Settling

With only two weeks left in Chile, plus one in Buenos Aires, I feel like I'm finally getting settled and therefore am starting to get really sad to leave. As much as I miss everyone, I've finally found a niche and settled into a routine and now will have to leave it all behind. But that is going abroad for you. Some adventures I've been up to lately...

My friend Kaia lives close to this place that has salsa dancing lessons every Tuesday night for about $3, so we've been going for a while. It's a lot of fun. I'm still not very good but when you dance with someone who knows what they're doing it feels like I am. The best part is that I have finally made some Chilean friends. It's been a lot of fun, esp since one of them has a car. Chileans are pretty funny and they always crack me up. We've discussed Chilean politics and US politics (they generally like Obama, although remain understandably skeptical). We also discuss cultural issues, such as their outrage that the Latin American character on Captain Planet is the lame one ("heart!").

I recently went with the car-owning friend, Emmanuel, and a couple other exchange students on a wine tour. One of them was German and can I pause here and express my love for Germans? There are a bunch of them here and I have yet to meet one that isn't awesome. I should have gone with Kate lol. Anyway, the wine tasting was definitely the most pretentious thing I have ever done in my life. Apparently it even matters what the shape of the glass is (I have drank piscola out of a coffee mug so I am not too picky). But Emmanuel knows a lot about wine so his enthusiasm made it fun.

I'm getting a good wine-taste out of this one, with just a hint of fermented grapes

I guess I should explain for the non-winos that Chile is one of the largest producers of wine in the world. The area around Santiago has a Mediterranean climate so they brought a bunch of vines over from Europe in colonial times. In fact, Chile has a few varieties that were wiped out by a disease in Europe. I'm no expert but I have generally liked the wine here. Let me know if you have any requests for souvenirs.

We also went to Reserva Nacional Radal Siete Tazas, a little-known park at the end of a miserable dirt/rock road. It was worth it though--there are some awesome waterfalls called the Siete Tazas, which means Seven Cups, so called because it forms a series of pools that resemble cups. It was formed by glaciars or something, I'm not really sure as the signs were in Spanish. The water is a really nice shade of blue though.

Siete Tazas

In other news, classes ended this week (!!!) Someone mentioned that I don't talk about my classes very much on my blog. That is because they are (were) a miserable waste of time and I hated them and that is all I will say on the matter. BUT before I was able to go free I had to survive finals week. It honestly was nothing compared to finals at AU, but since it was the first time since December I've had to do any work it kind of sucked.

On top of the papers and studying I had to make up other stuff I missed while traveling (arguably a much better use of my time). For one class we went on a field trip to a preschool/daycare in a really poor part of Santiago. It was really interesting, the barrio (Puente Alto) only has 2 preschools, one hospital, and a handful of upper schools/bus stops. This preschool is free for local families and provides the kids a safe place to play and basic education. The kids were sooo cute too! I know I have limited experience but I'm pretty sure Chilean babies are the cutest babies in the world. I have yet to see an ugly one.

I also had to go to a play for my retarded Spanish class, but I ended up leaving after half an hour because the actress was just screaming into the phone and I didn't understand a word she said. Plus I don't pretend to enjoy theater. There are much better ways to experience Chilean culture.

Aka at a Chilean bar. I went with my C. friends the other night to the Piojera, a "typical Chilean bar." It was bumpin! Full of college kids and people playing the guitar and dancing the cueca (the national dance, which Emmanuel taught me at salsa--so fun). I did, however, have my first run-in with anti-Americanism. For those of you oblivious to history, the US has really done a number on Latin America. Between overthrowing presidents and supporting dictators and imposing crappy economic plans, it's understandable that they would be a little bitter. But so far I have never felt uncomfortable or discriminated against (besides the frequent catcalls). This one guy at the Piojera, though, kept talking about how much he doesn't like the US gov't and how he thinks Americans and arrogant. He kept telling me not to judge the "dark-haired Americans." I was like, dude, I'm here with Chilean friends. He never got mean about it, but it was still a little uncomfortable.

