Valle del Encanto

So my mom told me a while ago that she would love to see how I write in Spanish. She suggested that I write an entry in Spanish and English (and I am glad to show off :) So here goes:

La fin de semana pasada, una de mi mejores amigos de La Serena (en realidad de los Estados Unidos) vino a Ovalle a visitarme. Pensé que fuimos a difrutarnos en Ovalle, tal vez ver películas y comer mucho, como un "sleepover." Pero el Sábado, mi mamá nos sorpendió con un viajecito por el día. Nos dijo que fuimos a ir al Valle del Encanto, pero no dijo nada más. No tenía idea que erá el Valle del Encanto, pero sonó interesante. Fuimos en auto 15 minutos afuera de Ovalle con mi mamá, mi hermana la Daniela, y mi sobrino el David. Llegamos a un portón simple, y no tenía idea donde estuvimos.

Entramos y en primer, no ví nada especial. Erá un valle, muy lindo, es cierto, dentro del desierto, pero nada muy distinto que he visto en Chile hasta ahora. Pero cuando bajamos del auto y fuimos caminando a unas rocas grandes, ví algo en las rocas. Mi mamá me dijo que erán petroglifos de los Incas!! En primer, ví una o dos rocas con petroglifos, pero de repente, ví que casi todas las rocas los tenían. Erán muy lindos y no tenía idea que había algo así tan cerca de Ovalle.

Tamién, fuimos caminando por el otro lado del valle, donde habían rocas gigantes y un baño de Incas. Entramos en cuevos grandes también, todos de los Incas. Fuimos en total como dos horas, pero nunca había visto algo así en mi vida, y me gustó mucho. Creo que erá una de las cosas mas bakan de mi intercambio hasta ahora!!

And now in English...

This past weekend, one of my good friends from La Serena, well, actually from the USA, came to visit me in Ovalle. I assumed we were going to just have a good time in Ovalle, maybe watch some movies, have a sleep over-type weekend. But on Saturday my mom surprised us with a little day trip. She told us we were going to the Valle del Encanto (or Echanted Valley.) I had no idea what the Enchanted Valley was, but it sounded interesting. We went by car about 15 minutes outside of Ovalle with my mom, sister Daniela, and nephew David. We arrived at a simple, old gate and I had no idea where we were.

We entered the Valley, and at first, I didn´t see anything. It was a really pretty green calley, surrounded by desert, but nothing much different from what I have seen so far in Chile. But when we got out of the car and walked to these big rocks that were there, I saw there was something in the rocks. My mom told me they were hyrogyfics, left there by the Incas!! At first I was amazing at the one or two that I sawy, but suddenly I realised there were more. Almost every rock in view had some kind of drawing on it. There were really pretty and I had no idea there was something so cool so close to Ovalle.

We also went walking to the other side of the Valley where there HUGE rocks and an Incan bath!! In Spanish, baño means both bathtub and bathroom so at first I though we were going to see an Incan toilet, so I was really excited :) but it turns out it was an Incan bath, which was still really cool, because it was a huge, almost perfectly round hole in a rock. We also saw I giant Incan caves. We were only there a couple of hours, but I had never seen anything like that in my life and I liked it a lot. I think it was one of the coolest things I have seen in Chile so far.

The photos are from the top:

Kate and I next to one of the hyroglyfics

Kate and I in a giant crack between rocks

David being "eaten" by a rock shaped like a fish

Kate, David and I in the Incan "bathtub"

Kate and I on top of a giant rock. Yes those two spots up there are us.

Family Vacation to the South

I have been really lucky with the family I am staying with here in Chile. They have taken me on some really great vacations to La Serena, Viña del Mar, Olmué and more. My favorite vacation so far is the one that I just got back from. I went with my mom, sister Alejandra and brother Pedro to go visit my oldest sister, Paty, where she lives in a town called Futaleufu.

We first went to Santiago to pick up my sister Alejandra who lives and works there. We were there for two nights. Friday night my mom took me and my two sisters to El Giratorio, which is the big restaurant in downtown Santiago that spins slowly, like the one in Edmonton. I got an amazing view of Santiago at night. And the food was delicious. After that, my mom took us to a Cuban dance club where we listed to Cuban music and watched people dance. Saturday morning, we went to the Virgen on Santiago, which is a giant statue of the virgen on a hill above Santiago. It is bigger than the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro Brasil. It took us 30 minutes to drive up the hill. In the afternoon we went to Fantasylandia, the only really amusment park in Chile. It was small, but a lot of fun.

