change of plans

So this week has been unexpected, constantly changing, but now as the dust settles, it's so clear that God had a plan the whole time even when I did not. Or, even when I thought I had everything under control, He had something else in mind.

Did I mention that I was going to Argentina? Well, I was. haha, that is part of the change of plans.

I found out about a week and a half ago that my friend, Regina was planning to go to Mendoza, Argentina this weekend. I asked if I could tag along, and she said she'd love the company.
To say she's independent is an understatement. (She's German. I've met a lot of Germans here, and they have a distinct traits about them that is very interesting to me. They are decisive, striking, well-educated, frugal, logical, hard-workers and just very strong people.) Before coming to Chile, she'd already traveled by herself for 3 weeks in Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina.

So, by the time we went to buy the bus tickets to Mendoza, my friend Desiree asked to go, to make the trip a trio. So, we bought our tickets on Sunday, and began making preparations to leave on Thursday.

But, the weather forecast was predicting rain here in Valparaíso for all day on Thursday. When it's raining here, it's snowing in the Andes. The Argentina/Chile border in the Andes, is closed when it snows. It was beginning to look like our trip to Mendoza wasn't going to happen. On Tuesday, I went to bus station to ask them if they knew if the bus to Mendoza on Thursday was cancelled. But, the bus companies won't tell you for sure that the bus is or is not leaving until 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time. If you don't show up and the bus does leave, you lose your ticket and your money. I gave the lady at the desk an obviously discontented look and rubbed my forehead. I thought of the situation...
...waking up at 5:45 a.m. to make it to the bus station 30 minutes before our 8:00 a.m. departure time for a bus that may or may not leave, with luggage...in the rain.

I thought, I obviously have a lot to learn about traveling through the mountains in the winter. Well, actually, I just have a lot to learn.

So, Thursday morning, with the help of two alarm clocks and my watch alarm, I was up by 5:45 a.m. to the sound of rain against my window. I tried calling the bus station with the sliver of hope that maybe they would answer and know the status of our departure. They didn't answer. I wasn't surprised.
But, about 20 minutes into getting ready, Regina calls me to tell me that she called the carabineros (police) to ask them if they knew if the border was open. They confirmed the border was closed. At this point, I wasn't even sad, I was just glad to have a definite answer--and that I wasn't standing outside in the dark with luggage...in the rain.
I decided to call the bus station at 8:00 to ask them when we needed to come to change the dates on our tickets. The woman on the other end said we still needed to come right away (of course, we do, I thought) to reschedule our trip or change our departure dates to 'abierta' (open dates).
As I rode the micro and speeding through the hills, I put on my iPod and leaned my head against the window. I realized that it was the first time I'd listened to my iPod since I'd been here. I felt relief flood over me as I watched it rain...no question of being stuck in a bus in the mountains in the snow. I was a little sad that we weren't headed for Mendoza, but knowing that God is in control, I knew this was what was suppose to happen.

I got off the micro, and the rain was already subsiding. I met up with Desiree, and we saw each other we both just smiled and shook our heads. I said, "Well, live a little, learn a little, huh?"
So, we went to the bus terminal; we changed the dates to open. So, the good news is our tickets are still valid. As of now, we plan to use them on the first weekend of October. By then, we should be well into Spring, and hopefully no threats of the border closing due to snow.

Although, we didn't go to Argentina, we had a blast here and enjoyed Valparaíso. Valpo is such a cool city, and it would take months to do all the stuff there is to do here...good thing I still have months left here. :)

Friday, Sara and Desiree came to Valpo (they both live in Viña), and we toured where I live. First, we walked through the oldest neighborhood in Valpo. Then we went to the Maritime museum, which is way up high and has a view of the city, the mountains and the harbour. Here's a pic of Sara and I...

We got to the museum at 5:15, and it was suppose to close at 6:00, so they let us go through for free. I'm like my dad, I like free stuff. Well, really, who doesn't? The other night, we had this hysterical waiter. He really wanted us to order empanadas, but we were feeling cheap, so we told him no gracias. He said, but you are in Chile! So he gave Desiree and I free empanadas. We were pretty excited. haha.

The Maritime museum is really interesting. It made me realize that I need to brush up on my history of Chile a little. I only have pictures of the inside, but it's a beautiful building inside and out. I'll have to go for a walk one after noon, and get a few pics of the outside too...

