Pichilemu

alrighty...this is my last post before i'm back stateside!!! Jen and I went to Pichilemu for a week to surf and relax, etc...Pichilemu is a pretty small town right on the coast (obviously) that is super cute, has really chill people, and is basically just a really well-known surf town. All along the coast/beach there are various surf shops and surf schools, restaurants, a fish market where you can buy freshly-caught fish, artesania markets, etc. The main beach is huge and i'm sure that in the high season (january, february) it fills up completely with beach-goers, tourists, surfers, etc.
So anyway, when Jen and i arrived, we had no set plans as to where we were going to stay, so we wandered up to the first hostel we saw which was right next to where the bus randomly dropped us off, and the old lady at the hostel said it would cost us each 3 mil a night, per person, to stay there (that's 6 dollars a night...) so we were kind of skeptical at first, but she showed us the room where we'd stay (it was a huge room with 5 beds, floor space, a light...all the necessaries...)so we just decided, what the heck? so we paid the lady, got settled, then headed out to find the surf shop we'd read about with the owner/surf instructor who is really well-known in town, etc...Elvis Munoz. We eventually find his shop, meet him, and decide to do some surf lessons to begin the next day...monday...pretty good deal. The next day, we had our first lesson of surfing, where he suited us up in full-body wetsuits (the water there is FREEZING), and taught us how to stand up and position ourselves on the board in the water... then we headed out to the waves. Those first few minutes (or rather...the whole first hour) i was terrified. Elvis brought us out to the big waves first, where we had to paddle a ton, avoid big waves, try not to get owned by the waves, and eventually head back in toward the beach...wow, i was so scared. not to mention, the freezing cold water on my hands and head only made me more anxious...phewwwww...but in our 'class' there were also these two girls from Germany--Mary and Pepsi--who were doing their last semester of med school in Buenos Aires and were travelling for a bit in their break, and they were really cool, we ended up hanging out at the end...etc...and they didnt really surf either, so i felt better about that...and my lack of surfing capabilities...
Anywayyyy...so each day we had 'class' at around 10:30 in the morning (which in Elvis' world really means that he'll show up around 10:30 or 11 and we'll get in the water around 11:30ish...) and we surf for 2-3 hours, then have a break for lunch, and come back around 5ish to surf in the high tide waves (much bigger) and experience the wonderfully strong current that the beach had...) so basically every night, jen and i would walk back to our hostel, have something to eat, gather enough energy to shower, and then hit the sack...haha...however, to add a twist to our schedule, we realized one day (i think it was thursday) that well, (jen realized it first...) that our money had disappeared. yah. Jen was searching crazily for her money that she knew she didnt spend and had gone through everything, had torn the room apart, and just couldnt find it. So then i decided to just make sure the remaining money i had set aside for the rest of the week was still weher i had put it...and it...wasn't there! what do ya know? soooooo it was in that moment that we were just turned off from that old lady, frustrated, angry, and not really sure about what we should do....we decide to approach this lady (we still had 3 more nights in pichilemu...and had a great deal as far as the per night price went...) so anyway, we tell the lady that well, we're missing some money, kind of alot, the only money we had left, and well, we were 100% positive that we had locked our door every single time we left, etc. and that this kind of told us something was going on. On a side note, we were the only people staying htere at that moment, and the old lady had these two young girls working for her...So yah, this old lady gets absolutely pissed off that we would even think that we were stolen from, and starts lecturing us that no one has ever been stolen from who's stayed at her hostel...and then she says that only she has the one spare key for the rooms, that she keeps them hidden from everyone, and then proceeds to ask one of the girls (who both came in to listen) to go and get the hidden keys...pshhhh...THEN both of the girls were like, "oh, well your door was unlocked one of the days...like...one or two days ago..." and jen and i just looked at eachother and we were like, RIGHT. NOT. liars. we are sooo positive that it was closed, i mean, it was this huge lock, like you use on lockers, so its kinda easy to tell if its locked or not...anyway, the lady proceeds to yell and lecture us more, and then says, well, if you dont trust me, i dont trust you, so i dont want yall to stay here anymore...we had already paid for all nights, so jen refused to leave without the money for the remaining 3 nights, and we left quietly, after the two girls had started crying...haha...
So after being kicked out of our hostel with our approximately $36 that we had for both of us to find new alojamiento for three more nights, we wandered a bit, and ended up at a really nice residencial that offered us 5 mil a night per person ($10) and we were just like, fine, lets do it...ahhh...then we went and grudgingly got more money out of the atm (we were set on not getting any more out..but well, we wanted to eat....) skipped surfing that night, relaxed, etc.
The previous day in surfing i had hurt my knee in the wave after falling off the board (apparently i had a ligamento torcido...messed up ligament)...go figure...hurt once again...so basically i couldnt walk normally, which meant no more surfing for me for the week. which meant, being bored for those 6ish hours everyday while everyone surfs. oh well. at least teh people at the surf shop where i chilled were friendly and nice, right?!
Soooooo that's basically what we did all week...surfed, slept, ate, scrounged for the cheapest food, met cool surfer people, etc. Our last night in Pichilemu, Elvis invited us all to an asado that his friend/neighbor was having...so he comes to pick us up at our new hostel at 10:30 ish, and we show up to someone's backyard where there are basically a group of older people (ok, not that old, but parent age...people with kids...with a few younger ones, like 25 yrs old...) and it's basically just this tight-knit group of friends, a few surfers, and lots of them related in some strange way, etc...but they were all so cool! Once the awkwardness turned into conversation, and once the chileans who spoke english (which turned out to be most of them...and very good english) they would just keep asking us questions, and really wanted to practice their english...so it all worked out...and then these two moms there insisted on us drinking the suave piscolas that their husbands kept making them...i dont know how many piscolas i drank while we were there, but mannnnnnn were they suave or what! and THEN at 3 am, when all the liquor had disappeared, they decided to head out to a club...so of course we had to go! Anyway, we went and danced alot, met more people at the club, had a good time, and after the discotheque's lights came on and closed at 5 am, we eventually made it home and were in bed at 6 am...only to wake up 2 hrs later, pack, and head out for jen's last surf lesson (to which elvis showed up an hour late, adn they ended up getting in teh water at 12:30...haha) and then we grabbed a quick empanada, and caught the bus for our commute back to santiago and vina...

