Valdivia and PUcon

After my restful stay at Happy House in Santiago, I made my way south to Valdivia, in Chile´s Lake District (by the way the rest of my happenings in Mendoza are posted below, also new). Valdivia is a pretty cool university town, though I wasn´t so sure after arriving on a Sunday evening, in the dark. I flew there, took a transfer to town, and landed at Airesbuenos Hostal, which really wasn´t my favorite place. A bunch of students live there full time, so it just wasn´t as well kept as I like. But alas, I had already been denied at one place and i didn´t have time to find another, so i stayed the night there. Well God has his funny ways of working, so although I was disappointed at the lodging situation, I was SO excited when I was walking out of my room only to notice a Bible next to one of the bunks. First sign of a Christian i´ve seen since i left Colombia. So i wrote a little note saying how encouraged I was to see it, and that i hoped to meet this person later that night...more on that later.

I rolled out sola into town, which was practically dead, but found a great place, Entrelagos, for dinner. IT´s famous for its chocolate and hot chocolate but i didn´t muster the appetite after my dinner, so i just took their word for it. Ended up meeting an American girl studying there, who two nights later met me for a beer at the Kuntsmann cerveceria. Nice! SO, went back to my hostal and read a bit downstairs. THe chilean students weren´t all that friendly or talkative ith me, and by that point i knew i was changing hostels the next day. BUT, along came john, the guy with the bible, and we chatted for a while. It was great to encourage and be encouraged. He had been needing a pick me up as well, so that was just totally the Lord working in His ways. Anyway, we hope to meet up in Buenos Aires. He is teaching English in Patagonia region, and is on vaca.

The next day I found a good hostel, adn the lady who ran is was super nice. she even drove me back to Airesbuenos to pick up my bags and take me back to her place. Awesome! Every Valdivian i met was like that - helpful, really nice, and didn´t expect anything in returnm even when offered. Soo i tooted around Valdivia a bit that day and what a change from the day before! There were tons of people walking around, and teh city was very much bustling with activity, even in teh drizzle and clouds. After i had had enough of being cold outside, i stumbled into Cafe Hausmann where i had honestly some of the BEST cake i´ve ever had - called Kuchen (the town was colonized by Germans). It was walnut goodness on top over yellow cake with a layer of cream in between. omg, w.y.p. So worth the calories! And while in the cafe, i recognized the only two other people staying in my hostel, two French girls. They were super nice as well, and we decided to meet up later that evening in the hostel to go grab dinner. Also in the cafe was another American girl eating with her Chilean friend from school. Totally reminded me of being in Spain studying, and made me quite nostalgic actually :( Oh to be young again! haha.

so Frenchies and I hung out next to the heater for a few hours in our hostel, then went out for a nice steak dinner at a nice restaurant recommended by hostel owner lady. It was kind of expensive for my budget, but a nice meal. still not the "perfect steak". The next day the 3 of us met up and lucky for us, the sun even made its appearance. We ventured to Niebla, abouta 20 minute busride away, where you go to the port and catch a ferry to two other islands, Corral and Isla Macera, both which had these really cool ruins b-c they were used as strongholds to protect Valdivia back in the 1600 and 1700s. Anyway, absolutely gorgeous and not what i was expecting! check out my photos...we ate lunch on Corral at this tiny little spot, and i nearly threw up when one of the girls found a worm in her fish. We had each ordered a different white fish and shared with each other. Thank the Lord that none of us got sick, but i was pretty close, even before i saw the worm. That said, it was good food! But disgusting after the fact. And we basically had to fight with the waitress to tell her we weren´t paying full price for the wormy fish. She finally conceded at half price! So we decided to head to the third island after walking around Corral, but were hesitant bc they said the last ferry was at 5 and we went over at 430. Ya, well, we think they forgot us, and before we went into panic mode after the sun went down, we decided to go with the local fisherman who offered to take us on his little boat back to Niebla. Thank God for him! And he wouldn´t accept our pay...

SO i got off and went ot the beer factory and the girls went back to the hostel. Good times and met my friend Teresa there for some deep discussion about life, family, and Christianity :) Took the bus yesterday morning here to Pucón and am enjoying my time here! Got in adn was flagged down by Claudio, who owns a hostel next to the bus station and arranged a tour for the afternoon from 2 to 8 where me and 6 others went around and saw views of the beautiful mountains, volcanos, Ojos del Caburgua (waterfalls that come right out of the earth bc the water travels underground for 5km!), and finally ended at a hot springs, Termas Los Pozones. soo nice! 5 pools all different temps. It was so fun getting in a bathing suit too ;) Then we all came back and Claudio cooked dinner for us while we drank way too much wine (basically i didn´t have any water to drink so just kept drinking wine...oops!)- We all had so much fun though, and when I all of a sudden decided to stagger back to my hostel by myself to go to be d(they were all staying at Claudio´s hostel and I was in a different one), they all sent a "search party" out to try and find me! haha. Claudio knew I was gone but they all thouight it´d be fun to go knock on the door of my hostel and ask for me at 1 in the morning. Tehehe.

So we planned to go to the park this morning for a hike, but hte rain has been going ALL DAY since late in the night last night. I have accomplished nothing today aside from this blog and my adventurous trek to the supermarket. I decided agianst zip-lining in the rain bc i wanted to not die. The main thing here is to climb the volcano, but with this weather you can´t do much at all. Shame, cuz i´m leaving tomorrow for Bariloche. It´s supposed to rain for like 4 more days too. Poo.

Okay, people need the computer, but here are some photo highlights!