Once again I am standing on American soil. Actually, I’ve been on American soil for ten
days.
So, a little update on my final week in Chile: I climbed a
volcano. I mentioned preparing for the
trek in my last post, but I actually made it to the top of Volcán Villarica
(feel free to Google it). And it was the
hardest (physically) thing I have done in my life – even harder than running a
half marathon. It had rained for two
weeks in the town of Pucón, which meant two weeks worth of fresh snow on the
volcano, so we had to create our own path the entire way. It took us six hours to reach the top, and it
felt like climbing up stairs, but the “steps” were too far apart most of the
time (or at least, for someone of my height… or lack thereof). Most of the time, the snow was deeper than my
knees, so I used my ice pick to help stabilize me on the climb up. After the long climb, we finally reached the
top! We were unable to see the lake of
lava in the crater, but we did have some pretty great views of the surrounding
area.
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| At the top of Volcán Villarica, with the crater behind me (and steam from the lava). |
After climbing up a snow-covered volcano for six hours,
what is the best way to get down? Well,
sledding of course. In our huge
back-packs (like, the 20+ pound back-packing bags) was a little baby sled that
was about the size of your butt. And for
two hours, we sled down, using our ice picks as brakes. After getting snow sprayed into my face (and
down my jacket… and up my pant-legs… and in my shoes) for two hours, we made it
back down to the base of the volcano, looking behind to what we had just
done. Like I said, it was incredibly
hard, but it was totally worth the exhaustion and was one of the coolest things
I’ve done in my life.
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| Other folks from my hostel who climbed the volcano. I'm on the far right. |
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| View of Volcán Villarica from town. |
While that adventure was a blast and was an experience of a
life-time, life State-side is a little less adventurous. I am currently rocking the unemployed status,
which means life is incredibly up-in-the-air for me right now. But surprisingly enough, that’s okay. Yes, things are
pretty unpredictable right now, but this is my current adventure – figuring out
where the Lord wants me next.
Blogging this past summer was a blast for me (and hopefully you
enjoyed reading). I probably won’t
update this very often, but maybe there will be some more writing – and blogging
– for me in the future. I guess we’ll
find out.
Un abrazo,
Elise
