Leaving Tomorrow...and practically bawling

OKay....so I thought I'd be ready to go. And my bags are neither packed nor can I keep the tears in. I'm (as many have pointed out haha) wearing the same thing I wore the day I arrived....and today has felt uncannily like my first day here.
It's not that I don't want to go home...I miss everyone more than I've admitted to myself...I just pushed it aside. It's just that I don't know when I'll be back to this beautiful country (the if is not something I want to deal with right now). And it's saying good-bye to people that I don't know if I'll ever see again--people who I shared my daily life with for these past 4 months. It's such a strange feeling, it's hard to express.
Well...I really need to pack....just needed to release to cyberspace I guess haha.
Okay, I LOVE you all and I will travel safe!

Leaving Vina in a Week

My program officially ends a week from today. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. On the one hand, it does feel like a long time since I arrived, but it definitely doesn’t feel like almost 4 months.

Nothing major to report since I last wrote. Classes are winding down—the last couple of weeks I’ve actually had a significant amount of studying, writing papers, and preparing presentations to do. Linguistics and art are both completely done, and just another paper for history, a take-home exam for senior sem, and editing my service learning journal and then I’m good to go!

Last weekend was really fun, starting with the Thanksgiving dinner with our host families. Everyone brought a dish to share, and the food ended up being REALLY good. People even improvised stuffing, which was absolutely amazing. My cornbread (which was translated as queque de choclo—corn cake) with honey went over REALLY well. My host mom said she’ll have to buy the mix from Jumbo sometime to make it again! We also all traced our hands to make turkeys to decorate, which was a lot of fun and a trip down memory lane.
After dinner, almost everybody in the group went out together to dance off the meal in La Sala, a discoteque in Valparaiso.

On Friday, we went to the beach for a few hours (I am still not very tan…except for my shoulders which are sunburnt. “Que rico!” my host mom said when she saw them. Guess everyone in the international community celebrates when I manage to get color of some sort). After that, Andria, Lori, Jess, and I went to Lider to buy fruit and ice cream for our once, which we ate and then watched Elf because, since it was the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas season officially started! There were Christmas decorations in Lider and a huge tree outside the mall—very strange to see when it feels like summer. I honestly have tried to listen to Christmas music, but it just doesn’t feel right. Also, listening to I’ll Be Home for Christmas makes me feel choked up…

Saturday we went to a vina (vineyard) and bodega (winery)—finally, after all this time in Vina! Sunday we went kayaking with Beth’s host dad. The day was blustery so paddling was definitely a workout.

Spent a lot of time in Café Libertad this week working on papers and eating pie de limon (because pretty soon I won’t be able to). I also made it to the beach a couple of times, since I want to take advantage of it while I can.

Decorated the house for Christmas a couple of days ago—we put up the tree! Now it feels more like the Christmas season as long as I don’t look out the window.

Today I had my final art presentation…I was really nervous and Salomo looked really skeptical while I was speaking but afterwards he said it was “impeccable.” (One second thought, I should probably look that up to see if it means the same thing in Spanish as it does in English.) Everyone said he looked skeptical for their presentations, too, so we decided that he was just concentrating really hard to try to understand us. After all, he corrected me at one point because I said the Academia de Pintura was welded in 1848, not founded (fundido, fundado, just one letter difference haha). Even after 4 months, I still haven’t mastered this language!

After art, Jess, Lori, Alex, and I went on a “castle tour” in Vina. We saw some of the historic houses that we hadn’t yet seen. We began with Castillo Wulff, which is right next to the ocean. If I had that view from my house, I would never leave it. The best part is that in one hallway, there are glass panes in the floor so you can see the ocean under your feet! After that we went to Palacio Carrasco, which is now the cultural center of Vina or something like that. There was an art exhibit by a local artist—really cool style, which scenes from the area (including a micro ride!) We picked up a brochure in Castillo Wulff, and have made it to almost all of the locations listed at some point…I do feel like a vinamarina.

Today St. Peter’s has Sports Day, which is an end-of-the-year celebration, so that should be fun to attend. There’s a sherry for the volunteers after (I’m really excited to go because I want to find out what it is!)

This upcoming week, I’ll finish up work for my classes and focus on completely enjoying my last few days in Vina as well as spending some quality time with my host family. Next Saturday (Dec 12) in the morning, Jess, Andria, and I will leave for Patagonia! At that point, I will have little to no Internet access until at least Dec 18 when Andria heads home and Jess and I venture to La Serena (where we’re thinking we’ll be able to check e-mail). And then I’ll be in MN the morning of the 23!