all in all, a good week, but it was nice to come back to a comfortable bed, normal food, and not having to pay for everything. haha. AND, today i packed with jess (i hate packing with a passion), and tomorrow i'm taking the bus with the group and heading out tomorrow night toward miami, then dallas, then AUSTIN!
It's been a great semester, it's flown by, but it's time to get back (if only for a little), to see people, absorb as much American as possible, and relax over x-mas and new years, and then head back overseas for some more adventures...!

Siete Tazas...and an Israeli couple...

So for my final week and a half down here in Chile, I took off with Jen to go south to Reserva Nacional Siete Tazas with Jen to camp for a couple of nights before heading to Pichilemu to surf. Before we actually arrived at Siete Tazas, we were sitting around in a plaza in a small town, Curico, waiting for the only bus that runs out to the park, when these two gringo-looking people approached us and we all started chatting. Turns out they´re a couple from Israel taking a WHOLE YEAR travelling around central and south america! wow. So anyway, they were going out to siete tazas as well, so we ended up getting a campground near them, sharing a fire, hiking together the next day, and listening to their endless stories from all around the world, their travels, and what it´s like to live in Israel...needless to say, it was really interesting, but jen a i both realized we felt really boring when we were with them...Melissa, the wife, was also full of rasicst and non-politically correct jokes, so sitting around the campfire witht htem was really fun! however, they also gave us crap for having "soo much stuff" for only 10 days...they each only had a huge backpack and another backpack a little smaller than the ones we had...for an entire year. Man, I really dont know if i could go a full year travelling like that, but props to them...
The next day when we went up to the actual park, we had to hike about 6.5 km along a dirt and rocky road to get to the entrance to the park, where we could actually see the waterfalls. Siete tazas refers to what is at the bottom of the waterfall(s)...There is this one huge waterfall that falls into a little pool area, la taza, that then turns into another waterfall that falls into another taza, and the cycle continues seven times...it was really a sight to see all the continuous waterfalls....there were also a couple other relatively big waterfalls along the way...and all this water is just so bright blue! We were able to climb down to near the bottom of one of the waterfalls, (the water is freeeeeezing) and we only stuck our feet in, but the crazy Israeli, Ilan, went swimming in the water...ahhhhh....The park itself was really pretty too....lots of green green green everywhere...
That night we just had a relaxing night around the campfire with the Israelis, heard more stories and more jokes, felt boring, and then said goodbyes, since they were leaving super early in the morning to their next destination....phew. The next day Jen and i had a nice long run along the wonderful rocky and desolate road, came back and quite literally iced our legs in the freezing river/creek that ran right by our campsite...Then after lunch time when we were just pathetically laying on our cheap sleeping mats out in the middle of our campsite trying to stay warm and avoid the crazy dogs and chickens that just roamed the campsite, the sketchy men from the campsite next to us came over and gave us a plate of their wonderful campsite-food lunch...i really think they thought we had no food, since they probably didnt see us eating anything...but nonetheless, we got a free extra lunch out of it...potatoes, chicken (delish), and a tomatoe salad that Jen got to enjoy on her own...
That afternoon we caught the bus that runs by only 2 times a day and headed back to Curico to get a hostal for the night (that was the MOST disgusting place EVER) before catching yet another bus to get to Pichilemu, where we are now, surfing, eating, running, sleeping and relaxing for our last week in Chile.