Despedida... Chau, Chile!!

My goodbye party!


Okay, I generally hate goodbye parties, at least goodbye parties for myself. In the days leading up to the party, all I can think of is that I will have to say goodbye to.... everyone, urgghhh. For someone who moves a lot, I'm pretty crap at saying goodbye.

But, a goodbye party is still a party, and parties are fun. We had fun.

Matt and Matt... I've yet to see what was captured by this camera...


Matt and I....


Hanging out with my darling little Bella...


Cesar, one of my favorite students, and Andrea, a friend from Santa Cruz....

Sophie, Olivier, Ed, and Mike came up from Valpo to say goodbye! And here they are sitting around A LOT of wine bottles. Carl, Grant, Veronica, and Brendan came too! Thanks guys!


Eventually everyone broke into song. And that was fun.


So, tomorrow I leave Santa Cruz for Santiago. I fly out on Friday.

Must finish packing...

To my family and friends in the US, this is my plan for the next few months:

On Saturday I arrive in NYC and head straight up to Binghamton. I'll be spending the summer living with my parents and (hopefully!!) working in a summer school program. I'm planning to take lots and lots of weekend trips to visit all the people I love and miss on the east coast. If you are one of those people, get in touch and let's make plans to see each other!

At the end of August I am going to take a cross country road trip with Ms. Meredith, great friend and wonderful former roommate from Chile! We're going to start on the east coast and work our way over to Colorado for lovely Catie and Derek's wedding. Then we will work our way north, up through the Pacific Northwest, until we reach Seattle! So, if you want a visit and are someplace between the east coast, Colorado, and Seattle, let me know. I'll do my best to show up at your door!

I should be settled back into Seattle by mid September. So, see you soon, Seattle people!!

Besitos,
Allie

Journey complete.

Argentina is pretty, huh?



Since I last posted I've traveled all around the north of Argentina, returned to Chile, and took a five day trip to the south of Chile with Matt and dogs. Today is my goodbye party and I just spent all morning making stew and macaroni and cheese for the estimated 30 people that should be arriving in... less than an hour?

Wow, I'm exhausted. I spent nearly six weeks traveling, and they were some of the most amazing six weeks of my life. Strangely, I'm not sure why. Did I see some of the most amazing things I've ever seen? Well, probably. But mostly I'm just proud of myself. I'm not very good at new things, and for six weeks straight I did different stuff every day. I woke up in different beds, ate different foods, learned new words, and talked to new people with new and exciting accents.... After awhile, it started to feel alright. Still, I'm looking forward to having a job again, a routine... living normal life. It was good for me to press my boundaries, to remind myself that I am capable of more than I give myself credit for.

And now I have to say goodbye to... everyone? Oh my.

Anyway, Argentina.

Good friend Diego met up with me in the north of Argentina for a little jaunt around. It was amazing to see him. By that point in my trip I was really ready to see a familiar face. And who wouldn't be excited to see a face like this?


We started in Salta:



We chased goats.


GOATS!!




We went on an amazing hike through a rain forest.... and discovered the "OH MY GOD THAT'S SUCH A BIG SPIDER" spider. These spiders were everywhere. EVERYWHERE. (photo stolen from someplace on the internet)



SO BIG. Like 10 centimeters in diameter big. Like haunt your dreams for weeks at the very least (probably years) big. BIG. (this photo stolen too)



So, yeah. The spiders have been plaguing my dreams ever since.... which is pretty much normal for me anyway. It didn't help that yesterday I spent about an hour trying to identify my new little friend. This just gave me more images of scary spiders to fill my dreams, and they all managed to make some sort of appearance last night.... Why do I do this to myself?

Anyway, we took some pretty pictures of the forest with Diego's fancy pants camera...

oooooo.... mushrooms....



ahhh.... lichen...



Must buy fancy pants camera on return to the US...

We had to escape from the woods, but we couldn't find a way out. I was starting to lose it. So, we broke into a hotel...

Hardcore, huh?

Needless to say, we survived to tell the tale... And then we found this funky cemetery in the middle of the desert.


And strange little houses in the middle of nowhere...



Okay okay okay, time for me to shower off the stew residue and get ready for my despedita.... sigh.


Besitos,
Allie