I arrived at MSP at 5:10am on Friday, June 19. My dad was kind enough to drive me up from our house to the airport at that very early hour. I got my luggage and headed for the Midwest Airline desk. The line took longer than expected, but I eventually learned that this was because the plane to Washington was canceled. This actually was a blessing in disguise. The Midwest employees booked me a flight on the non-stop Northwest/Delta flight to Washington, which left at 7:15. My flight originally was suppose to have a layover in Milwaukee and the Mitchell airport has no food or decent things to do, so it would have been extremely boring. The nonstop flight was a very nice surprise. I got into Washington at 10:20, 20 minutes earlier than expected.
National airport (actually Reagan National Airport, but I don’t like the fact that it’s named after the former president who fired the air-traffic controllers) was pretty old, but the thousands of photos of the Obama family made a good democrat like me pretty happy. I walked to the luggage carousel to pick up my backpack. My buddy, Will Lessard, came to pick me up at the airport. Will and I met during my study abroad program in Santiago, Chile. It was great to see him again. We drove from National to his friend Kay’s house, which was just north of the Capitol building. Will parked there and we took the X2 bus to Union Station and made our way over the Capitol.
We were going to go through the new multi-million dollar capitol visitor’s center, but the line was a little long, so we decided instead to go over to the Supreme Court building to take a tour. I have never toured the Supreme Court building, so I was pretty excited. We did out own little tour and watched a short video on the court, which did not really teach me anything, but was fun nonetheless. I walked by a courtyard and saw Justice Stephen Breyer eating lunch with some young people, probably talking about some really cool judicial ruling or case. I was quite jealous and felt a little like a stalker. We sat through a lecture in the actual Supreme Court chambers, which was pretty interesting.
After the Supreme Court, Will and I went to Union Station to eat lunch. Will got Greek food and I got pizza. It was pretty good and after the food we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I haven’t been to this Smithsonian. They had a great exhibit on the ocean and we went to see the Hope Diamond. The Diamond was pretty, but to be totally honest, I thought it was too big and would not complement very many women very well. I think that women should stick with smaller diamonds because they are more classy and of course less expensive.
We went to the Washington Monument, but the tickets to go to the top for the day were sold out. So Will and I just chilled on the grass, and Will climbed a tree with some kids. Dan came after he was done with work to meet us. We headed back to Roslyn, Virginia – just across the Potomac from Georgetown. Will left us to meet up with his friend Kay, and Dan and I ate dinner at Chipolte. Dan took this time to comment on all the news tickers to me. The headlines of the day included the Iranian Election protests, Roland Burris’ perjury charges, and Secretary Hillary Clinton’s broken elbow. After dinner, we walked back to Dan’s place about a block away from Georgetown University. I met his roommates. Dan’s apartment was really pretty nice. He has a room to himself with two bunk beds, so I had a nice place to sleep. Dan had been out the night before and not gotten very much sleep and since I was packing the night before I left, I hadn’t got much sleep either. We both wanted to meet up with Will again later to go to the bars on M street, but were really tired, so we took naps and left the apartment around 10pm to go out and meet Will. I felt a lot like a Chilean.
We ended up meeting Will’s friend Kay and some of her friends. We went to three bars before finding the Guard a bar in Georgetown that didn’t have a cover and had really good music and a good atmosphere. Dan and I ended up closing the bar at 3am, and slowly made our way back to his apartment. We got back to his apartment around 4:30 and ended up chatting awhile before falling asleep. It was a pretty good time. It was great to see Will and meet his friends and of course Dan was a ton of fun as always.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Washington, DC - DAY 1
I arrived at MSP at 5:10am on Friday, June 19. My dad was kind enough to drive me up from our house to the airport at that very early hour. I got my luggage and headed for the Midwest Airline desk. The line took longer than expected, but I eventually learned that this was because the plane to Washington was canceled. This actually was a blessing in disguise. The Midwest employees booked me a flight on the non-stop Northwest/Delta flight to Washington, which left at 7:15. My flight originally was suppose to have a layover in Milwaukee and the Mitchell airport has no food or decent things to do, so it would have been extremely boring. The nonstop flight was a very nice surprise. I got into Washington at 10:20, 20 minutes earlier than expected.
National airport (actually Reagan National Airport, but I don’t like the fact that it’s named after the former president who fired the air-traffic controllers) was pretty old, but the thousands of photos of the Obama family made a good democrat like me pretty happy. I walked to the luggage carousel to pick up my backpack. My buddy, Will Lessard, came to pick me up at the airport. Will and I met during my study abroad program in Santiago, Chile. It was great to see him again. We drove from National to his friend Kay’s house, which was just north of the Capitol building. Will parked there and we took the X2 bus to Union Station and made our way over the Capitol.
We were going to go through the new multi-million dollar capitol visitor’s center, but the line was a little long, so we decided instead to go over to the Supreme Court building to take a tour. I have never toured the Supreme Court building, so I was pretty excited. We did out own little tour and watched a short video on the court, which did not really teach me anything, but was fun nonetheless. I walked by a courtyard and saw Justice Stephen Breyer eating lunch with some young people, probably talking about some really cool judicial ruling or case. I was quite jealous and felt a little like a stalker. We sat through a lecture in the actual Supreme Court chambers, which was pretty interesting.
After the Supreme Court, Will and I went to Union Station to eat lunch. Will got Greek food and I got pizza. It was pretty good and after the food we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I haven’t been to this Smithsonian. They had a great exhibit on the ocean and we went to see the Hope Diamond. The Diamond was pretty, but to be totally honest, I thought it was too big and would not complement very many women very well. I think that women should stick with smaller diamonds because they are more classy and of course less expensive.
We went to the Washington Monument, but the tickets to go to the top for the day were sold out. So Will and I just chilled on the grass, and Will climbed a tree with some kids. Dan came after he was done with work to meet us. We headed back to Roslyn, Virginia – just across the Potomac from Georgetown. Will left us to meet up with his friend Kay, and Dan and I ate dinner at Chipolte. Dan took this time to comment on all the news tickers to me. The headlines of the day included the Iranian Election protests, Roland Burris’ perjury charges, and Secretary Hillary Clinton’s broken elbow. After dinner, we walked back to Dan’s place about a block away from Georgetown University. I met his roommates. Dan’s apartment was really pretty nice. He has a room to himself with two bunk beds, so I had a nice place to sleep. Dan had been out the night before and not gotten very much sleep and since I was packing the night before I left, I hadn’t got much sleep either. We both wanted to meet up with Will again later to go to the bars on M street, but were really tired, so we took naps and left the apartment around 10pm to go out and meet Will. I felt a lot like a Chilean.
We ended up meeting Will’s friend Kay and some of her friends. We went to three bars before finding the Guard a bar in Georgetown that didn’t have a cover and had really good music and a good atmosphere. Dan and I ended up closing the bar at 3am, and slowly made our way back to his apartment. We got back to his apartment around 4:30 and ended up chatting awhile before falling asleep. It was a pretty good time. It was great to see Will and meet his friends and of course Dan was a ton of fun as always.
National airport (actually Reagan National Airport, but I don’t like the fact that it’s named after the former president who fired the air-traffic controllers) was pretty old, but the thousands of photos of the Obama family made a good democrat like me pretty happy. I walked to the luggage carousel to pick up my backpack. My buddy, Will Lessard, came to pick me up at the airport. Will and I met during my study abroad program in Santiago, Chile. It was great to see him again. We drove from National to his friend Kay’s house, which was just north of the Capitol building. Will parked there and we took the X2 bus to Union Station and made our way over the Capitol.
We were going to go through the new multi-million dollar capitol visitor’s center, but the line was a little long, so we decided instead to go over to the Supreme Court building to take a tour. I have never toured the Supreme Court building, so I was pretty excited. We did out own little tour and watched a short video on the court, which did not really teach me anything, but was fun nonetheless. I walked by a courtyard and saw Justice Stephen Breyer eating lunch with some young people, probably talking about some really cool judicial ruling or case. I was quite jealous and felt a little like a stalker. We sat through a lecture in the actual Supreme Court chambers, which was pretty interesting.
After the Supreme Court, Will and I went to Union Station to eat lunch. Will got Greek food and I got pizza. It was pretty good and after the food we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I haven’t been to this Smithsonian. They had a great exhibit on the ocean and we went to see the Hope Diamond. The Diamond was pretty, but to be totally honest, I thought it was too big and would not complement very many women very well. I think that women should stick with smaller diamonds because they are more classy and of course less expensive.
We went to the Washington Monument, but the tickets to go to the top for the day were sold out. So Will and I just chilled on the grass, and Will climbed a tree with some kids. Dan came after he was done with work to meet us. We headed back to Roslyn, Virginia – just across the Potomac from Georgetown. Will left us to meet up with his friend Kay, and Dan and I ate dinner at Chipolte. Dan took this time to comment on all the news tickers to me. The headlines of the day included the Iranian Election protests, Roland Burris’ perjury charges, and Secretary Hillary Clinton’s broken elbow. After dinner, we walked back to Dan’s place about a block away from Georgetown University. I met his roommates. Dan’s apartment was really pretty nice. He has a room to himself with two bunk beds, so I had a nice place to sleep. Dan had been out the night before and not gotten very much sleep and since I was packing the night before I left, I hadn’t got much sleep either. We both wanted to meet up with Will again later to go to the bars on M street, but were really tired, so we took naps and left the apartment around 10pm to go out and meet Will. I felt a lot like a Chilean.
