Torres del Paine..round 2

Ok...so here I sit, with a bad cough, runny nose, and extremely chapped lips...and with feelings of extreme happiness, lots of great memories, and also sadness because today I said goodbye to some people that I will never see again.
So....the trip.
David (the Hungarian exchange student, not Rotary, but living in Punta Arenas) picked me up to go to the airport to meet up with the group. I was super anxious waiting for them to arrive, and when they entered the luggage pickup, we had some window hugs....there were lots of real hugs and tons of conversation when everyone got out. Everyone wanted to know how summer had been, and I wanted to know the same for everyone else. Emily, a great friend from the north trip didn`t have her name on the list which I had been bummed about, but she was there and so that was a pleasant surprise. We also had 4 new exchangees, 2 from brasil, 1 from australia, and 1 from New Zealand. We had a pretty small bus to take us to Puerto Natales. Ie....lap sitting was necessary...but it was nice for keeping us warm. Oh..and we had amazing luck because it wasn`t raining when they got in. When we arrived in Natales about 3 hours later, it was raining. We had a while to settle into our rooms and check out the town before cena at 9. (sorry, dinner..) After that, we were hanging out, and the folks hanging out in my room ended up leaving at about 1 20. One of the girls was quite sick and was coughing a lot of the night, so I didn`t have the best sleep as we headed out of the hotel at about 9 in the morning. (I think it was 9...losing track of the time). After our hearty breakfast, we got in the bus and headed out. We had several stops along the way to look at wildlife (guanacos), and also at the park entrance and store (slightly overpriced...due to the location.) We stopped at a lake with the Torres in the background. The view was very different from when I was there in october, because this time it was snowing like crazy in the mountains so it was actually quite difficult to see the torres. We were quite excited about the "ice" on the edge of the lake, but upon closer examination figured out it was salt!!! Yes...we did taste a bit of it and yes, it did have a grooss aftertaste. As we entered the park (same route as last time) I noticed the work that I had done in october, still there. Oh the memories...We stayed in the hostal that they were working on when I was there. nicely done. We had 8 girls in the 6 person room, one on the floor (well, she was the rotarian chaperone) and 2 girls shared the bed (warmth...) We quickly made a mess of the room. I wish i could put up pics to go with most of these descriptions, but it would be all pics basically. It was amazing. We made ourselves some lunch on our campstoves and then headed out on a trek. We didn`t make it to the base of los Torres due to the lack of time and also the varying degrees of physical condition. It was a bummer, (but i was lucky to have already seen it....so can`t complain). After arrival at the hotel, we had dinner with candles because the hostel doesn`t have electricity, very romantic like. Good convos followed, and then bed quite a while later. (lots of funny little tidbits in between.) In the morning, we packed up and then headed out to los cuernos. They were stopped at the map for quite awhile, so eventually i just started walking because they didn`t really hear that i knew the way. The hike had lots of picture breaks as well. At first, a few of us were quite annoyed with the mass amounts of stops that we were making, but as time went on, it was alright. A river that we had had to cross using ropes and lots of care in october was now easily crossed hopping on a few rocks. We stopped to eat there, and refill water bottles in the mountain stream. After lunch, we continued trekking until we reached the next nights home. Those of us with lots of energy still dropped our bags, grabbed some water and headed back to help those a ways behind. It turns out I didn`t have to carry a bag, but it was amazing how light our legs felt without the weight of the packs. That evening was the birthday of a girl on trips, so we had a campfire for her on the beach. A bit before, I went off to the river to make tea with Lars....(a german friend) and he slipped while getting water...wetting his shoes and one knee as well as his jacket. They searched us out a bit later, apparently they had been waiting for us. But the tea was definitely worth it!! One of the guys working at the camp sang some campfire traditional folklorish songs which were really cool. We then all had to talk abit about our countries history and coat of arms. I noticed that I had never studied canadian history before 1900...... I did know a good deal of the chilean history questions that he asked tho :) Jesse, Emily, and I stayed out afterwards to look at the gorgeous sky. I have never seen so many stars in my life, and there were lots of shooting stars as well. We had sleeping bags to keep us warm. We ended up having the three of us sleeping in one twin size bed (emily and i had been planning to sleep in one bed, and then jesse fell asleep there, so, it was an experience...good laughs now...) We also got up at 6 30 to go watch the sunrise (also with sleeping bags) It was beautiful. We were lucky to find a bit of a wind shelter set up, which ended up sheltering us from the mist that came off the lake. It was some extreme wind. After about an hour, we headed in for breakfast. Some people had assumed we were a bit behind because we had stayed in bed...but really we had gotten