Planes

So I've decided I really need to get off my butt and start making plans for the rest of my time in South America. Like, taking trips around Chile to take advantage of my free time here, and start thinking about what I can do in Peru so that I can really set something up. It turns out that this "bum around and see what falls into my lap" thing isn't jibing with me too well. Although I've definitely enjoyed the relaxation of the past month and a half, I really haven't accomplished much and unless I have a lot to do I'm pretty lazy. And in terms of taking trips, I need to step up and start planning because when I try to relax and let other people take charge, I get stressed out when things fall apart or come together at the last minute!

For example, this past weekend was a long weekend (apparently they celebrate Columbus Day all throughout the Americas), and I was going to go to the coast (Vina del Mar and Valparaiso) with Renata (from Brazil), Terri, and Erin (from California). It was originally Renata and Terri's idea, I was deferring to them to plan--I thought we might need hostel reservations in advance because it was a long weekend. But since Renata and Erin are no longer in school we had to communicate over email (and in Spanish, since Renata is much more comfortable in Spanish than English), which was slow. Finally, on Thursday night we decided not to go because Terri and Renata wanted to save money and Erin had to work. So a lot of planning stress for nothing. The weekend ended up being enjoyable--we all got together for dinner and went to a party on Saturday night--but still.

This weekend I might be going to Mendoza (Argentina), which if works out should be nice--Mendoza is supposed to be pretty, cheap, and I need to go at some point to renew my visa--but at the moment the trip is a bit of a planning mess. I would prefer to go next weekend, simply because this weekend is only 2 days away and I would like to plan better. I'll be traveling with Geert, and he doesn't care which weekend but since he has to work he has to leave on Friday night and return on Sunday night. I'd prefer to travel at least one way during the day since the trip over the mountains is supposed to be gorgeous, and I'm kind of hoping that with more notice he could take a day off work. But Erin and Peter are going this weekend, and can't go next weekend because Erin has to work, so since it would be fun to hang out with a few more people there, we'll probably join them. But they will be going on Thursday night and we would be going on Friday night, and we don't have bus tickets yet and there are fewer buses that run overnight, so it might not work out in the end anyway...vamos a ver.

p.s.--in case any non-spanish speakers are wondering what this post has to do with airplanes, it doesn't--planes=plans, i.e. the plural of plan.