The End

Well my time in South America is officially over, or will be in just a few hours. Right now I am lying on a couch in the air conditioned hotel waiting until 7 when I will head to the airport to officially leave this continent that has been home for the past 4 and a half months. I can't believe it, and honestly right now I don't even know how to begin to process it, I am not sure what it will be like to be home knowing that my semester abroad is over and just a memory...sound corny I know but I have been planning this semester since high school. I really can't believe it is over.

First family photo once mom and michael arrived!

The time with my family has been wonderfully. My mom and brother arrived on the 21st and if we weren't already packing our days full of tours and visits we managed to fit even more in! We visited all over the sacred valley spending nights in hotels which consisted in eating a small dinner and falling almost immediately to sleep. After hanging our Cusco and the Sacred Valley we headed to Aguas Calientes the town where Machu Picchu is. Machu Picchu was to incredible for words, and I am a pretty bad writer so I can't even begin to explain the beauty and fascination I felt when I was there, not to mention the altitude sickness. Man was it hard to breathe...I am hoping all the climbing at the high altitude will do my fitness wonders for lacrosse season. We spent two days up in Machu Picchu and the second day my brother and I climbed Wayna Picchu the tallest peak in the Machu Picchu area...it was one of the toughest things I ever did...it was insanely steep and with the trouble breathing we had to take many breaks...but the view from the top was unreal.

Family at the top of Machu Picchu

The view from Waynu Picchu when it finally cleared up!
My brother and I at the top of Waynu Picchu before the fog cleared up!

After Machu Picchu we went to Puno where Lake Titicaca is, Puno is even higher than Cusco so again the altitude sucked. We spend christmas day in a tour bus driving across peru from Cusco to Puno, the ride would have been enjoyable but we were stuck in the back of a Russian tour bus with smelly people and a loud russian guide...not the best way to spend christmas but at least we were together! We take a day tour of Lake Titicaca where we got to spend time on the floating islands of Uros...one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and then go to another larger island close to Boliva. It was amazing...the day that we left to fly back to Lima my mom and dad got really sick, probably a mix of the altitude and the food. After spending the night in Lima we headed to Santiago via airplane and spent the first day in Santiago in our hotel room letting my mom and dad rest and try to feel better.

Some of the woman on one of the Floating Islands of Uro! They were amazing!

Highest point! 4,335 meters above sea level! Boy was it hard to breathe!

Our time in Santiago flew by but we kept very busy. The first real day we took it easy because mom and dad were still getting their strength back but we walked around Santiago and I tried to play tour guide. Day 2 we took a tour to Valpariso and Vina del Mar which was fabulous. The last day we packed up and I showed the family around the city some more...we also went to my host families house to have a wonderful dinner. My mom was very happy to meet the woman who had kept me safe the last 4 months. Yesterday (new years eve) my mom dad and brother left to fly home and I brought in the new year with a mini bottle of champagne and myself in the hotel in Santiago, it was a nice way to end this Chilean Adventure. In just a few hours I will be on my home...first to Atlanta and then to Boston. I am unbelievably anxious to get home but sad to know that this is the end. I think I will be processing this adventure for many months to come. I have just 10 short days at home which will hopefully be filled with lots of friends and lots of catching up and then I head back out west to see more friends and start the lacrosse season. I have so many wonderful things to look forward too but I am not sure if I am ready to look back on this adventure quite yet...I would prefer to keep living it.

Thank you for everyone that read, I love you all.

Besitos,

Ana

Photo Update

Iguazu falls! (check out that rainbow)
More Iguazu (pretty incredible yes?)
Happy Hannukah!
Dad loved these big trees (i have about 4 more pictures just like this!)

Well tonight is our last night in Buenos Aires, we just got back from a delicous dinner at my host families house. It was so amazing to go back and see them, it had felt like so long even though it had hardly been more than 2 weeks. It was quite interesting playing the role of translator since my dad speaks no spanish and they speak no english...it was a nice test to see how much I have improved this semester...I think i passed :)

Today we went to Uruguay for the day (now my second time) and spent the day in a small tourist town called Colonial Sacramento...it was fun and exhausting...lots of walking and sight-seeing. We also met two really nice couples who we spent most of the day with and it was nice to have company as well as meet new people...so many people go on so many wonderful adventures, it is fun to hear all about them!

Tomorrow morning (6 am) we head off to Peru, we land in Lima and have a 3 hour layover and then we are off to Cusco. I am so excited to go to a new place and going to Peru means my mom and brother are coming in just a few days! I cannot wait!

