Still on vacation! (for 3 more days)

Gavin and Ross got in to Buenos Aires on the 15th, and we spent 2 days in the city of 13m people. From there, we all went to Vin~a del mar (Chile) for 2 days before my parents got in to Santiago. While there, we stayed in a hostel for $10 a night, and used the facilities of the Sheraton Miramar ($150 a night). Pool, Sauna, Jacuzzi, Showers, Steam Room, etc. Since we have accents and look quite American, no one thought that we weren't staying there.

When the rest of the family got in, the 7 of us (plus Katie and Gavin) headed South after eating a large Churrasco (Beef sandwich with guacamole) and eventually got down to Pucon, in southern Chile. The first day in Pucon we did a jungle canopy tour, which was a large step for the Gringas (my mom and Katie) overcoming their fear of heights in the most daring display of trembling bravery ever witnessed by the eyes of man.

The next day we decided to get a bit of exercise, and so we climbed a volcano. It was with a guided tour, and a really calm walk up to the top, which was easily doable by anyone over the age of 4 who doesn't us a cane. Not really. At 9 AM, we started the death-march to the top of Volcan Villarica, which is an ascent of 1400m (43,000,000 feet) over a period of 5 hours. We stopped a total of three times, sat down 2 of them, and total non-walking time was less than 20 minutes. Dad fell a bit behind, and ended up climbing to the top in a group of French losers, unable to keep up with the breakneck pace of the Americans. They had informed us that the descent was easier, and was done sliding on a sheet of plastic. Now, this volcano is quite steep, and the "slide" down was quite a bit of walking through knee-deep snow. Although, I will say, the view from the summit was incredible, both into the opening and around, since we were the highest point visible.

We spent Christmas in Puerto Varas, and had a nice picnic in a national park on a lake. It was around 80 degrees out, and I definitely prefer the warm Christmas.

After driving back to Santiago, Katie and I flew to Lima. We got in around 10:30 this morning, having to wake up at 5 to catch the 8 AM flight. We decided to take a nap after eating lunch and getting settled in the hostel, which lasted about 6 hours. We woke up at 8 PM to go eat dinner, at a place that serves Andean (not Indian) food. We found the place, which was next to some odd construction that I figured must have been at least 100 years old. As we walked up to the door, we almost turned around to go somewhere else because it appeared to be an art exhibit and not a restaurant. We went in anyways, and apparently the restaurant is right next to an excavation site that was a pre-Incan religious center (400-700AD). We took the very informal tour of the site while listening to the music from the wedding party at the restaurant 5 feet from the edge of the site, which was separated by a rope (not even windows) from the sand and mud-brick structures. I don't think I'll ever forget hearing "pasame la botella" (Chilean dance song) and watching people with neon balloons dance around while walking through the human sacrifice section of the 1600 year-old remains of a Pre-Incan building. We later decided to skip that restaurant and eat somewhere else.