That time I didn't blog for two weeks...and had a lot to say

It all started off with an innoncent suggestion- "Carly, you should come to my house, I'll show you southern Chile!"
Yeah yeah- that sounds amazing, but too good to be true. That was- until I bought my plane ticket(; Can you believe that? Let's call it Irish luck or something because looking back on that experience makes me realize how lucky I was to get matched up with a mentor who was a girl, incredibly friendly and someone who actually wanted to talk to me. Some of my other friends received mentors who never even contacted them or chatted with them once maybe and then forgot about their grand idea to "mentor" an America. lame. On the other hand- after our first meet-up, andrea literally invited me to her own house, where I would proceed to eat delicious homecooked food, have wine with virtually every meal, get chaufered all around town and sleep in a bed that was not in a room with gross hostel boys who snore! Irish luck I tell you.
Andrea and I booked our transfers, packed our rain jackets and ventured off to the lovely town of Puerto Varas two weekends ago. We were greeted by a rainbow and promptly picked up by Andrea

We drove straight back to her house where she toasted up some fresh homemade bread and we chatted over nescafe (I'm almost used to it by now...almost). That day we ventured off to Lagos Todos Los Santos- a beautiful lake that lines the shore of the two volcanoes in PV.

As you may remember, one of those volcanoes- Calbuco- erupted a few weeks.

This isn't the one that erupted but nevertheless you can kinda see it peeking out from under the clouds

In fact when we were driving to the lake area we passed a lot of destruction and there was a layer of soot that covered any and everything- eliminating the green beauty that once enveloped that region. 

Nevertheless our lovely chauffeur showed off the parts of PV that are still beautiful; aka the whole town. Really check out these views

the view from her house

It reminded me of Maine

Just a 5 minute drive from her house- the main strip of town

Since I'm so behind on my blogging (I'm cringing as I say this) but imma have to just give you the highlights of the rest of the trip..
One night we hit up the infamous club of PV (perhaps the only one? It was quite packed...) and proceeded to dance until they kicked us out- just a little past 4 in the morning(;
Other than that Andrea drove us around to take more pics and to check out their local seafood market

Speaking of seafood- I was BEYOND SPOILED on this trip in terms of food (and wine). Andrea's dad loved to cook (I'm pretty sure either he or Andrea's grandmother had made the fresh bread) and he made us a pressure cooker beef shoulder, homemade lasagna, king crab salad, steak (I have become a serious meat eater after this trip and Uruguay) and some fabulous seafood dishes so that we could try all the new fish and shellfish that we had never tried. That included this little sea urchin ceviche/chilled soup type thing

It was a little too strong/acidic/unknown fish taste for me

but hands down the best dish was the "Pulmai" 

which was a seafood boil of sorts made with smoked sausage, chicken drumsticks, white wine (they actually served the reserved broth that you strained the meat/seafood from in glasses to drink with the dish- interesting but it was so rich and delicious I couldn't resist drinking my whole glass), mussels, pyuras (these weird lookin' bivalves that actually just look like they are rocks but apparently there are little critters up in there too). 

I have to say I wasn't a fan but I did try it!

It was exquisite. In fact Andrea and her brother both thanked us multiple times for visiting because it prompted their dad to make some of his best/most delicious dishes (; 
On top of that- we had wine for both lunch and dinner....and how can you say no to a free glass of wine. I enjoyed some fresh chardonnay, a great carmenere and a cabernet sauvignon. I was a PRINCESS that is forshure. Now that you are salivating...I'm going to call it quits for this post so it doesn't get too long- My Colchagua Valle excursion is up next(;

xoxo