HELLO FROM THE LAST DAY OF MY TRIP!!!! I am SO excited to be home and in 28 hours, I WILL BE! This trip has been emotionally and mentally difficult and I am so ready to be DONE! My roommate and I had to leave our Airbnb by 1 pm and we don’t need to meet the group until 4.30 pm so I am killing some time. We leave for the airport at 5.30 and then our flight takes off at 9.10 pm. I currently have the MIDDLE seat in the LAST row of the plane, like some sort of sick cruel joke. When we get to the airport, I will tell the agent that I am chaperoning a flight full of underage kids and NEED an aisle seat to check on them….preferably in an exit row ;). I would say window seat, but I don’t think he will believe me…. haha.
Anyway. I wanted to quickly share what I’ve been up to the last few days. This week was a good one, but mostly because the end was in sight! Tuesday was a holiday in Chile, so there was no work for us. We decided to climb to the top of San Critobal hill and despite it looking very big, it only took about 30 mins to get up there.
At the top, the views were nice (ish) although there was a lot of smog. The best part was getting to try mote de huesillo which is a cup filled half way with this barley-type grain and then it has a peach, and ice cold peach tea. It was very good!
Afterwards, my roommate and I had sandwiches at a restaurant with a nice terrace.
And then I got the best popsicle of my entire life- dulce de leche ice cream with chocolate coating. I actually had another today.
Wednesday was a regular work day, but it was my day off to do whatever I wanted. I originally booked a trip to Cajon del Maipo, but after booking, the company messaged me to say that the trip was cancelled because Cajon del Maipo is closed due to accidents that happened a few weeks back. Instead, they offered a similar trip to the Portillo Ski Center and Inca Lagoon. At first I was going to say no, but then I thought “I prefer to be miserable in the mountains than in Santiago”…. yes it’s tough to be so positive all the time! I’m glad I said yes though because it was BEAUTIFUL!
I read reviews online and it said that the ‘tour’ is a glorified ride to the mountains, and that is true. They make a few stops, drop you off, let you explore, and then back on the van. They picked me up at 6 am, so I watched the sunrise over the moutains.
And then they dropped us off at a breakfast place/ place to rent winter gear. I rented gloves and boots which ended up being totally unnecessary, but you can’t win them all. Then we drove into the mountains…up, up, up…
…and stopped at Portillo Ski Center where I bought myself a cappuccino and enjoyed the views.
Oh, I went to Argentina for ten mins! We crossed the border to take a couple pictures and then went back to Chile, but now I can cross Argentina off the bucket list 😉
By the end of the day, I was STARVING and very ready for this lunch I packed for myself. They actually took us to a nice place for lunch, but I was happy to sit by the pool and read while I ate.
And then I was home by 4:30 pm and went out for a 10,000 step walk since I had been sitting all day!
In other news, I tried an Impossible Burger and it was SO GOOD!!!! I loved it.
The end. See you from the other side!
