Talca and Back!

I AM BACK! We went to Talca, about 5 hours down south from Santiago, in order to take advantage of our 10 day break during the Bicentenario 200th Anniversary of Chile's Independence.  Monday early morning we were on a train and arrived in Talca around 10, and to our hostile around 12.  The views were absolutely gorgeous: the Andes were so close, there was a river surrounding us, and then there were farm animals right around the corner! Our first day we explored all these things and had dinner at the hostile with the family who owned it.  They were Germans, now living in southern Chile who spoke very good English and Spanish.  There were so many kids though! Crying babies, 3-year old menaces, but it gave the hostile a very family-like feel, and much more like a bed-and-breakfast.  During the day we sat out on the porch and read Harry Potter y la Camara Secreta out loud to each other in Spanish for a few chapters. We also ended our night by reading a chapter out loud in the cabin. You have no idea how cool this was.

After getting around 12 hours of sleep, we woke up at the crack of dawn (6:00 am) in order to bundle up, eat, and head out to Vilches where we were going to ride horses! It was absolutely freezing cold, the point where you wished you came as prepared as Charlotte and had 3 jackets.  The bus ride there took about and hour and a half and costs up only 3 dollars.  Pancho, the awesome guy we rode horses with, showed up and we saddled up! My horse's name was Princessa (chose for me by everyone else, thank you) and might I say she was quite tempermental.  

We were on the horses for 8 hours, a time frame that doesn't really sink in until you get off the horse and are in much pain.  The view was amazing though: I felt as though I could touch the Andes mountains the whole time.  Because it was the end of winter though, we had to cut our tour short due to the snow on the ground as we climbed up.  We came home, and slept some more after that.

The third day consisted of a plan that was not to thought out: we rode bikes into town, about 30 mintues away, in order to get lunch.  This was not thought out because the part of your body you use to ride bikes and rikd horses is the same! And needless to say, we were still in pain.  It was still fun though because the weather was warming up and there were bikes lanes in the road so we felt safe. That is, until they dissapeared and we felt like we might be killed at any second.  The second half of the day was spent at a vineyard outside of Talca. Balduzzi was the winery, and the only one we could go to that was not destroyed by the earthquake earlier that year.  The wine was fantastic, and of course I bought two excellent reds, and we could clearly see some toll that the earthquake had taken on the grounds.  The drive back was also intense: we saw destroyed buildings, homes, and lots of rubble scattered around.

The next two days we spent in Talca were not as eventful.  This, however, was what made them so fun! We just lounged around in this gorgeous place, read Harry Potter, ate lots of food, played ping-pong, found Wi-Fi (that was awesome), went into town to get lunch, and finally visited the center of Talca.  We found blocks and blocks of markets on the street, where I bought some awesome Gabriel Garcia Marquez books in Spanish for super cheap, and eventually found our way back at the train station coming home.  All in all, it was an awesome week in (close to) southern Chile, and an awesome get-away from the hectic city.