Day 14

It was so nice to be able to sleep in this morning. Kelly got up a bit earlier than Emily and I because she needs to get a new visa for her passport so she can exit the country, but the place was closed, which is a total bummer. When Kelly got back Emily and I were getting ready and having breakfast (we had some cereal and milk in our room). Not long after we headed out to the store to get some goodies for the long trip ahead of us the following day and on our way we ran in to Jaime who asked us to buy some cookies and juice for the rest of the group as well. After our stop at the store we headed back to the hotel to drop everything off before going back to the Paris mall area, with Cameron in tow this time, to browse. Kelly ended up buying a watch that said “Hope everyday day is lucky day” which is hilarious considering every thing that she has been through so far with her backpack and the English is not completely correct either. After that we stopped at Doggi’s, which is a place that sells only hotdogs, so that Cameron could get something to eat. I’m sure that it was a good experience for him but there is no way that I would be interested in eating a hot dog with tomatoes, guacamole, mayonnaise and bacon as the toppings, yuck! Back at the hotel Emily, Kelly and I had a quesadilla lunch so that we could finish up our food. At 2pm Emily, Kelly and I met up with Cameron, Brandon, Cynthia (the advisor who will be with us the second half of the trip) and Carrie to head up to Mt. Cristolbal where we could take a gondola ride. To get to the mountain we had to take the subway and then walk a few blocks to the base of the mountain where we took a tram up to the top. All of us were amazed by the view once we got off the tram because we were so high up. Brandon, Cameron, Kelly, Carrie and I walked even higher up to where the statue of the Virgin Mary stood, while Emily and Cynthia stayed below; it was quite the trek but definitely worth it. From there we searched out the gondolas that would take us down the mountain and came across a small restaurant where we had a quick snack. The gondolas only fit 4 people so we split in to two groups: Carrie, Cynthia and Kelly in one, Emily, Cameron, Brandon and I in the one behind them. The ride was pretty long and absolutely a blast because we were just soaring along this wire with an amazing view of the city. When we got the bottom we were just a few blocks away from our hotel so we walked back in time for a little bit of rest before dinner. We had a group dinner at Mamut (the restaurant we ate our first night) to celebrate our last night in Santiago together before the program ends. After dinner Emily, Kelly, Cameron, Alex M and I went out to a local little outside bar for a few drinks. Brandon met up with us there and we decided to head back early while the rest of the group headed to another place. I was really glad to get home to sleep considering we have to leave for Villarrica early in the morning.