Mushrooms and National Parks

At the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to be invited to the south of Chile for a week with my classmate, Maxi, and his family. Maxi and I are in the same course, which means we have every single class together every single day, and spend quite a lot of time together outside of school as well because we both like hiking, jibber jabbing, ridding bikes, and exploring both in nature and in the city.

Vilcun is in the 9th region of Chile, around 10 hours south of Santiago. It is located close to Temuco, which is a big city, but Vilcun itself is farm land. We left a Saturday night, and took the most comfortable bus I have ever been on, with seats that tilted back 180 degrees to form a comfy bed.  We arrived Sunday morning, after almost a full nights sleep on the road. Our pace of life in Vilcun was slow, but somehow the week went by flying. We stayed on the farm of my Maxi's dad's friend, which was surrounded by trees, with the hazy view of a volcano in the distance. We slept in, then when the morning fog began to lift we went out to explore the river and forests near by. We were also able to take advantage of the farm horses, and went horse back ridding multiple times. This was even more fun than horse back ridding on Easter Island because we got to make our own trail and gallop when we wanted to. The river was one of the best places to explore because it was full of mushrooms and cool plants. The river itself was also very beautiful, with clear freezing water, but the bank was overflowing with red, purple, yellow, brown, and pink mushrooms and flowers. My favorite mushrooms that we found looked and felt like ear lobes. There were also some bright red ones with white dots on top which were gorgeous. The yellow coral-like mushrooms were edible, and we learned that they are often eaten in salads. The woods were also beautiful and had vines stringing from all the branches. The air was fresh and delicious, especially in comparison to Santiago's air. I went on some long runs, with Maxi accompanying me on horseback, and we enjoyed the calmness. We also ate a lot of interesting food, such as duck, and cow stomach, foot, and tail. The duck was the most exciting because a local puma killed it for us. Our second day, a puma had broken into the chicken and duck's cage, and killed five ducks. He hide three of them, but sucked the blood of two of them and left there, so our best option was to eat them!

One day we went to Conguillio National Park, which was the highlight of the week. This national park is centered around the active volcano near by, and had an amazingly diverse fauna. Where we entered the park, there were huge trees, and we stopped to do a mini hiking to a waterfall. Ten minutes later, we were in a whole different type of forest, one full of monkey puzzle trees. Theses huge booming trees have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, and look like disproportional umbrellas. It was a rainy day, but this just added to the time travel effect of the umbrella forest. The next fauna was autumn sprinkled trees, which made me feel like I was in Michigan with the orange, red and yellow leaves.

We then passed a black desert of lava sand. The lava sand is crunchy and thick, and it was fun to pick up handfuls and listen to the bizarre noise it made grinding between my fingers. I loved the contrast of the black "desert" with some bring green plants with little white flowers that were to be seen every here and there. The jet black ground was also a beautiful contrast with the sky and the colorful trees in the distance. Next up we went to a lake, which was lined with colorful trees and set the foreground for the cliffs that lead up to the volcano. On the boarder of the lake there was a wide cascade trickling down into the clear waters. I looked at it and imagined what it would be like to be one inch tall and see that same cascade- there were so many waterfalls and distinct routes the water took, and looking at it from an inch-tall-person point of view it would look so vast and powerful, especially helicoptering over it or standing in the middle where multiple mini falls all poured down into the same pool, and then from there into another pool until they all ran into the lake. Maxi and I were both reading a book for school in which one of the characters is blind, so we also imagined all the other ways you can enjoy nature without vision. The sounds, the smells, how the water felt pounding on our hands, can be just as important as the picture that our vision forms before us of nature.