To end on a lighter note, though, my host family has recently acquired a puppy. Coté's friend found a litter on the highway and passed them out to her friends. She is super cute and tiny but also super annoying. When she whines (which is frequent) she sounds like Pippin's squeaky toy. She also likes to chew on everything, including my pants. While I'm wearing them. But she is a puppy. So far she doesn't have a name so I've just been calling her Chiquitita. María calls her Ridicula lol.

Her sweater is a cut-up sock. Also it was really hard to get her to hold still for a pic.

Next week I will be incommunicado due to my trip to EASTER FREAKING ISLAND. Apparently on last year's trip half the group made out with the Polynesians while others drove a rented motorcycle into the ocean. I do not intend to do either of these things but I'm anticipating an awesome week. Chau chau!

I forgot to link to my facebook pics

Here it is.

Some Like It Variably Hot and Freezing

Stardate 5.18.2009. Just returned from expedition to the Atacama Desert. Located in northern Chile, it is the most arid place in the world. There are parts that never see rain. And yes, I did see Star Trek recently, why do you ask?

San Pedro de Atacama
The base of the desert trips is San Pedro, a tiny town in the middle of the desert. To get there I took metro=>bus=>plane to Calama=>bus to San Pedro. The town was all dirt roads and had one main street with a few restaurants, a number of shops, and millions of tour companies. They all offered the same tours but prices varied so you had to shop around. The plaza had this little colonial church that was cute but not cute enough to be on all the souvenirs like it was.

Salar de Atacama
In the middle of the desert is a giant salt flat, caused by an upwelling of water from the mountains that evaporates in the heat and leaves behind the salts and minerals it was carrying. I didn't see much of the salar since I only had a half day (apparently there is a large colony of flamingos), but we did go to one pool, Laguna Cejas. The water in the pool is 80% saline so you float, just like in the Dead Sea. The weird thing was that the water at the top was cold but the deeper parts were boiling hot.

After that we were all salt-encrusted so they took us over to another freshwater pool to wash off. It was a 6-foot jump into freezing water, though, so I opted for the portable shower the guide had on the bus. Then we went to a different lake, where I performed a miracle.

Ta da!

Just kidding. This lake had a very shallow layer of water over a base of salt, so it gave off a good reflection and the illusion of walking on water. Still pretty cool. We stayed there for the sunset and pisco sour. The nice thing about Chilean tours is that they usually include food and/or alcohol.

El Tatio Geysers
The next morning I got up at the lovely hour of 3:30 to witness geology in action. We drove for two hours through the dark and arrived at the geothermal field at 6:30, just in time for the geysers to wake up. Another fun fact about Chilean tours: to be a tour guide you must first be proven certifiably insane. So our guide (i didn't catch his name, but it was probably Juan Pablo. Everyone in this country is named Juan Pablo) led us over to a hole in the ground and starting talking about how geysers work while we all peer in. Then he said, "Oh, hear that bubbling? It's ready! Let's back up." Not 20 seconds later the thing erupts with boiling hot water.

Juan Pablo and I huddle in the warmth of the geyser

We were fairly high up, approx. 4500 m (almost 15,000 ft). It was also extremely cold-- 15 below in Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but it was freaking cold. Once the sun came up though it got warm pretty quickly. It was also beautiful seeing the sun come over the mountains and light up the billowing columns of steam. Definitely worth braving the early morning cold.

On the way back the guide kept spouting some nonsense about morraines and underground rivers. I didn't really care, but the scenery was wonderful. We saw some cool wildlife (that I am obliged to tell you about :)-- vicuñas, smaller cousin of the llama and guanaco; Andean geese, which mate for life; vischazas, mountain rabbits or, as JP said, "Chilean wallabies"; and a couple foxes. We also stopped in this little village (pop. 6) to get some lunch. They had llama kebobs and llama empanadas. Let me tell you, llamas are delicious! There was also a lady with a baby llama but she charged a mil to take a picture of it so I don't have one.