I’ve had such an amazing experience, and there are still some great ones to come.
Several of us have, however, made a list of a few things we won’t miss:
1) Bread for 2 out of 3 meals a day.
2) Comments, kissing noises, “I love you’s,” or applause made on the street by guys ranging in age from prepubescent to borderline senile.
3) Sitting on a bus so packed with people that someone’s hanging out the door.
4) Dogs that lurk behind the gate and then bark maniacally at you when you walk by (it’s only people’s pets that are the problem—street dogs are nice. I’m even friends with Flaco!)

Well I think that’s it for now! In case I don’t blog again before I go, just wanted to say that I miss and love you all! Thanks for keeping up with my travels, and I will see you soon!

Saint Peter’s -- Service Learning

Yesterday was my last day volunteering at St. Peter’s. For five hours each week, I helped Alejandra with first, second, and third grade math. I’ve been keeping a journal of this experience to get my service learning credits, so am not going to write too many details about it here.

In short, I have absolutely loved working with the kids—definitely one of the highlights each week. It was really challenging to try to explain concepts in a different language, but the kids were all so patient with me. There were a few in second grade who seemed to be skeptical of me, especially considering my limited Spanish capabilities, but a few of them approached me for help at the end of the semester, which I definitely consider a success! One girl, Melissa, would always call me over for help but then giggle the entire time I was explaining things to her. I finally asked what that was all about, and she said that my voice was funny, and that it was funny that I talked in Spanish. I have a warm spot in my heart for all of them, even the little troublemakers.

Alejandra had Brittney (who they called Brittney Spears) and I teach a couple lessons to the third graders, and they were so attentive and engaged in the lessons. We had a lot of fun.
Helping the kids understand the concepts was definitely a great feeling, as was getting lots of hugs from my first graders (the ones I worked with the most) on my last day. They would not let me go! I was kind of choked up the entire day—I will definitely miss them!

Third grade, first grade (class I worked with most), second grade, and first grade (just there for roll call)

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Also, today being Thanksgiving, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! It is definitely more difficult to be away from home on a holiday, but we’re having a dinner at the University tonight. All the students are bringing a dish to share (mine’s cornbread) and are inviting our host families as well!
I definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year especially—I’ve gotten to experience so much. As always, I’m thankful for all of you, too! Sending you all much love love love from Chile!

San Pedro de Atacama = Amor de mi vida (Parte II)

Sunday – Geisers de Tatio y Valle de La Luna
The best day of the trip began promptly at 3:30am when our alarms went off so that we could be ready for our tour to the Geisers (geysers) de Tatio. Our tour guide Manuel picked us up and then went to the travel agency and threw rocks on the roof so that they would open the door for him. That is how I knew it was going to be an unforgettable day.
The ride was incredibly bumpy, so sleeping was hardly an option, though I gave it a valiant effort. Manuel gave us coca leaves (“La hoja de coca no es droga”—graphic T-shirt from San Pedro) to prevent altitude sickness.
The steam of the geysers are seen best in the morning, so although we were absolutely freezing (even with my beloved llama hat), vale la pena. Manuel told us not to touch the water or we would boil ourselves. He also said that the best pictures would be at sunrise—which was definitely true. The geysers were an incredible experience.
Random fact: 8% of the world’s geysers are in Chile.

The next part of our tour was visiting the termas (natural hot spring…which was not as hot as we had hoped). Even though it was kinda gooey and there were plants floating around in it, Jess and I braved it (you only live once) for about 5 minutes, at which point we decided we were done. Changing out of our swimsuits into dry clothes was both a chilly and challenging experience. I brought my travel towel, which is very small, so another tourist took pity on me and held up his beach towel so that I could change. Nice gesture, but I definitely felt awkward even though Jess attested to the fact that he didn’t peek.

The ride to our next stop was basically a safari in the Atacamenan desert. We saw perdices (quail), more flamencos and vicuñas…and a lot of llamas. Manuel kept stopping the van so we could disembark and take pictures. We crossed some small brooks in the van as well—definitely felt like an extreme trip in the wilderness. Most of the scenery was incredibly dry, but we did see a green oasis or two.

Our last stop of the day on this tour was to the town of Machaca: population 4. Manuel said that fact twice, so Jess and I are sure we didn’t misunderstand him. Most of the people from the town have left to get an education…but it still exists as a spot to stop for tour groups. Also, they wanted to film part of the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace there, but the town resisted because they didn’t want to be portrayed as Bolivia.
There, we saw yet another little church and tried llama meat—both in an empanada (pino de llama) and an antichucho (kabob). Kinda chewy, but otherwise good.