I hope everyone is gearing up for a happy holiday season and if you are in CT getting ready for the big snow storm that I hear is brewing.

Peace and love to all,

Ana

And here is a little video treat!!!!!!!!

IGUAZU

Day 1 Iguazu:

Tuesday we got up even earlier and headed to the Jorge Newbury Nacional airport only to find out that our flight to Iguazu was cancelled. Luckily they just put us on the next one leaving a 11 and LAN gave us a voucher for breakfast. So we hung out at the airport for a little bit longer than we wanted but we eventually got off. When we landed it was hot hot hot and humid humid humid! We got to our hostel and were able to put our stuff down and jump right back into the cab to take us the falls. We decided to take a safari and boat tour through the National Park on the Argentina side. The safari ride was a pretty disappointing because most of the animals (400 different species) are nocturnal and are really afraid of people so we didn’t get to see anything. But the boat ride was incredible and absolutely unbelievable. The boat ride was about 30 minutes and of course the boat we went in broke down in the middle of the 6km boat ride to the falls…we didn’t have to wait too long in the boiling sun before they just transferred us over to a new boat which was bigger so there was more room and it was easier to see. I need to mention that these boats were like blow-up rafts for 30 people with a motor…very safe but we were very close to the water. Of course we had to wear super silly life jackets. The boat first brings you close to the falls so you can take pictures and then they tell you too put your cameras away and get ready to get wet. Now my dad and I thought it meant we would get sprayed which wasn’t hard to do because there was so much water coming down and it was coming down so hard that water was spraying everywhere. But we were so mistaken. They literally brought us right under the falls. We were drenched. We couldn’t look up without out having sunglasses on and it hurt a little. But it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life. I am pretty sure my dad would say the same thing too. They then took us to another set of falls and brought us under those too. I can’t even express in words how wonderful it was. The water was amazingly refreshing as well. After the boat ride we walked for about two hours to see the falls from above instead of below and underneath. It was breathtaking. Obviously I have tons of pictures that I am going to put up as soon as we get back to Buenos Aires. At about 6 we headed back to the hotel swam and showered and had an early dinner at 8 across the street from our hostel. We were sleeping y 11.

Day 2 Iguazu:

Our plan was originally to make a trip to the Brazilian side of the falls because my dad and I had both heard that although North Americans technically need a visa to enter Brazil the border by Iguazu was easy and they normally let people from the states through without a visa. We were going to try this but then last minute at about 9 this morning decided that it wasn’t worth the hour and a half bus ride if we had a high chance of just having to turn around. We still had lots to see on the Argentina side and thought it was a better way to spend our last day. So we headed back to the Falls but this time went to see the upper part of Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat…sounds scary right?). It was even more incredible than anything we had seen the day before…which I wouldn’t have believed possible. We stayed there for at least a half an hour looking at the endless amounts of water flowing down into what appeared as a bottomless pit. No other word but extraordinary. We then walked around a bit more and tried to stay cool. It was about 100 degrees here today and needless to say we were dying of heat…the humidity is awful. After a little shopping we got in a bus and headed to the center of Puerto Iguazu, we were really excited to explore but unfortunately there was nothing special there and with the extreme heat we both lost our patience of walking around pretty quickly. Once we got back to the hostel we practically jumped in the pool and cooled down for a while. We are going to take a little rest before we have a bbq in our hostel and then probably get to bed pretty early. The sun and heat have been so draining. We head back to Buenos Aires tomorrow at noon.

I will post pictures soon!

My Daddy is HERE!

My daddy is here!!!! It is hard to believe that he has only been here since Sunday! We have already done so much…he is keeping me really really busy!

We both arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday at around noon and we quickly headed to the hotel…I don’t have much experience booking hotels but I didn’t do too badly for my first time! We dropped our stuff of and headed out to find a place to eat lunch. Of course I managed to get us lost pretty much right off the bat…so much for knowing a city after 6 weeks. After a quick lunch at one of Buenos Aires many corner dinners we headed straight to one of my favorite places, Plaza Francia. It was really important that we went there on Sunday because it is a huge street fair but only doing the weekend. While I was fascinated by all the shopping my dad couldn’t stop looking at all the trees…typical. After a little shopping and tree watching we went to Recoleta cemetery, the most famous and public cemetery in Buenos Aires, it is where many presidents and Evita are buried…we paid a guy 7 pesos to show us her grave site…dad thought it was worth it. After the cemetery we did a little bit more exploring and then headed back to the hotel to rest a little before dinner. Obviously I took him to Siga La Vaca (the worlds greatest restaurant) and needless to say we stuffed our faces…it was great. We headed back to the hotel and slept a TON!

