¡Adelante! ¡Adelante!

"Forward, forward!!" our raft guide was screaming as we were rafting down the Cajón del Maipo just an hour outside of Santiago. I think those words echo a sentiment that I´d like to maintain throughout the rest of the trip. Keep moving forward. We only have 5 days of class left. I cannot believe it. We got our first tests back, and it feels like summer down here because we´re about to have exams and papers due. No worries, we have been enjoying everything still.

Friday we went to Pablo Neruda´s house in Isla Negra. He had a bunch of collections, and the house itself was amazing. Our guide told us that he also liked to collect women, lovely. It was actually really fun. He had all these crazy African masks, a bunch of boats in bottles, and a huge shell collection. I never throw away anything so I can relate to his pack rat nature. We also spent some time walking along the beach at Isla Negra. It is beautiful, probably one of the best things I´ve seen. Alex says it´s a lot like California, huge rocks and waves. I took some time out to say a prayer praising God for all he´s created. It´s amazing. Alex and I will have pictures up soon.

We also went to this cute little souvenir town called Pomaire. We sat down and ate at a restaurant, and silly me gets all excited because the server brings us ice. (I seriously don´t think ice exists in Chile except for the part that´s Antarctica.) Then Dr. Cass comes to our table and says....um...you might not want to drink that water with ice. Whoops. Luckily I was fine. Pomaire had lots of cool ceramics too. No mom, not as good as the stone ware : )

Saturday was a big day. Alex and I started off the day visiting the Palacio Cousiño in Santiago. It´s like the Biltmore house for Santiago. The Cousiños were a huge mining family and now own vineyards just outside of Santiago. The house was beautiful and ornate. Lots of black marble and hand painted tiles.

Then we hopped on the metro to meet some friends to go white water rafting in the Cajón del Maipo. The Cajón del Maipo is this huge valley kind of thing an hour away from the city. It´s incredible to me that right outside of this huge metropolis lies so much nature. The water was kinda gross looking, but I´m going to assume that it´s the sediment that makes it look gray. The water was also 4 degrees...celcius. We had to wear wetsuits, shorts, jackets, life jackets, and a helmet. I´ve never had to wear so much gear for rafting. It was still really fun. Alex got to be the guy in the front of the boat giving it more weight. Basically he got to float while we all paddled...just kidding.

Then, we dried off, took a taxi back to the metro, and went downtown. Yes I know pretty disgusting. But, it was Dr. Cass´s wife´s birthday, so we all celebrated at this really cool tapas place.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I think that was good for us though. We did some homework, then watched the superbowl at our professor´s apartment. Nothing like some good Coca Cola and doritos. Haha.

This week I have my presentation for class so I´m going to start reading ahead. I also have to start working on my project about psychiatric hospitals in Santiago. Let´s hope they don´t commit me. Saturday we´re going on a wine train, but we have the whole day Friday to do fun stuff so hopefully we´ll think of some cool stuff.

Hasta luego!