We arrived back to our hostal for lunch, where we were faced with our bean dilemma. We bought porotos to eat with noodles, tomatos, and sautéed onions…but didn’t realize that the beans need to soak in water the night before and be cooked for an hour. Needless to say, lunch was not the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten…and we had planned on eating the leftovers for dinner.
We ventured once again into town for ice cream. I got my favorite flavor—lucuma, which is a Chilean fruit—because I don’t have much time left to enjoy it! We sat by a tree next to our café, marveling at how much we’d already seen that day and trying to stay awake. Had we not been so lazy, we discussed how we could have easily robbed the German tourists sitting near us (who were extremely careless with their bags), which would fund a trip to Bolivia (that morning we had only been 20 kilometers away—if only crossing a border was that easy).

Around 4 we set out on another tour that would eventually take us to Valle de la Luna for the sunset. We had the best tour guide, Raul, who we affectionately called our “little man” or “papi” because he took such good care of us throughout the entire tour. He seemed to really like us, probably because we actually paid attention to him and asked questions.
First we went to Valle de Marte (Mars Valley), which is also called Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). Its first name, Valle de Marte, is because it honestly looks like it’s from another planet, what with the reddish rock. Valle de la Muerte is a mistake of pronunciation—Gustavo Le Paige (who was important for some reason or another) couldn’t pronounce “de Marte” correctly, being French. But, due to his prestigious influence, the valley is now often called “Valle de la Muerte.” The amazing views definitely energized us.
Next stop was another mirador (lookout spot), which was even more amazing. Once again, I had to question if I was still on planet earth because the panorama was so otherworldly. Our little man told us this was the best spot for pictures—definitely true.

We also got to explore caves made entirely out of salt. This was quite an adventure, especially for the woman in our group who wore (goodness knows why) wedge sandals. Our little man lead the way with a lantern and told us to duck our heads and “tengan cuidado” (be careful) because the salt formations are sharp.

Next stop was the 3 Marias, which are natural salt formations that look like the outlines of women—two of them praying and one of them sitting. They had another name before Gustavo Le Paige came along…darn Frenchman. Unfortunately, one of the formations was knocked over by a tourist a few years ago when they gave the Maria a hug for a picture…darn tourists. (I, however, am not a tourist—my host parents say I’m a viñamarina!) So, Jess and I took turns being the third Maria.
Another rock formation looked like a dinosaur, so of course we had to imitate that, too.

Near these formations was an old salt mine and a few little miners’ houses that were basically in ruins. In the salt mine, I pretended to lick the rock wall—maybe Raul saw me because he chipped some salt off of the wall and handed it to us to try.

Our final stop was in the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) to the Gran Duna (big dune)—which was exactly that; it was the largest dune I have ever seen in my life and can ever expect to see again.

We trekked up to the top of a hill (which was do-able only because the elevation is a little lower in the valley) and then walked along a natural wall to a mirador to watch the sunset. What a day—we started with the sunrise at the geysers and ended it with the sunset on the Gran Duna.
After making a few sand angels on the Gran Duna, we went back to the van to return to San Pedro.

Even thinking about our porotos made us sick, so we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at a restaurant. Being foreigners (consensus was: Jess is clearly from the USA and I’m clearly from Australia), we were prime targets for the people who stand outside of restaurants to lure customers with the promise of free pisco sour (Are you looking for dinner? Drinks? A boyfriend?). San Pedro is expensive when it comes to food—Jess and I ordered 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, a bowl of tomato soup, and French Fries (the waiter laughed at us, especially since we even asked for Ketchup, which is a somewhat awkward request in Chile). Our dinner total came to almost $20. However, they were massive grilled cheese sandwiches and a huge bowl of soup. We forget that we’re accustomed to only eating bread with jam for once, and couldn’t eat it all.
After such a long but incredible day, we crashed as soon as we made it back to the hostel.

