Another day, another vacay

Greetings-

My time in Chile has now eclipsed the 4 month mark! Woh! I'm sitting here procrastinating my end of the semester work, seeing the past 4 months flash by, slapping me in the face with a jumble of emotions. Although I still have until the end of January (the 29th to be exact), a significant chapter is coming to close.

I look forward to the semester ending so that the next one can start. I will be taking my final required class. After going to school continually since my high school graduation in 2003, it should be easy to understand that I'm ready to be done. The sooner I start this class, the sooner it will be over. However, don't be confused, I’m not in any way tired of Chile, and I'm not yearning for this adventure to end. Things will just be different once again, and as always will require an adjustment period.

Last week I took advantage of some of the 'paro' and 'toma' stoppage to take one more quick vacation before the end of the semester. I headed back up to Vina del Mar to see my partner in crime, Clare. It was great to get out of rainy Concepcion and up to the sun.

We took advantage of the nice weather and went camping for 3 days at La Campana Parque National. After a night of pisco and a few hours of sleep, we jumped on the metro train and rode it until the end of the tracks where a little town by the name of Limache sits. We then hopped on a micro until its final stop which left us about a 1/4 miles walk from the park. We had intended on doing a backpacking trip, but because of camping restrictions we were forced to stay in the campground. This, however, was not a problem because its 'winter' here and not that many people go camping. We had the place to ourselves. We spent the days hiking and the nights sitting around a nice big campfire. We ate lots of great food and enjoyed being out of the city. We were commenting on how much it did not feel like we were in Chile, until we heard a monkey yell a reminder. We were not in fact in the woods back home.

Back in Vina we enjoyed a dinner of Swedish pancakes with real maple syrup (thanks Clare) appetized by some real green chile dip (thanks me) with the owner of Clare’s house and his good friend; both of whom have been super generous to me in my visits and obviously invaluable to Clare during her stay.

Before I jumped on my bus the next night we went to Con Con, a little town up the coast from Vina, where walked the coast for a few miles and ate some amazing seafood at a super popular yet hole in the wall restaurant.

I regret not having any pictures of this fun trip due to camera difficulties. As I said before, my camera died, and Clare’s too took a fatal plunge.

I'm now here staring at three papers to write and seven days to do them in. The semester ends on the 27th, also the day that I start my next biggest South American adventure. Clare and I are headed up to Peru to see Macchu Pichu, probably the amazon rainforrest, and whatever else strikes our fancy at the time.

Don't worry; there will be pictures of this adventure because I have recently procured a new camera. If that too fails, damnit we'll get disposables.

I hope everything is wonderful and that summer is warming up. I will try to write again as soon as possible, but it may not be until I get back at an undetermined date.

Besos y abrazos-
Dan