Time...it has whole new meaning

Here we are in Montevideo once again. Except this time it's not a new experience, it' an old and familiar one. We have been away from home for 103 days or 3 months and 12 days. It is not even new news anymore, it's just weird, surreal, saddish, and also SUPER EXCITING. We have been here for so long and yet time has gone by faster than a light beam. 3 months ago this very day, in Montevideo. I could never have believed what the future of this trip would hold. And yet here I am with all those as memories, with more unknown moments in the future. It has all really made me realize how incredibly important it is to savor every second of every minute of these short lives that we live. All I ever look at is blindly towards the future, not even letting the present sink in and simmer There is so much to get out of life, and so that is why I wrote this entry at 1 am. To stop, take advantage of my ansomnia, stop and savor, stop and ponder, and stop and let live this crazy life of mine.
All in God's plan for our trip,
Julia

In the Midst of our Coziness and of the Mountains

The Volcano at sunset
The delicious rainbow trout that Chris and Elli caught
The view from our house at dusk
I came home to this... everyone plugged in to their own little universe
This is our cozy little Cabana
On the horseback ride...


All views from the trail
My little horse


Those snow peaked mountains



Typical farmsteads that you see EVERYWHERE
The town of Pucon... the highly touristic haven just down the road

And oh look... it's the volcano... for the hundredth time :P
Villarrica Lake




Here we are as cozy as ever in our comfortable cabana that I mentioned in the last post. Today is our last day here and then we will start heading North again, so join me in my bittersweet parting of this comfortable and beautiful place, which is by far the most gloriously gorgeous one we have been in all of South America. It has all types of beauty: lush green farmlands, surrounded by volcanoes and snow-peaked mountains, Eucalyptus forests and wildflowers everywhere along the roadside. It is never ending you can't look somewhere and not see some kind of beauty. As you can see from the pictures above, we have done lots of different things lately. Living in California I never understood what was so pleasurable about "a Sunday drive", all I see driving through California is dry, dry, dry, (not to diss California or anything) I just prefer green, green, green. So when I came here one of my favorite things to do was drive and look at the incredible scenery everywhere. Sadly I am afraid that other people don't like going on drives with me because I am usually squishing over their bodies to take what they call "pictures of the exact same things " and to which I respond, "it is my passion." I am sure all of you can attest to that fact, from seeing my pictures from this and previous posts. :) I am sorry that you all have to suffer through "my passion" trust me this trip will be over soon enough and you can all rest your weary tolerances while I enjoy looking daily at my thousands of pictures of fields and mountains. :) Oh well I am afraid that I have lost my own mind and do not know what I am talking about anymore so maybe I will just talk about something else... our horseback ride. Yes, two days ago we went on a horseback ride through the wilderness. It was actually quite interesting, other than the fact that my short little horse was ALWAYS trying to steal a bite of the trailside shrubbery, especially while I was attempting to take a picture of the beauti... oop there I go again with my silly rantings about beauty. So I better stop now before we both go utterly insane. So now I'll leave you saying that we have completely enjoyed our time in this wonderful place and (at least I am) ready to say my partings to it and to return home to our dry and wildflowerless California. Until later then my friends, when I have access to free internet. All in God's perfect plan for our trip,
Julia

Millionaire Tourists

Wow and I thought the gas was bad in the US !

The delicious, gas station, shack, restaurant

A perfect day

The Volcano

This is my meager little life: the world's most comfortable
pillow, the world's most faithful backpack, and the world's most tightly crammed suitcase


La Colina: the comfortable hotel

Oh, the Andes!


Does it not look like Switzerland or something?

La Casa Chueca German Hostel

Those Beautiful lakes

The family farms everywhere



More of La Casa Chueca

Driving through the Andes



The beautiful view in Vina del mar

Poppies! (and they're not illegal to pick here ;)
Getting pulled over for driving the wrong way on a 1 way street...he was nice and he only gave us directions

I was definitely right about us being millionaire tourists once we got to Chile. I mean after all we started out by going to a very nice Best Western Hotel in Vina del Mar, which felt very luxurious after dysfunctional Cabanas and stinky rented houses, as Morielle put it " I am soooo comfortable " well that was until we found out that she had a severe infestation of lice. Yes, although I have not been lucky enough to get them myself, I have become quite an expert at nit-picking. Despite that realization, we spent a very fun day on Fiona's birthday in Vina del Mar, shopping at Artesenal fairs, eating at a deliciously expensive restaurant whose menu was practically a poem, riding in a dollar a minute horse drawn carriage (that was my mom and Elli's idea), walking along the beach, and watching the sunset.