We ended up meeting Will’s friend Kay and some of her friends. We went to three bars before finding the Guard a bar in Georgetown that didn’t have a cover and had really good music and a good atmosphere. Dan and I ended up closing the bar at 3am, and slowly made our way back to his apartment. We got back to his apartment around 4:30 and ended up chatting awhile before falling asleep. It was a pretty good time. It was great to see Will and meet his friends and of course Dan was a ton of fun as always.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Santiago con mi Mama
So, I flew back from Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early morning. I had finished my final draft of my thesis paper, but needed to get it bound in Santiago so that I could turn it in to the professor. I got off the plane and headed for the bus that would (cheaply) take me to the center of the city. I got on the bus and we started off for the center of the city. I felt in my pocket and my passport wasn't there. I was so frightened since my passport was always in my front pocket. I had the bus stop and get my stuff off the bus. I hitch-hiked back to the airport and ran to the information desk to see if there was any chance they had found a passport. They looked and, thank God, the passport was there. I gave the man who found the passport on the floor (it must have slipped out while I was going through my pockets). I boarded the bus again for the center of the city. My flight got in with enough time (including losing my passport and finding it again) for me to go into the center of the city and take the thesis to the printer to get published. After running a few errands, I went back to the airport to pick up my mom. By now all of the taxi drivers knew who I was and that I was looking for my mother... not to mention they all wanted to "help" take my mother and me to our hostel (for a price of course). My mom's flight got in around 12:30pm, however it took over 2 hours for her baggage to come to the carousel... so I waited nervously for her to come out of the international arrivals terminal. There is a window area where people who are waiting for people to get their bags can peer down to try and see their loved ones arriving. I went there to try and see if mom was there and I couldn't find her. Later, mom informed me that she was there and had seen me. When we finally saw each other the first thing mom said was "Look at your hair!" I started crying... I didn't realize how much I had missed my mom.
We let a taxi driver take us into the city to our hostel. When we got to the hostel mom told me that I had to take a shower (my flight left very early from Buenos Aires and I didn't have time to take a shower). So, I took a shower and then we were off to explore Santiago. We first went to pick up my published thesis paper and turn it in to my professor. We also stopped at the IFSA office to turn in a copy of the paper to the IFSA office. It was nice to introduce my mom to the people I had spent so much time with over the past few months. Mom was hungry so we had a very late lunch at a little cafe by the COPA office. She had a hamburger like sandwich and a couple beers, I had a natural juice. We walked through the Catholic University central building after lunch. It is a nice little courtyard with water fountains and a statue of pope john paul ii.
After Catolica, we went to Cerro Santa Lucia (Santa Lucia Hill). It is a small hill that has beautiful fountains, and a nice view of the city. We had planned on attending the ballet the next night, so after the hill we walked to the ballet ticket office, however it was closed. Since it was closed, we grabbed some ice cream and walked to the presidential palace. There were people who were setting up for what looked like a public concert. They also placed flowers at the statue of Salvador Allende (the president who was deposed by the military dictatorship in 1973)... so I think it was a rally of some sort. It was nice to see the sunset.
After sunset we took the metro to my host family's house for dinner. Mom met Veronica and Rafael and we had a very nice meal. After dinner we chatted for a little while, but took a bus back to our hostel where we both fell exhausted into bed.
According to mom we both slept like rocks. We slept in a little later then planned but went to the Consino Macul vineyard a little ways outside of the city. We took a combination of taxi and metro to get there. The vineyard was very nice and we tried a couple different wines and got to keep our glasses. I had to drop off my library books. Since we bought 4 bottles of wine, we went back to the hostel to drop off our wine. We took our extra luggage to my host family's house so that we didn't have to carry it around Chile as we were traveling. We went to the central market to have lunch. We ate a really nice lunch with lots of interesting entertainment from people who stopped by to talk to us. After lunch we walked to the central plaza to see the plaza, the cathedral, and to eat some ice cream. We went to the ballet to buy our tickets. We had "once" or tea at a little bakery and then went to the ballet. The ballet was very, very good. It included two more modern ballets and a classical one. After the ballet, we walked towards our hostel where we grabbed some 'liquids' as mom likes to call them, diet coke, juice, etc. We then watched some dancing water fountains that were lit up at night. It was very fun to see them. Mom felt pretty cold, so we ended up going to the hostel and going to bed.
We let a taxi driver take us into the city to our hostel. When we got to the hostel mom told me that I had to take a shower (my flight left very early from Buenos Aires and I didn't have time to take a shower). So, I took a shower and then we were off to explore Santiago. We first went to pick up my published thesis paper and turn it in to my professor. We also stopped at the IFSA office to turn in a copy of the paper to the IFSA office. It was nice to introduce my mom to the people I had spent so much time with over the past few months. Mom was hungry so we had a very late lunch at a little cafe by the COPA office. She had a hamburger like sandwich and a couple beers, I had a natural juice. We walked through the Catholic University central building after lunch. It is a nice little courtyard with water fountains and a statue of pope john paul ii.
After Catolica, we went to Cerro Santa Lucia (Santa Lucia Hill). It is a small hill that has beautiful fountains, and a nice view of the city. We had planned on attending the ballet the next night, so after the hill we walked to the ballet ticket office, however it was closed. Since it was closed, we grabbed some ice cream and walked to the presidential palace. There were people who were setting up for what looked like a public concert. They also placed flowers at the statue of Salvador Allende (the president who was deposed by the military dictatorship in 1973)... so I think it was a rally of some sort. It was nice to see the sunset.
After sunset we took the metro to my host family's house for dinner. Mom met Veronica and Rafael and we had a very nice meal. After dinner we chatted for a little while, but took a bus back to our hostel where we both fell exhausted into bed.
According to mom we both slept like rocks. We slept in a little later then planned but went to the Consino Macul vineyard a little ways outside of the city. We took a combination of taxi and metro to get there. The vineyard was very nice and we tried a couple different wines and got to keep our glasses. I had to drop off my library books. Since we bought 4 bottles of wine, we went back to the hostel to drop off our wine. We took our extra luggage to my host family's house so that we didn't have to carry it around Chile as we were traveling. We went to the central market to have lunch. We ate a really nice lunch with lots of interesting entertainment from people who stopped by to talk to us. After lunch we walked to the central plaza to see the plaza, the cathedral, and to eat some ice cream. We went to the ballet to buy our tickets. We had "once" or tea at a little bakery and then went to the ballet. The ballet was very, very good. It included two more modern ballets and a classical one. After the ballet, we walked towards our hostel where we grabbed some 'liquids' as mom likes to call them, diet coke, juice, etc. We then watched some dancing water fountains that were lit up at night. It was very fun to see them. Mom felt pretty cold, so we ended up going to the hostel and going to bed.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Guest Blogger: Samuel Friedman, Carleton College
I’m filling in for Matt on this post because Matt loves democracy and things like voting. He would have liked to experience this if he hadn’t had reservations to Robinson Crusoe Island.
Sundays are usually quiet in the residential community of Ñuñoa, with most stores closed and people generally relaxing or doing household chores. But there was a full-blown taco (traffic jam) outside my door when I went to accompany my host parents to the municipal elections. A host brother volunteered to shuttle us in the car, but we quickly realized that the 15 minute walk would be significantly slower driving.
Voting is obligatory in Chile –one of the most significant differences between their system and ours. That is, voting is obligatory for people to make the lifetime decision to register. Registered voters who don’t vote receive a traffic-ticket-like citation, and risk paying a fine of a bout US$30-200 if they don’t have a legitimate excuse. The deterrent has influenced plenty of young people I know from registering, at least thus far.
So although this was the type of local election that in the US might get thirty percent participation, here in Santiago it looked like everyone had been motivated one way or another to come out. Luckily it was a beautiful spring day, and most families didn’t seem to mind the civic duty. Walking to and from the polling place we ran into a couple of neighbors that my family hadn’t seen in a while.
Polling places are segregated by sex, another significant difference between the Chilean system and ours; this regulation goes back to the 1930’s when women first received suffrage. Large signs white signs at the intersections assigned voters to polling place. To divide things even more, polling places are assigned by where voters registered, and not by address: among the four members in my household, no one had the same polling place.
My host parents had polling places close to each other, a pair of high schools alongside the Plaza Ñuñoa. They weren’t sure if a foreigner would be allowed inside. I wasn’t sure why I wouldn’t be, but nonetheless walked quickly by the pair of uniformed –but not armed- soldiers who stood outside the high school. They didn’t seem to be controlling who entered the high school
My father’s polling place was fairly large: about a half dozen classrooms, each with a pair of voting stations. The completely male made me think of a urinals and Boy Scout meeting and Magic the Gathering tournaments. But otherwise it didn’t feel very different. The same long tables, and same private polling booths with blue curtains. The poll workers didn’t look any more tired even though their service –unlike ours- is compulsorily and not paid. Poll workers are assigned randomly from among registered voters every year.
It took about ten minutes for my host father to finish everything. Afterwards there was no “I voted” sticker, but the fingerprint he made in the voting register left him with a blue thumb.
Sundays are usually quiet in the residential community of Ñuñoa, with most stores closed and people generally relaxing or doing household chores. But there was a full-blown taco (traffic jam) outside my door when I went to accompany my host parents to the municipal elections. A host brother volunteered to shuttle us in the car, but we quickly realized that the 15 minute walk would be significantly slower driving.
Voting is obligatory in Chile –one of the most significant differences between their system and ours. That is, voting is obligatory for people to make the lifetime decision to register. Registered voters who don’t vote receive a traffic-ticket-like citation, and risk paying a fine of a bout US$30-200 if they don’t have a legitimate excuse. The deterrent has influenced plenty of young people I know from registering, at least thus far.
So although this was the type of local election that in the US might get thirty percent participation, here in Santiago it looked like everyone had been motivated one way or another to come out. Luckily it was a beautiful spring day, and most families didn’t seem to mind the civic duty. Walking to and from the polling place we ran into a couple of neighbors that my family hadn’t seen in a while.
Polling places are segregated by sex, another significant difference between the Chilean system and ours; this regulation goes back to the 1930’s when women first received suffrage. Large signs white signs at the intersections assigned voters to polling place. To divide things even more, polling places are assigned by where voters registered, and not by address: among the four members in my household, no one had the same polling place.