The next day (Monday) we got up bright and early took a bus tour around Buenos Aires all day. We got off and on at lots of different stops taking tons of pictures and learning all about Buenos Aires. Most of the things I had seen before but it was nice to learn more about them and to share the experience with my dad. We found a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner and had some of the best calamari we had ever had in our lives (and we eat lots of calamari!) We headed off to Iguazu early Tuesday morning....more to come soon.

The internet at the hostel is not great so I will post pictures when we are back in Buenos Aires.

Goodbyes

Well it has been a busy last few days and now I am finally beginning to relax in the beautiful Santiago sun (it is HOT here!) Our group trip to Algorrobo for oral presentations and re-entry orientation was great. The presentations were amazing, I was sure I was going to be bored listening to 14 different oral presentations each taking at least 20 minutes...but I was really surprised. Everyone worked so hard this past month during our ISP and it was amazing to see how much people improved. I was really excited when people in my group were really impressed by how much my spanish had improved! I also think people were fairly interested in what I was talking about. I thought about posting some of my paper up here but it is all in Spanish so it would probably be worthless for most people. But I am officaly on winter break...well I have been since Monday! One girl in my group was so relieved when she was done that she took a swig from her flask in front of everyone...it was pretty funny. I was relieved, but not that relieved. Monday night SIT treated us to an amazing dinner, a great slideshow of the semester, and a cool t-shirt with a group photo on the the back! I also spent all Monday afternoon at the beach and although I got a little burnt it was so beautiful and totally worth it! A bunch of us also went banana boating which was really fun too!

It was a perfect weekend! The last night we had a big dance party all together and it was really bittersweet!

We got back on Tuesday afternoon and most people headed home to pack and get organized, I just headed home to relax and breathe. It was great! On Wednesday I went over to my friends homestay house and we sat by the pool, but out of the sun, we were still recovering from the sun burn. It was a nice way to end the program. I was able to jump on the shuttle that was going to the airport with everyone and I spent about 2 hours there with 2 other girls who weren't leaving either. I was really glad that I could come to the airport and say goodbye to everyone at once. It was sad watching everyone leave. There are some people from my program who I am sure I will see over the summer but some who live far away and I am not sure the next time I will see them. It is weird how people can just walk into your lives and then share this amazing experience with them and then they just walk right back out 3 months later. It is a little crazy. These last few days I have been relaxing, spending a lot of time with my little brother and sister...I am teaching them english (they are learning a little but they are only 2 and 4).

Sunday morning I leave for Buenos Aires to meet up with my dad!!!! I am SOOOOO excited! My mom and brother come on the 20th and my dad and I will be meeting them in Peru. I think I am going to keep posting when I can to update people on my post-program travel. My dad and I have lots of plans for our week in Bs.As., one of them including Iguazu Falls (I AM SO EXCITED)

Sending lots of holiday love,

Ana

Photo Update!

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Buenos Aires!

My Buenos Aires mom and dad, Ricardo and Yeyi, before our weekly pizza dinner...SO GOOD!

View from the bus on our way through the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago!

Another a view from the bus, but I took this one with my feet in it so you could see the amazing view we had in the front seat of the bus!

The five of us that went to the vineyards in Mendoza, I think this was vineyard #3.

An awful picture of me but trying to show how impressive and beautiful the Andes are. Breathtaking, yes?

So I posted pictures in attempts to procrastinate from finishing my oral presentation but I think it is time to get back to work. Tomorrow at 11:30 am I will be done and officially on winter vacation...I can't wait.

This last week has flown by. It is hard to imagine that just last Monday I was packing up my things in Buenos Aires. Now I am in Santiago packing up my things once again for our 3 day trip to Algorrobo (the beach town where we had our orientation in the beginning of the program). We will be there as a group until Tuesday for our oral presentations (20 minute presentations, 15 people...I will let you all know if I make it out alive), a re-orientation program that all SIT programs do to help you cope with going back to the states (not really sure what that is all about...can't imagine my director knowing too much about re-orientating us since he has never been to that states, and not really sure what I need to be re-oriented for), and then some quality time at the beach with the whole program.