very little sleep....the hyperness begun.... That day, we were told to be prepared for rain which was coming in...so I put the poncho over my backpack (and the hood was sticking up, so I had a little buddy for the trip). It rained a bit, but not anything significant, but enough to keep us cool. That day was a significant amount of hiking. We had been told it was flat, but had a huuuuge hill before the lunch break. After our lunch of chicken flavored water ("soup") and pesto rice (with lots of water, so like pesto soup with rice...) we headed up to see some amazng rock formations....This was without backpack. We had the luck to see 2 avalanches...from a distance tho..no fears!!! Then a group of us decided to finish off the hike with very little break and walking at a brisk pace. I ended up leading, and we did the 2 and a half hour hike in 1 hour, 32 minutes (minus our five min break, 1 h 27). I was fondly given the nickname of slavedriver. We still enjoyed the scenery, have no fear. A garbage bag flew off one girls backpack (crazy wind!) and Sam had a bit of a sprint with his backpack to go get it....many laughs there as well. When we arrived at our final destination, we showered and then celebrated with a beer. After dinner, (which i couldnt finish..surprising for having hiked about 15 km that day...) we had massage sessions upstairs. I fell asleep on the couch, and when i woke up only sam, jesse, arno and I were left. Emily came up toget her sweater and told us of the dance party happening...I obviously headed over there and we danced up a storm until about 1 or so. Jesse had my sleeping bag hostage (it had been used as the massage table), so we had to fight for that before the top bunk was our home for the night. I had set my alarm to see the sunrise again, but we couldnt see nething but the top of the window from the bed, and it was cloudy anyways. The next time we woke up, it was 8 and perfect timing to go down for breakfast. After that, we packed up our stuff and then got ready to go to the lookout for the glaciar. It was significantly colder than other days. (other days i wished for t-shirts..possibly shorts). That morning, it was snowing, quite heavily actually. The group that headed out was kindof eliteish..all in good physical shape. We had to go quickly because we were kind of lacking in time. We were all commenting how christmas like it kind of felt because of the snow....however, due to the snow we didn`t actualy see the glaciar. Only 5 of the original 10 or so made it to the glaciar..the rest didn`t want to have the intense hiking and sometimes jogging..that we did. At the top, we strained our eyes for an outline and enjoyed the soup and trailmix that sam had so preparedly brought up, took some pics with the camera timers, and headed back down. The mud made the trip interesting.....good laughs and memories. I loved the ability to fill up the waterbottle from a mountain stream. Upon arrival at the hotel, we quickly ate a boxed lunch and then headed to catch the boat. It was kinda neat because there were some people we had been kind of following the whole trip and they were also on the boat. Sam had talked alot with one of the couples and mentioned how he was living the life...and i commented how I bet that man thought that we were living the life...because we are! Our bus broke down about 30 min outside puerto natales, so we waited for awhile as they tried to fix it and then waited for cars to come get us. We had dinner in Natales, then got back into mini buses for Punta Arenas. We went to the hotel, and from there i called my host fam to tell them I`d be home around 12. (we had free time until that hour). We quickly changed (altho there wasn`t much clean to put on...) and then we went to a cafe,restaurant 2 blocks from the hotel. We stayed there til 1....the chairman was with us so it was ok. I called a bit before 12 when we learned there were extra beds in the hotel and said i would just spend the night there. We didn`t go to sleep til probably around 3 or 4, but due to my sickness I realy didn`t sleep much. At 7, my alarm went off and I headed home to put other ppls pics on my computer and pass along mine, then headed back to the hotel. We had a bus tour of punta arenas, and I had a few people asking to sleep under my bed. They loved it, and it made me realize, again, how awesome my city is. Sure it`s cold, but I have the luck of being given a lot of freedom and the freedom from pollution as well. Its also very un north american. Some of my friends in santiago were telling me about the malls and how many there are and how disgusting they find it (especially my nature loving friends...) It was fun to get pics in front of the cool stuff of my home away from home, and i was very proud of it. I went with them to the airport, along with David (who had come with us) and then we took a transfer back. It was weird saying bye, because I am pretty sure I`ll see a bunch of them before I go home, but it is still crappy saying bye after an amazing 5 days together. Time is passing more quickly than I would like it to. A friend of mine who has done an exchange told me that after that year, he has never felt completly satisfied in any place, which i think could definitely be true....
well...i should write my monthly report (which was sposed to be done in the beginning of april...) and then i have to do some computer stuff for my host mom...
Ps..it is now wednesday, i finished this morning, because I did not go to school this morning. My host mom is quite sure I have bronchitis.....o joy and bliss! It was worth it tho.
All my love