“And then they were off again, marching into the distance with the sense of adventure burning in their eyes”
This holiday week we spent going back to our roots, to the simple things in life. To get to this place we had to travel on the bumpiest road imaginable. I don’t even know how we made it that far by car. The rawr of the motor pushing the van over another large rock, romping down the road until we finally reached the point we couldn’t go any further. We all groggily hopped out of the car and proceeded to hike a mile to reach our new temporary home. Many animals (cows, goats, and sheep) greeting us with their bleating cries as we walked past.
When we finally got inside it was as if we had stepped back years in time. A fire, and now our spirits keep the place warm. The whole place was constructed by the hands of a determined man. It feels as if you have walked into a wooden palace, with all the round logs for us to marvel at. A few sparse lights come on when the sun goes back into hiding. The murmur of the generator outside will be heard when this happens. Time to charge up those computers!
Our dinner is almost already for us around this time too, the wonderful aromas spreading throughout the whole lodge. One of the things we all love most about our meals is the fresh bread. It is all prepared by hand and then cooked under a fire, instead of our traditional oven. After dinner we all flop onto the beds around the large fire and play cards, tell stories, and work on our homework. I definitely think being here has brought us closer together. Now we’re even having Thanksgiving together; we’re like a giant family. I think we’re all very thankful for all the gifts and everything we’ve been given, especially the gift of attending a school as cool as this.
The river here is quite mind blowing, it seems as if everywhere we travel I see a different color blue and each is equally as beautiful. The water color here is a nice minty blue most likely because it was snowmelt only a few hours ago. Which means the water is definitely very cold, but the river is so worth having that nip on your nose for a couple of hours. The Achiebueno has large granite rocks throughout complementing the water color. It’s so fun twisting and turning through the boulder fields, finding new lines each time we run it.
As you can see, we’re in another spectacular place and this one suites the Thanksgiving holiday. I wish you all a Happy Turkey Day!
What an amazing week we’ve had at the Rio Claro! This place was a paddlers’ wonderland. It had the most perfect basalt bowls that these mouthwash blue waterfalls would pour into. Everyone had the greatest time launching off them-throwing free wheels, doing crazy boofs, super deep plugs, or even jumping off them. I definitely preferred staying in my boat and going for a ginormous boof. Both us photo and the video students were in heaven. It was a gorgeous place to shoot photos. It was another place where we were staying right next to the river. So after school we would put all our stinky kayaking gear on and go paddling.
At the hostel we were staying at we would have classes by the fire some mornings. It was a really cool experience having class there, all snuggled in our down jackets next to the fire. The food there was also so amazing. Its so fun to try all the new Chilean dishes. As always it was sad to leave but now we’re all ready for our next location which will hold even more new adventures.
The magical little surf town of Pichilemu has enchanted us all. Everyone enjoys walking around to all the little shops, buying cakes or bargaining for their first pair of Alpaca socks. I think what has marveled us all the most is the amazing waves. Everyone is going so huge on all their tricks and getting a little sun on there face to prove it. This is my first time ocean surfing and I absolutely love it! Its all pretty exciting to be able to have classes in these exquisite little cafes, the green park, or sometimes even on the beach. The sand on these beaches is way different than any beach on the east coast I have been to. Its really dark, almost black sand, from the volcanoes I guess? Some people have even been lucky enough to see some of the rarer wildlife such as a baby sea lion poking around through the surf.
Yesterday, we had a scavenger hunt all through Pichilemu. It was so fun running around trying to complete all the funny tasks. Then afterwards we all went to surf at Punta de los Lobos, aka Point of the Wolves, (cue scary music). I saw some of the biggest ocean waves there, and I think one 2-3 star day there was enough to satisfy my curiosity. I know of course some of the daredevils in the group will want to go out to the point on those 5 star days though. As you can see we’re all not worrying and being happy in this lovely little surf town.
