One adventure ends so another can finally begin

The last few weeks have been, to say the very least, hectic, although, for the most part, wonderful. After being sequestered in the lush, lovely mapuche village of Chapod, about a half hour bus ride on mud and gravel roads from Temuco, for nine days as part of the independent study project that every student in my program completed during the month of May, I returned to Santiago to work and work and work, eventually writing a 39-page paper in Spanish and then giving a presentation this past weekend on my investigation.

All of that means that now I´ve finished with the studying portion of my experience abroad and now I´m down in southern Chile starting my solitary traveling adventures. I´m writing this sitting in a "cyber" in the little town of Pucón, which is a bustling center of outdoor sports in the summer (the Chilean summer, that is) but is little more than a quiet, very windy group of streets right now. However, the calm is rather nice, especially after the last hectic days of my study abroad program, and, moreover, considering that this is a town bordered on two sides by gorgeous lakes, on another by the strange towers of the Andes, and on the last side by Volcán Villarrica. Villarrica is considered one of the most active volcanoes in Chile (there was a small eruption early this year that shut down this area in the middle of tourist season) and is one of four volcanoes in the world known to have a lava lake in its crater. Even now, looking up at it´s snow-crowned peak towering over Pucón, I´ve been able to see a slow trail of smoke rolling off the top throughout the day. (It´s definitely worth taking a look at pictures of the volcano online).

Because of bad weather predicted on the other side of the volcanoe later this week, I´m unfortunately not heading to the gorgeous forests and mountains between Villarrica and its two sister volcanoes that stretch in a line to the Argentinean border; instead, I head out tomorrow morning to spend three days in Parque Nacional Huerque, an amazing stretch of unique forest that climbs up into the mountians and is known for its pristine lakes and incredible flora and fauna (and for its ever-present vistas of Villarrica).

So, until I get back in reach of internet and then head out backpacking in Patagonia, here´s to a lovely semester that has, in some ways, come to a welcome end, and to the relaxed start of a 5-week adventure (and to the start of the World Cup in less than 3 days).