My host parents had polling places close to each other, a pair of high schools alongside the Plaza Ñuñoa. They weren’t sure if a foreigner would be allowed inside. I wasn’t sure why I wouldn’t be, but nonetheless walked quickly by the pair of uniformed –but not armed- soldiers who stood outside the high school. They didn’t seem to be controlling who entered the high school
My father’s polling place was fairly large: about a half dozen classrooms, each with a pair of voting stations. The completely male made me think of a urinals and Boy Scout meeting and Magic the Gathering tournaments. But otherwise it didn’t feel very different. The same long tables, and same private polling booths with blue curtains. The poll workers didn’t look any more tired even though their service –unlike ours- is compulsorily and not paid. Poll workers are assigned randomly from among registered voters every year.
It took about ten minutes for my host father to finish everything. Afterwards there was no “I voted” sticker, but the fingerprint he made in the voting register left him with a blue thumb.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
New Flickr Photos
Okay, yes I have been bad about blogging, I am sorry. I have a lot of draft blogs that are piling up and I need to sit down and finish them. Don't worry they will be coming soon. In the mean time, I have new pictures that are being downloaded on to the flickr site. Again, you can access these pictures from this link or from the slideshow on the right section of the blog, or the link that says "flickr" on the right side of the blog.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Trekking El Morado National Monument
Well, I did it! I bought a new tent here in Chile. It is a backpacking tent that is about 5.5 pounds and can be put up in just about 5-10 minutes. It hold two people. It was a pretty exciting purchase!
So, when one makes a purchase such as this one, what does it mean. Well, you have to go backpacking of course. That is exactly what me and Will Lessard (from Virginia) did this past weekend.
We did our planning on Friday and then went to the grocery store to buy our food. We bought stuff to make sandwiches and of course lots of snacks. After the store, I got into contact with Amy who earlier had called me asking if I wanted to go to a movie and get pizza with her. I thought this was a great idea. We ended up going to a movie called La Buena Vida.
It was a fantastic movie and most importantly it was the first all Spanish movie that I understood really, really well (which is very exciting). The movie basically goes with the premise that we are all much more interconnected then we think we are. It is a Chilean movie. I learned that Chilean films are subsidized by the government because otherwise the movies wouldn't be competitive here or in other places in the world. While this at first was strange to me, I think the truth is there could be better movies because of the subsidies. Instead of having just lots of sex, drugs, violence, and other stuff in movies, they can really attack important issues of the day.
After the movie Amy and I went to Pizza Hut (yeah not very Chilean) and ate pizza there that was SO good. I have missed pizza a lot since coming here. I have tried to fill the whole with empanadas, but the truth is, it just isn't the same.
After dinner and a long discussion of politics, I returned back to my apartment to pack for the big camping trip! I stayed up until almost 1:30 packing my stuff in my backpack for the trip, which made for a very short night.
The next morning I got and took a shower and headed out to the bus station where we would take a bus to Banos Morales in the mountains and Maipo Canyon region. We got there in time to buy our ticket and throw our bags in the back of the bus. Later we got on the bus and started our long (almost 3 hour) ride up to the little town. When we got there we walked up to the entrance to the El Morado National Monument and there was a big sign that read "No Camping in the Park unless you are climbing a mountain". So we didn't know what we were going to do. Normally, we would have just camped anyways, but to enter this park you have to pay an entrance fee and also explain your plan to the park ranger. We decided to try and convince the guy that we were going to do some practice mountain climbing. That didn't work he asked to see our gear. So we told him that we didn't have the required gear, so he told us we could only spend the day in the park. We paid the fee and started trekking in. The mountain "El Morado" was really cool looking. There are also glaciers in the national park, but we didn't get far enough to see them. We did get to spend some time hiking in the snow though and it was quite a bit of fun.
After a good hike in the park, we went back to the little hut with the park ranger to tell him we were out of the park. He informed us that we could either pay to pitch our tent in the little town or if we walked farther up the road we could find a place to pitch our tent for free. After paying for the tent, free sounded best to me. We walked up the road a little ways and found a decent place to pitch our tent. We got the tent put up (for the first time) and put all our stuff in. After that we ate our dinner we packed and after that we spent most of our time just chilling and going to bed. There ended up being a beautiful sunset that was projected on the mountains. We got some pretty good pictures of it. It had been a lot of hiking. We did play 20 questions for awhile until I lost so many times that I felt embarrassed. So, then I just went to bed.
The night was pretty cold and there was wind. Will had a HUGE sleeping bag that he said he sweat in all night. It is made for up to -40 degrees F. His sleeping bag cost 300 dollars, mine was 40 dollars from target. So, I got a little cold in the night.
In the morning we woke up, climbed a rock to eat breakfast and look at the mountains. It was pretty neat. Then we packed everything up and then started out for our trek. We trekked farther into the national park from the backside. We ended up turning back so that we could reach the little town for our bus ride back. There is only one bus up in the morning and one bus back in the evening, so if you miss it (especially on sunday) you are screwed. The bus only goes up to the banos morales on saturday and sunday.
We got back to the little town and it was time for lunch. We chilled in the town and met a cool kid who came up to the area to trek as well. He was from Tufts University in Boston. We talked about stuff with him. He was on a mountaineering group at Tufts and he, like Will, had come to Chile mainly for the access to the mountains.
The bus finally came, and taking the advice of a local, we got off sooner then we were expecting allowing us to take a closer and faster metro home.
Overall, the weekend was very successful. The tent worked well and I had a great time exploring some of the natural beauty Chile had to offer.
So, when one makes a purchase such as this one, what does it mean. Well, you have to go backpacking of course. That is exactly what me and Will Lessard (from Virginia) did this past weekend.
We did our planning on Friday and then went to the grocery store to buy our food. We bought stuff to make sandwiches and of course lots of snacks. After the store, I got into contact with Amy who earlier had called me asking if I wanted to go to a movie and get pizza with her. I thought this was a great idea. We ended up going to a movie called La Buena Vida.
It was a fantastic movie and most importantly it was the first all Spanish movie that I understood really, really well (which is very exciting). The movie basically goes with the premise that we are all much more interconnected then we think we are. It is a Chilean movie. I learned that Chilean films are subsidized by the government because otherwise the movies wouldn't be competitive here or in other places in the world. While this at first was strange to me, I think the truth is there could be better movies because of the subsidies. Instead of having just lots of sex, drugs, violence, and other stuff in movies, they can really attack important issues of the day.
After the movie Amy and I went to Pizza Hut (yeah not very Chilean) and ate pizza there that was SO good. I have missed pizza a lot since coming here. I have tried to fill the whole with empanadas, but the truth is, it just isn't the same.
After dinner and a long discussion of politics, I returned back to my apartment to pack for the big camping trip! I stayed up until almost 1:30 packing my stuff in my backpack for the trip, which made for a very short night.
The next morning I got and took a shower and headed out to the bus station where we would take a bus to Banos Morales in the mountains and Maipo Canyon region. We got there in time to buy our ticket and throw our bags in the back of the bus. Later we got on the bus and started our long (almost 3 hour) ride up to the little town. When we got there we walked up to the entrance to the El Morado National Monument and there was a big sign that read "No Camping in the Park unless you are climbing a mountain". So we didn't know what we were going to do. Normally, we would have just camped anyways, but to enter this park you have to pay an entrance fee and also explain your plan to the park ranger. We decided to try and convince the guy that we were going to do some practice mountain climbing. That didn't work he asked to see our gear. So we told him that we didn't have the required gear, so he told us we could only spend the day in the park. We paid the fee and started trekking in. The mountain "El Morado" was really cool looking. There are also glaciers in the national park, but we didn't get far enough to see them. We did get to spend some time hiking in the snow though and it was quite a bit of fun.
After a good hike in the park, we went back to the little hut with the park ranger to tell him we were out of the park. He informed us that we could either pay to pitch our tent in the little town or if we walked farther up the road we could find a place to pitch our tent for free. After paying for the tent, free sounded best to me. We walked up the road a little ways and found a decent place to pitch our tent. We got the tent put up (for the first time) and put all our stuff in. After that we ate our dinner we packed and after that we spent most of our time just chilling and going to bed. There ended up being a beautiful sunset that was projected on the mountains. We got some pretty good pictures of it. It had been a lot of hiking. We did play 20 questions for awhile until I lost so many times that I felt embarrassed. So, then I just went to bed.
The night was pretty cold and there was wind. Will had a HUGE sleeping bag that he said he sweat in all night. It is made for up to -40 degrees F. His sleeping bag cost 300 dollars, mine was 40 dollars from target. So, I got a little cold in the night.
In the morning we woke up, climbed a rock to eat breakfast and look at the mountains. It was pretty neat. Then we packed everything up and then started out for our trek. We trekked farther into the national park from the backside. We ended up turning back so that we could reach the little town for our bus ride back. There is only one bus up in the morning and one bus back in the evening, so if you miss it (especially on sunday) you are screwed. The bus only goes up to the banos morales on saturday and sunday.
We got back to the little town and it was time for lunch. We chilled in the town and met a cool kid who came up to the area to trek as well. He was from Tufts University in Boston. We talked about stuff with him. He was on a mountaineering group at Tufts and he, like Will, had come to Chile mainly for the access to the mountains.
The bus finally came, and taking the advice of a local, we got off sooner then we were expecting allowing us to take a closer and faster metro home.
Overall, the weekend was very successful. The tent worked well and I had a great time exploring some of the natural beauty Chile had to offer.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Back to Chile
We woke up at the hostel and all got ready for our long trip (during the day time) back to Santiago, Chile. After getting ready we sat down to eat breakfast and called our cab. After we got done with breakfast the cab came and we went to the bus terminal.
The bus terminal was quiet (as we all were since this weekend had exhausted us). We waited to get on the bus, got on the bus, and Emma fell asleep. I almost did a couple times as well. We purposely took the day time bus because the trip over the Andes Mountains is supposedly marvelous. I can be honest, it was. Leaving the Argentine highlands and going up and up into the mountains only to reach the border (where the same border crossing procedure as before went down). After the border you descend from the snow covered mountains into different ecosystems until finally reaching the central valley of Chile and Santiago. It really was a beautiful ride. Well worth the time we missed hanging out in either city. I highly recommend the trip to people in the region.
