Day 12: Horseback riding

Our final full day in Chile was definitely a good one! I can not decide which of my days I liked the most, but this one was definitely up there. We had another early morning, but it was worth it. We took our bus for a little under an hour and arrived at a little ranch. We immediately hopped on our horses and headed out. We crossed a street and entered the beach. It was beautiful. We started at a slow walk and got progressively faster and for some points on the beach we were galloping on the edge of the water. The beach seemed like it went for miles. It was so nice and then we entered an area full of sand dunes. These were a little more difficult to maneuver on a horse. They were just as beautiful though. Every time we got to a peak we would stop and take pictures and just take in the view. We took a fifteen minute break on top of a sand dune and ate some clementines with some true Chilean ranchers. For the rest of the break I laid down and just took in the natural scenery. We retraced our steps on the way back to the ranch and was greeted with wine and pisco-sours. It was beautiful and we were given 2 hours just to relax. I played soccer, jumped on a trampoline, and just hung out on one of the two hammocks. We then came back to the hotel for a 3 hour break before going out to eat pizza with Professor Warner, the professor that worked with us. He made sure to keep refilling our beers at the table, he likes to see other people have a nice time and I like that. At the end of dinner we were given a treat. USM sweatshirts were given out and they even had a University of Pittsburgh emblem! This is something that I can see myself wearing many of times. This is the perfect memento to end the trip. I am now about to nap to get ready for our long night ahead of us. We are planning on going to a neighboring city and we probably won’t get back until very late. This was a great last day to end the trip so far!