I have so much catching up to do, that I thought I would write short stories in 100 words or less... but as it turns out, I'm much too wordy for that. Enjoy the words.

After a 9 hour overnight bus, we arrived to paradise (otherwise known as a Swiss-run dream hostel located in between 3 snow capped volcanoes with hiking access to a national park). 6-hour hike turned to 9 after a little mis-navigation. Volcanoes, Chile’s national tree (the araucaria) and incredible lookouts filled our day. Wayne cooked fried rice in the cleanest hostel kitchen ever and I tried to mend my sad feet. Note of advice: don’t break in new hiking boots on an all day hike. My toes were grateful when it rained the next day deterring our intentions to hike. Played chef and adopted 2 Canadians using their 1 year of maternity leave to travel. A new family invited us (after less than 10 minutes) to a bbq on their land the next day. I’d heard of the famous Chilean asados, so this was really exciting! The dad told us we could hike up to their waterfall in the morning while he went to… ahem, take care of the “animal.” After a stair climber hike (my feet are seriously pissed at this point, with moleskin taking off major amounts of skin), we met our new family who had a prepared “animal” on a spit. Greeted with bread, pebre, beer, soda and 4 excited kids! The boys played soccer and we all practiced our conversation skills. Finally, the meat was ready (not sure at what point, but we discovered it was goat). I couldn’t eat much… knowing the story behind our fresh meat was a little too much for me. But regardless, it was tasty and anything from a spit is a-ok with me! They drove us into the nearest city, refused to take anything for their trouble or food. I had heard of the generosity of Chileans (Mile says people from the south are especially noteworthy for this) but experiencing it was awe-inspiring.

This still qualifies as my favorite weekend in Chile to date. I love this place. Don’t worry… I am coming home. Reluctantly.