Chillin' in Chile: mountain town and sickness

From friday to sunday my program and I went on an excursion to Constanza, a mountain town which is about three hours away from Santiago. It was meant to be a nice and relaxing getaway from the city, which it definitely was. The weather there was sooo nice, I could actually wear zip ups and jeans!! So exciting. During the day it got hot, but the air was definitely way less humid, it was great.

The first day we had a choice to do a hike or to tour some greenhouses, I obviously chose the hike. It was super fun and we ran into many adorable animals on our climb such as a piglet, a puppy, and baby cow! Very cute. After that we had a delicious dinner of pizza and then we got to see a dominican baseball game! It was pretty sweet, the baseballs they were using looked the size of softballs though...there were bats (nocturnal animal kind, not wooden kind) flying all over the field, it was awesome.

Next day we got up early to have breakfast (8 am) then we were on our way to the tallest waterfall in the dominican republic (which is actually made up of two waterfalls)! We went in two safari vehicles which had a truch bed in the back with benchs on the sides and little rails so we wouldnt fall. It was about an hour and half drive, we got to see some gorgeous country side. And we also got to see our lives flash in front of our eyes when driving down the most narrow roads I had ever seen with a sheer cliff on one side. AHHH. My friend said he actually saw our wheels go off the road one time. So scary.

Finally we got to the waterfall, and it had long been decided by fate (and the fact that my mom would be ashamed of me) that of course I would be swimming in the waterfall. OMG. It was SO cold, I could not believe it. I went in and was swimming for where the waterfall was actually hitting the water, but halfway there I felt my limbs start seizing up and I couldn't really breathe and all I could think was calm down kali, just keep moving or you will sink to the bottom and DIE! So I swam back to safety.

Later that night we had a delicious bbq, a huge bonfire, and lots and lots of dancing. We also made friends with some medical students from Santo Domingo all of them from different places: Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, it was really interesting.

Next day we were off after packing and having lunch.

Yeah....then Sunday night slept not a wink because I had a fever so I either was getting up to turn on/off the fan or getting up to go to the bathroom. Awful. Didn't go to school on monday, felt like shit the whole day. Then thought I was getting better, went to sleep only to wake up at 4, 6, and 8 in the morning to run to the bathroom. My resident director Lynne said I shouldn't try to go to school so I didn't go to school again. And now I feel okay, but you never really know...I hope I will be able to go to school tomorrow. So funny, because this week was only going to be a three day school week anyways because thurs all school is cancelled because it is a national saint's day (mercedes) so basically I have one day of school!