Our next stop was a slightly longer hike to a lookout point. The trail winded up through a forest of gigantic trees with green moss clinging and hanging to every branch and trunk. It looked like it had snowed green springy moss, and this same moss that hung from the trees was stretchy and felt like plastic to the touch, reminding me of silly spring sprayed at Halloween and new years. We also climbed past some slopping rocks, and stopped to catch the droplets of water falling from the trees up above onto the rocks, then from the rocks do the green floor down below. This place reminded me a lot of Michigan, because of the lakes and the greenery, but I will have to say that the moss and vines made it ten times more beautiful. There was not a single tree without at least two colors of moss and with a few flower vines hanging, occasionally bearing the pink delicate flowers which are the official national flower of Chile. The view when we arrived to the lookout was extraordinary. The monkey puzzle trees looked like mushrooms in the distance and through the low hanging clouds. The lake below us was dis-formed and had jutting peninsulas and wet lands where rivets of water ran through into the lake. The forest was lined with autumn colors and you could see everything clearly because the sun wasn't shinning brightly and blinding us or reflecting too much off the water as to hide the deep blue color. It looked like a computer screen, but the smell of the fresh lake and the open air told us that it was real.

Our next stop was a newly formed lake that still had tree trunks sticking up in the middle. The lake was formed by a recent volcanic eruption, and the used to be forest was still clearly visible beneath the water. This was a lake that you would never need to scuba dive in because you could already see right to the bottom. (There is a lake like this in the UP for you Ann Arborites called Kitch-Iti-Kipi, which looks very similar minus the tree trunks in the middle). The tree trunks jutting up throughout the lake had a cool effect, especially because I would imagine that in a few years they will degrade and the lake will look more "normal," which makes it's current state even more special. We then visited a green lake, which was in the middle of a lava sand desert, and wasn't green because of the water, but actually green because the bottom was lined with the same bright green plants that dotted the black desert. This was bizarre and I didn't completely understand how the water could be so clear, and how the plants could look so perfect living inside and outside of water. The last stop was another waterfall, which wasn't very tall but had some evident power behind it. All the air in front of the waterfall was misty and the water looked like frothed milk. On the way out of the park, we passed some mountains that had sandwich looking sedimentary rock. Visiting this national park was not something I was expecting to do on this trip, but was a wonderful and unexpected treat to see such diverse and gorgeous nature.

La Ligua

In February, right before school started up again, I went to visit Eli Richards in La Ligua. He is also from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and also in Chile this year as a Rotary Scholar. On Monday morning, I woke up at 5am to take a bus to a place called Vina del Mar, where I met up with two of my friends from school while waiting for Eli, who arrived midday. Vina del Mar is a very distinct city on the ocean.  The houses are all on the hill which lines the shore, and it is very pretty. We then spent some time in Vina before heading to La Ligua at night. 


The next morning, we got up early to head to Pechecuy. We did a beach hike in the morning which was beautiful. Because of the ocean mist, there is a lot of greenery. Paired with the waves throwing themselves on the rocks and then dancing up into air dramatically, this was an extremely beautiful scene. The beach where we arrived to had a mixture of black and regular sand, which made crisscross patterns as the water ran back from the waves. We headed back, checking out wave pools and good wave-viewing angels on the way, to meet up with a friend of Eli's for lunch in Papudo. We ate lunch, drank juice, then went swimming in the ocean. It was very cold at first, but after a while felt comfortable. Eli and I have a rule that you always have to swim. 


The next day we took a bus to Zapallar, which has a lot of beautiful houses in addition to the spectacular ocean. We walked from Zapallar to Cachagua, which meant doing a lot of mini rock climbing and a few exciting jumps. We ran into many wave pools and beautiful houses on the way. We also ran into a little cove which has crystal clear water, and we had to swim their. This was very very very cold, but worth it because it was so clear and beautiful. We spent a lot of time in the water trying to dive to the bottom while far out, which is made harder by the salt in the water. We then continued on our way to arrive to the beach in Cachagua, where there are huge waves. We ate lunch, then spent a few hours playing in the waves. It was our favorite to go under the waves, and feel them pass over you, sometimes dragging a foot or two with them if you are not fully under the rolling circle of water. These waves were most gigantic that I had swam in a long time, and I enjoyed it a lot. The current started to get too strong later in the afternoon, so we had to get out and go on our way. 