Our first mentor activity of the year was a sobering one. With local brothers Lorenzo and Pangal as our guides, we drove high into the chilly air of the Andean mountains. There, where the road disolved into gray scree and the glaciated peaks of rose sharply in all directions, we found the crumbling remains of one of Pinochet’s Death Camps.
In 1972, Augusto Jose Pinochet Ugarte was appointed commander in cheif of the Chilean army by president Salvador Allende. In August 1973, with strong and active support from the CIA, Pinochet led a coup d’etat, which overthrew Allende’s democratically elected government. In addition, it disolved the Chilean navy, air foce and national police force. Under Pinochet’s reign, some 200,000 people went into exile, 80,000 were interned, 30,000 were tortured, and 4,000 were murdered (although these figures are widely thought to be grossly underestimated.) High up in the mountains around San Alfonso del Maipo, New River Academy students view the remains of Pinochet’s handiwork.
We all had a lovely voyage across the ocean and are comfortably settled into our first location in Chile. Cascada de las Animas translating into English as the Fall of the Spirits is located right next to the Maipo River. Its the perfect first destination because we are located right next to the river and spring is in the air. Every night we eat dinner at Cascada de las Animas either after paddling on the Maipo or going on a fun adventure in the area. We’ve also been working on making some Chilean dishes ourselves when we cook breakfast and lunch. We even had a birthday while we’ve been down here. Zoe turned 15 on October 31, I think it’s so cool to have your birthday on of all holidays, Halloween. We’re all super stoked to be here and are excited for all the amazing experiences we will have. I have put some pictures up of our first location, hope you enjoy!
What a wonderful fall break it has been! For mine, I traveled up to Maine, the state that has more lobsters than people. While I was there I hung out with all the relatives and they all helped me get into the fall season. I was also practicing my new photography skills. It was a little intimidating the first time I went out on my own to take photos. It was a test of everything I had been taught so far and I think my lovely photography teacher, Melina, would have been so proud. I hope everyone else enjoyed their fall break as much as I did. See you all Chile!
This afternoon in creative writing we did something wayyyyy out of the box: mad libs! Melina and I took about 30 minutes to type up a little paragraph about a topic. Then we proceeded to slash out words we thought unnecessary so they would become filled with any word our clever little minds could think of. We both chortled at the silly things that these paragraphs turned into. So, I hope you enjoy my mad lib, with all the randomness compliments of Melina.
As you know, next quarter we will be traveling to an elfin destination. Chile, a country full of baby toys and air fresheners, is the grandest thing our eyeball will ever behold. The waterfalls we will be paddling off of will give your triple-shot latte such a rush. The volcanoes that will be all around us make me snooze. What if they diagnose?! I know I’m very pancake stack to be amist the Chilean culture. I can’t wait to have taste of the best camel-shape Christmas ornament they have to offer. I hear during register dietitian’s class we will have to excite through the streets, trying to find different tree houses. I hope I won’t speed walk over my words when I’m trying to speak dentures with the people. Being there with the punch-drunk group is what going to make it exceptional pain. All of us in and airport traveling to this turquoise place is going to be an experience in its own. I bet the people in the airport will give us such weird unicorns when they see our toasty marshmallows. Surely we understand a kayak isn’t something you see every shopping cart. But, a school like this isn’t something you see every brand new red dress either.
It was a spooky Sunday night at New River Academy. Matt and I as photo students could feel the eeriness of this dooming evening and decided to take advantage of it, by taking photos! We walked up to “The Store” where we get all sugary goodies and it had the perfect setting for our ghost story photo shoot. We also dragged along Haakon as our model, our humble Igor. Who wouldn’t want to be a model for this shoot, you got to hold a pick axe and a crow bar!? So, with the perfect gloomy lighting and feel, we assumed our picture snapping. So, I hope you enjoy our spine-chilling photos.
Enjoy these photos from the New River/Huge Experiences crew in C olorado, spending a week training for Team Trials. Good luck to these students this weekend as they via for spots on the US National team!
