Chile lindo

Hello everyone!

I'm writing from northern Chile and hope you are all doing well, enjoying the very last bites of summer and preparing your scarves for fall! A little birdie in Santa Monica told me that the colors are changing and beautiful.

Here's what I have been up to so far on my trip. It's hard to sum things up in an email but I will give it my best shot...

Places I have been to and brief summaries:
Santiago, Chile: i only spent 2 days there because I discovered that its a very boring, smoggy, unfriendly, dirty city with not much to do if you're a tourist passing through. I stayed at an awesome hostal though and met lots of cool people! On one of my days I rode around with 2 Brazilian brothers in their rental car to have some small adventures and it was so fun! 

 Mendoza, Argentina : the best part of going to Mendoza was the bus ride between Chile and Argentina, going through the snow capped Andes mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL, just beautiful. The mountains were huge and snowy and the sun was shining and I felt so small and insignificant because these mountains have existed for so long and are just breath taking. Mendoza its self was pretty lame and dirty and boring; I had heard a lot of good things about it before coming and was very disappointed. In my hostal though I met 4 British guys and we hung out and watched sopranos together, deciding to travel to Valparaiso, Chile together.

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Chile : Valparaiso is the sister city of San Francisco. Its very hilly and foggy and colorful and bohemian/ artsy. The walls of the buildings and streets are covered in amazing street murals and street art, there are mosaics all over, steps going up the hills are painted like piano keys or in vibrant colors, and there are no 2 houses that look the same! I met up with a friend from Scripps who is studying abroad there and we hung out for a few days, I also met up with a friend from Scripps host brother and it was so great! I had fried fish, shrimp empanadas, smoked kiwi jam, and raspberry mint ice cream. This is definitely a city I could see myself living in one day. 

Pisco Elqui, Valle de Elqui, Chile : I did some research on this place before coming because it wasn't originally on my list of places to go. A guy in Santiago told me that I should definitely check it out because it's a gem...and WOW was he right. Pisco Elqui is in a valley where the magnetic energy is the same as the Himalayas, you can literally feel the energy of this place I your body when you are there. It's like there is a bubble surrounding it and you can feel when you've entered the bubble and when you've left the bubble. My hostal was amazing and had hammocks and loquat trees and lavender bushes, tables hidden in secret gardens. I had met a woman on my bus ride who teaches English in Valparaiso but is originally from LA and we just so happened to be staying at the same hostal so we had adventures together from buying goat cheese, spinach, sun dried tomato bread to hiking through the mountains and finding hidden streams to dip into. It was nice to have someone " familiar " around for a few days but I was ready to part ways when we did. In Pisco Elqui I went to Chiles oldest observatory to see the night sky and saw Saturn, new stars, dying stars and constellations that are only visible in the southern hemisphere. Magical! 

Antofagasta, Chile : this is where I am now! This is my fourth time here and it's very relaxed and Chilean. Went to the beach yesterday, celebrated Chiles independence day last Tuesday, and have just been laying low and enjoying my time with the friends I have here and their family! 

I'm not sure what my next destination is or when I will go there but when the wind takes me I will leave. I hope everyone is well and I'm sending positive energy from northern Chile! 

Xoxo, 

Adrienne