The next day we walked a very impressive distance to hike a hill in a valley near La Ligua, called Valle Hermosa. This was fun because it was hard to find the path in some moments. We arrived to a bizarre billboard at the top. It was like a billboard that you see in the highway, but located where it wouldn't really serve for anything. We did NOT climb the billboard to see the view from just a little higher, that would have just been crazy;0 That night we went to a Rotary meeting at Eli's host club, and it was fun to see the similarities and differences between my club. All the Rotarians were amazed by our friendship story and they had me tell it in front of everyone. About how Eli and I had always had our lives almost connected. We swam on the same swim team for years and years pre-middle school, but we were never in the same lane and never actually met each other. How he was one of my friends best friend, so I always heard about him and I even knew where he lived, but never met him. He was also my neighbor and if I passed his house I thought sometimes, 'that is Eli's house.' How we were then on another swim team together but still never met each other. How in high school we had many of the same classes and teachers, but never the same hour. In fact I had even dressed up as Eli Richards (Eli always wears a white shirt and grey sweatpants) for twin day during spirit week, along with the rest of my AP English class which we had in common. And then how we finally met each other in the Rotary interviews and became friends right away. And now here we are both in Chile. This is my wildest friendship story, and I think all the Rotarians think we are going to get married now...   


The next morning, we went one last time to Papudo to swim and eat lunch, and then I had to head back to Santiago. It was a fun little trip, and I was so glad to spend time with Eli and explore the beautiful area where he lives. 

Easter Island

Rapa Nui 

Day 1. We woke up at 3am in order to go to the airport and catch the flight that had us arriving at the famous island Rapa Nui, more commonly known as Easter Island, midday. We got of the airplane to be welcomed by a necklace of flowers and the sweet tropical smell of the island.  Once we arrived to the hotel, I set out on a run in order to explore a little. After a mile or two, I was running on a road with a lot of rocks, so my gaze was fixated on the road. I then looked up for a second to see that there they were! The famous stone sculptures of Easter Island, called Moai, right in front of me! I then immediately tripped on a rock and fell hard, leaving a huge bruise on my leg, but I didn't care. As I was getting up I realized that I had fallen next to a fallen Moai. This was a fun way to see them for the first time, because I wasn't expecting it in that moment. After lunch we had a free afternoon in which we walked into the town, and I sat for a pair of hours watching the waves with my friend Fanni. We talked about the death penalty as the waves sprayed us and the clouds stayed glued in place in the sky, looking unreal. 

Day 2. After a delicious breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, we set off on our first tour of the island. Everything was green, and it reminded me of a mixture of pictures I have seen of Hawaii and Ireland, so the bus ride to arrive to our first destination was amazing in of itself. First we went to the crater of an ancient volcano, which had rock houses beside it and a fascinating story of traditional competitions between tribes. Each year, to decide who would be the great leader, they had a competition in which each tribe sent representatives to win a race. This race included scaling down the volcano, swimming on a grass board to arrive to an island two kilometers away in order to be the first one to find a special bird egg and return with the egg in tact. This sometimes meant waiting almost a month, for the birds to arrive and lay their eggs. The first one to swim back, scale back up the mountain, and arrive with an egg was crowned chef for the year. Then we went to see the only Moai that look towards the ocean. The Moai represent the high class ancestors who had died, and the idea is that their souls protect the people, which is why all the other Moai are facing inwards, facing the people in order to protect them. But these seven Moai are looking towards the sea in order to protect seven sailors who navigated from the mainland to Rapa Nui. We also saw many Moai which are laying face down. We learned that at one time, all of the Moai were laying face down, because during a civil war on the island the people pushed them over, to cover their eyes. All the Moai that are standing up today have been refurbished. Next we went to a huge cave, 800 meters long, and walked carefully in the dark from one end to the other, in silence because our guide told us that the sound waves of our voice could possible cause weak rocks to fall, which would be dangerous. After arriving back at the hotel and a quick run and swim in the ocean, we had dinner. Before going to sleep, we walked around the town and watched an intense local soccer game. 

Day 3. I woke up early, a long with three other girls, to run before breakfast. It was still dark when we set out, and the sun only began to rise when we got back from the run and went swimming. I think that there are few things better than a pre-sunrise run and a sunrise swim in the warm ocean. Everything feels calm and special. After breakfast, we toured all day, seeing more Moai, and hiking to where they made the Moai. The place were they fabricated the Moai was beside another volcano, where they carved the huge sculptures out of the rock and then transported them from there to all the places where they can be found now. As a result, from far away the volcano looks like someone has taken a hug bite out of it. Next we went to the only sand beach on the Island, and I spent the rest of the day doing back-flips into the clear water. 

