Verano! (summer)

Here's my update from summer- it was one of the best of my life and I got the chance to meet so many new people!

I went camping and hiking with my family and ANJA SWANSON!! It was the hardest hike I'd ever done but gorgeous! We could see so much of the Andes.

The beaches in Chile are very beautiful, but we can't swim in most of them because the frequent earthquakes have steepened the shoreline so much that it's pretty dangerous.

A gorgeous river I saw on a hike I went on in the south! The water was mixed snowmelt and hot springs from the geothermal activity in Chile, so it would bubble every now and then and get warmer, which was something I'd never seen before and very cool.

On the same trip, we saw a constantly erupting volcano! The pictures I have aren't good but it was red at night and another thing I'd never seen! It was beautiful but made me a little nervous!

A visit to the Andes I took with my host family!

American pancake breakfast I made for my family! They were fans.

Posing with a statue in the center with the group of exchange girls.

The famous painted stairs in Valparaiso, an artsy and gorgeous city on the coast of Chile! I visited it with my host mom on a weekend trip to see her favorite band, Mana, in a neighboring city. It was one of the busiest and best weekends of my life!

More pretty stairs and me!

My lovely host mom and a nice painted wall (still in Valparaiso)

Chilean castle!

My host mom and I with our signs at the concert! Hers (basically) says "I made my dream happen" and mine says "love from the USA and Talca".

A surfing beach my new and last host family took me to! I'm going to miss my second family but this family is also very nice. I don't have any family photos yet but it's me, the mom who is originally from Argentina, and the dad. This was the first time I'd seen cactuses at a beach!

It was an amazing summer filled with new places, friends, and family. I feel so thankful to get this opportunity to spend time in a beautiful country and meet beautiful people :)