Monday – Chao, San Pedro!
Sleeping in was a marvelous idea. Since we knew we wouldn’t get a chance to eat much during the day due to all the traveling we’d have to do (reverse the process of buses, planes, and more buses), we decided to eat a huge breakfast. Toasted hallulla (most common bread in Chile) with bananas and peanut butter that we found in the hostel (BIG treat because it’s super expensive), as well as some yogurt for Jess and ice cream for me—QUE RICO. We checked out but were allowed to store our bags at the hostel while we accomplished our 3 goals for the day: 1) Visit the cemetery, 2) Visit the church, and 3) Walk through las artesanias (little bazaars). The cemeteries in Chile are far from depressing—they are so colorful and have an almost cheerful atmosphere. The church was also quaintly beautiful—we recognized the Cuzqueno style (thanks, Salomo!) of the suffering Christ with indigenous characteristics (see—I AM studying here!) And of course, the artesanias are always fun to walk through. We finished our list early, so sat in the shade in the plaza.

After that, we picked up our bags and went to the bus station. While we waited, we bought mote con huesillo, which I absolutely am obsessed with though it sounds strange. To make it, you cook barley and then fill a glass about 1/5 full with it. You soak dried peaches (huesillos) in water overnight to get rid of the dehydrating chemical, and then cook them in water on the stove with cinnamon (canela) and sugar. Cool this mixture, and then put a few of the peaches on top of the barley and top it off with the water from the pan. It is absolutely sweet, delicious, refreshing, and surprisingly filling.

The rest of the day was travel (the longest line EVER at the airport) and studying for my history test the next day.


I honestly cannot express how much I loved San Pedro de Atacama. Of all the trips I’ve taken in Chile, it was probably the most difficult travel and climate-wise, but it was also the most unique trip and hands down one of the best places I have ever traveled. My advice to you? If you ever find yourself in Chile, GO TO SAN PEDRO—VALE LA PENA!!!!

San Pedro de Atacama = Amor de mi vida (Parte I)

This past weekend, Jess and I went to San Pedro de Atacama, the desert in the North of Chile…and the driest place on earth. This trip was absolutely my favorite for scenery, and I’m hesitant to even begin my blog because I know that my words cannot do it justice. Even the pictures cannot quite capture it, but since each says 1,000 words, they will have to do.

Friday -- Arrival
Getting to San Pedro is no simple feat. Right after Art, we took a bus from school to the terminal de buses, then another bus to the Metro/bus stop called Pajaritos in Santiago where we boarded yet another bus to the airport. After some iced coffee (a real treat for two deprived and desperate coffee addicts such as Jess and I) at Dunkin’ Donuts, we boarded our flight to Calama. After 2 hours of riding in the plane, we disembarked at the tiny airport, located in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere. There, we got a taxi to the bus station (which, until we arrived in San Pedro, was the smallest bus station I had ever seen), where we boarded our 4th bus of the day that took us to San Pedro de Atacama.

It was impossible not to immediately fall in love with this charming little pueblo.
The buildings and walls of the town are the same color and texture as the ground, so they seem to naturally rise out of it. In fact, the entire landscape is the same slightly rusty color, offset by an incredibly blue (and almost completely cloudless) sky. At night, it was so clear that you could almost see more stars than sky.
However, despite its quaint personality, San Pedro is not for the faint of heart. The high altitude made it difficult to breathe at times, and the dry atmosphere made us constantly thirsty—we lugged around 1 liter bottles of water the entire weekend. The days could be almost painfully hot while the nights were cold. Even still, as they say in Chile, “Vale la pena” (it’s worth it).
After checking into Hostal Cabur, we explored the plaza and the adorable white-stucco church, made reservations for the next day’s excursion (and realized this trip would be much more expensive than anticipated—you needed to book a tour for almost anywhere you wanted to go), and ate the first of our many strange meals in San Pedro (noodles covered in guacamole—we were so hungry, we only began to care halfway through our plate). We went to bed pretty early after all that traveling in one day.

Saturday – Salar de Atacama y Lagunas Altiplanicas
The next morning, our tour left around 9am. While we were waiting, we saw this extreme-looking vehicle that was a hybrid of a military Jeep and a garbage truck. Jess and I both laughed and joked that we hoped it was our tour—and, to our great delight, it was.
Our first stop was the Salar de Atacama (salt plains) where we saw flamencos (flamingos). The salt formations covered the entire landscape, except for the carefully laid-out paths where we could walk and a few pools of water fed by underground reservoirs where the flamencos spent their time. Although I would usually consider us to be good world citizens, Jess and I made a deal that potentially broke a few national park laws—she would touch the water to see if it was hot (it wasn’t) and I would like a rock to see if it really tasted salty (it did).

Before reaching las Lagunas Altiplanicas (the main attraction of our day trip), we stopped in the very small town of Socaire, home of an iglesia linda, a vicuna crossing sign, the best homemade cheese sandwich in the world…and not much else.

