So, I'm going to start this blog post by talking about what happened on the night of the 29th August! This story is not for the faint hearted, and I'm sure that one day somebody will contact me about buying the rights to make a film of this terrifying experience.
It was about 9pm, and I was just popping out of the house to go and meet a friend at the nearby metro station Simón Bolivar (named after Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco, who was a key leader in the Latin American struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire). The plan was simple, head to the metro station, about a 10 minute walk away from my house, pick up my friend, come back to mine and talk about plans to travel. Simple enough right? Wrong!
As for what happened next, some of you may find the image of what happened hilarious, but for me it was terrifying! I had only just left the house, and started walking down the street towards the main road. As I said before, it was about 9pm, so it was very dark and therefore my sight was even worse than usual. Now if there is one thing I fear, it's dogs. Only the big one's, the small one's are cool, but the big one's always give me the impression that they want to attack me. At the very end of the street, hidden behind a tree was a big, brown, and frankly psychotic dog. I recognised it immediately, as it was the one my housemates had told me had tried to attack them in the past, with it actually having bitten one of my friends on the leg.
Before I could even blink, I decided there is no chance in hell I was going to walk past it, so I turned around immediately, attempting not to disturb it and prepared myself to walk a different, dog-free way towards the metro station. However, it just wasn't meant to be easy, and I immediately heard the dog get up, take a look at me, bark and start running like crazy towards me. My house was only up the road so thinking back on it, running was probably an awful decision, but running is what I chose to do. Adrenaline took over and I ran faster than I think I have ever run before. I definitely could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money, pardon the pun. I didn't want to confront the dog and kick it, as that could have just made matters worse, leading me to decide to run. When I looked back, I saw another big, but black dog following suit and joining the chase, and possibly a third, tiny dog of Chihuahua proportions which I couldn't tell whether it was trying to chase me too, bless it, to impress it's dog friends, or whether it was simply just passing by. Whatever the case it was terrifying.
Thank god I can run, as I managed to outrun the dogs and make it safely back to the house. This has now gained me the nickname Campeón (Champion) amongst some of my housemates because of my heroic and inspirational success story. I thank god that nobody was there to film the chase, as I didn't fancy seeing viral videos of myself, remixed with the Benny Hill theme and my panicking screams of Ayúdame (Help!)
I know I have said in a previous post that I pity the dogs here, and that is still true, but I don't pity this one. It is not a stray dog, it has an owner, and I can assume it is well looked after. I'm not sure whether it attacks as it thinks it is protecting it's owner, or whether it is just a violent dog, but whatever the case, I told my landlord who is now looking into it. Fortunately, I haven't seen the thing since, but I am now a lot more cautious going down that side of the street at night.
However, it's not all doom and gloom and I did eventually get to the metro station to meet my friend. We spoke a lot about travelling, a very exciting topic with so much to see out here, and we've now decided on going to Machu Piichu, Copiapó (where the Chilean mining disaster happened a few years ago, and which we have booked the flights for), and we are looking into going somewhere down the South of Chile too. I have also booked, along with 2 friends from my course at the University of Southampton, a trip to Easter Island ironically during the Easter holidays! So I look forward to being able to tell you all my adventures there!
It was about 9pm, and I was just popping out of the house to go and meet a friend at the nearby metro station Simón Bolivar (named after Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco, who was a key leader in the Latin American struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire). The plan was simple, head to the metro station, about a 10 minute walk away from my house, pick up my friend, come back to mine and talk about plans to travel. Simple enough right? Wrong!
As for what happened next, some of you may find the image of what happened hilarious, but for me it was terrifying! I had only just left the house, and started walking down the street towards the main road. As I said before, it was about 9pm, so it was very dark and therefore my sight was even worse than usual. Now if there is one thing I fear, it's dogs. Only the big one's, the small one's are cool, but the big one's always give me the impression that they want to attack me. At the very end of the street, hidden behind a tree was a big, brown, and frankly psychotic dog. I recognised it immediately, as it was the one my housemates had told me had tried to attack them in the past, with it actually having bitten one of my friends on the leg.
Before I could even blink, I decided there is no chance in hell I was going to walk past it, so I turned around immediately, attempting not to disturb it and prepared myself to walk a different, dog-free way towards the metro station. However, it just wasn't meant to be easy, and I immediately heard the dog get up, take a look at me, bark and start running like crazy towards me. My house was only up the road so thinking back on it, running was probably an awful decision, but running is what I chose to do. Adrenaline took over and I ran faster than I think I have ever run before. I definitely could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money, pardon the pun. I didn't want to confront the dog and kick it, as that could have just made matters worse, leading me to decide to run. When I looked back, I saw another big, but black dog following suit and joining the chase, and possibly a third, tiny dog of Chihuahua proportions which I couldn't tell whether it was trying to chase me too, bless it, to impress it's dog friends, or whether it was simply just passing by. Whatever the case it was terrifying.
Thank god I can run, as I managed to outrun the dogs and make it safely back to the house. This has now gained me the nickname Campeón (Champion) amongst some of my housemates because of my heroic and inspirational success story. I thank god that nobody was there to film the chase, as I didn't fancy seeing viral videos of myself, remixed with the Benny Hill theme and my panicking screams of Ayúdame (Help!)
I know I have said in a previous post that I pity the dogs here, and that is still true, but I don't pity this one. It is not a stray dog, it has an owner, and I can assume it is well looked after. I'm not sure whether it attacks as it thinks it is protecting it's owner, or whether it is just a violent dog, but whatever the case, I told my landlord who is now looking into it. Fortunately, I haven't seen the thing since, but I am now a lot more cautious going down that side of the street at night.