Day 4. After another run, swim, and breakfast, we went snorkeling. We set out in boats, prepared with life jackets and goggles, to snorkel at the island where the egg competition was anciently held. The boat ride to arrive was beautiful, with the wind in our faces, flying over huge waves and getting to see Rapa Nui from another angel. A brilliant view of bright green hills, dark sloping rocks, and clear crashing waves. It was also cool to see the egg-competition-island from up close. We jumped into the water and the time flew as we observed the coral and little silver fish swimming beneath us. I ditched the life jacket and kept diving down as deep as I could to see better. The visibility of the water, combined with the coral rock beside me and the little fish around me, were unreal. I felt like I was in a whole different world.  Then we went back to the same sand beach as day 3, and spent the rest of the day there. Along with doing back-flips, we also spent a considerable amount of time trying to get coconuts out of trees and then breaking them open on the rocks. There are few things more delicious then a fresh coconut. We had a fair amount of success, but my sad story is that the coconut I got down ended up back in the tree. This happened because you are not allowed to climb, nor throw rocks and the legally protected coconut trees. At first, we were throwing up a sturdy bamboo stick to know them down, but then the stick got stuck in the branches, so we started to use my coconut to try and get the stick back down, along with more coconuts. This was a complete failure, because we didn't get the stick down, neither did we get more coconuts down, AND my coconut got stuck back up in the tree!  On the way back from the beach, we went to see the same Moai that I found the first day running. We did yoga as we waited for the sun to set. After watching the glowing pink clouds, dramatically contrasted with the dark outlines of the Moai, we set back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Day 5. The schedule to start off this morning was morning, swim, breakfast, then tree planting.  There is an organization on Rapa Nui dedicated to preserving the environment, especially focusing on reforestation. They encourage groups like the group of exchange students who I was traveling with, to dedicate of their time on the island to planting trees. The idea is that by planting trees, each tourist can minimize a little bit of the damage they bring to the island through the contamination of the airplane, increased garbage, etc. This was really cool not only because of the support to the environment, but also because how many people can say they have planted a tree on Easter Island? We ended our time at the tree planting organization by knocking more coconuts out of trees. Delicious. Then we went horse back riding to the highest point on the island, where you can see the ocean in 360 degrees, and the entire island below. I hadn't horse back-rode since sleepover camp when I was little, so I found it pretty exciting. On the way there, I had a lazy horse who won't go faster, no matter how much I nudged his side with my foot. I spent the whole time trying to hype it up and get it to go faster, but I had no success. It was beautiful anyway, despite the slow horse, and I enjoyed looking around. The clouds on Easter Island are very dramatic and make everything look picturesque. On the way back, I switched horses with someone, and the real fun began. This horse would start walking with a simple kick, and with a second kick would happily trot! I had a lot of fun with this and joined the group of people in the front with equally fast horses. We did mini races, as the guide reminded us to be careful, but at the end we went all out and flew! I had never felt that sensation of galloping on a horse and it was amazing. I think it was actually less terrifying to gallop than to trot, because the movement is smoother. 

Day 6. After another morning run and swim, we had a free morning to explore and buy gifts. I ended up just going to the beach and reading and swimming until lunch time. It was nice to enjoy the water and clouds all morning. After lunch we went on a hike to another cave, eating guayaba the whole time. Guayaba are a circular yellow fruit with a pink inside. The skin is acidic, and the seeds and fruit inside is sweat and delicious. The island is full of the little trees that carry these fruits, and nearly everyday I ate large amounts of them. The cave had a small entrance, but after a few hundred meters opened up to two large windows looking over the cliff of rocks that lined the ocean. This was an enjoyable view. That night, I got to meet my host cousin who lives on the Island. It was fun to talk to him and hear about Rapa Nui life from his point of view. He also showed me some amazing places and we had quite an adventure. 

Day 7. One last morning run and swim. The sunrise was the best one yet, with the stars still glistening while the morning light illuminated the shadowy clouds. We laid on our backs and tried to take in as much as we could before having to return to the hotel, pack our bags, and hop on the plane back to Chile. A successful trip which I will never forget, to say the least.