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| Pucón, Chile! With Volcán Villarrica in the background |
This weekend, Kyle and I were supposed to go to Pucón. Pucón
is a town approximately 9.5 hours (by bus) south of Santiago. You could fly,
but it’s also about 1 hour from the closest airport and the bus is $230
cheaper. Since neither of us have Friday or Monday classes, Kyle and I decided
our best move was to take a bus through the night on Thursday into Friday
morning, arrive Friday and then leave super late on Sunday night and arrive
back in the city Monday morning. Pucon’s claim to fame is the opportunity to
hike Volcan Villarrica, one of the most active volcanoes in Chile. Kyle LIVES for outdoorsy adventures like that
and I was just as excited. Some other kids from our group had already done it and couldn't say enough good things about it. We woke up Thursday morning really excited with all of our
reservations set, our bags packed and knowing we just had to get through one class that
afternoon before heading to the bus.
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| Tur Bus - Our soon-to-be transportation |
But then, I
decided to check the weather. The weather in Pucón was a predicted high of 49
degrees F with 100% chance of rain….for all 3 days we were going to be there. That
would have been miserable regardless of our plans but the fact that that
cancelled any inkling of a prayer we had at hiking the volcano was a HUGE
bummer. So, in a matter of about 1.5 hours, Kyle and I raced downtown to the
bus station to see if we could switch our tickets to the following weekend
where the weather was predicted to be sunny and 68 F. After being granted the switch,
we contacted our hotel to change that reservation for the following weekend and contacted
the tour company that was going to bring us up the volcano. All parties
involved had no problem switching our reservations and were in agreement that
we made the right choice in doing so.
When we
went to change our bus tickets, we were originally told that we’d only get an
85% refund and we’d have the pay the difference for the new tickets. It wasn’t
ideal but with a much better weather forecast AND a more likely opportunity to hike the
volcano next weekend, we decided we’d just suck it up. However, when we got up
to the ticket agent who was going to change our reservations, he not only gave
us a 100% refund and switched the reservation flawlessly, but afterwards he handed
us $15 in cash because our new tickets were cheaper than our originals!
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| That's Dani! |
In addition
to all our good luck with the trip changes, we also made it to a surprise party we originally had to decline! Emily had decided to host a
surprise party for her roommate and our good friend, Dani, this weekend. Her birthday is this upcoming Thursday but to throw her off, Emily planned the party early. Originally, we obviously weren’t going to be able to make it but due to the changes, we were! The party was last night and it was a lot of fun. There was a really entertaining group of people in attendance from Loyola students to GW students to Chileans. Emily and I took her
out to dinner to a new sushi restaurant near their apartment while Kyle and Emily’s boyfriend Nico snuck into the girls’
apartment to decorate and wait for the other guests. When we got back from
dinner, Dani walked through the door and she was SO surprised, it was fantastic!
Emily and I spent a lot of time Friday shopping and preparing for the party and
Dani’s reaction made it all the more worth it!
I’ve been
checking the weather in Pucón for this upcoming weekend every morning and it’s changed
every day (surprise, surprise). Fingers crossed it’ll be that sunny and 68
we were hoping for!
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