Llama kebob!

Sandboarding and Valle de la Luna
That afternoon (after a nap, of course) i went on yet another tour, this time to the Valles de la Muerte y Luna. In Valle de la Muerte (which literally translates to Valley of Death but is supposed to be Valley of Mars) I went sandboarding. It was so much fun! It's basically snowboarding on a sand dune. I was embarrassingly bad at it, of course, and I do not exaggerate when I say my underpants were full of sand. If they had given me sand skis I would have been queen of the dune. It was exhausting, not least because there was no lift of any sort. You had to carry your board up the dune.

You can tell I'm posing because I'm upright

Then we popped over to Valle de la Lune (Valley of the Moon) for the sunset. I've wanted to go to this place since my freshman year of college when we watched a movie about it in my Spanish class. The valley is desolate of life because it never gets rain, and it has a bunch of really weird rock formations carved out by the wind. All in all it resembles an extraterrestrial landscape. Unfortunately, we got there right as the sun was setting so I didn't get to see very much of the valley. I would have liked more time there but it was a short trip so I had to be selective. It was still really cool though. Definitely a boom de yada experience.

To boldy go where no man has gone before...

Boom de yada!

And finally, a big shout out to my hermanito Raleigh who graduated from high school last Saturday. So exciting! The lucky kid won a flat screen tv at the postgraduation party too. He's going to the Mississippi U. for Women in the fall, entering their culinary arts and honors programs. Goooo Raleigh! : D

A Word on the Chilean Health Care System

It's pretty good.

Monday night after dinner me and my entire host family (except Nelson) got violently ill. The mayonnaise is the prime suspect. Maria ended up taking Coté and I to the clinic, where I got an IV bag of medicine, much to my delight (not). When we got home at 2:30 am Nelsito was really sick, so poor Maria (who wasn't feeling well herself) took him back to the clinic. The entire family stayed home on Tuesday to recuperate. I just laid in my bed dozing and watching tv, and let me tell you, there was nothing good on. Even Friends was bad, they're showing the last season. But the good news is we are all feeling much better and I will be able to make my trip to San Pedro this weekend (the bad news being I had to go back to class today).

The point of this whole story is that I will not being eating mayo for a long time.

El Carrete

Chileans take their nightlife very seriously. There is even a special word for it, "el carrete." Basically, you go to the bar around midnight, hang out for a little, then go to the club at around 2. Seriously, the clubs are empty before 1:30. You stay at the club until it closes (sometime between 4:30 and 5) and then get something to eat, usually a completo (hot dog smothered in mayo, avocado and tomato--super gross) or McDonald's. Then you go home and sleep in til the next afternoon. This usually occurs on Friday and Saturday nights, although really Chileans will go out on any day of the week. Not to say I do this all the time--I've only been out that late twice this semester--but it sure is a lot of fun, even when you go home early (aka 3).

Most of the places are either reggaeton or American 80s music. The artists you are guarenteed to hear at a Chilean club are Madonna, KC, and the Bee Gees. Michael Jackson gets a good amount of air time as well. I'm not a big fan of the reggaeton, and as much as I like the 80s, I do miss good ol' hip-hop.

This weekend we rented out a small bar for Julie's bday. We all dressed up in ridiculous 80s clothes and danced to 80s music/Taylor Swift (cause she was born in the 80s)(barely). It was a pretty sweet time. It's going to be weird back in the States going out at 10pm.

Dolphin Video

It's not the highest quality, and please ignore my retarded comments in the background.... but it's still has more of a plot than No Country for Old Men! HEY-OOO!




Special thanks to Cary for formatting my incompetent filmmaking

Exciting Dork Opportunities Abound in La Serena!

Hello faithful followers (what few I have left). You'll be happy to know that I only have about a month left in this fair country. Unfortunately for you, that month includes three major trips, so you're not doing hearing from me just yet.

