Snow and horses: Pucon

On Friday night we got a night bus to Pucon, the only place we could find with ski fields that were still open. It is officially part of Patagonia, so we can say we've been to patagonia! Woo! It turns out that Saturday and Sunday were the last days for the ski field, and it was open later than normal. So when you read that Chile ski field are open until October what it really means is September, because all the slopes near Santiago were already well closed.

Pucon's ski field is small and has only a few lifts, a J bar and a T bar, and it's on an active volcao. When we were there, only one lift was going, along with the J and T bars. The first morning I discovered that I had forgotten everything about snow boarding. So I had a super frustrating day and I felt like I was getting nowhere. I should mention that last year was my first time at the snow ever. We hired ski pants and they were awful. With the amount of time I spent on my bum, I was soaked through in no time. Just awful. I fell off the j-bar, which just happened to be on the beginner slope, a million times before giving up and walking up the hill and vowing never to use a j-bar again.
The guys decided that they wanted to climb part way up the volcano and then snowboard back down again. We organized an early trip up to the ski field the next day, only to find out the chair lift doesn't start until after 10am. So they convinced me to try the t-bar with Carson and that actually went ok. But the snow was so icy I was too afraid to do anything on the way down and literally board slid the whole way. After the chair lift opened we went up and they walked up the volcano from there, and I went down, only managing to turn in one direction because I have a reasonable, and evidence based, fear of falling on my head going toe side to heel side. So I waited for the snow to thaw a bit and then worked myself up to going the beginner slope again and risking the j-bar. The snow was much better on the way down and on the j-bar I just kept repeating Carson's advice in my head, until I hit a pole... The second time was better until I came to a small child lying right in the path. So I had to stop, obviously, and I helped her off even though her mother was standing right there... The next run I did was great, it was like something had clicked and all of a sudden I could make turns easily and link them! So the rest of the afternoon went great and we all went back with sore muscles. I feel like I can actually say I can snow board now!

Brandon and Carson

The town of Pucon, watched over by the volcano

Carson went back to Santiago Sunday night and we went horse riding Monday afternoon, after a well deserved sleep in. We went with Antilco, because they are the most recommended. It was pretty fun, except my house hated Brandon's and took every chance to try and bite it. We did a bit of galloping, a first for both of us. I was just starting to enjoy this one gallop when my horse decided to veer off and try to attack Brandon's because it was going faster. So yeah, fun. The rest of the ride it was either trying to eat or bite other people's horses. I don't really know that much about horses but I think different types must have different strides which changes how smooth the ride is. You know that little metal ball in paint spray cans that jumps around when you shake it to mix it, galloping on these horses felt like you were riding that little ball. Last time I cantered on a horse it was a quarter horse and it was like riding a cloud.
On Tuesday we just lay around the hostel until it was time to do our white water rafting. I was feeling a bit rough and had stomach pains so laying around suited me very nicely. There's this other thing called hydrospeed where you get flippers and a foam boogie board and go down the rapids. However, it was really cold so we opted for the not swimming option. It was pretty fun, I almost fell out of the boat.

My horse

Last night we took our final overnight bus (only the second one after the last one we were ever going to take) to Valpariso. It was not a good trip this time. We seemed to stop a million times and random people were getting on and off again. Then they decided 10pm was a good time to start a movie... so thankfully our hotel let us check straight in and I'm back in bed!