However, it's not all doom and gloom and I did eventually get to the metro station to meet my friend. We spoke a lot about travelling, a very exciting topic with so much to see out here, and we've now decided on going to Machu Piichu, Copiapó (where the Chilean mining disaster happened a few years ago, and which we have booked the flights for), and we are looking into going somewhere down the South of Chile too. I have also booked, along with 2 friends from my course at the University of Southampton, a trip to Easter Island ironically during the Easter holidays! So I look forward to being able to tell you all my adventures there!
Now the title mentions horses as well, and that is because last weekend (Sunday 31st August), I went horse-riding for the first time ever with my amazing American friend! Pretty sure there aren't many people who can say that their first time riding a horse was through the Andes, and I'm so happy I get to be one of those few lucky people!
Not going to lie, but I was terrified about getting on the horse, but calming words from my friend reassured me that I would be OK! We went to a place outside of Santiago called Parque Cascada de Animas in Cajón de Maipo, which turned out to be one of the nicest places I have seen since being here. There was a clearly different change of pace here than in Santiago. In Santiago I am constantly surrounded by construction, traffic, terrible air quality and the hustle and bustle that comes with living in an urban metropolis! But out in Cajón de Maipo, we were greeted with a lovely rural sprawl with a much more laid back pace of life.
Cascada de Animas was an adventure park, or at least that is how I would describe it. They were situated in a perfect area, with easy access to routes through the Andes and a soothing river passing straight through. They were offering both horse-riding and zip-lining, but we only got to do the former. However, before even going horse-riding, we went for a meal in the only restaurant in the park. At best, the food was ok with undercooked chips and crusty cheese in my sandwich, but the atmosphere was lovely, with a huge indoor fireplace, great views and awesome company.
After the meal, it was time to go horse riding. My nerves were building, but it turned out that I had nothing to fear. My horse Parrol and I had a love-hate relationship. On the way up he was fine, just a little lazy. We were at the back of our group because he couldn't be bothered to run no matter how many times I kicked him! He only ran when he wanted to, but he didn't stop and try to eat grass like some of the other one's every time they got a bit hungry.
The view at the top was beautiful, overlooking the snowy peaks of the Andes and a wide valley made for some awesome photo opportunities. Many selfies were taken, many group selfies were taken, and even some fantastic non-selfies!
The way back down was a different story. First, a pack of wild horses started running towards us all, which meant that all the horses we were riding started running out of fear, and I remember there was one girl behind me who lost control of her horse and it almost took her into a bunch of trees away from the group until one of the instructors saved her! Thankfully, Parrol was fine and kept his cool, until we tried to descend the steep hill that was. He seemed to get very impatient about the other horses in front going slow to be a bit more careful going down the hill, so he tried to take a shortcut, going off the clear path where the hill got even steeper, I was worried as it would have been so much easier for the horse and myself to fall over if he had carried on attempting to descend that way, and no matter how much I tried to control him, he wouldn't listen, so the instructor came over, grabbed the reigns and helped get the horse on track.
Not going to lie, but I was terrified about getting on the horse, but calming words from my friend reassured me that I would be OK! We went to a place outside of Santiago called Parque Cascada de Animas in Cajón de Maipo, which turned out to be one of the nicest places I have seen since being here. There was a clearly different change of pace here than in Santiago. In Santiago I am constantly surrounded by construction, traffic, terrible air quality and the hustle and bustle that comes with living in an urban metropolis! But out in Cajón de Maipo, we were greeted with a lovely rural sprawl with a much more laid back pace of life.
Cascada de Animas was an adventure park, or at least that is how I would describe it. They were situated in a perfect area, with easy access to routes through the Andes and a soothing river passing straight through. They were offering both horse-riding and zip-lining, but we only got to do the former. However, before even going horse-riding, we went for a meal in the only restaurant in the park. At best, the food was ok with undercooked chips and crusty cheese in my sandwich, but the atmosphere was lovely, with a huge indoor fireplace, great views and awesome company.
After the meal, it was time to go horse riding. My nerves were building, but it turned out that I had nothing to fear. My horse Parrol and I had a love-hate relationship. On the way up he was fine, just a little lazy. We were at the back of our group because he couldn't be bothered to run no matter how many times I kicked him! He only ran when he wanted to, but he didn't stop and try to eat grass like some of the other one's every time they got a bit hungry.
The view at the top was beautiful, overlooking the snowy peaks of the Andes and a wide valley made for some awesome photo opportunities. Many selfies were taken, many group selfies were taken, and even some fantastic non-selfies!
The way back down was a different story. First, a pack of wild horses started running towards us all, which meant that all the horses we were riding started running out of fear, and I remember there was one girl behind me who lost control of her horse and it almost took her into a bunch of trees away from the group until one of the instructors saved her! Thankfully, Parrol was fine and kept his cool, until we tried to descend the steep hill that was. He seemed to get very impatient about the other horses in front going slow to be a bit more careful going down the hill, so he tried to take a shortcut, going off the clear path where the hill got even steeper, I was worried as it would have been so much easier for the horse and myself to fall over if he had carried on attempting to descend that way, and no matter how much I tried to control him, he wouldn't listen, so the instructor came over, grabbed the reigns and helped get the horse on track.
There is a picture of me and good ol' Parrol! True bromance right there!
It was an exciting and awesome first experience horse-riding, and I hope I get to do it again some day!
But that is what I have been up to as of late! Apologies for the gap in between writing a new article, Uni work has been building up, and I've had to start practising French again to stop myself from forgetting everything!
Until next time!
It was an exciting and awesome first experience horse-riding, and I hope I get to do it again some day!
But that is what I have been up to as of late! Apologies for the gap in between writing a new article, Uni work has been building up, and I've had to start practising French again to stop myself from forgetting everything!
Until next time!