It is really odd how when you are abroad (especially a semester abroad) you really get to feel like there is a place you call home or "home away from home". Smog filled Santiago is that to me. When you can look out and see the apartment buildings, the foothills and Andes in the distance. There is something that every time I return makes me feel like I am at home.
The bus terminal was quiet (as we all were since this weekend had exhausted us). We waited to get on the bus, got on the bus, and Emma fell asleep. I almost did a couple times as well. We purposely took the day time bus because the trip over the Andes Mountains is supposedly marvelous. I can be honest, it was. Leaving the Argentine highlands and going up and up into the mountains only to reach the border (where the same border crossing procedure as before went down). After the border you descend from the snow covered mountains into different ecosystems until finally reaching the central valley of Chile and Santiago. It really was a beautiful ride. Well worth the time we missed hanging out in either city. I highly recommend the trip to people in the region.
It is really odd how when you are abroad (especially a semester abroad) you really get to feel like there is a place you call home or "home away from home". Smog filled Santiago is that to me. When you can look out and see the apartment buildings, the foothills and Andes in the distance. There is something that every time I return makes me feel like I am at home.
Mendoza Day 2
We had very good sleep because we were all so exhausted from the past day and a half. We had to get up though so we could get ready for our rafting and 'canopy' excursion. We all took showers and got ready to go. The bus picked us up from our hostel and we drove out to a little outpost on the Mendoza River. There we waited until our group got assembled. We were issued wet suits, helmets, life jackets, and paddles. After this we all had to go down to the boat house and get a tutorial on rafting.
After the tutorial we all got into the van that was going to take us up the river to the part where we would embark from. When we got to the place we got situated in our raft we were off. Rafting was such a neat experience. Sometimes it was relaxing and sometimes it was very exciting. Every few minutes it was different. The water was very, very cold because all of the rivers in Chile and Argentina (well the majority in Argentina) are from ice melt off in the mountains. Thus the water is literally cold as ice!The wet suits really do help you though from becoming too cold in the water. After the expedition we got off on the side of the river and we loaded the boats for our return trip to the area owned by the rafting company.
When we got back some of the groups loaded up to go home (their program was only half a day). We got to stick around because we had a canopy expedition before in the afternoon. The rafting company offered a well portioned lunch for about $10.00. so Emma, Devon and I for lunch ate and chilled out. It was a pretty great lunch just sitting by the river in the sun. Especially after being in the cold water of the Mendoza River the sun felt really nice on my cold body.
After lunch we got fitted for our canopy harness. Canopy is where you wear a belt feeling thing that has a little circular thing on it where you can latch on to a steel cable that is stretched between two areas (for example a Canopy in the rain forest) or over a valley or river (in our case). You thus are hanging from this little harness and you have your hand on the steel cable. The circular item allows you to quite literally fly through the air on this steel cable from one side of the valley to the other. There were about 7 steel cable stretches that we could ride. The guide told us that some of us could go upside down if we were connected to him. Emma, Devon, and I all got picked to try it. I got to go upside down while crossing the largest stretch across the river. It was quite the experience. In general the canopy was one of my favorite things I have done in South America. It was such a free feeling just hanging on to the steel cable.
The pictures from both of these excursions ended up being very great. I bought a cd with both excursions on it with slideshows and everything. I can't wait to show you guys when I get home.
After the canopy activity we got in the van to go back to Mendoza and our hostel. While on this excursion we met some people who recommended a place to eat for dinner, so when we got back to the hostel we made reservations at this place for dinner.
Food in Argentina is so good and so cheap. We arrived at the restaurant and we immediately felt a little out of place. Most people there were dressed up and we were mostly just in our regular clothes. I was wearing my St. Thomas hooded sweatshirt. ;) Classy... I know. We sat down and got the menu given to us. We looked over the menu for a few minutes and soon the head Chef came over to our table to ask us if we had any questions. We felt pretty special. After we made our decision the waiter came over to take our order. We ordered and then after about 5 minutes the "wine expert" came over and asked us if we wanted to order our wine for our meal. We all said yes and he asked us what we ordered. He then recommended the wine that would best go with our pre-ordered meal. After we decided what wine we wanted he came and served us the wine. After going to the wineries the day before we all knew the correct way to test the wine. Soon after the meal came out and honestly, it was one of the best looking meals in my life. I got a steak wrapped in Prichutto. It was so good. I paid $25 dollars for a huge plate of food and a glass of wine at this restaurant. Definitely a good recommendation.
After dinner we walked around the city a little bit more and grabbed ice cream again for dessert, before heading back to the hostel.
After the tutorial we all got into the van that was going to take us up the river to the part where we would embark from. When we got to the place we got situated in our raft we were off. Rafting was such a neat experience. Sometimes it was relaxing and sometimes it was very exciting. Every few minutes it was different. The water was very, very cold because all of the rivers in Chile and Argentina (well the majority in Argentina) are from ice melt off in the mountains. Thus the water is literally cold as ice!The wet suits really do help you though from becoming too cold in the water. After the expedition we got off on the side of the river and we loaded the boats for our return trip to the area owned by the rafting company.
When we got back some of the groups loaded up to go home (their program was only half a day). We got to stick around because we had a canopy expedition before in the afternoon. The rafting company offered a well portioned lunch for about $10.00. so Emma, Devon and I for lunch ate and chilled out. It was a pretty great lunch just sitting by the river in the sun. Especially after being in the cold water of the Mendoza River the sun felt really nice on my cold body.
After lunch we got fitted for our canopy harness. Canopy is where you wear a belt feeling thing that has a little circular thing on it where you can latch on to a steel cable that is stretched between two areas (for example a Canopy in the rain forest) or over a valley or river (in our case). You thus are hanging from this little harness and you have your hand on the steel cable. The circular item allows you to quite literally fly through the air on this steel cable from one side of the valley to the other. There were about 7 steel cable stretches that we could ride. The guide told us that some of us could go upside down if we were connected to him. Emma, Devon, and I all got picked to try it. I got to go upside down while crossing the largest stretch across the river. It was quite the experience. In general the canopy was one of my favorite things I have done in South America. It was such a free feeling just hanging on to the steel cable.
The pictures from both of these excursions ended up being very great. I bought a cd with both excursions on it with slideshows and everything. I can't wait to show you guys when I get home.
After the canopy activity we got in the van to go back to Mendoza and our hostel. While on this excursion we met some people who recommended a place to eat for dinner, so when we got back to the hostel we made reservations at this place for dinner.
Food in Argentina is so good and so cheap. We arrived at the restaurant and we immediately felt a little out of place. Most people there were dressed up and we were mostly just in our regular clothes. I was wearing my St. Thomas hooded sweatshirt. ;) Classy... I know. We sat down and got the menu given to us. We looked over the menu for a few minutes and soon the head Chef came over to our table to ask us if we had any questions. We felt pretty special. After we made our decision the waiter came over to take our order. We ordered and then after about 5 minutes the "wine expert" came over and asked us if we wanted to order our wine for our meal. We all said yes and he asked us what we ordered. He then recommended the wine that would best go with our pre-ordered meal. After we decided what wine we wanted he came and served us the wine. After going to the wineries the day before we all knew the correct way to test the wine. Soon after the meal came out and honestly, it was one of the best looking meals in my life. I got a steak wrapped in Prichutto. It was so good. I paid $25 dollars for a huge plate of food and a glass of wine at this restaurant. Definitely a good recommendation.
After dinner we walked around the city a little bit more and grabbed ice cream again for dessert, before heading back to the hostel.
Mendoza Day 1
This trip to Mendoza, Argentina started with a great Vice Presidential Debate between Sen. Joe Biden from Delaware and Gov. Sarah Palin from Alaska. Like all the rest of the debates the group of students from IFSA got together at the apartment of our program director. We had some wine and watched the debate. I was very impressed by the quality of the debate, especially considering the first debate was really not impressive.
I had to leave the debate early because our bus to Argentina left in the evening. I went to the bus station and waited for my two friends who were going with me Emma Espel (who goes to Gustavus College in Minnesota and lives in Fargo N. Dakota) and Devon Pratt (who goes to Northwestern University in Chicago and lives in California). We got on the bus that was going to take us up over the mountains and across the border to Argentina.
It was long before we all were sleeping on the bus only to be woken up when we reached the border. We all had to get out with our passports and other identification materials. There was quite a difference when we got off the bus though... it was very, very cold! If you know anything about the geography of South America or Chile you will know that the Andes Mountains lie between the two countries. That makes this border crossing one of the highest border crossings in the world. Thus with this increase in elevation you get to experience what feels like winter again (snow and everything). We stood in line to get our passport stamped with an exit stamp from Chile and then literally walked 4 steps to get our passport stamped again by the Argentinian official. The Argentinian passport stamp is unimpressive and quite dull (especially considering the Chilean stamp is very neat). I will have to show people all of the cool stamps I have when I get home.
After waiting for what seemed like forever our bus moved ahead about 25 feet (with us on it). Thinking we were going to keep going to Mendoza, we were surprised to learn that we all had to get off again now to have our hand baggage searched. What confused me more then anything was that they didn't check the luggage that was under the bus. So... if you want to bring anything illegally over the border (which I don't recommend) I would try that method.
After the search process we finally could get back on the bus and go to sleep, however little we would get that night.
We arrived in the morning in Mendoza and we were all droggy from the little sleep we did get. After getting our location figured out we started our "trek" to the hostel. We had booked it the afternoon before online. After getting lost a few times and trying multiple ATMs to get money out for a taxi, we finally found our hostel. The hostel was very, very nice. It was called Lugares and it had a great (typical) South American breakfast and very nice facilities. We talked with the owners of the hostel to see what exactly we should do with our time in Mendoza. After consulting the owner and discussing among ourselves we decided to tour the vineyard areas of Mendoza on bicycles with the company Wines and Bikes. It sounds like a very bad combination and I guess it could be. We also made reservations for a rafting and "canopy" excursion the next day.
The ride for wines and bikes arrived at our hostel an hour or so later and took us on our journey to the beginning of our bike tour. None of us had money so we asked if the driver could take us to an ATM. He wasn't happy but took us anyways. We were very happy that he did because without money our tour would have been a flop. We got to the bikes and wines place which looked like a little shack in the middle of no where. We tested out the bikes and we each picked the bike we thought was best. Then we were off.