But before I get too ahead of myself I must share a little about my trip to Mendoza, it was fabulous! We left Monday night on an overnight bus, and as I was sitting on the bus reading through my guide book making sure I saw and did everything I wanted to do while I was in Buenos Aires I read a little blurb about the bus system and I thought I would share, " Imagine two stories of big, plush, fully reclining seats, complimentary meals, cheap wine and even apreitifs! Overnight rides have never been so fun." (Lonely Plant). Well Lonely Plant, I couldn't have said it better myself. I felt like such a baller sitting well more like laying in my plush leather seat with a meal of steak and potatoes and plenty of "free" wine. I didn't want to go to sleep because I was having such a blast...but I did finally, and I slept like a baby! When we woke up in the morning we practically in Mendoza and I was having a hard time imagining leaving (the bus that is).

But when we got to Mendoza we all jumped in cabs with all of our stuff (and there was a lot of it!) and we headed to the Hostel. Now this was my first hostel experience, I guess I didn't know what to expect but I was pretty grossed out at first. The hostel was clean but I guess I never imagined sleeping in a room with 10 other people and only knowing 4 of them. It was interesting the first few minutes but I hardly had time to think about all that could go wrong in the next 24 hours before we went off on a bike and wine tour through the wineries in Mendoza. Like I said in a previous post most of the amazing wine from Argentina comes from Mendoza so we had plenty of places to see. We rented our bikes and were handed a map and a bottle of water and were sent on our way. The first place we went was actually not a winery but a liquor and fruit factory. We tried lots of different marmalades and olives and everything was outrageously delicious, I also tried absinthe (sp?), and by tried I mean took a sip and then put it down, the feeling of complete numbness on my lips was enough for me...plus it was green...so not appetizing. We then spent the rest of the day biking and tasting wonderful wine. We drank a lot of Malbecs and I was able to learn a little about different types of wine and why some are good for longer than others...it was very interesting and now I don't feel like a totally dummy when it comes to wine.

After the wine tour we barely made ourselves back to the hostel because of immense exhaustion and not to mention it was hot! But once we did we showered and went out to a mexican restaurant...sounds funny but it was top notch! We were all so pooped from the day that we went back to the hostel to go to bed, although it took me a while to fall asleep and it was so hot in our large room the night went smoothly and I was comfortable and safe! The next morning we relaxed by the pool, listened to music, ate a wonderful "free" breakfast, and drank mate. It was nice to have sometime to reflect on the last month and anticipate what the next week was going to be like. At about 1:30 we hoped on a bus back to Santiago, the trip is only supposed to take 6 hours, but of course, we didn't pull in to the bus station and Santiago until 10pm that night. And even though the bus was comfy and I had we had seats in the front of the bus on the second floor so it looked like a disney ride with all the beautiful mountains 9 hours in a bus without sleep was a little too much for me. When we arrived at the border of Chile and Argentina we waited for 3 hours. Not until after we got back to Santiago did everyone that we know inform us that the border between Argentina and Chile is horrendous. First we waited on the stopped bus for 2 hours, then we all deboarded the bus with our papers to get stamped our of Argentina and stamped in to Chile, then we reboarded the bus, drove about 50 feet, and then were asked once again to deboard the bus with all of our stuff. Now we all had our backpacks up on top of the bus with us but all of our big luggage was underneath. As we were lining up to walk into a new room (keep in mind we are literally in the middle of the Andes, mountains all around us) where we were lined up with a our bags and drug dogs came by and sniffed us and our things. Then we watched as the took all of the big luggage from under and stuck it through the x-ray machine and then asked people to come up and please open their bags for a search if they saw the slightest thing suspicious in a bag. Two of my friends were taking back ducle de leche and marmalade and had to have their bags searched. Needless to say it was crazy and the whole time were were all shaking our head thinking maybe we should have just flown. But besides customs, the ride was stunning, the andes surrounded us most of the trip. It was a little touch and go while we went down the mountains on switchbacks and it seemed to us on the second floor of the bus that we weren't going to make it around each corner with out flipping over.

Since arriving back safely in Santiago, I have been busy seeing catching up with my friends and turning in my paper. All that is left is my oral presentation on Monday.

It was odd to see the Andes mountains again, because while I was in Santiago they were there all the time and they were beautiful, covered in snow, and I many times I felt like I could just reach my hands out and touch them, and then they were gone when I was in Buenos Aires. But coming back and seeing them made this place feel a little bit like home...it was nice.

I have some pictures I want to post from Mendoza and the bus ride home, so stay tuned.

Besos y abrazos,

Ana