We left early on Sunday morning, at 5:30 am for the airport. We got through security and were wating to board at 6:30. The flight was supposed to leave at 7:00. But and 7:15, they told us there were climate problems at our destination, Puerto Montt, and they would update us in an hour. At 8:15, they told us the same thing. They told us this 3 more times until finally, at 11:30 we were told there was a big forrest fire outside Puerto Montt but that the smoke had cleared and we could finally board the plane. After waiting for 5 hours in the airport, the flight was only 1 hour and 20 minutes. We got to Puerto Montt and had to rush to a small private airport where we took a little mini plane with 6 other people. The flight was half and hour, over a big lake and mountains. It was a really beautiful view.

We arrived in the town of Chaitén and were greeted by my sister Paty and a friend of hers. From there, we had to drive 3 hours to the town Futaleufu through very windy roads. The drive actually took us 4 hours because we kept stopping to take pictures of the scenery. It was beautiful, and made me feel like I was back in the mountains in Canada. When we arrived, even the town reminded me of Jasper, only a lot smaller. It wad definately the prettiest town I´ve seen so far in Chile. All the other cities or towns I´ve been through are kind of dirty, but I´ve gotten used to it.

On Monday, we went to a river to go swimming. It was the clearest most clean water I´ve ever seen, except maybe the rivers in the mountains in Canada. But those are too cold to swim in. This river was cold at first but once you got used to it, it was amazing. On Tuesday, we went on a walk to a waterfall. Paty´s husband Roberto told us it was a 5 minute walk on a nice path, but it turned out it was 45 minute trek through a river. By the end, my feet were so numb because the river was so cold, and I was just walking through the water. We got to the little mini waterfall and took pictures. Then Roberto and Pedro went swimming under it, in the ice cold water. Roberto told me that I had to go swimming too, because I was from Canada and therefore was used to the cold. I finally went under, and it was freezing.

On Wednesday, we went across the border to a town in Argentine called Esquel. We went to the centre to go shopping, then to the grocery store to buy food, because it is so much cheaper there. While we were driving back, there was a huge forest fire near the road. When we drove through the smoke, the entire sky was orange and you couldn´t see the sun. We got back in the afternoon and at 5, we went rafting on the River Espolón. There are two rafting rivers in this area. The other one, River Futaleufu, is way more advance rapids. I really wanted to go on that one, but we went with the whole family, including my two host nieces, who are young. It was still a lot of fun, though.

Thursday we went to another river to go swimming. It was actually kind of cold that day, so I didn´t go. And it also rained for the first time since my first day of school here in Chile!! I was so excited to see rain, but my family didn´t really understand why. Friday we relaxed the whole day, until the afternoon. I went for a walk with my mom and two sisters to a cemtery. On they way, we found hundreds of blackberries, which we picked and made a pie with. Saturday we climbed a big hill called Cerro de la Bandera. It was a really tough climb, and the path was not very good, so we basically had to walk through the bushes to get to the top. The view at the top was amazing though. We took lots of photos and on the way back, Roberto and Pedro swam in a freezing cold river.

Sunday we had a bbq with some Australians my mom had met the day before. One of them spoke spanish and so she invited them over for lunch. That is the thing I love most about Chile. People are so friendly. In Canada, you would never invite random tourists to your house for lunch, but here, it is no problem. I talked to them alot and helped translate for them. It made me realize how much spanish I actually know, because I could translate everything instantly.

We left Monday morning for Chaitén to take the mini plane back to Puerto Montt. In Puerto Montt, we went for lunch at a fish market (the best seafood I´ve had in Chile) and walked around the local crafts market, where they sold lots of clothing made of sheep, llama, and alpaca wool. Tuesday we went for lunch at a really nice restaurant that was built over the water. I ate the most delicious shrimp-filled crepes ever. We left Tueday afternoon for the airport and made our way back to Santiago, without mishaps, by plane. We stayed for the night in Santiago and drove back to Ovalle this morning.

I had so much fun on my trip. It was really relaxing, and my entire summer vacation was a lot of fun, but I am really excited to go to school tomorrow.

Photos:

1-Pedro, Paty, Alejandra, my mom and I at the River Futaleufu on the drive from Chaitén

2-Me at the mini waterfall we walked to

3-My host neice Camila and I rafting

4-At the top of the Cerro de la Bandera with Pedro, Camila and Roberto

5-My mom and I in Puerto Montt beside the giant statue overlooking the harbour