nature is neat
friday was an important soccer game for chile. my friend molly and i met up with some chilean friends at a bar in valpo to watch part of the game. the love chileans have for soccer is unmatched by anything you can find in america. the building was packed. standing room only. everyone in red and white jerseys, blowing whistles, and breaking out into the national anthem whenever chile scored. so fun. however, we had to leave early in order to make it back to viña for a phillies game, as molly is a devoted fan. (and also has a subscription to mlb live. for which she was kind enough to give me her password. hallelujah.) being the one with a watch, my job was to advise molly at nine thirty when the game was set to start so that we could make it back by the fourth. to signal her, i assumed my pitching stance. molly took a couple of practice swings, and as i threw a first pitch that would make brian wilson proud, i managed to whack the woman standing behind me in the head. unfortunately baseball isn’t very well appreciated in chile, so i couldn’t even begin to explain to her what i was doing. and needless to say, she was not impressed by my strike earning fastball.
this weekend was the third mountain sports excursion. as i was stuffing my sleeping bag and hunting for my headlamp and smartwool socks, mi mamá decided to lend a hand. in the form of providing me with enough sustenance to last a week. four apples, four oranges, ten mandarins, a tupperware of seven cupcakes, and an entire jar of marmalade were added to the pile of “necessities” to be crammed into my pack. i love fruit, but i was going to be gone all of thirty six hours. and a bushel of apples isn’t exactly my idea of minimizing weight. i’m not sure if this is a cultural difference, or a misconception of the idea of backpacking in general.
the first thing i did upon arriving to class was get rid of the baked goods as quickly as possible so that i could throw away the plastic container taking up a fourth of my backpack. one of my professors saw a group of my friends eating the oven fresh cupcakes. like any respectable lover of all things baked in muffin wrappers, he asked me if he could have one. with an apologetic smile, i told him all that was left was the piece i was holding. most people would make a look of disappointment and walk away. not rodrigo. he snatched the half-bite worth of muffin out of my hand and shoved it in his mouth. go ahead, i wasn’t planning on finishing that.
yesterday we headed to el parque nacional la campana. we hiked a little ways in, set up camp, and then hung out for the rest of the day. we had been instructed to bring flour, yeast, oregano and and toppings. at lunch our professor, jorge, gave us a lesson in gourmet pizza preparation. in the woods. after kneading the dough to a consistency that met his standards, jorge handed us a plastic bag and asked which one of our team members was the hottest. excuse me? that last question must have gotten last in translation. but no, he really did want to know who was the hottest. in terms of body temperature. the chosen student then had to carry the bag of dough around under their shirt so that it would rise with the body heat. begin dough pregnancy jokes now. cooking a pizza in a pot over a camp stove is a little tricky, but i’d say we succeeded.
we spent the afternoon rappelling and then finished off the day with dinner and a bonfire. as we sat around the fire, jorge introduced us to several mind twisting games. i was instantly reminded of summer camp in junior high when i made jim coons roll dice for three hours until i was able to figure out how many polar bears were around the ice hole. if i don’t learn anything else in chile, i’ll come back armed with a vast array of riddles to drive y’all crazy with.
this morning we were up before the sun to begin the ascent to the top of la campana. it was an amazing and calf-burning hike, and at the top we were awarded with spectacular views. from one side we could see the bay of valparaíso and the ocean. to the other was the andes mountains, and mt. aconcagua in argentina. the entire width of the country. after resting up with peanut butter and nutella sandwiches we made the slightly treacherous descent. 
la campana
andes
ocean
mt. aconcagua- tallest in the americas
