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Things I (in the nicest way ever) got in trouble for today:

1. Doing my laundry. Who knew that you had to start the dryer at midnight. Whoops. Sorry everyone. Thank goodness I didn't cut the lights/power to the entire estancia (which apparently I almost did). My alarm is set for 12am at which time I will drag my sorry butt out of bed to start the dryer. Lesson learned. Do laundry as infrequently as possible.

2. Not making my bed properly. Dang. I promise to, from this day forward, tuck in the sheets on the side instead of just pulling them up. It's going to take some time to get used to making my bed every day!

Other than that, things have been going swimmingly. I've always thought that when anything goes wrong, there must be a million other things going right. So, here is a list of things that have gone exceptionally right in the last week.

1. Hiking el sendero de las lagunas altas (High Lakes Trail) with Lilly, the new volunteer coordinator intern (whew, what a title!). We hiked approximately 22 kilometers around the spectacular mountain called Tamanguito that lives right behind the estancia's headquarters. Huffing and puffing our way up for a few kilometers, we chugged along the backside of the mountain for a while, passing through a variety of different landscapes (forest, grasslands) before arriving on what can best be described as a snow field. Fun if you are in your backyard and have a cup of hot cocoa waiting close by. Slightly less fun when your only option moving forward is to plow through waist deep snow. Still fun because each step that plummeted either Lilly or I into a full on face plant into the snow induced raucous laughter and the need to take pictures. After surviving a few kilometers of ankle to waist deep snow (mostly ankle dearest parents) we began our descent looking out on spectacular views. We spent the next couple of days recovering.

2. Making sopapillas with Monica. Sopapillas are a fry bread (oh boy, more bread!) that are ridiculously delicious and ridiculously bad for you especially when combined with manjar (milk caramel) or honey and butter. Monica is the cook for the workers and the volunteers at the headquarters and she is not only one of the sweetest people here, but also provides solid amusing commentary on life at the estancia and teaches us all sort of fun things to say in Chilean spanish, cachai? Best of all on the sopapillas is that we made one in the shape of a heart and then put it on top of the pile that we gave to the workers. They then proceeded to pass it around and laugh hysterically. At least we can provide some amusement. Hopefully not too much at our own expense.

3. Picking up Lilly, the lovely volunteer coordinator. She is from Brooklyn, studied in Vermont, just finished working in San Francisco and is eager to get started on her work. I've been helping her get ready for volunteers that are coming this Friday. This involves organizing a lot of food and supplies.

4. Going to visit Don Daniel at Lago Cochrane, a 3 hour hike from the estancia, where Matt and I camped for 2 days. The lake is beautiful and Daniel and his family are incredibly welcoming and friendly folks. We drank a ton of mate (translated: I had to get up to pee 4 times in the middle of the night) and learned ALL about huemuel (deer) and puma tracking. FINALLY I'm on my way to seeing a puma. When Lilly and I hiked the High Lakes Trail we definitely saw a paw print as well as puma poo. We took pictures of both.

5. Sitting on the porch of Casa Butler for 2 hours reading one of my favorite books... "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende and looking out on the Andes.

6. Finding 3 new possible projects for Broadreach's new Guatemala/Costa Rica Non Profit Studies program.

7. Brainstorming food outside of the Chilean box with Lilly so she doesn't have to live on fried dough bread for the next 7 months!