A Chilean Adventure

Thursday - We basically just drove north today until the setting sun made it so we couldn’t see anymore. There was a cool stop for lunch though. We took a little detour off the main highway to an old coastal highway that was unpaved, but had some great views of the Atlantic Ocean. At one point, we could look over the cliff and see sea lions on the rocks below. They were swimming a little, but mostly just lying on the rocks. I thought it was pretty cool to see them, even if they were far away.

Another highlight of the drive was that we were near a lot of towns that had radio stations. I forgot to write in a previous blog about “South American Road Mix” CDs. Believe it or not, radio stations in Patagonia can be even more scarce than gas stations. Our car has a CD player, but we didn’t bring any CDs to play. So we bought one for each of us in Esquel and then made a play list with a precise blend and order of songs that would keep us company, but hopefully not get too annoying. They definitely broke up the silence when we couldn’t think of any new conversation topics and really didn’t get too annoying. There was actually one day when the CD player wouldn’t play either of them and that made us appreciate the two CDs even more when it started working again. We still enjoyed the radio stations along the way though.

Friday - We drove for 15 hours today! We were planning on stopping for the night soon after crossing the border back into Chile, but then it seemed easier to keep going a few more hours to Puerto Varas. We picked up some hitchhikers in Bariloche and took them across the border to the bus terminal in Osorno. They were 16- and 19-years-old and they hitchhiked to Argentina for a big vacation for about 2.5 months…basically their entire summer. Can you imagine letting a 16-year-old hitchhike around another country for the summer? It’s a typical thing in Chile though.

We made it to Puerto Varas by about midnight, but it was too dark to find a campsite. Instead, we parked our car in the parking lot of the bus company and we’re sleeping here for the night.

Saturday morning - It’s the day of “La Noche Valdiviana!” All we have to do is return the car by noon today and buy some bus tickets back to Valdivia. The earliest bus we found left at 1:30, so we had some time to kill. We decided to get the car washed before taking it back to mask the broken bumper. Somehow, on all of the unpaved roads, the bumper decided to hang off on he drivers’ side. We thought that the person at the rental place might be so impressed that it was clean that they wouldn’t see the breakage. Not the case. We ended up paying another $20 each for the damage.

Oh well, we´re on our way back to Valdivia to get settled and have our own bed to sleep in! I know I´ll never forget my voyage to southern Patagonia and all the adventures along the way have prepared me for the semester in Chile. It´s helped me be more flexible when I don´t have a schedule, solve problems that arise, and enjoy my surroundings. I can´t imagine a better way to jump right into the whole study abroad experience.