Last Friday, I got home from school looking forward to doing nothing all weekend. I was exhausted, and I really needed to sleep. But of course, that was not in the cards. As soon as I walked in the door, my host mom told me that we were leaving in an hour and I had to pack. Apparently they had told me this earlier in the week, but I hadn´t understood. I still didn´t really understand where we were going, or why, as I got into the car. We drove for three hours, through La Serena and then north. It was a long ride, especially since I was squished in the middle of the backseat in a very small car. The ride, however, was not a boring one. The scenery was beautiful. After driving through La Serena, we drove through what looked like a desert to me. After the desert, we started driving though the mountains. We were going 80 km around hairpin turns on the side of the mountains. The rest of my family didn´t seem to concerned with this, so I suppose this is yet another thing that will take getting used to.
When we finally got to our destination, it was 10:30. I found out it was a small tourist town called Valle de Elqui. It was so beautiful. It was in a valley between the mountains. There were palm trees and cacti everywhere. We stayed at a place called Elqui Domas, just outside the town. They were little dome shaped tents where people go to look at the stars. There was a telescope in our tent, which we never actually figured out how to use, but was cool anyway. There was a loft in the tent, where my host sister Fernanda and my host parents slept, and two beds below where me and my other host sister Xime slept. It looked small from the outside, but actually fit five people more comfortably than a hotel room. And the bathroom was bigger than my bathroom here in Ovalle.
On my first morning in Elqui, we went to a little place about 15 minutes from the Domas. It was a bunch of little shops in houses with tatched roofs. There, you could buy jewellry and house decorations. There was also a guy who read your runes to tell the future. He told my sister Xime she would be going on long trip very soon, and that she would learn a lot on her trip. That was so wierd, because she leaves in a few weeks to go on a Rotary Exchange to New York!
On the second day, Sunday, we got up late. We packed and ate breakfast around noon. Check out time here is noon, but like anything in Chile to do with time, it is very flexible. We went to the actual town of Valle de Elqui and walked around. There were really cute little shops everywhere with hand made jewellry and lotions and stuff. We went for lunch at a resort near the city. It was delicious. After lunch, my family told me we were going on a trail ride. I was so excited because I´ve never been on a real trail ride.
On this ride, we had to actually stear the horses, because they didn´t just follow the butt of the horse in front. I had a horse name Payaso, which means clown in Spanish. He was light brown and white. Our guide, a true Chilean Gaucho, took us through the mountains in the little valley. At one point we went by a rock that is supposed to give you good luck. You have to rub it in this one spot. That spot was worn in from hundreds of years of being touched. The ride was about an hour and a half. It was so much fun. The only bad part about it was that I discovered that I am very allergic to horses. On the ride home, I was sneezing and coughing the whole time, and both my eyes almost swelled shut! But it was still a lot of fun.