The next day we drove for 4 hours through a sadly brown and dry Chile, really getting to know the beauty of gas station bathrooms ( trust that it was not my little voice asking for one every 30 min. : ) Fiona, Morielle and I had lots of fun trying to sing trios from Scarlet Pimpernel and Aida but decided that it always sounds much better with real music and gave up. Then with a car full of rumbling stomaches, we stopped at a shack restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and decided to try out the nonexistent menu of soup, lamb, and rice and beans. When the bread came and to my dad's great delight, hot sauce we decided that so far it was better than some restaurants in Uruguay. Our assumptions were immediately shattered, the moment we put the traditional Chilean food in our mouths. We left with wonderfully satisfied stomachs and two delighted old cooks who had probably never seen the likes of us before, and who would probably never get more compliments on their little gas station restaurant. After that the scenery of the countryside got much more beautiful, with more green and less brown, and of all things California poppies growing wild. When we finally got in view of the mountains, there were green farms, lakes, and hills everywhere. When we finally reached our "final destiny" as Elli so adorably said, we were surrounded by small family farms, grazing cows, and adorable little houses. In the midst of that we found our hostel/hotel La Casa Chueca. This was nothing normal, it was a sheltered community and gathering place of German speakers and travelers. They all spoke very good English and varying amounts of Spanish. It was equivalent to a bed and breakfast but more beautiful, cozy, and comfortable. Sadly we only stayed there for 1 night, and moved on, drove on. We drove closer to the mountains with the scenery becoming ever more gorgeous. Verdantly green valleys with yellow and white wildflowers, shadowed on one side by forests, and on the other side by the Andes, those majestic, snow peaked, wonders of nature. I felt like I could've been in Switzerland, it was beyond words. We kept driving through it all, then stopped at another gas station for lunch. My mom was very negative about eating at a gas station, but as soon as she went in and saw vegetables on the menu, she had a change of heart. After another very delicious meal we learned our lesson: Never underestimate! (especially when it comes to gas stations.) Satisfied and optimistic, we headed out to drive the last few hours. We reached the Volcano town of Villarica, and thought it looked more like Alaska than South America. In that town we got to our hotel La Colina. Everyone there speak English and the owner is actually from Montana. We have now been here 2 nights and have been perfectly comfortable, with wonderful service, cozy rooms, a delicious restaurant 3 steps from our door, and some of us (not me because I have another horrible cold) getting 3 scoops of homemade Ice Cream every night, just like any millionaire tourists would. ;)
All in God's plan for our trip,
Julia

Alta Gracian Times

• Talking in Spanglish in the river with our amazing Alta Gracia friends
• Playing the guitar singing and drinking Mate with the same friends at the same river
• Another one of my favorites: a sunset
• Villa Los Aromas (right near Alta Gracia)
• 
• The worlds best Asado (made by Morielle)
• The beauty of the trees
• 
• A Freak Hail Storm
• 
• 

The past few weeks...
I think because it still holds true that pictures are worth 100's of words, I wont write to much and rather let you savor the pictures. But I basically just wanted to summarize our Cabana life, our Alta Gracia times, and our last days in Argentina. So I will let the pictures speak.
All in God's perfect plan for our trip,
Julia

Sorry!!!

Hello Again,
I am sorry about the last post. It kinda shows that I was really homesick, and having a bad day. We are not doing nothing right now, we just aren't travelling. We just moved from a cabana in Alta Gracia to a rented house in Villa Los Aromas, which is a beautiful, quiet little community completely surrounded by La Bolsa Rio (river). We actually have a backyard and are enjoying swimming in our backyard river, sun tanning (burning for me and my light skin) on rocks, and eating the wild mulberries that grow everywhere. Granted we are still a little bored sometimes, and are still extremely homesick, but life isn't that bad and there is a lot to be grateful for. My dad will be coming back from the States ( I started calling the USA " the States" ever since we came here) and we will take 1 last week of Spanish classes and then go travel to the scenic Bariloche and go check out the legendary Andes. Life is good in this hemisphere.
All in God's perfect plan for our trip,
Julia

P.S. For those of you who asked for pictures I posted in a previous post that I posted the pictures of Uruguay with the posts that I wrote in Uruguay. So if you check the first 3-4 posts there should be some pictures there. Sadly I am in the same pickle of only using the internet's computers so I can't post any pictures right now, but I will hopefully show all of you all of my hundreds of pictures when we come home in 24 days.
PP.SS. Not to mention it, but it really is encouraging when people comment, so if you so desire...then please do. Hasta luego!

Feelings of Discouragement

Here I am in Alta Gracia, Argentina and I am feeling pretty discouraged about this blog. We are not doing anything on this trip anyway, other than sitting around waiting for a month. Everyone is probably really busy with their own lives right now, so I don't expect anyone to be reading this. But if any of you are then know that it is not because of business that I am not going to blog until I have something good to say or I know that people are actually reading my boring reviews. That is it for now. Check back some day. Chao people!

Pictures...Finally

Hello Everyone,
I am going to post all the pictures of the past two months. But I will post them inside of the old posts that they belong in. For example I will post Panama pictures in the Panama post, etc. I will have to do it gradually though, different pictures different days, because it takes so long to load. I already posted for Panama, so check that. But keep checking up every day. At least I got my pictures...finally.
Gotta run!
Julia