Climate Hopping by Madeline LeBlanc

Climate hopping: Subpolar Oceanic to Desert to Humid Subtropical

Travel

The day after I finished my finals I hopped on a plane to the southern hemisphere for the first time. I've been wanting to travel to Latin America for a while now and I was so excited to experience new environments and cultures. The lack of sleep from finals and travel was stressful, but the experiences were just incredible. I started in the Subpolar Oceanic climate of  Patagonia where we traveled Torres del Paine National Park and saw some of the most incredible views of my life. We even saw a puma!

Our last day in Torres del Paine.

After the treks and an airport fire in Punta Arenas, we went to the Atacama desert and toured the Valle de la Luna. I had never been in a desert before, so being in the driest desert in the world certainly required some adjustment. Breathing was difficult and it felt like every inch of me was filled with dust, but the sunset in the desert was definitely worth any level of discomfort. The desert is covered in salt and we got to walk through salt caves and taste the salt from the walls.

A salt flat in Valle de la Luna.

After this, I left my amazing travel buddies and hopped on a plane over the pacific ocean to Easter Island for less than 24 hours. It was a bit of a rush, but a little Easter Island is better than no Easter Island. Seeing the moai was incredible; I don't think I actually believed they existed. The whole island was just unbelievably beautiful and I still haven't even processed the fact that I was there.

One of the groups of moai on the island.

Colegio Concepcion de San Pedro

After all of this crazy travel I finally got to Concepcion and was picked up by my new host sister, Josefa, with an adorable sign with my name on it. I had talked to her for a while on Whatsapp and was very glad to meet her and find her just a sweet as I expected. Things got even better, though, as I got to know her and her family. I love them and feel like a part of the family and will definitely miss them when I have to go.

Most of my new family - missing Mati

My time at the school has been really great and very interesting. There are definitely plenty differences in school and the schools at home. The classrooms I've been in have been very relaxed with lots of walking around and talking. Each is different, but they are all more relaxed than any classroom I've been in at home. I love the idea of relaxing how strict classrooms are, but it seems there may need to be a happy medium between these and those at home, because neither seem to quite get it right. Its been lots of fun talking to the students in whatever english they have. Its great to see them improve and to see how interested they are in learning about us, and watching the younger kids search for the few words they know in english is adorable. They usually only get out "hello" and then call me "tia" and go off in rapid fire spanish. I wish I could understand more of what they're saying and hopefully I will by the end of the trip.

The science "gringas" with the science teachers. An awesome group of people.

Its been a great time so far in Chile and I'm looking forward to everything we have in store for the next two weeks!