Day 8: Free Day

Today was a great day. As much as I wanted to sleep for 20 straight hours, I woke up early to go surfing about thirty minutes away from our hotel. This was a great decision to not waste my free day. On the way there we actually had one of USM’s students drive us but there wasn’t enough room in the truck so Nick and I sat in the bed of a truck going down the highway at like 50 mph. This is definitely something that I will remember for a while and it is so crazy how lenient they are in Chile. We coasted down the beach in a truck eating McDonalds and getting looked at by about every car that passed by. This would not have been okay if we were in the US. We got to the beach we wanted to and were given some wetsuits. They are so hard to get on but we needed them badly considering it is the end of fall in Chile. Our two instructors spoke very little English but it was still not hard to understand them. We had our short lesson and then we hopped into the water. After a little, I could not feel my feet anymore so I was used to the water, but they were probably just numb. I have surfed once before but not for a while so it took me a while to get back into things. By the end, my success rate for standing up and riding it in got pretty high. The people that drove us left right away because one of their roommates is sick. Which means we were on our own in a foreign country and not really sure where we were. We talked to the locals for a while and they helped guide us to a bus which we eventually got on and took us to Vina del Mar. I was so surprised that we did not get lost once and actually made it back in really good time. Once we got back we went to our favorite empanadas place. We are back in Hotel America now and I am about to get ready for our formal dinner tonight! Hotel America is another story, our first door was broken and they have just assigned to a new room! I am glad we are in this hotel, it is definitely adding to my experience. Chile has been great so far.