ourselves so hard. And we were also feeling proud of ourselves for finding this off-the-beaten track place to spend the day. After lunch, we nearly ran down. We werent running due to feeling rushed to get back, we were just having fun. We passed this one English couple who said we must be in a hurry to catch a bus, I responded by saying, "No, no rush. We´re just HAPPY!" And I am happy. Happy to be here. Happy to have such wonderful travel companions. Happy to have the opportunity to explore such amazing places. Happy to have such loving family and friends back home!
Tomorrow, we head to the beach to see penguins and tomar sol. Hasta la proxima...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment