Almost in Antartica . . .

yep, thats right! These past 10 days I have been in the twelfth region de Chile enjoying the natural flora y fauna of el parque nacional de Torres del Paine, las ciudades de Puerto Natales y Punta Arenas, and la isla de Tierra del Fuego.

Jueves - Nov. 5 a Viernes - Nov. 6 (día 1)

got on a bus at 8:20pm with my travel buddy Colleen Cummings (o mejor Colleens). and soon arrived at the airport.

we then killed time with our friends Natalie and Tori (they were waiting for their plane to Chiloé) until we emarked the plane at 2am.

made it to Punta Arenas at 5:40am, got our bags, and took a transfer directly to the bus station. the station was closed until 7:30am, but the transfer driver saw me looking around for somewhere to get some coffee, so he graciously reloaded the 7 of us back into the van and took us to a restaurant for breakfast. COFFEE! and a pancito with melted queso. the first time was so good that we did it over again! yum yum.

we then walked back to the bus station and took the bus to Puerto Natales only after i had bought a newspaper since it is called 'El Pinguino'. perfect right? just encouraging my obsession. after a 3 hour bus ride there we walked to our hostal and got settled. then off the explore the city. BUT before we went off exploring, we talked to the man who worked at the hostal and knows all about some backpacking/trekking. I explained to him that we were planning on trekking for 4 days, 3 nights, what we had, what we needed to rent, etc.

here is the 'W' that we were planning on BACKPACKING (colleens is nuts and wanted to do this....and then i was nuts enough to agree haha!)

BUT, fortunately, the hostal man told us how to do it without our backpacks. perfect. set up tent and leave your stuff in it before the hikes. i like it. what i DON'T like is the fact that he told us we would be crossing 3 rivers and needed to rent SHOES along with a tent, sleeping bags, walking sticks, a stove, a mess kit, . . .need i say more??? 2 unprepared gringas.

so AFTER all that we got to explore the city :)

Region XII - day 1, by Sarah Moredock

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la Serena (113 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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La Serena

so, we explored La Serena more today. all the artesanias and ferias. we also went to a museo which was the home of the president Gabriel Gonzalez Videla who was responsible of claiming the Chilean part of Antartica. i liked the guy as soon as i heard that.

i also bought Marmelada de Papaya and papaya confitadas, which are dried and sugared papayas, because La Serena is known for their papaya products - they are 'la region de las papayas'.

We were then shown around Coquimbo by Jasmins Chilean sister who lives in la Serena. the pictures of the huge cross of millenium are from there. and the pictures of us climbing on a playground. we still had lots of time left in our day before our bus left. so we got something to eat, did a little homework since we had a paper due a 2pm the next day that we hadn't started (oops), and then headed to the bus station.

great trip, but my 3 classes the next day were a little rough since i didn't relaly sleep.

Vale la pena.

Isla dama 10-25 (189 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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Isla Dama

i have an obsession with pinguinos.

Sunday - 10/25

We booked a tour to go see Humboldt Pinguinos through our hostal. best decision. ever. we were bused out about 2.5 hours to Punto Chorros where we got on this over-sized canoe with a motor. I was scared. sometimes Chile is a little ghetto. BUT the boat worked even though there were 14 people on it. just look at the pictures and you will see why i was scared. we saw lobo marinos, pinguinos, tons of aves of different types, delfines, and a really neato starfish! at first we just boated around the island with all of the wildlife and then we headed to Isla Dama where we got off and walked around.

just to explain the ghettoness a little further - in order to block the water from spraying into our faces, the people on the left side of the boat had to sit on a large piece of plastic and then hold it up with their hands to about their shoulder. on the way back the right side of the boat had to do it.

Isla Dama was fun. we climbed up to the top of the rock which has the profile of the 'dama' or woman. and yes, this day i was tackily wearing all PINK! that didn't match. at all. oops. i couldn't help that my toenails were pink, my capris were pink, my backpack has pink on it, my nalgene is pink, my raincoat is pink, and my chacos are pink. OOOPS! fun time regardless.

PS. lobo marinos make goofy noises.

Vicuña 10-23 and 24 (294 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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Trip to the 4th Region!

Valle de Elqui!

(soooo, now that it is actually Nov 15 I am going to tell you about my trip to the 4th region that ocurred from October 22-26. sorry about that. )

Friday - 10/23

OK! so, we traveled through the night, as always, to La Serena (a six hour bus ride from Viña) and then took the 6:30am bus to Vicuña. Vicuña is a very small town - even smaller, way smaller, than my town of Perry, GA. That being said, we found a hostal, had breakfast and coffee (essential), and planned our time in Vicuña. We saw basically the entire city in the morning....but the one museo that I really wanted to see - the house of Gabriela Mistral (a Nobel Literature Prize winning Chilean poet) - was CLOSED! I was a sad little girl. but life goes on.

we went to a Pisco plant in the afternoon, Capel, had a tour, taste tested some deliciously flavored pisco and walked back. yes, we walked like 45 mins each way. it was kinda hot too. But we made it back, had lunch, and went to an entomology museo (which, if you were wondering, was simply full of BUGS!). I had no idea what entomology was before that trip, but now i just looked it up:

–noun

the branch of zoology dealing with insects.

that explains everything. there are like ten million pictures of this museo because Colleen got sick and couldn't go, so I told her that I would takes pictures of it ALL. and i did.

That night we went to the Mamalluca observatorio and saw some pretty stellar things lol! oh dear. the moon, Jupiter and its three moons, and some crazy stars. even one that reflected light like a rainbow. pretty cool. end of day 1. we crashed hard in our little (really gross) hostal.

Saturday - 10/24

Early morning we headed out to Monte Grande in order to see the tomb and house of Gabriela Mistral. This town had like 3 buildings in it. that was all. the tomb was pretty, the house was like 3 rooms, but we enjoyed our picnic lunch and bought some macrame and copper jewelries from vendors outside the church in the little plaza.

We then headed back into Vicuña, got our stuff and took a bus back out to La Serena. Overall, Valle de Elqui was very arid but it was amazing to see how green it was due to all the pisco vineyards and manmade irrigation. It was a very cute city and great experience.

Now, we are in La Serena. Our hostal here is AMAZING. private bathroom, nice kitchen, computers, CLEANNNNNNNNNN! just the way i like it :) we dropped our stuff off and then set out to explore. We went to el parque japonese - very beautiful and tranquilo. lots of pictures with me playing with patos (ducks). We also walked out to the beach. (these pics are under La Serena).