Pichilemu and the Final 3 Days

We arrived in Pichilemu yesterday afternoon after spending three days in the mountains, hiking, looking at waterfalls, as visiting an alien landing zone (the students will provide more information on this). The trip provided some epic moments between getting our truck towed out of ridiculously thick dust by oxen, to everyones first round as “leader of the day.”

The students, although not looking forward to the hike as the best part of the trip, were all challenged and rose to the occasion. We hiked 10 miles through Descabezado National Park, and were rewarded with a view of the twin volcano peaks. Hiking out of the Park on the second day Katherine was flying down the trail. When asked where all the energy came from she replied, “Well, I was thinking about everything we have done in the last two weeks, and between paddling every day and hiking yesterday with these packs, I feel like I can do anything.”

The beach is a refreshing place to wrap up the trip. We are staying in a cabana with a shower, so we are all working to slowly remove the dirt from our feet. The waves are unbelievably fun to surf, and the students are given lots of opportunity to interact with the Chilean culture. They went out to diner last night as a student group ordering their own meals (we practiced before hand), and rode a “horse taxi” back to our hotel. The evening ended with feedback to Wilson on his preformance as “leader of the day (he did a great job),” and a little taca taca (Chilean foozeball). The students are wrapping up the last of their homework and working on their reflection projects for their presentations when they return to school.

We have one and a half more days here before we go to Curico (Rosario’s home town), for a personal tour, a Chilean asado (cook-out) with her awesome family, and a visit to the local orphanage. After that we travel to Santiago for our flight back to The States. This trip has flown by for all of us, but we are going to make the best of last few days here!

Look for student updates this afternoon-

Kristin and Sean Bierle