Sandboarding

The wind was whipping my face as I sped down the hill, no, mountain of sand.  As I neared the path, I knew I was going too fast to stop, and that’s when the ground hit me.

Last night we signed up for “sandboarding.”  Sandboarding is basically riding down a steep mountain of sand on snowboards.  When we arrived at 4:00, our guide started telling everyone (two other kids and lots of 20-30 year-olds) to head over to the vans.  The vans brought us into the Death Valley.  The Death Valley looked, as our guide said, kind of like the surface of Mars, with lots of sand and clay mountains around the road.  The road was very bumpy because it was mostly washed away by rain.  As we came around one last rocky corner, the giant sand dunes rose up over the horizon.

The sand dune was maybe 300 feet tall.  We all got out of the van and gazed up while our two guides unloaded the snowboards.  Once they were all set on the ground, we started picking them out and bringing them up the dune.  This was by far the most tiring and hardest part of the tour.  Each trip up took 10 minutes more or less.  But when you’re thinking about what’s to come next, it seems easy. 

When we arrived at the very narrow top of the sand dune, we started strapping ourselves in.  After that our guide gave us a few instructions and sent us down!  After I saw four people go down, I thought, “Oh this doesn’t seem too bad.”  So then I went down.  The first couple of times, I went slowly and thought to myself the whole time, “I’M GOING TOO FAST!!” But the third time, I started to go a bit faster, and a bit faster and then I started zipping down the dune.  Luckily, I stopped right before the bottom. 

The next time, it went a bit differently.  I started out fast and I liked it.  When I started getting close to the bottom, I stopped, or at least tried to stop.  When I hit the flat part, I completely wiped out hitting the ground and rolling down the hill for a couple of feet.  If anything, it felt super fun and I rushed up to go again!

Here's the video of my run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzB7GFOGDZs

Multi Sports on The Fu

The river is flowing fast and splashing through the bottom of our boat.  Jaime, our guide, is yelling commands and we are all trying to paddle and not fall out into the cold rapids of the Futaleufú.  During our ten-day trip to the Mt. Everest of rivers in Chile, we did a number of activities, including: rafting (of course), rappelling, hiking, zip lining and traversing (on a Tyrolean). 

THE Tyrolean

Before our long hike up the mountain and into the tree house camp, we had to cross the river.  The only way to do that was to ride a tyrolean.  A tyrolean is basically a way of pulling yourself on a horizontal wire and hanging underneath it. Tyroleans are usually used for crossing cliffs and such.  This one was over a intimidating class-six rapid and freezing cold water.  I was the first one to go.  I was pretty freaked out but once I got all strapped into my harness, I relaxed.  It seemed pretty secure and there was no way I was going to fall.  When I started out over the cliff I thought, “Oh this is not too bad.”  But when I reached the middle, my guide yelled to me, “LET GO!” so I assumed that my hands were going to fall or something.  I thought I would just hang there and maybe rest my hands.  But he had a different plan.  I bounced so high on the cable I didn’t even notice it at first.  It felt like a strong wind was bouncing me on a trampoline.  I only realized it was my guide bouncing it after I got to the other side.  I felt alive!

THE Zipline

After our big hike coming down from the tree house camp, we quickly found out that the only way to get back to the other side of the Futaleufú was to zip line into the freezing cold water and swim.  The zipline was about 30 feet above the water at its highest point, and about 15 feet at its lowest.  It was a steep slope downward into the clear blue water of the Futaleufú.  At the other end of the riverbank, there was a raft, a guide and a photographer.  At first, it didn’t seem too bad.  We walked down a couple of meters to get to the starting place for the zip-line. From down there, things started getting a bit more intimidating.  We had to hang by our hands so I was worried about the timing of letting go.  But once our guide explained that he was going to shout, “jump,” I was fine.  When I started running to build up speed, I thought to myself, “this is actually fun!”  My next thought was, “hmm this is kind of high….” Right when our guide shouted, “JUMP,” I dropped.  My first thought when I hit the water was, “HOLY CRAP THIS IS FREEEEZING.”  And it was.  I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  

The Van

Getting around in Chile has been very different than Ecuador.  In Ecuador, we always had a driver coming to pick us up, and drop us off at different hotels.  In Chile, on the other hand, it has been our family along with Grandma and Grandpa in a 12-person van, driving between hotels.  Altogether, the experience hasn’t been all that bad, aside from some carsickness and cramps.  

We got the car when it was brand new.  Now, at the end of our trip, it looks like a big trash can inside. We always buy some snacks for the long car rides.  After the snacks are gone, we leave all the wrappers and garbage in the seat pockets, which, from there, make their way onto the floor.  During our long rides, (which usually vary from between 3 to 5 hours) we don’t usually interact much.  The grownups just relax, look for directions or listen an audio book about Tina Fey, while I listen to music, watch movies, play a game in my phone or read and Ruby just listens to an audiobook by herself.  These rides are not the most fun thing in the world, but they are alright if you have a phone. :D