Hey World!

My plans have changed. I was supposed to come home on Monday the 16th but after being down here in warm weather for 10 days; I have decided to stay down here in Chile. I didn’t want to go back home and have to put a dry suit back on to ski. I will be training here for 3 more weeks, then I will head home for a day in a half and then my 1 month trip to Australia will begin. I am blessed for the opportunities I have given. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that I am truly, “Living My Dream.” I didn’t think this was possible, but I have found a way to make it work for now and I am loving ever second of it.

Once I made this decision to stay, I was invited to go on a road trip down to southern Chile with a few skiers. I was excited to have the opportunity to see more parts of Chile. Monday morning, the night after the banquet, we loaded up the car and headed down to Huilo-Huilo. This was a 10 hour drive from Santiago. In the car, we had two Americans (Lauren Morgan and myself), one Chilean (Tiare Miranda), one Columbian (Santiago Correa), one German (Geena Krueger), one Czech (Daniel Odvarko) and one Peruvian (Delphi Cuglievan). We played various games to keep us entertained on the long drive. Since it was dark and we were driving on dirt roads with no signage, we had a difficult time finding our cabin but eventually we finally made it to Huilo-Huilo. These obstacles are what makes a trip fun and they make for better stories.

As we woke up on Tuesday morning, we immediate went out on the back deck to look at the view we had. We were right on the river and had a hot spring. We all jumped from the hot spring into the river. It was a great way to start the morning. Next, we headed to lunch. I was sent a message by one of my followers saying that I had to try a Barro Luco while I was here in Chile. I finally found one on the menu at this little mom and pop restaurant. It was a great meal before we all decided that we wanted to go zip lining. Most of us had never been before. It was an amazing experience. We went on 7 or 8 different lines. Ranging from over 500m long to 980m high. After words, we went hiking to look at waterfalls. We were able to see some amazing views. We even jumped off of a few rocks into the river just south of the water fall. It was very refreshing and a great way to end the day. We managed to get out of the forest right at dark.

On Wednesday morning, we decided to take a two hour drive to Pucon. This was another amazing city to see. After grabbing a bit to eat, Tiare took us on an adventure to find a water fall slide and rocks to jump off of. We drove to the middle of know where, went across a bridge where we had about 6 inches to spare on each side and finally got to a river. As we got out of the car, we started to hike along the river. It was difficult to walk as most branches and trees were very low to the ground. At one point, I was bear crawling and duck walking just to proceed. After 25 minutes, we finally arrived and were able to experience this hidden treasure. We stayed for about 45 minutes as all of us jumped off the rocks and slide down the natural waterfall slide. We decided to take a different way back. The water was low and there were a ton of big rocks in the river so we walked back in the river jumping from one rock to the next. In the end, it was definitely worth all of the hiking and trouble it took to get there. After words, we went out to Sushi and called it an early night because the group decided to do a hike to the top of a volcano, Volcan Villa Rica, the next morning.

We were up at 5:45am on Thursday as we had to be at Patagonia Andina Experience by 6:30. We were at the bottom of the mountain starting our hike at 8:20am. The guides said it would take us 5 hours to hike up and an hour in a half to two hours to hike down. We all looked at each other and said, there is no way it will take 5 hours. We can do it in 2, worst case 3 hours. The guides said we could take a chair lift up that would save us an hour to hour in a half. We all looked at each other and said no way, we are doing the entire hike. The guides tried to convince us to take the lift and said you have to be in good shape to hike the entire mountain. Someone told them that we were pro athletes and that we were set hiking the entire mountain. We started the hike as 96% of the people took the lift up. Little did we know, we weren’t going straight up the mountain the way we thought we would. We had to go around to the back side. It was pretty hot as we hiked up. At times I was in shorts and a cut off shirt but the sun is brutal here so I decided to put a long sleeve shirt on so I wouldn’t be black by the time we were done. The terrain was difficult as we navigated up the mountain. Rocks, snow, steep elevation and altitude were all things that made it challenging. We were hiking for about 2 ½ hours and the guides said we had a ½ hour left. We could see the top and knew that we were almost there. Little did we know, when we got to the top, it wasn’t the top. We found out that we were only half way up as we saw little dots that were at the actual top. At this point, it was all mental. We had convinced our selves that we were almost there and it was a huge let down since we were all exhausted. We stopped for about 25minutes to eat some food and hydrate. The last 2 hours to get to the top seemed to take forever! We were hiking in the snow taking little steps, one by one.

For me that was difficult. I am use to taking big strides with my long legs. As we made it to the top of the volcano, we were able to see many spectacular views. We overlooked the city of Pucon, a few big lakes and mountain ranges. We stayed at the top for an hour as we took a 15 minute power nap, ate and walked around to see the spectacular views. Next task was to get back down the mountain. We put all of our snow gear on for the first time as we were told we were going to slide down most of the mountain. This was something that we were all looking forward to. Basically, there were man made trenches. They were like water slide but on snow and you had to control your speed and direction. It was easy to get off course and create your on path which made it more challenging and a bigger thrill. Check out some of the videos we got of us coming down the mountain.

This volcano is part of the ring of fire. It is know as the house of evil spirits by the native Mapuche Tribe. It was a 2800 meter elevation change and Volcan Villa Rica is the name of the mountain/volcano. 6 people have died doing this hike. 4 of them died at the same time as they tried to go without a guide during the mid 1980’s. After they were missing, it snowed for 2 weeks straight. They were found 3 months later. It is a big accomplishment to say that we hiked from top to bottom and it was great to be able to do it with some amazing people from 6 different countries.

After this 7-8 hour adventure, it was time to get in the car and drive 8 hours back to Santiago. We left Pucon at 6:45pm and arrived in Santiago at 2:30am in the morning as we officially ended our road trip. This was an amazing experience for me. Not only did I get to travel and see a lot of Chile. I was able to do things I have never done before. If you ever get a chance to go on a zip line, walk up a volcano, go on a water fall slide or slide down a mountain, I highly recommend you do it. Especially if it is in Southern Chile!

This was probably the best trip I have ever been on. There was never a dull moment and we were always looking for the next adventure and adrenaline rush!