Wednesday, January 22

Today we woke up late again and had a late breakfast. Then we all packed up our stuff and drove for an hour and a half out into the countryside to this big ranch owned by one of Tata’s friends. There was a big room apart from the house just to eat in, and nearby there was a river, horses, sheep, and plenty of space to walk around. Monse, Maxi, Laurie, and I entertained ourselves for a while playing with a slingshot, throwing apples at sheep, and playing rayuela (a typical Chilean game that involves throwing little metal balls so that they land in a certain square). Then we all sat down to eat a late lunch. After lunch, we put on our bathing suits, and Nancy drove us about 15 minutes down the road to this secret place she used to go with her friends when she was a teenager. It was like a giant natural pool of water. It was up in the rocks, surrounded by trees, and absolutely beautiful, but the water was fricken freezing.

I decided to tough it out, and I went in and swam around until I was numb. The rest of them were chickens and got out after 2 seconds, but I stayed in the pool exploring and even got up the nerve to jump off the rock ledge into the deep part. After about 20 minutes I really couldn’t handle the cold anymore, so I got out and wrapped myself up in the towel Nancy had waiting.

On the car ride back, I basically just concentrated on getting my fingers to return to their normal color instead of the creepy purply white shade they turn when I get really cold. Maxi and I changed into running clothes, and after eating a quick dinner with everyone, we went out to run along the only road that ran by the farm. The place was surrounded by mountains and huge trees and paralleled by a big gorgeous river, and I had to keep pinching myself to reminding myself that I was really running along the freeway in Chile in this absolutely gorgeous place. After about 25 minutes, Maxi and I stopped and walked over to the edge of the cliff overlooking the river and sat for a while and just soaked in the beauty of the place. Then we ran the 25 minutes back to the house. When we got back everyone was getting ready to leave, so we were forced to ride the hour and a half back to Talca without showering. I showered as soon as we got home, and then Nancy, Abelita, and I made chocolate chip cookies from my recipe. We made so much batter that we had to make like 7 batches of cookies and we were up until like 2 in the morning doing it, but it was ok because I had a good time talking and laughing with them.