Viva Valparaíso: Beaches ➡️ Mountains

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again - to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more." -Pico Iyer

During my last week in MT, some friends and I were imagining what my life in Chile would be like. Seeing as how the country's average width is 112 miles, we joked that I could be surfing one day and hiking in the Andes the next. Isn't it awesome how dreams turn into reality when we have the courage and motivation to pursue them? Last week, I was surfing on the beaches of Concón and, only a couple days later, backpacking in the Elqui Valley of the Andes Mountains!

I wrote my last blog post the night before I went surfing and promised I'd let you know how it went. 🏄🏻 Well, let me tell you, I am by no means cut out to be a professional surfer, but it was one of my favorite days in Chile yet! There are tons of local surf shops lining the beach, where you can rent boards and wetsuits for the day. I bought a 2 hour introductory class that was 1:1 with Javier, my instructor. For these 2 hours, I think I rode about 90% of the waves all the way to shore, thanks to Javier basically doing all of the maneuvering of my board. After the lesson, Javier let me keep the equipment for another couple hours while he went back. Thinking I was pretty cool, I paddled out and caught a wave, only to find myself scraping along the sand and swallowing more saltwater than I thought possible. I may have only rode about 15% of the waves in by myself, but it was still a day very well spent on the beaches of Chile! 🏖

The next couple days were fairly uneventful (as if that's even possible while studying abroad) with classes and what-not. Yesterday was a national holiday, thanks to the Assumption of Mary, so everyone had a long weekend. Three other exchange students and I (Chile, Albania, Colombia, US), along with four of our Chilean classmates, decided to go backpacking in the Valle del Elqui, about 7 hours north in the Andes 🏔 With all our tents and sleeping bags and food for the next three days, we took a bus Friday afternoon 6 hours north to La Serena, where we stayed in a hostel for the night. Saturday morning, we headed into the valley to a small "pueblo" (village) called Pisco Elqui and set up camp right outside of town. The weekend was surreal; complete with stargazing tours, bike rides, pisco/wine vineyard and distillery tours, hikes, and bonfires ⛺️ The trip was exactly what I needed after a whirlwind couple weeks! We got on the bus at 12:30 this morning and arrived back in Viña del Mar at 6:30, just in time for me to make it to my 8 am biochem class! Let's just say I took a looong "siesta" this afternoon 😴

Throughout all of my experiences abroad, I've found that the most helpful thing to do when I'm missing home is to communicate: talk with people I miss, tell my host family how I'm feeling, and share emotions with other exchange students. But I'm also lucky enough to have some mentors guiding me through this experience, most of whom have gone through these same travel stages of culture shock and homesickness. Earlier this week, a Carroll professor who I am very close to was able to put into words "those feelings that catch you at the strangest times, of homesickness and weariness combined with anticipation and quest for discovery." Luckily, the anticipation and quest for discovery has so far outweighed the homesickness and weariness; but by no means are the homesickness and weariness lacking. Know that I think of home, my family, and friends often. Skype soon and keep in touch!

Love from Chile (from the beaches to the Andes),
Kerri 💕