CAMPING (yes this is what you think it is)

A Vocabulary Lesson:
Colchoneta- pad you put under your sleeping bag (which I did not have and my professor told me "vas a morir de frío"luckily my tent mates shared theirs)
Saco de dormir- sleeping bag
Carpa-tent
Cocinilla-little mini camping stove top

For those of you who I haven’t talked to in a million years this will be news to you, I am in a Mountain Sports class (deporte de montaña). Yes, I know I’m not the most outdoorsy or athletic person. But trust me, this is the best decision of my life. Our first excursion a few weeks ago was to go rock climbing and rapelling. I’ve been rock climbing before…you know like on a dinky little rock wall at summer camp. This was a real rock on a mountain. I was kinda scared but at the same time I was thinking to myself I just went rock climbing in Chile!!!! Wahooo!!!!!

Anyway, our second excursion this past weekend was a camping trip to Cerro Roble. So in true Gaby fashion I waited till the day before to buy all my supplies with my group at the Lider (Chilean Walmart). I’m so excited because this is the first time I’ve been camping in twenty years! Friday comes around and I’m so excited (I hope you are now singing Rebecca Black’s Friday in your head). We take the metro and a bus ride to get to the bottom of the Cerro. Once we arrive our professors inform us that there is a 90% chance of rain that night…why are we here if it’s going to rain??? I’m still not really sure about the answer to that question. But I’ve learned that I’m never in control here and to just go with the flow.

We start up the mountain and it’s beautiful and I’m having a great time hiking up the cerro. When it starts to get dark I get to use my linterna frontal (basically the forehead flashlight you wear like a miner). It’s so awesome and I look really cool AND I’m putting those hiking boots to good use! We finally reach the campgrounds, which have cow pies all over (I’m not sure why the cows are in the mountains but whatever). After kicking the cow pies out of the way we pitch our tent! After the tent is set up we cook the most delicious soup and PB&J sandwiches I’ve ever had. Seriously. It was amazing. Then it was time to go to bed before the rain started and we got soaked.
I’m at the point where I’m almost asleep when I hear the rain start. Great, now I’ll never fall asleep because I’m too nervous that the rain will soak through the tent. I try to calm down and sleep but then I hear the ferocious winds blowing. Oh dear, our tent is going to blow away! I keep trying to sleep but now I’m freezing and scared our tent is about to get blown off the mountain. And then it happens, I feel freezing cold water on my arm that’s not good. So I readjust and keep trying to sleep and keep failing.
Finally morning comes and our professor is walking from tent to tent giving important instructions. He comes to ours and says (in Spanish of course) “don’t get out of your tent it’s still dark out and there is snow on the ground.” SNOW?!?! No wonder I was so cold!!! I now don’t feel like such a big baby for being cold and unable to sleep all night. But now what? I’m not hiking in the snow to come back and sleep another night in this tent that is covered in snow/rain. Luckily I didn’t have to because our professors informed us that it was too dangerous to go hiking and that we would just go back. Which of course meant hiking down the slippery snow and mud covered cerro.
It was still snowing when we began hiking back down, which made it difficult and we moved at a very slow pace. Good thing because the mud was super inconvenient. But then we get to where the stream is and its like a rainforest on this portion of the mountain! Green leafy trees everywhere and water! And not that much mud. We keep walking and make it back to the bus that takes us to the metro station. Then I finally get home!!!! And it’s a beautiful sunny day in Viña when I arrive. I then spend the rest of the day/night sleeping (only after I showered and ate a real meal).

And that is the story of my very first camping experience! I feel like after this, the next excursion and my trip to Machu Picchu will be a piece of cake! And good news I didn’t get sick! And even though this whole story probably makes it sound like its was awful (and the weather was awful) I still had a wonderful time! We were all tired but happy because otherwise we would have started panicking about the snow and such. Well anyway, I hope yall enjoyed this adventurous story as much as I enjoyed living it!
Till next time
Besitos
Gaby