We visited a number of wineries, a chocolate store, museums. During our tour we kept running into a young 'lad' from the United Kingdom. His name was Gary Kite. We ended up just hanging out with him for the tour because we were on the trail together. We stopped at a great place for lunch. This place was absolutely wonderful. It was a small Victorian looking home in the middle of the vineyards. The owners of the place were originally from Canada before moving to Argentina. They fixed up this historic house and now ran it as a restaurant. The food was reasonably priced ($10.00 for a good portioned plate) and the service was great. We of course got wine with our meal.
After lunch we kept up with visiting more wineries. Finally, we got to a point where we needed to start heading back to the little shack that rented the bikes to us. So we pedaled our way back to the little store. Our taxi showed up soon after we did to take us back to the hostel.
When we got back to the hostel, I started not feeling very well. I have no idea what it ended up being, but it was my stomach more then anything. I think it might have been the wine I drank all day. I wasn't drunk, I think my body just didn't like all of the different wines that I had put into my system. Even though I wasn't feeling very well, we walked across the city checking out all the little plazas and areas the city has to get to the restaurant we wanted to eat at.
The Lonely Planet book recommended this great pasta place where you choose the type of pasta you like and the sauce. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of options. Because I wasn't feeling very good, it wasn't the best meal I have every had, but I think if I went there again, I would really enjoy it. After riding the bikes all day and getting insufficient sleep the night before we all were tired. We headed back to the hostel (getting ice cream first) and crashed.
In general the first day in Mendoza was great. The wine was spectacular and I had a wonderful time just biking around the vineyards. It felt like a very classic central Argentine experience. If I would have had more time and money I would go back to Mendoza because in general the exchange rate in Argentina is better then in Chile and it was just so much fun. If you make a trip to South America definitely spend a few days there. I spent two there and it wasn't enough, I think 4 would give it more justice.
I had to leave the debate early because our bus to Argentina left in the evening. I went to the bus station and waited for my two friends who were going with me Emma Espel (who goes to Gustavus College in Minnesota and lives in Fargo N. Dakota) and Devon Pratt (who goes to Northwestern University in Chicago and lives in California). We got on the bus that was going to take us up over the mountains and across the border to Argentina.
It was long before we all were sleeping on the bus only to be woken up when we reached the border. We all had to get out with our passports and other identification materials. There was quite a difference when we got off the bus though... it was very, very cold! If you know anything about the geography of South America or Chile you will know that the Andes Mountains lie between the two countries. That makes this border crossing one of the highest border crossings in the world. Thus with this increase in elevation you get to experience what feels like winter again (snow and everything). We stood in line to get our passport stamped with an exit stamp from Chile and then literally walked 4 steps to get our passport stamped again by the Argentinian official. The Argentinian passport stamp is unimpressive and quite dull (especially considering the Chilean stamp is very neat). I will have to show people all of the cool stamps I have when I get home.
After waiting for what seemed like forever our bus moved ahead about 25 feet (with us on it). Thinking we were going to keep going to Mendoza, we were surprised to learn that we all had to get off again now to have our hand baggage searched. What confused me more then anything was that they didn't check the luggage that was under the bus. So... if you want to bring anything illegally over the border (which I don't recommend) I would try that method.
After the search process we finally could get back on the bus and go to sleep, however little we would get that night.
We arrived in the morning in Mendoza and we were all droggy from the little sleep we did get. After getting our location figured out we started our "trek" to the hostel. We had booked it the afternoon before online. After getting lost a few times and trying multiple ATMs to get money out for a taxi, we finally found our hostel. The hostel was very, very nice. It was called Lugares and it had a great (typical) South American breakfast and very nice facilities. We talked with the owners of the hostel to see what exactly we should do with our time in Mendoza. After consulting the owner and discussing among ourselves we decided to tour the vineyard areas of Mendoza on bicycles with the company Wines and Bikes. It sounds like a very bad combination and I guess it could be. We also made reservations for a rafting and "canopy" excursion the next day.
The ride for wines and bikes arrived at our hostel an hour or so later and took us on our journey to the beginning of our bike tour. None of us had money so we asked if the driver could take us to an ATM. He wasn't happy but took us anyways. We were very happy that he did because without money our tour would have been a flop. We got to the bikes and wines place which looked like a little shack in the middle of no where. We tested out the bikes and we each picked the bike we thought was best. Then we were off.
We visited a number of wineries, a chocolate store, museums. During our tour we kept running into a young 'lad' from the United Kingdom. His name was Gary Kite. We ended up just hanging out with him for the tour because we were on the trail together. We stopped at a great place for lunch. This place was absolutely wonderful. It was a small Victorian looking home in the middle of the vineyards. The owners of the place were originally from Canada before moving to Argentina. They fixed up this historic house and now ran it as a restaurant. The food was reasonably priced ($10.00 for a good portioned plate) and the service was great. We of course got wine with our meal.
After lunch we kept up with visiting more wineries. Finally, we got to a point where we needed to start heading back to the little shack that rented the bikes to us. So we pedaled our way back to the little store. Our taxi showed up soon after we did to take us back to the hostel.
When we got back to the hostel, I started not feeling very well. I have no idea what it ended up being, but it was my stomach more then anything. I think it might have been the wine I drank all day. I wasn't drunk, I think my body just didn't like all of the different wines that I had put into my system. Even though I wasn't feeling very well, we walked across the city checking out all the little plazas and areas the city has to get to the restaurant we wanted to eat at.
The Lonely Planet book recommended this great pasta place where you choose the type of pasta you like and the sauce. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of options. Because I wasn't feeling very good, it wasn't the best meal I have every had, but I think if I went there again, I would really enjoy it. After riding the bikes all day and getting insufficient sleep the night before we all were tired. We headed back to the hostel (getting ice cream first) and crashed.
In general the first day in Mendoza was great. The wine was spectacular and I had a wonderful time just biking around the vineyards. It felt like a very classic central Argentine experience. If I would have had more time and money I would go back to Mendoza because in general the exchange rate in Argentina is better then in Chile and it was just so much fun. If you make a trip to South America definitely spend a few days there. I spent two there and it wasn't enough, I think 4 would give it more justice.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Isla Negra and Valparaiso
Like I have probably said before the program that I am with... Institute for Study Abroad through Butler University, a few times in the semester does little day trips to different areas around Santiago in the hopes of helping us learn more about the culture and the country. On this Saturday in November the IFSA program put together a trip to two towns on the coast of Chile, Isla Negra (Black Island) and Valparaiso. Just to clear up any confusion that might already be starting Isla Negra is not actually an Island and to be totally honest it isn't even close to a real Island. I have no idea how it got its name, but I was a little disappointed when I figured this out, so I didn't want to get your hopes up as well.
In my blog about Valle de Elqui, I talked about Gabriela Mistral, the first Chilean to receive a Nobel Prize (literature - 1945). Well, if Gabriela Mistral was the first and not the only, there must be another Chilean Nobel Laureate huh? You are correct. Pablo Neruda, definitely the most famous Chilean author, was the second and final Chilean to receive a Nobel Prize again in Literature (1971). Neruda's poetry is beloved all around this country. My new host mother loves Neruda and has two books that comprise most of his works. Neruda, like most of the poets in Chile was from the left wing of the political perspective. Besides being a well known poet he also worked as a Chilean diplomat and politician. He was a member of the Chilean Communist party. He died shortly after the Chilean coup in 1973.
Isla Negra is famous because it was host to Neruda's beach home which has now been converted into a museum. Neruda had many odd collections in his life and this house has many of the collections preserved and on display. Photos of Isla Negra should be on Flickr if you look.
My criticism of Pablo Neruda is that he didn't practice what he preached. Most communists/socialists try to live simple lives because they believe that wealth should be shared. Well, Neruda had three homes in Chile... one in Santiago, one in Isla Negra, and one in Valapariso. It seems a little extravagant to me especially for a poet. More over these homes had no real practical purpose. It is not like he had to have a Valapariso home or the Isla Negra home. I feel it is different when people have properties because they spend considerable time at each place. For example if a US Senator has a home in his home state as well as a home in Washington DC, because he/she spends a lot of time working in Washington.
After we visited Isla Negra, we visited Valapariso a port city that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We took a tour of the city and learned about its history. The city is quite remarkable really. It is placed on a hill thus everyone lives farther up the hill and works at the lower part of the city. This meant that it was hard to walk up and down the hills every day (especially since Chileans go home for lunch and return to work in the afternoon). Since this was a difficulty Funiculars and Elevators were built around the city. In most places a ride on one of these funiculars costs about 100 pesos or about 25 cents. It is probably one of the main reasons Valapariso was accepted as a world heritage site. They are quite unique.
The city is also very colorful. If you look on the side of the hill, it seems like every house is a different shade of a bright color. This is because historically, the seamen who lived in the city would paint their house a bright color so that when they were out on the boat they could pick it out on the hill side. On the right side of the blog there is a link to the wikipedia site about Valapariso. I hope you check it out because you could see pictures and learn more about the city.
The tour was very nice and that evening we returned to Santiago. I was wore out by all of the traveling, so I ate dinner and went to bed.
It is a little funny because all of my blogs end with me going to bed. The truth is I don't go out that much in Santiago A.) because it is expensive and I would rather spend my money on other things and B.) I just get tired from the days here. It seems like it is so much more work because unlike UST, you have to take public transportation or walk all over the city to get to your classes or really to do anything. This wears a person out!! =)
In my blog about Valle de Elqui, I talked about Gabriela Mistral, the first Chilean to receive a Nobel Prize (literature - 1945). Well, if Gabriela Mistral was the first and not the only, there must be another Chilean Nobel Laureate huh? You are correct. Pablo Neruda, definitely the most famous Chilean author, was the second and final Chilean to receive a Nobel Prize again in Literature (1971). Neruda's poetry is beloved all around this country. My new host mother loves Neruda and has two books that comprise most of his works. Neruda, like most of the poets in Chile was from the left wing of the political perspective. Besides being a well known poet he also worked as a Chilean diplomat and politician. He was a member of the Chilean Communist party. He died shortly after the Chilean coup in 1973.
