¡Soy Campesina!

I have very stereotypical (and perfect) chilean grandparents. My host mom's parents live in Santiago. They own a little store that sells ice cream, bread, cake, empanadas, and like basic stuff. And this grandma makes the best empanadas. I'm not exaggerating. It's like, "Willow, do you want an empanada?" ..."Sure! I'm really full but I'll try one." ..."Willow, do you want another?"... "yes"... "Willow, where did all of the empanadas go?"... "mff. I bom't knuw." Naw. Mentida. She happily feeds me all of them. ;-b Anyway, the other grandparents, my host dad's parents, live on a farm a little farther south than us, in the Cordillera de los Andes. We went there last weekend, and it's super pretty and calm. They don't even have cell service (let alone internet) which is fine by me for a relaxing weekend. They have the most adorable farm house! It's one story, and the ceiling is so low that sometimes I bump my head on the door jams. XD Which I'm sure is only a problem for me. The bed I slept in, was soft and lumpy, and had no less than 5 handmade quilts. It was lovely. The kitchen has a wood burning stove, and a normal gas stove. Which is good because my grandma makes really good food, and amazing bread (I think I gained like 3 kilos just this weekend XD). And yes, I said that both of my chilean grandmas make really good food. No wonder exchange weight is a thing.

It's Spring right now (well as of this moment, it's technically Summer) so all of the animals, and I mean literally all, minus the perros, have babies!! Which is adorable. They have cats with kittens, chickens with chicks, cows with calfs, song birds with... idk like chicks?, and horses with foals. I got to pet one of the baby horses and the kittens (claro). Like, if there are cats with in a 1600 meter radius of me, I pet them. 

Disclaimer: this is where if you're part of my Rotary in Chile, please skip ahead 1 paragraph...I also got to ride a horse. Two horses actually. One of them bareback... without a helmet. It was fun. And surprisingly not scary or hard. #runnerbenefits 

Ok. now you can look. 

It was really cool to see the techniques that my grandparents use for farming, and how they differ from in the US. For example, they just fence of a large pasture sized section of their land, and put the horses and cows (and goats if they had any) in it to graze. As far as I saw, no stables, the water system was the stream, and their daily food was the natural grass. It makes sense now that I think about it. I mean like, horses and cows live in the wild and do just fine. The chickens had a similar circumstance, but their pasture was smaller, they get fed grain, and they had coops where the hens laid their eggs. But in the day, the chickens just walked around the farm like they owned it. If we don't close the back door, they walk right into the kitchen. 

It was really fun and cool, and I should have taken more pictures. :I We're going back Thursday for Christmas, so keep tuned( the same bat time, the same bat channel) for more! Here are the ones that I did take: Enjoy!!

This is the view from the end of the driveway.

When a grand kid is born, my grandpa plants them a bunch of pine trees. The pine trees grow up with the kid, and then when they go off to college, the plan is to sell the lumber to help with their college funds. These are the ones for my host brother (the one that's in the US right now with Rotary)

This is one of the many creeks that comes down from the mountains. I went swimming in this freezing cold and crystal clear water. It was the best ice bath I have ever had.

Here are my dad, grandpa, uncle and other farmer vaccinating the cows. 

This is a really cool parasite that my grandpa showed me. The kind of leaf you see at the top of the picture (the broad, flatter ones) are the plant's real leaves. But, the parasitic plant, the one that looks more piny, infects the original plant and tricks it into using it's nutrients to grow the parasite. I think it's cool.

baby chickens

me riding a horse. I am using a saddle in this picture.
If you would like one of the amazing Peace, Love and Travel t-shirts that I am fashionably wearing, please email me or comment below. We have a limited supply and they are on sale for only 10 USD a piece.  

In the left hand corner of this picture, my dad and uncle are taming the darker horse. The first thing you have to do is ride it. You have to tether it to the other hose so that 1) it won't run away and 2) so that it learns the signals and such. 

The horse that my host sister is riding is the mom of the adorable one prancing. so cute. <3

This is actually the first thing you have to do to tame a horse. When they're little you have to get them to not be afraid of humans.