The most AMAZING 6 days!

So I am probably the luckiest person and I just had the most amazing 6 days of my life! So yesterday I got the experience of a lifetime and went to see Paul McCartney in concert.  As many of you know I am a huge huge Beatles fan and my dream since I was about 10 years old has been to see Paul.  I really never though it would come true and had frankly given up.  I still said that if I could meet once person or see one person in concert it would be him but I never thought it would actually happen because he never came to California.  But then he HAPPENED to be in Santiago, Chile, during the 6 month span that I am living in Santiago Chile.  I would call that fate.  I went to the concert by myself and had the most incredible time.  He played for almost 3 hours straight and I sang the entire time.  Every time a Beatles song would start I would get the chills and I have to admit I definitely did tear up at least 10 times.  Half the time I wasn't even moving because I was in shock.  He would just causally start playing Let it Be or Lady Madonna or Lovely Rita and I would be singing along and then realize "I am listening to PAUL MCCARTNEY sing this right now and I am singing with him".  I would just start laughing to myself like a crazy person because it was too unthinkable.  It was unreal.  His voice was perfect and although he struggles a little now with the higher notes (he is 71) he had so much energy and movement on stage and it was just REMARKABLE! One of the greatest memories I will cherish forever.  I also took a bunch of videos and have a gorgeous version of Blackbird recorded but it won't let me upload them.  Oh well!

The venue was pretty tiny in comparison to other's i've been in and this was where my seat was!

 So... the other amazing days were spent in Pucon.  Pucon is a little town that is a 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago.  We arrived Thursday morning and checked into our hostel and got settled.  Then, us being us, decided we needed to move a little and would go on a little bike ride, which turned into a 4 hours mountain biking excursion and it was through these beautiful hills.  We finally arrived at our destination, a little lake with waterfalls and beautiful water but we could only stay for about 30 minutes because we had only rented our bikes for 4 hours and it had taken a lot longer than we thought to get there ha.  It was still beautiful though!

we found a pig friend while biking :)

the little water falls

beautiful tree roots next to the water

My friends and I sitting eatin some bananas after our bike ride.  We couldn't feel our butts they were SOOOOO bruised it was awful ha. Left to right (Ida- Sweedish girl who lives with Kelsey and Kathleen, Kelsey, Kathleen, Owen- another guy from our group who goes to UCSC, me and my big sweaty hair)

On Saturday of our trip I did one of the most uncomfortable/un Becca Kutlow like things I could have ever done.  I climbed a 4200 meter snowy active volcano.  By about 8 am we had all of our gear on and were at the parking lot of the volcano.  We paid for a ski lift up to cut off an hour of walking on boring dirt and arrived at the snow.

Putting on helmets and gloves and sunscreen we then began the ascent.  We had a group of 25 people and 6 guides who were incredible and knew what they were doing (thats for you Dad ;) ) After 40 minutes we took a break to put on our crampons, which are the spikes you add to the bottom of your boots.  Those were life savers! They just make your steps so stable and I had no fear of falling.  We also had an ice pick/ax which we used as a walking stick.  The ascent was steep and snowy and it just kept getting steeper! They led us at an amazing pace, however, so I never felt like I was really that exhausted.  A little over half way the other agencies started turning their groups around because it was too icy so I thought that we weren't going to make it all the way up.  our guides, however, plopped us down on some rocks and decided that we would wait a little and see if it melted.  15 minutes later the sun popped out and we were able to make it because the ice began to melt.  There was a point in the last hour or so when it got extremely steep and I started having slight anxiety about what I was doing and freaking out because it was so darn high.

When we finally made it to the top I felt so relieved, excited, thrilled, happy and content.  It was incredible  You could see EVERYTHING and the crater was letting out smoke and it smelled like sulfur.  You could also see 2 more volcanos from our view and it was remarkable.  As we started the descent I was freaking out and so nervous but it really wasn't that bad. The people around me helped a lot by talking to me and I think the crampons made a huge difference.  They made me feel like I was so secure and just gave me more confidence.  Once we got to the halfway point we were able to sled down a huge portion! We strapped padding to our butts and used the ice pick as a break and just flew down the mountain.  It was one of the greatest things ever! It was honestly so much fun and again I wasn't even scared! It was just such an incredible experience for me because its something I'll never be able to do again and its something I NEVER thought I would do.  It was crazy.  Crampons and an icepick?!

the crater with smoke coming out!

Kelsey Kathleen and I

Ida and I 

smoking crater!

Kathleen and I our last day sharing a smoothie :)

Wool gloves that I bought!

This is the black sand beach where I journaled the last day.  It was easter so I was thinking a lot about Grandma Carol and had a really amazing talk with myself and her haha.  It meant so much to me that I climbed this amazing volcano the weekend of her passing and was able to honor her in such an incredible way.  She was so adventurous and loved traveling and I felt like she would have been very proud of me :) Shout out to Shma!