Paine

This weekend, a big group of us took the train down to Pancho's house in Paine. Pancho is one of Marcelo's best friends. He studied film in Valparaiso and has been making short films and working on feature length films. He showed us a beautiful short film ("Someone Else's Party" is the title in English) that he made last year that he's been showing at festivals.

Paine is about an hour south of Santiago and it's in the countryside. It's the point where the Andes intersects with the coastal mountain range and it's very beautiful. We had a big asado (Chilean-style barbeque) on Saturday and went on a hike the next day. It was very cold but the air was clean, so it was a nice break from Santiago.

Zack came with his girlfriend Alejandra (who is a Mexican study abroad student) and her friend Angelica who was visiting from Buenos Aires and her French roommate Cecil who is doing an internship here and Zack's Swiss roommate Anousha who is traveling. Marcelo brought his friends Marcelo, Diego and Tati, and Pancho's family was there of course. It was one of those international gatherings that I've gotten used to here where everyone's trying to speak a little Spanish and a little English and a little French.

Being away from the city reminded me of how much I still hope to see in Chile before I leave.

Pancho


Pancho's dog


Grove (and Marcelo)


A beautiful tree (and me)




A view from the coastal mountain range across Paine, looking towards the Andes




Farmland covered in fog with the Andes in the background


The whole shebang