Isla Negra is famous because it was host to Neruda's beach home which has now been converted into a museum. Neruda had many odd collections in his life and this house has many of the collections preserved and on display. Photos of Isla Negra should be on Flickr if you look.
My criticism of Pablo Neruda is that he didn't practice what he preached. Most communists/socialists try to live simple lives because they believe that wealth should be shared. Well, Neruda had three homes in Chile... one in Santiago, one in Isla Negra, and one in Valapariso. It seems a little extravagant to me especially for a poet. More over these homes had no real practical purpose. It is not like he had to have a Valapariso home or the Isla Negra home. I feel it is different when people have properties because they spend considerable time at each place. For example if a US Senator has a home in his home state as well as a home in Washington DC, because he/she spends a lot of time working in Washington.
After we visited Isla Negra, we visited Valapariso a port city that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We took a tour of the city and learned about its history. The city is quite remarkable really. It is placed on a hill thus everyone lives farther up the hill and works at the lower part of the city. This meant that it was hard to walk up and down the hills every day (especially since Chileans go home for lunch and return to work in the afternoon). Since this was a difficulty Funiculars and Elevators were built around the city. In most places a ride on one of these funiculars costs about 100 pesos or about 25 cents. It is probably one of the main reasons Valapariso was accepted as a world heritage site. They are quite unique.
The city is also very colorful. If you look on the side of the hill, it seems like every house is a different shade of a bright color. This is because historically, the seamen who lived in the city would paint their house a bright color so that when they were out on the boat they could pick it out on the hill side. On the right side of the blog there is a link to the wikipedia site about Valapariso. I hope you check it out because you could see pictures and learn more about the city.
The tour was very nice and that evening we returned to Santiago. I was wore out by all of the traveling, so I ate dinner and went to bed.
It is a little funny because all of my blogs end with me going to bed. The truth is I don't go out that much in Santiago A.) because it is expensive and I would rather spend my money on other things and B.) I just get tired from the days here. It seems like it is so much more work because unlike UST, you have to take public transportation or walk all over the city to get to your classes or really to do anything. This wears a person out!! =)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Exploring your own surroundings...
Traveling over the past six months and living in Santiago, I have come to the realization that exploring the area that you live in is extremely important. Whether you visit another country or the museum in your local town learning more about the area you live in is something that we all can and should do.
For example if you live in Minnesota, the Minnesota Historical Society has great places to visit all year round. These places are normally pretty cheap to visit and they are a great way to learn about the history in Minnesota. We have national, state, and regional parks in our state that are beautiful and are often overlooked as a possible travel destination. Who needs to go to Napa Valley in California or the Champagne Region of France to do a wine tour when you can do your own wine tour in the bluffs of southeastern Minnesota? There are so many things that you can do and they can be as long as a week, weekend, or even a day and cost little to nothing.
I have learned during this trip that there are many, many ways to cut costs and increase savings to make travel in the United States or even in other countries more affordable and thus more possible. Some of them include looking into cruises. Often cruises are cheap ways to see the world. Sometimes you can find 4 day cruises for 500 dollars and the awesome thing is that it includes almost everything--- food, entertainment, etc. Another item is travel for longer periods of time and less often.
It would be better to save your vacation and your money and take that one month long dream trip to visit Angor Watt in Cambodia. Often times the most expensive part of your trip is your airfare to the other country. Thus if you can find the time spending less money on one ticket and more time in the other country is a great idea, because you will save money in the long run. The Europeans I have met do this. They take a month or two off and visit Argentina and Chile and really experience the country and the culture. Where as many of the Americans I meet are in Chile for 2 weeks rushing to see everything they can. If you can do it, longer trips less often are definitely the way to go.
Another idea is to look into a Round the World Ticket (RWT). Yeah it sounds like it is for the rich and famous, but often times RWT's are cheaper then flights to one destination and back. Thus, if you have the month for the trip of your dreams you can spend $2,000 on a RWT and spend one week in Sydney, Australia; one week in Beijing, China; and finish your trip up with one week in Rome, Italy before returning home. Instead if you visited these three destinations distinctly, your airfare could cost you more then $6,000!!! That is a considerable savings.
If you want to travel on budget and save a lot of money... I mean a bulk of money--- the best bet is to stay in Hostels. Use websites like www.hostelworld.com to find rooms for as cheap as $5.00 a night (usually in poorer countries and for dorms). However, hostels often times have private rooms as well with private bathrooms. Thus the hostel becomes more like a bed and breakfast. These rooms obviously are more expensive --- sometimes $25.00, but at the same time they can still be considerably cheaper then staying at that Hilton or Best Western.
The main goal I want to make clear in this blog is that exploring your world doesn't have to be hard or expensive, with the proper time and planning, you really can do it on a budget and still have a great time. Even if you don't feel comfortable flying to Africa or Europe for a month, just find things in your hometown or state. I feel like Americans need to get up and get going when it comes to seeing their own country and the world. It doesn't have to be hard and it will be extremely rewarding.
Just be careful as they say you can get the travel bug... or the itch to see more and do more, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing! =)
For example if you live in Minnesota, the Minnesota Historical Society has great places to visit all year round. These places are normally pretty cheap to visit and they are a great way to learn about the history in Minnesota. We have national, state, and regional parks in our state that are beautiful and are often overlooked as a possible travel destination. Who needs to go to Napa Valley in California or the Champagne Region of France to do a wine tour when you can do your own wine tour in the bluffs of southeastern Minnesota? There are so many things that you can do and they can be as long as a week, weekend, or even a day and cost little to nothing.
I have learned during this trip that there are many, many ways to cut costs and increase savings to make travel in the United States or even in other countries more affordable and thus more possible. Some of them include looking into cruises. Often cruises are cheap ways to see the world. Sometimes you can find 4 day cruises for 500 dollars and the awesome thing is that it includes almost everything--- food, entertainment, etc. Another item is travel for longer periods of time and less often.
It would be better to save your vacation and your money and take that one month long dream trip to visit Angor Watt in Cambodia. Often times the most expensive part of your trip is your airfare to the other country. Thus if you can find the time spending less money on one ticket and more time in the other country is a great idea, because you will save money in the long run. The Europeans I have met do this. They take a month or two off and visit Argentina and Chile and really experience the country and the culture. Where as many of the Americans I meet are in Chile for 2 weeks rushing to see everything they can. If you can do it, longer trips less often are definitely the way to go.
Another idea is to look into a Round the World Ticket (RWT). Yeah it sounds like it is for the rich and famous, but often times RWT's are cheaper then flights to one destination and back. Thus, if you have the month for the trip of your dreams you can spend $2,000 on a RWT and spend one week in Sydney, Australia; one week in Beijing, China; and finish your trip up with one week in Rome, Italy before returning home. Instead if you visited these three destinations distinctly, your airfare could cost you more then $6,000!!! That is a considerable savings.
If you want to travel on budget and save a lot of money... I mean a bulk of money--- the best bet is to stay in Hostels. Use websites like www.hostelworld.com to find rooms for as cheap as $5.00 a night (usually in poorer countries and for dorms). However, hostels often times have private rooms as well with private bathrooms. Thus the hostel becomes more like a bed and breakfast. These rooms obviously are more expensive --- sometimes $25.00, but at the same time they can still be considerably cheaper then staying at that Hilton or Best Western.
The main goal I want to make clear in this blog is that exploring your world doesn't have to be hard or expensive, with the proper time and planning, you really can do it on a budget and still have a great time. Even if you don't feel comfortable flying to Africa or Europe for a month, just find things in your hometown or state. I feel like Americans need to get up and get going when it comes to seeing their own country and the world. It doesn't have to be hard and it will be extremely rewarding.
Just be careful as they say you can get the travel bug... or the itch to see more and do more, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing! =)
Jupiter and the Southern Cross
This blog picks up from the Valle de Elqui blog.
After spending the day touring the valley we were left at Vicunia to hang out for the evening. We were suppose to meet the guide at the Mamalluca Observatory offices in Vicunia. We ended up waiting for a pretty long time, when he all of a sudden showed up. We went to the van with the guide and jumped in the van and were off to the races. Literally, the guide drove the van like we were in the Indy 500 through dirt roads. Every turn it seemed as if there was a road block and thus we had to make a quick turn around the corner to miss certain death. The guide informed us that the town always had construction and thus he never knew exactly the correct direction to the observatory since there were detours. It was an interesting ride to say the least. We finally made it to the observatory and we got out of the van in complete darkness. On the grounds of the observatory there were only a few lights where there were steps, but most of the grounds didn't have steps just ramps so that the use of lights was not needed.
Why would there be an observatory in northern Chile for tourists? Why is northern Chile a hub for astronomy? Well, let me tell you. Northern Chile is one of the most clear places in the world in relation to weather patterns and clouds. If you remember from my earlier posts the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world, thus, as you can imagine there are only one or two days a year with clouds in northern Chile. Also, the desert climate makes human population difficult, thus there are very few lights that cause light pollution in the area. The only other place in the world with these same geographic details is Namibia in Africa. Namibia is not as stable of a government, thus Chile becomes the most desirable place in the world for observatories.
Both the European Union and the United States have their main telescopes in this northern region of Chile. They continue to plan to make more and bigger telescopes in the region. These plans though were put to a halt a few years ago because light pollution had become quite a problem in northern Chile. Thus the foreign governments, mainly the EU and the US, told Chile that unless they enacted a law that required special night time lights that decrease light pollution they would not build their telescopes in Chile. The Chilean government thus accordingly enacted a law that says that people will be fined if they have any outdoor lights that are not of the special night time lights required. You know these lights because we have them in the US as well. The difference is between the clear white lights that you sometimes see and the orange lights that are the special night time lights. In most of the world people have switched almost fully to the special night time lights --- especially local and regional governments. (I know this because my dad works on projects such as these.) I have also always wanted to know there makes a difference between lamp posts that have globes (like in New Prague) versus lamp posts that direct the light down towards the road. It would seem more likely that the lamp posts that direct the light down towards the ground would preserve more light and thus cause less light pollution. If you know you should tell me.
