I AM HERE!

Hi friends!

this Morning ( 8am Chile time) i got in to Santiago! The flights were long, but they weren't actually too terrible. We left Dallas last night at 9:30ish... so it was definitely nice to have a red-eye and arrive to Chile in the morning! Me and my 2 friends Im traveling with (Nicole and Noey) went through immigration and customs easily in Santiago and surprisingly managed to navigate ourselves to Valparaiso taking 2 buses and a taxi! From the Santiago airport we had to get a bus to take us to the main metro/bus station... the bus station was kinda crazy. there we so many people coming and going but we figured out where to buy our bus tickets!!

Mom and lindsey- you were so right. taking one suitcase has been glorious! i look a little crazy walking around with a giant backpack on my back and one on my belly but its just so much easier.... so thanks!!!

Our Hostel in Valparaiso is great! It is very cute and very home like. The ladies that run the place are super friendly and helpful! We had reservations to stay in the dorm-type room. but once we got here they gave us our own private room with 3 beds for the same rate... which has been wonderful! we don't need to worry about our stuff while we are out because we can lock our room! As soon as we settled in we hit the streets of Valparaiso to find a good pace to eat lunch and to look around the city! Valparaiso is a very interesting/fun/beautiful city from the little glimpses i have seen so far! there are so many dogs all over the place... (reminds me on Tijuana) and cars zip by like crazy!

Tonight we decided to hit of the grocery store and make dinner back at the hostel because we are still exhausted from all the traveling yesterday. I feel like ever since i left home yesterday its just been one big long day!

Hanging back at the hostel we tried to figure out the outlets here and use all the converters and adapters that we brought from home... but we failed and ended up blowing a fuse in our room and the lights were out for about 30 minutes. haha so we shall see what happens the next time we try.... but good news i think we all finally figured out the money here and we have come up with a plan of what to see and do for the next couple of days before we leave for Santiago!

So far so good!! It hasn't really hit me yet that this is just the beginning of my 4 month adventure. its Crazy!!! i cant believe im here!

Love you all!

ps, lindsey- tried that chocolate with the squirrel man thing on the wrapper with the almonds... DELICIOUS!!