SOOO this weekend I went to La Serena, the second oldest city in Chile (says my guidebook, while failing to mention the first). I went by myself (GASP) and everything went fine (whew). I wanted to try traveling by myself 1) just to see if I could, 2) so I can selfishly do whatever I want, and 3) cause everyone else went to San Pedro this weekend and I am going there later. Don't worry though, nothing happened, I had a lot of fun, and I met a lot of cool people.

I left on Thursday night since we didn't have classes Friday. I did not, however, connect in my head that i didn't have classes because it was a national holiday and because it was a national holiday many other things were closed too. So there wasn't much to do on Friday. The tour I thought I'd reserved for that day was pushed back to Sat, so I just wandered the city center for a while. It's a really nice town, with lots of colonial architecture. I also walked down to the beach (with my entourage of stray dogs) but it was cold and windy so I didn't stay long.

Old church

That night I went to the Mamalluca Observatory. This part of Chile has some of the clearest skies in the world, so there are a lot of European and US observatories in the area. It's really hard to see them, though, since people are always doing research, so Chile built Mamalluca specifically for public use. I intended to do the tour in Spanish but there were only four people in the English group so I went with them. I'm 100% sure I learned way more that way, and I got to use the telescope more (there were like 60 people in the Spanish group).

IT WAS SO COOL. We got to look through the big telescope with the moving dome and everything. I saw Saturn, the moon way up close, Alpha Centauri (which you can only see from the Southern Hemisphere), red and blue stars, star clusters, and a nebula. After that we went outside and the guide showed us a bunch of constellations, such as the Southern Cross, also only visible from the S.H. Also, while the Greeks and Egyptians only saw animals in the stars, the Incas had constellations in the dark parts of the Milky Way (a llama-what else?). Cap everything off with a pisco sour and it was a pretty fantastic night.

The telescope I looked through (photo not mine, obviously)


The guide took this picture for me through the telescope. So cool!

Saturday I finally got my tour to Isla Damas worked out (that was, after all, what I came to LS for). We drove for a while (almost 2 hours) through a semi-desert. Chile has the largest variety of cacti in the world--who knew? We stopped to take pictures of the guanaco again lol. So many guanaco! Since it was such a long ride I got to know the girl next to me, Anais, who is from Montreal working as a nanny in Santiago.

In Punto Chorros we got aboard our tiny boat and set out for Isla Chorros, part of the National Reserve for Humboldt Penguins. Everyone was super excited for the animals, esp the dolphins. The people in front of me kept jumping up everytime they saw anything, even a wave breaking, I thought they were going to tip the boat over. But then we found them! And they were jumping and splashing and swimming around right next to the boat! I couldn't get a very good picture, and Cary needs to fix my video, but just know that it was super cool. And be jealous.

Yay!

Hold stillll

We also saw some penguins and sea lions, although not as many as I'd expected. Maybe they were out to lunch, or on another part of the island, but I expected a colony and we only saw like 6. But still, it was pretty cool. After about an hour and a half we went over to Isla Damas where you could get out and walk around, although there wasn't really much else to do. Then they took us back and gave us lunch and I slept the entire way back.

Humboldt penguin, the second smallest in the world

When we got back to LS Anais and I decided to go around to the ferias for a while. She invited me to dinner at her friend's house in Coquimbo with whom she was staying (Coquimbo runs into LS like Viña does with Valpo). After dinner we went out in Coquimbo to Barrio Ingles, which was *bumpin'*. We went to a bar with a great live band covering classics like Clapton and CCR, and I had a papaya sour, which was amazingly even better than pisco sour. I was super tired though so I left at 2:30 (lame by Chilean standards).

The weather this whole time had been cloudy and chilly, but Sunday, of course, was gorgeous. I had to get back to Santiago before the metro closed though, so I didn't get to enjoy it. We got stuck in really bad traffic on the way back so I almost missed the metro anyway. But all in all, it was a great trip, and the travelers I met really inspired me to drop out of school and backpack across South America. I'll see you all in a few years!*

I'm on a boat!

Haz click para ver fotos

*Just kidding, parents.