Anyways, our tour was very, very good. We went between stations observing the absolutely clear night sky. In the main observatory we saw stars in the telescope that were 2,000 light years away. This idea blew me away. This light year idea is so amazing. What it means is that the light you see in the telescope was given off 2,000 years ago and we are just seeing it now because it is that far away. Thus, if you were on that star and looking in a very powerful telescope at earth you would see a reflection of earth that would be during the time of Christ. Crazy huh? I think so. We also saw Jupiter, which is much closer to earth compared to these stars. Another thing I learned and thought was extremely interesting is that the most powerful telescopes in the world (well all the telescopes in the world) will only show you the pictures of planets and stars in black and white because our eyes cannot comprehend or register the colors. Which is also extremely interesting. Thus any pictures you see of planets and stars are doctored images not direct images. The images are what you would see if our eyes could comprehend the colors in the telescope.
At another station we were taught how to observe the night sky and find our direction in the south. Unlike the northern hemisphere the south doesn't have a star that is always in the south. Thus you have to use the southern cross to determine the center of the sky in the south. It is so beyond my understanding that from these points our entire sky pivots. I feel like once you understand this concept it is much easier to understand the position of the sky. We were also shown the zodiac star patterns. It was interesting to learn that you will never see your zodiac on your birthday because it is always hidden and not visible to viewers anywhere in the world. Since we went in September I could just see part of my zodiac symbol, Libra (October), but if I went back to the observatory today, I would not be able to see it. We also were able to see very clearly the milky way galaxy.
At one of these stations there was a group of students that were talking about what they were seeing. It was interesting to overhear what they were saying. (I must admit that they were a little ditzy, so that already affected my perception of them, but what they said made me think a lot.) They said that they found everything very interesting but that since they were Christian they didn't believe that these stars were really around for millions of years because God created the earth only so many years ago--- blah blah blah. You know the debate. It was just totally beyond my imagination that someone could think that these scientists who are really smart are just lying and that they really don't know anything. Then it made me start to question the importance of this idea (years etc.) in my faith and whether I could believe science and still at the same time believe my Christian faith.
I would love to hear other people's perspectives on this. My conclusion has been this so far: We can't possibly understand the creation of the universe and the process that God went through. The Bible is definitely the world of God, but it is not necessarily to be taken literally (7 days), something I know my Lutheran faith doesn't agree with me on. The most important conclusion that I came to is that the most important thing I have to believe is that Jesus Christ came to die for my sins and that through his Grace and my Faith, I am saved. The details of the creation of the universe or whether communion changes into the body and blood or is symbolic or is something else are mere details in my relationship with Christ. Maybe I am off my rocker, but I really need some other perspectives on this.
In any case, this tour has been one of the highlights of my entire trip. It was so fascinating and seeing the stars in this clear night sky was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to visit Chile or more specifically La Serena, I highly suggest it. If you can't visit Chile there is the Mamalluca Website that looks quite interesting as well.
After the tour we were driven back to La Serena and to our hostels. We were very tired from the long day of touring, so we hit the sack.
After spending the day touring the valley we were left at Vicunia to hang out for the evening. We were suppose to meet the guide at the Mamalluca Observatory offices in Vicunia. We ended up waiting for a pretty long time, when he all of a sudden showed up. We went to the van with the guide and jumped in the van and were off to the races. Literally, the guide drove the van like we were in the Indy 500 through dirt roads. Every turn it seemed as if there was a road block and thus we had to make a quick turn around the corner to miss certain death. The guide informed us that the town always had construction and thus he never knew exactly the correct direction to the observatory since there were detours. It was an interesting ride to say the least. We finally made it to the observatory and we got out of the van in complete darkness. On the grounds of the observatory there were only a few lights where there were steps, but most of the grounds didn't have steps just ramps so that the use of lights was not needed.
Why would there be an observatory in northern Chile for tourists? Why is northern Chile a hub for astronomy? Well, let me tell you. Northern Chile is one of the most clear places in the world in relation to weather patterns and clouds. If you remember from my earlier posts the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world, thus, as you can imagine there are only one or two days a year with clouds in northern Chile. Also, the desert climate makes human population difficult, thus there are very few lights that cause light pollution in the area. The only other place in the world with these same geographic details is Namibia in Africa. Namibia is not as stable of a government, thus Chile becomes the most desirable place in the world for observatories.
Both the European Union and the United States have their main telescopes in this northern region of Chile. They continue to plan to make more and bigger telescopes in the region. These plans though were put to a halt a few years ago because light pollution had become quite a problem in northern Chile. Thus the foreign governments, mainly the EU and the US, told Chile that unless they enacted a law that required special night time lights that decrease light pollution they would not build their telescopes in Chile. The Chilean government thus accordingly enacted a law that says that people will be fined if they have any outdoor lights that are not of the special night time lights required. You know these lights because we have them in the US as well. The difference is between the clear white lights that you sometimes see and the orange lights that are the special night time lights. In most of the world people have switched almost fully to the special night time lights --- especially local and regional governments. (I know this because my dad works on projects such as these.) I have also always wanted to know there makes a difference between lamp posts that have globes (like in New Prague) versus lamp posts that direct the light down towards the road. It would seem more likely that the lamp posts that direct the light down towards the ground would preserve more light and thus cause less light pollution. If you know you should tell me.
Anyways, our tour was very, very good. We went between stations observing the absolutely clear night sky. In the main observatory we saw stars in the telescope that were 2,000 light years away. This idea blew me away. This light year idea is so amazing. What it means is that the light you see in the telescope was given off 2,000 years ago and we are just seeing it now because it is that far away. Thus, if you were on that star and looking in a very powerful telescope at earth you would see a reflection of earth that would be during the time of Christ. Crazy huh? I think so. We also saw Jupiter, which is much closer to earth compared to these stars. Another thing I learned and thought was extremely interesting is that the most powerful telescopes in the world (well all the telescopes in the world) will only show you the pictures of planets and stars in black and white because our eyes cannot comprehend or register the colors. Which is also extremely interesting. Thus any pictures you see of planets and stars are doctored images not direct images. The images are what you would see if our eyes could comprehend the colors in the telescope.
At another station we were taught how to observe the night sky and find our direction in the south. Unlike the northern hemisphere the south doesn't have a star that is always in the south. Thus you have to use the southern cross to determine the center of the sky in the south. It is so beyond my understanding that from these points our entire sky pivots. I feel like once you understand this concept it is much easier to understand the position of the sky. We were also shown the zodiac star patterns. It was interesting to learn that you will never see your zodiac on your birthday because it is always hidden and not visible to viewers anywhere in the world. Since we went in September I could just see part of my zodiac symbol, Libra (October), but if I went back to the observatory today, I would not be able to see it. We also were able to see very clearly the milky way galaxy.
At one of these stations there was a group of students that were talking about what they were seeing. It was interesting to overhear what they were saying. (I must admit that they were a little ditzy, so that already affected my perception of them, but what they said made me think a lot.) They said that they found everything very interesting but that since they were Christian they didn't believe that these stars were really around for millions of years because God created the earth only so many years ago--- blah blah blah. You know the debate. It was just totally beyond my imagination that someone could think that these scientists who are really smart are just lying and that they really don't know anything. Then it made me start to question the importance of this idea (years etc.) in my faith and whether I could believe science and still at the same time believe my Christian faith.
I would love to hear other people's perspectives on this. My conclusion has been this so far: We can't possibly understand the creation of the universe and the process that God went through. The Bible is definitely the world of God, but it is not necessarily to be taken literally (7 days), something I know my Lutheran faith doesn't agree with me on. The most important conclusion that I came to is that the most important thing I have to believe is that Jesus Christ came to die for my sins and that through his Grace and my Faith, I am saved. The details of the creation of the universe or whether communion changes into the body and blood or is symbolic or is something else are mere details in my relationship with Christ. Maybe I am off my rocker, but I really need some other perspectives on this.
In any case, this tour has been one of the highlights of my entire trip. It was so fascinating and seeing the stars in this clear night sky was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to visit Chile or more specifically La Serena, I highly suggest it. If you can't visit Chile there is the Mamalluca Website that looks quite interesting as well.
After the tour we were driven back to La Serena and to our hostels. We were very tired from the long day of touring, so we hit the sack.
Valle de Elqui
La Serena is a historical city in Chile, but most people go to La Serena because it is the front door to the Valle de Elqui a absolutely beautiful valley formed by the Elqui River. This valley is a prime place for growing grapes because of the winds and perfect light conditions.
We signed up for a Valle tour our first day in La Serena because we knew that is was a must on our visit list. We were picked up by our tour guide in a large van early in the morning from our hostel. After a short introduction to the tour and the local area we were off to the valley. During the tour we stopped a number of different places including a farm for the fruit chirimoya. If you click on the link it will take you to the wikipedia site for the fruit so you can see a picture and learn more about it. It is a very popular fruit in Chile, and I don't believe that there is an equivalent in the United States.
After the chirimoya farm we went to quite a few little towns in the valley which were all quite quaint. Most of them had a church that was very nice looking and of course good views of the Elqui River.
We also visited a dam that was built on the river. it regulates the water in times of floods and provides and excellent source of electricity. At the dam there was a very neat sculpture that had been designed as a gift to the Chilean people. It was a sculpture that had strings tied across it and as the wind blew through the valley and over the dam, the wind would vibrate the strings which were tuned to make a very harmonious sound. It was a really unique item. The dam had a side section that served as an emergency route when high water approached the top of the dam. In this section you could see very large fish swimming. Many people find dams like this to be horrible for the environment and I am sure that they are in some cases, however this dam and a debate on dams in Patagonia for my Spanish class forced me to research dams. The truth is you can actually build dams that do not hinder the ability of fish to spawn and you can create dams that are less envasive on the environment. I am not sure if this dam was built in this fashion, but I hope those fish survive.
