Yes: COANIL and the Valley of Cholchagua

      Well, it's been a pretty busy week because everyone has been placed into their service work assignments. I was placed at COANIL which is a school for the mentally handicapped. I help out at the Flor de Arte portion, where the students paint, draw, and sculpt. Their art is then sold to fund the program. I also help with administrative work and with physical activities. For example, this week I helped students paint paper mache projects in the workshop, worked in a room where students were learning how to dance the cueca, which is Chile's national dance, and then organized files for the administrative department. I am really enjoying working here, especially because everyone is really nice and open. The first day I received a lot of hugs from a student named Martin and even received a drawing with a bunch of red hearts on it. When the weather gets better, my group is going to work on fixing up their garden so that it can be a place where everyone can hang out during the summer. So, on this front, everything is going very well.

        This weekend, we went to the Valley of Cholchagua, which is two hours south of Chile by bus and is considered the agricultural region. We stayed at a five star hotel where I experienced the best buffets of my life! The best part is, Chileans do not slack on their desserts, so I ate about a plateful with every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We visited two different vineyards, one of which was called La Vina de Santa Cruz. Despite hating the taste of alcohol, I even said yes to wine tasting, although my friend Sara was more than happy to finish off most of my glasses for me. 

This picture is of the Montegras Vineyard.

 The lady in this picture is Dr. Anissa Rogers. Does she look tired? Because she is. All the time. Mainly because she also has two really cute, but very young kids who are also on the trip. Her kids are really fun to watch when you don't feel like paying attention to how wine is made!

 Here are the barrels where the maturing wine is kept!

 Some of the kids in my class were able to drink wine out of these big boys!

 This is the outside area at Hotel Santa Cruz!

This is the Santa Cruz Vineyard!

 They even had alpacas! They were definitely the best part of the visit, in my humble opinion.

So, this is what I have been up to! Stuffing myself with delicious desserts, attempting wine tasting, and visiting alpacas! Next week I believe we are going to be visiting Ruca Mapuche, so I will keep everyone updated on that. I hope that you all are doing well! I love you! More pictures next week!