Adventure Uno

Sunday December 7th I bid farewell to a couple members of the group, fell asleep early and started my adventure.

Algarrobo

Monday December 8th I took a bus to Algarrobo, a beach town 1 ½ hours outside Santiago, to rent out one of my host parents condos. Then I sat on the beach and tanned, safely of course I used SPF 12, then met up with Eryn, Katelyn, and Lauren. We spent the next day and a half relaxing in Algarrobo.


Highlights

1. Entered the World’s largest pool, 1 km long. It really can be nice traveling with girls, they simply asked the security guard working at the entrance of the world’s largest pool if we could enter the large gate preventing potential intruders to, tomar un foto. He gladly let the girls in and I followed there lead, after taking a couple pictures in front of the pool the girls and I decided to would be a good idea to push me in the pool. After they pushed me in he suggested the girls get in too.

2. Experiencing how strong the sun is in Chile: Lauren one of my travel buddies learned how strong the UV rays are in Chile, after laying out at the beach for a couple hours her face resembled a ripe cherry. Lucky for me I don’t burn too easily. JAJA

After spending two days in Algarrobo we took a bus to Vina del Mar, spent the day there, packed up our stuff, and made our way to Mendoza, Argentina.

Mendoza

Highlights/ Shout Outs

1. Canopying, taking a series of zip lines, through the mountains of Argentina. The views were incredible, and on the last segment of our zip line adventure I was offered the opportunity to zip line upside down. I took advantage of this opportunity and it was absolutely incredible. I wish I had a picture to show you how zip lining upside down works, because the process is pretty confusing. I had to more or less sit on the lap of one of the guides, then we pushed off the “launching pad,” after cruising down the cable for 5 seconds he tapped my leg twice and I released my entire body and was completely upside down. The adrenaline rush, and view was incredible.



2.Bike and Wine tour. We rented uncomfortable bikes, my butt is still a little sore from the rock hard seat, and road through the streets of Maipu trying to decipher a very confusing map to tour vineyards and taste their products, I didn’t take part in the tasting because alcohol isn’t my jam. By the end of the day we visited 3 vineyards, bodegas, and a chocolate/ liquor factory, chocolateria.



3. I just want to give it up to Argentinean Fashion, Mendoza’s streets were lined with high fashion boutiques, mostly for women, however it was a nice change from the lack of fashion sense in Chile.

4. Shout out to Las Tinajas, a gigantic all you can eat buffet with quality food. $10 all you can eat.. I had five different plates full of food.

5. Great Conversations with my traveling buddies.


Lessons Learned

1. Don’t run through a 100 hectare park without a clue where you are going and no map or money: Here comes story time… after walking around Mendoza for 5 hours admiring the fashion and artesian craft I decided a little 25-30 minute run would be nice. I changed clothes, threw on my reggaetone playlist and headed towards Mendoza’s huge park. After running for roughly 25 minutes I realized, I had made about 10 different turns down random streets without really paying attention. I must have been focusing on the beautiful reggaetone beats pumping through my economical headphones. So I decided I would try to back track… that didn’t work out and I ended up running for 1 hour and 20 minutes, then walking for another 1 ½ hours, and somehow I finally made it make to my hostel. I decided to examine a map to see how I got so lost, and I really couldn’t figure it out. Note to self… don’t do that again.

2. Just because a Hostel has a really cool website and looks awesome from the outside does not mean it is a nice hostel. No explanation needed here… our hostel was gross.

Devon my hetero-lifemate and adventure partner, is coming in two days. So until then...