Hey! So I'm finally back to the blogging world. To tell you about the trip to the south. It was a long trip and I did a lot of things. So here we go! And I'll eventually get on to what's going on right now. For another post I think.
We left on Tuesday the 4th of February. We wanted to leave on Monday but things with work didn't work out. Roberto, Maricel, Fernanda, and Rafael met us at the house. (My uncle, aunt, cousin, and her boyfriend) We packed up and connected a little trailer to the car and were off. We wanted to leave at 8, but as Chileans ARE Chileans, we left at 10:30. I woke up and ate at 7:30 so I was hungry again by the time we were in the car. We drove and drove and stopped for an hour and a half lunch break.
A little bit later, we stopped at a gas station and got ice cream. Roberto asked me if I wanted to go in their car and talk with Fernanda and Rafael. But I misunderstood him and said no. Whoops. But I apologized for it later that night.
I don't think I've mentioned it, but since I've been here, it has rained exactly one time in Curicó. I guess that in the winter it rains more. But in the south of Chile it rains a lot. So after 4 or 5 hours of driving, it started pouring. I like rain.
At about 7 we were in an accident. My dad was turning a corner and the trailer made a weird noise and then we hydroplaned a bit. The trailer disconnected and all of our bags scattered all over the high way. the car smashed front-end into the metal side railing and we started spinning. After we spun a few times we stopped. I had had my eyes closed and leaning on the side door listening to music. And opened them mid-spin. It happened so fast and all I did was grab the seat and hold on. Thank heavens nothing happened to anyone. But still it was scary. So we got out and ran around getting the soaking wet bags into the car. People stopped to help and one guy even carried the wrecked trailer in his truck.
A little while later there was a really pretty double rainbow. :)
After a 10 hour ish drive, we finally pulled in at 10 to Puerto Montt. We went to eat at 11:30 and were there for an hour and a half. I was pretty exhausted.
Maricel, me, Fernanda, Rafael, my mom, and Vicente.
But then we got started on the cabana hunting! After this trip I can say that I despise looking for cabanas. It's terrible. Cabanas are more sought after than hotels most of the time because its nice to have more beds and a kitchen to make meals in. A good price for one for 5 people is usually around 60 USD. We asked at a ton of places which were all full of course. We finally found one at 2 on the morning. 2 in the morning, people. After a day of traveling. Aghhh. Plus I had had a cold the whole week before and was still feeling pretty terrible. So we got to sleep fast.
The next morning we woke up early and went to the Jumbo (grocery store chain) and stocked up on food.
Then we headed off to get on a boat! We parks our car on it and rode for 20 minutes or so.
And then we arrived in H... (I'm forgetting the name! It'll come to me..) We went to the dock and looked at different touring companies.
We went to eat in a place where there were 40 or so stands selling different foods. I got some salmon and potatoes. A lot of people had this meat. Those people stand there for like 4 hours while its cooking.
After lunch we went and looked at knitted hats, gloves, and things. They sell a lot of those things all over town. I bought a knitted hat key chain. :) It's little and cute.
Then we got on to cabana hunting! My favorite. ;) after a lot of searching, we finally found one 15 minutes away from town. It was in the middle of no-where and for 11 people! So that was great.
My room:
We relaxed and my mom and I dried some of the clothes from our soaked bags.
The owner gave us a tour of the property and we went on a hike. My mom and I left later than the others so we walked slowly and took lots of pictures.
Not everyone has a picture of them sitting on a big pile of wood now do they?
I'm in a forest!
Pretty picturesss :)
After that, I went with Roberto and my mom went to town to buy some things for dinner.
For dinner we had some homemade bread made by the owners. And we sat around and talked for a long time. I felt super good about my Spanish. I was part of the conversation and wasn't feeling very frustrated. I love times like that.
We talked about traveling further south like had been in the plans. But my dad didn't want to go because its a long drive and he wanted to relax. But my uncle really wanted to go.
I wanted to go too of course and know more of Chile but didn't know how to politely invite myself. But then they asked if I wanted to travel with them and I said yes.
The owner had told us earlier that the shower was electric and so we needed to shower super-duper fast. And that if we don't, the lights go out. And not just in the cabana. But in all of the property. And so at midnight when we finished talking, I went to shower super duper fast figuring that showering that night would be better than with 8 other people showering in the morning. I wet my hair, turned off the water, put shampoo in, and was in there for 2 minutes. And the light went out (se cortó las luces!)! And I didn't have my phone in the bathroom and I forgot to hang my towel up close and so I was in the complete pitch dark. And my mom said to wait a second while he got her phone. And then she handed it to me so I could get dressed. So I went to bed with soaking wet hair which helped my cold for sure. Haha.
And that was the end of the second day! The next post will tell about my adventures with my uncle and his family.
And now for a whole bunchy bunch of pictures of the wreckage:
Pretty crazy stuff, huh?
