Exactly two years ago, I very spontaneously decided to apply to be an exchange student for my senior year of high school. I remember I didn’t even tell my parents when I sent the first email to my local Rotary club — I had been involved with Rotary since I was sponsored to participate in an outward bound girls leadership expedition (side note: if you are into group backpacking trips, outward bound is great! It appears expensive, but if you reach out to one of the coordinators living in your area, there are a ton of scholarships available and trips that are completely free of cost!). The president of my club almost immediately connected me to the district’s Rotary International youth exchange coordinator, and I began filling out my application to live for a year in a different country (still without my parents knowing…)

A couple weeks later, I realized it was probably time to fill in my parents. They too felt an exchange would be an adventure for me and thought senior year was the perfect time to do it. So, we spent a night editing my essays and sent in the application! My top choices were in South America because I really wanted to learn Spanish, and I was very fond of the food and culture (and had never been!)

About a month later, in the beginning of January, I got a call from the district coordinator informing me that I would be sent to southern Chile! I was beyond excited because I knew the south was filled with mountains and volcanoes. I didn’t know who my host family was until maybe a week before I left, and I really only got to talk to them (over email) once before I was actually on the plane. Trust me, the feeling I got when boarding the plane in Philadelphia was like no other I had ever experienced before. I b had no idea who I would be living with, let alone who I would be meeting up with at the Santiago airport. Butterflies were not only multiplying in my stomach; they were EXPLOADING.

I had a lot of crazy experiences throughout my year in Chile, like unexpected traditional dance performances (and that is why you should actually learn the language and not just agree to everything anyone says to you to hide the fact that you don’t know what they are talking about!) and action packed trips with my host families, Rotary, and my school. I could go on telling stories and talking about culture shock for pages, but I do realize this is a TRAVEL blog. So, if you are interested in hearing more about my stories or even my struggles with COVID in a different country, I did (kind of) keep a blog while I was there. In this post, I’ll talk about the different places I went with my host families when we did get a chance to travel!

1. Las Termas de Chillan

People from all over Chile come to the ski resorts surrounding Chillan. Unfortunately, my host dad was the only skier in the family, and he couldn’t ski due to a recent surgery, so we didn’t end up visiting the actual ski resort. However, we did stay in a cabin nestled right beside Volcan Chillan, which was an epic active volcano I could see in the distance from my town.

My favorite activitiy in Las Termas de Chillan was probably swimming in the hot springs. They smelled like sulfur, but they were very relaxing and literally right at the base of a mountain range. When my host sister and I couldn’t handle the heat, we would leave the pools, jump around the snow in our bikinis, then run back into the thermal pools.

We also visited a park that took tourists on walks through a “mystical” forest. There were real life looking figures from our favorite childhood movies, like Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and the Lord of the Rings. This hike was especially fun because both my host siblings were really young and they thought some of the figures were real.

2. Pucon

This was definitely my favorite place I visited with my host families. Pucon is a small tourist town right on the shore of Villarica Lake, which outlooks Villarica volcano. I visited for the first time in the winter/spring (October). It was too cold to swim in the lake (although I did take a dip one of the days), so we spent a lot of time exploring the town, eating lots of asado (barbeque), and going on boat rides.

The second time I went, I was only with my second host family. Although I was still living with my first host family, my second host family wanted to take me on their vacation with them. I remember when they first invited me, I had just finished dance class and was really exhausted. They told me to pack up my stuff because I’d be leaving the next day. I kind of just assumed we would only be there for a couple of days, so I brought maybe 2 shirts, one pair of shorts, one pair of shoes, and like three pairs of socks and underwear. Once I traveled five hours south with them and unpacked my stuff, my host mom exploaded with laughter when she saw that I had almost no clothes. Apparently, we were to be there for a week and a half, not a couple of days. She basically had to buy me a whole new wardrobe…

3. Huilo-Huilo

My second host family took me to Huilo-Huilo while we were staying in Pucon. Because they knew I love to hike, we went on many family hikes through the dense rainforest-like forest and saw lots of gorgeous mountain views. Some of the highlights for me were hiking the La Leona trail to a series of gorgeous waterfalls and taking a gondola to the top of a mountain to see a beautiful snow-capped volcano off in the distance. If I ever get to go back here, I will definitely check out some more hikes because they have some of the best ones in the country!

4. Saltos de Petrohue

The Petrohue waterfalls were probably one of my favorite destinations in all of Chile. Funny story: I actually first visited the falls with my Rotary crew as part of our Patagonia tour. When my host parents mentioned going there, there was kind of a miscommunication with my host parents: I told them (or I TRIED to tell them) I thought the falls were beautiful, as I had seen them with my exchange friends, but they thought I said something more like, “wow, the falls are gorgeous and they are at the top of my Chile bucket list.” So they basically went out of their way to take me to the falls, and at that point, I didn’t have the heart to tell them I had already seen it. But it was so easy to act like I hadn’t seen them before because they really are the most gorgeous waterfalls I have ever seen.

5. Vina del Mar

Vina is a beach town about 7 hours north of my town and one hour west of Santiago, the capital. My first host family LOVES Vina because they love the heat, sun, and ocean. They took me to Vina twice: once in the spring and another time over the summer. We were supposed to go over the summer for two weeks, but my host parents got divorced while I was living with them (story for another time haha), and the apartment was my host dad’s.

Anyways, Vina was super fun both times: we went to the beach almost everyday, drank our pisco sours, and relaxed in the sun. I also went running every morning, which was honestly amazing because I would explore a new part of the city everyday. My “run” would sometimes turn into like a three hour run/walk if I got up early enough.

We were also in Vina during the Vina festival, which is the biggest music festival in South America. Because Chile had many protests since October 2019 when the government raised the metro prices, people were protesting the festival of Vina. They didn’t think it was appropriate to celebrate when Chile still had unjust medical, education and social security programs. As a result, we had to stay in the apartment for the last day and watch protests from above.