After the dam we went to an artisan pisco factory. Pisco is kind of like a whisky however it is made from fermented grapes instead of fermented grain. The factory sells pisco which is artisan, meaning that it is made in small quantities and only sold in special places.. or it could also just be a tourist snag. Either way, I fell for it and bought some of the artisan pisco so that I can bring it home and share it with people. They also produced a special line of mango sour a drink where mango juice and pisco are mixed. I also bought some of this to bring home as well. I tried it and it was very, very good. The mango is a fruit which is grown all over the Elqui valley and thus, mango sour is a nice touch to remember the valley.
Our lunch was included and we went to this little hostel/restaurant that seemed like it was in a little crevice of the valley where no one could find it. The food was very good and after lunch we had the opportunity to chill in their lush green backyard. The people were especially friendly and I had a long conversation with one of the waitresses after lunch.
Pisco Elqui is a town that is named because of the abundance of pisco plants and factories in the valley. It is a famous town for the region which hosts many tourists throughout the tourist season. Rumor has it that the Chilean Government changed the town's name by law to Pisco Elqui in an effort to show that pisco is actually a Chilean invention. This fight between Peru and Chile continues today. Many people on both sides believe that Pisco was originally their drink. Thus there are "pisco" cities, valleys, rivers, roads, etc. to try and make that clear. I will not take a position on this on going fight, I will just say that I very much enjoy a fresh pisco sour now and then. In Pisco Elqui our tour group got about a half hour to enjoy the little town and visit the church and other historical sights.
After Pisco Elqui normally the tour would go the birth place of Gabriel Mistral, however, because our group wanted to visit the Elqui river our guide drove us to the river instead. We all got our feet wet in the river, but it was extremely cold because the water is straight from the snow melt. While it was bone chillingly cold, it was refreshing. After the river most of us fell asleep on our ride to Vicunia one of the larger cities in the valley.
Vicunia is the birth town of Gabriel Mistral, and author and winner of the first Chilean Nobel Prize in Literature. In the town there is a museum dedicated to her as well as just a nice little pueblito (little town). Our group was let off here for a few hours because we had reservations for a Observatory Tour that evening in Vicunia, thus we were allowed to hang out in the city while the others returned to La Serena and the tour guide brought a new group of tourists into the valley. During our few hours of freedom we got dinner and ice cream. It was a fun time just hanging out and the ice cream was delicious. Rumor has it that in Vicunia you can find Avacado flavored ice cream. We looked but didn't end up finding it.
We signed up for a Valle tour our first day in La Serena because we knew that is was a must on our visit list. We were picked up by our tour guide in a large van early in the morning from our hostel. After a short introduction to the tour and the local area we were off to the valley. During the tour we stopped a number of different places including a farm for the fruit chirimoya. If you click on the link it will take you to the wikipedia site for the fruit so you can see a picture and learn more about it. It is a very popular fruit in Chile, and I don't believe that there is an equivalent in the United States.
After the chirimoya farm we went to quite a few little towns in the valley which were all quite quaint. Most of them had a church that was very nice looking and of course good views of the Elqui River.
We also visited a dam that was built on the river. it regulates the water in times of floods and provides and excellent source of electricity. At the dam there was a very neat sculpture that had been designed as a gift to the Chilean people. It was a sculpture that had strings tied across it and as the wind blew through the valley and over the dam, the wind would vibrate the strings which were tuned to make a very harmonious sound. It was a really unique item. The dam had a side section that served as an emergency route when high water approached the top of the dam. In this section you could see very large fish swimming. Many people find dams like this to be horrible for the environment and I am sure that they are in some cases, however this dam and a debate on dams in Patagonia for my Spanish class forced me to research dams. The truth is you can actually build dams that do not hinder the ability of fish to spawn and you can create dams that are less envasive on the environment. I am not sure if this dam was built in this fashion, but I hope those fish survive.
After the dam we went to an artisan pisco factory. Pisco is kind of like a whisky however it is made from fermented grapes instead of fermented grain. The factory sells pisco which is artisan, meaning that it is made in small quantities and only sold in special places.. or it could also just be a tourist snag. Either way, I fell for it and bought some of the artisan pisco so that I can bring it home and share it with people. They also produced a special line of mango sour a drink where mango juice and pisco are mixed. I also bought some of this to bring home as well. I tried it and it was very, very good. The mango is a fruit which is grown all over the Elqui valley and thus, mango sour is a nice touch to remember the valley.
Our lunch was included and we went to this little hostel/restaurant that seemed like it was in a little crevice of the valley where no one could find it. The food was very good and after lunch we had the opportunity to chill in their lush green backyard. The people were especially friendly and I had a long conversation with one of the waitresses after lunch.
Pisco Elqui is a town that is named because of the abundance of pisco plants and factories in the valley. It is a famous town for the region which hosts many tourists throughout the tourist season. Rumor has it that the Chilean Government changed the town's name by law to Pisco Elqui in an effort to show that pisco is actually a Chilean invention. This fight between Peru and Chile continues today. Many people on both sides believe that Pisco was originally their drink. Thus there are "pisco" cities, valleys, rivers, roads, etc. to try and make that clear. I will not take a position on this on going fight, I will just say that I very much enjoy a fresh pisco sour now and then. In Pisco Elqui our tour group got about a half hour to enjoy the little town and visit the church and other historical sights.
After Pisco Elqui normally the tour would go the birth place of Gabriel Mistral, however, because our group wanted to visit the Elqui river our guide drove us to the river instead. We all got our feet wet in the river, but it was extremely cold because the water is straight from the snow melt. While it was bone chillingly cold, it was refreshing. After the river most of us fell asleep on our ride to Vicunia one of the larger cities in the valley.
Vicunia is the birth town of Gabriel Mistral, and author and winner of the first Chilean Nobel Prize in Literature. In the town there is a museum dedicated to her as well as just a nice little pueblito (little town). Our group was let off here for a few hours because we had reservations for a Observatory Tour that evening in Vicunia, thus we were allowed to hang out in the city while the others returned to La Serena and the tour guide brought a new group of tourists into the valley. During our few hours of freedom we got dinner and ice cream. It was a fun time just hanging out and the ice cream was delicious. Rumor has it that in Vicunia you can find Avacado flavored ice cream. We looked but didn't end up finding it.
Chilean Indpendence Day
We woke up around 1:30pm. It was really hard to do, but we knew that we didn't want to waste any time sleeping when we could be exploring the city and most importantly the beach. We took showers and got ready for the day and then we were off to fill our empty stomachs.
EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. It was their Indpendence Day, I know, however everything was closed. We had all been told that La Serena was the 'place to be' for the 18th of September and the entire town looked like sleepy hollow. We finally found a place that was open for lunch and we ate there. I had a meal that consisted of 3 plates for 5 bucks. It was very good, however the desert was really strange. It was a peach that was in some suguary sauce with little nuts. It tried it and wasn't that thrilled, so I shared it with everyone and got some ice cream instead. The waiter said that this desert was a typical Chilean dessert. I wasn't impressed.
After lunch we went to the beach and the famous La Serena lighthouse. It was so much fun and we just chilled on the beach for quite awhile taking pictures of the sea, the lighthouse, and each other. We had a great time and the best part was that we sat and watched a fantastic sunset over the sea. It was absolutely fantastic seeing both the sunset and sunrise within a 24 hour period.
After the sunset we walked back to the hostel to change clothes and get ready for the Independence Day Fonda (party)! The Fonda was in Coquimbo and we took a very expensive taxi to get there. We first went to a place to eat and I had the best pizza I have had in Chile. It was fantastic. It was in a little restaurant close to where we went out the night before.
After dinner we took a collectivo (a cheaper ride) up the hill to the Fonda. I did´t know waht to expect at the fonda and was really surprised when I got there. It was more like a state fair or city celebration then a party. There were places to buy EVERYTHING from cowboy hats, to shoes, to other items. There were places to play bingo, drink alcohol, eat empanadas, and ride rides etc. It was fun to walk around and enjoy the sights but it wasn´t exactly what I expected it to be. We stayed for an hour or so soaking in the 'traditional' fonda, but we all were tired from our party the night before and new we had our tour of the Elqui Valley the next day. So we decided that returning to the hostel, via bus, was a better idea. We did that and called it an 'early' night.
EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. It was their Indpendence Day, I know, however everything was closed. We had all been told that La Serena was the 'place to be' for the 18th of September and the entire town looked like sleepy hollow. We finally found a place that was open for lunch and we ate there. I had a meal that consisted of 3 plates for 5 bucks. It was very good, however the desert was really strange. It was a peach that was in some suguary sauce with little nuts. It tried it and wasn't that thrilled, so I shared it with everyone and got some ice cream instead. The waiter said that this desert was a typical Chilean dessert. I wasn't impressed.
After lunch we went to the beach and the famous La Serena lighthouse. It was so much fun and we just chilled on the beach for quite awhile taking pictures of the sea, the lighthouse, and each other. We had a great time and the best part was that we sat and watched a fantastic sunset over the sea. It was absolutely fantastic seeing both the sunset and sunrise within a 24 hour period.
After the sunset we walked back to the hostel to change clothes and get ready for the Independence Day Fonda (party)! The Fonda was in Coquimbo and we took a very expensive taxi to get there. We first went to a place to eat and I had the best pizza I have had in Chile. It was fantastic. It was in a little restaurant close to where we went out the night before.
After dinner we took a collectivo (a cheaper ride) up the hill to the Fonda. I did´t know waht to expect at the fonda and was really surprised when I got there. It was more like a state fair or city celebration then a party. There were places to buy EVERYTHING from cowboy hats, to shoes, to other items. There were places to play bingo, drink alcohol, eat empanadas, and ride rides etc. It was fun to walk around and enjoy the sights but it wasn´t exactly what I expected it to be. We stayed for an hour or so soaking in the 'traditional' fonda, but we all were tired from our party the night before and new we had our tour of the Elqui Valley the next day. So we decided that returning to the hostel, via bus, was a better idea. We did that and called it an 'early' night.
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