After the museum, we were looking at the shops outside. And, a Chilean tour guide that could speak english, was taking a tourist from Australia around the city. They were also enjoying the view outside of the Maritime museum, and he we ended up talking to him. I asked him if he knew the least expensive way to get to the vineyards in the Casa Blanca valley around Valparaíso. (Most of the information I could find in my research online were through tour guide companies, and they want to charge each person $50-$80 bucks to go on a tour.) He said we could take a bus to the vineyards and then a tour from any vineyard would cost about $7000-$9000 pesos ($16-$18 US dollars).

So then, we wandered around Cerro Alegre, and decided as we walked and talked that we wanted to go to the vineyards the next day. The weather was suppose to be beautiful and clear. We didn't have anything else to do, so we figured even if for some reason, it didn't work out, at least we'd go for a ride.

We walked around some more, went into a little café restaurant, and we all ordered some vino. I ordered tea and wine and just enjoyed being here with my friends. Oh, and we discovered this precious little shop that sells knitted hats, scarves and bags.

Well, we made it to the vineyards, and we had the best time. It was pretty hysterical how we ended up getting there. Of course, it wasn't as easy as the tour guide said. He left out some pretty big details.
And as a disclaimer, the bus companies nor the terminal have posted schedules. So, that's not an option of reference.
Well, first, my host dad said we could actually catch a bus about a block away from the bus terminal. I asked him why we shouldn't just go to the terminal (I don't know, that just made more sense to me). But, we tried it his way first.  It was a beautiful morning. So, we bought café con leche and waited at the bus stop to see if a bus headed to Casa Blanca would pass by. Before we knew it, 20 minutes had passed, no bus. Yeah, I knew this idea of Claudio's didn't make sense. So, we walked to the bus terminal, and asked when the next bus was leaving for Casa Blanca. The woman responded (with unusual accuracy for Chile) that the next bus was leaving in exactly 4 minutes. Alright then. So, we bought 3 tickets for $1000 pesos (two bucks) and boarded the bus. Four minutes later, believe it or not, we were on our way to Casa Blanca. Hallelujah.

When we got to the small town of Casa Blanca, we had no idea where to get off or where the bus was going to finally stop or begin going back to Valparaíso. When we were the last ones on the bus, we figured we should probably ask. I am laughing at myself right now because we didn't even know which vineyard we wanted to go to. You can imagine the following conversation with the bus driver was quite hysterical. He couldn't help but laugh at these 3 gringas. So, he tells us we need to catch a taxi from the plaza (which we already passed through) but he makes the block back toward the plaza anyway. (I'm pretty sure that he made an extra lap around the town just for us.) He asked a taxi driver if he could take us to the Indomita Vineyards about 10 minutes away. Then we thanked our bus driver and then met Fransisco, our taxi driver who dropped us off at Indomita. I asked Fransisco how we should return home (I just really can't stop laughing at us, we didn't know anything). So, he gave us his card and told us to call him when we were ready.

The Indomita vineyard is beautiful, and the winery is up on a hill with a view of the whole valley and all the mountains. It's absolutely gorgeous.

The view from Indomita...

We walked through the doors, asked when the next tour was and the lady said there was one scheduled to start immediately. We may not have known what we were doing, but somehow our timing was perfect.

We had the tour guide to ourselves, so it was fun to ask him all the questions we wanted. We saw the distillery and the cellar, which was beautiful.

Then we had a wine tasting...

Then we sat outside and enjoyed the view. You can see the mountains in the reflection of the glass...

We had a blast learning how to swirl wine and touring the winery. Getting home was a piece of cake now that we knew what we were doing. That's a first.

So, God did have a different plan in store. I am learning everyday that His timing is always perfect. No matter if I make plans or not, His plan is always the best. It also gives me a lot of peace that I'm not the one in charge. Thank goodness because I'm all over the place, but thank goodness He is too. He's everywhere.

This is the song that I listened to on the way to the bus station in the rain that morning, and I can't seem to get it out of my head...it makes me miss dance. I listen to it, and I just want to dance in a big room all to myself...or maybe just outside in the rain.

Kathleen by David Gray

My eyelids are heavy. Our clocks changed this weekend, and that one hour seems to be making me sleepy. We had to 'spring forward'. The snow in the Andes didn't get the memo, but my professors did and class still starts at 8:30 tomorrow. So, buenos noches.