There were two Lagunas Altiplanicas—one was called Meñique (which means the littlest brother) and the other I don’t remember. What is the difference between a lake and a laguna? Lagunas are fed by underground reservoirs.
The lagunas were so blue, it was almost unreal. Jess said that they were exactly the color of lapis lazuli (a gorgeous deep blue stone only found in Chile and Afghanistan). We also saw some vicuña here and the driest but most persistent little scrub brushes. After gazing in awe at the first laguna, we piled onto the roof of our indestructible tour truck and drove to the next laguna, where we had lunch. I could hardly eat anything, though, because I felt a smidge of altitude sickness (4,200 meters above sea level—can you blame me?) for about an hour…lots of water and a nap on our drive to Tocanao were enough to make me feel better.
Tocanao is an indigenous town supposedly with a lot of history that we didn’t see. What we did see was another adorable church and a couple of llamas. I decided to be brave and pet one of the llamas, and we got along nicely until it tried to eat my shoe and then stood up and I saw how big it actually was. After some much needed ice cream, we were on the road again to return to San Pedro.

That evening, we scoured the town for an ATM machine…because we did not realize how much the tours were going to cost and we needed more dinero before we could make reservations for the following day. We stopped at Café Esquina (Corner Café) for some jugo natural (natural fruit juice)—I got sandia (watermelon) and it was perhaps the most refreshing thing I’ve ever tasted, especially because nothing stays cold for very long in San Pedro.
For dinner, we met up with Alex and Angie, two students from our program who were also in San Pedro for the weekend. Jess and I got to pick the restaurant and we were craving pizza. Alex called me for directions, which is a difficult thing to give when the streets are only marked sporadically. I listed off a few landmarks and general directions, such as “It’s on the street before the lights go off” (the power went off in half of the town…apparently San Pedro is run by 2 diesel generators). Miraculously, they found us. We ordered two pizzas…including Pizza Brasil, which combined traditional favorites like tomato sauce, cheese, and oregano with the unexpected flavors of banana, pineapple, and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. My taste buds did not know what to think about that, even after 2 pieces.
We went to bed fairly early that night…because we had to be up early for our geyser tour the next AM.

Getting Caught Up

I realized that I’m getting quite floja (lazy) when it comes to blogging, so here’s a quick highlight reel of the past couple of weeks.

Halloween:
Many of you have asked me if they celebrate Halloween or el Dia de los Muertos in Chile. The answer is: not really. People do often go to gravesites of loved one on November 1, the feast of All Saints’ Day for the Catholic Church.
Little kids take advantage of trick-or-treating and a few bars/clubs might also use the occasion to celebrate, but it is definitely as not as big of a deal as it is in the States. However, us gringos refused to be denied this holiday, whether or not Chile would decide to celebrate with us.
Conveniently, there was a Toga Banquet at the U on October30, so the fabric we bought for our togas would double as our Halloween costume the following night when we would become Greek goddesses. The banquet was pretty fun, basically 3 solid hours of sitting and eating…interspersed with some dance numbers from countries all over the world. None of us really understood why we were wearing togas…
The next night, a group of girls met up at Brittney’s to get ready. We then rode the bus to Renaca (even more conspicuous than usual because most of us were wrapped in bedsheets and none of the Chileans were dressed up) to start the party with the “navy boys.” There was a group of USA navy boys also on exchange (though they have already left) and they invited us to celebrate Halloween with them. We ended up going to McDonald’s for dinner and having a mini dance party. After that, we went on the best bus ride ever back to Brittney’s for a bit, and then met up with the navy boys again at Goose, the discoteque. Overall a great night, lots of funny stories, and the best Halloween we could have had in Chile.

The next weekend, Andria, Jess, Beth, Emily, and I went to Santiago. We decided that we didn’t have a great impression of it from our group trip, and we wanted to give it a second chance. We spent a couple of days wandering the city—we rode the funicular to the top of a hill to see how far the city spread out in every direction. A statue of Mary was also located on the top of the hill—she lit up during the night and became our “North Star” in the sense that we’d say “Follow the Virgin!” to get back home.
Some highlights:
· Mexican restaurant (Chilean food is a lot more bland and a lot less like Mexican food than we’d all thought…so we were all craving it). Beth’s uncle lived in Chile for a bit and his friend’s daughter is our age, so we met up with her at the restaurant because her pololo (boyfriend) worked there. Each table had crayons so you could color the brown paper “tablecloth” while you waited for your food.
· Market—most of which ended up being seafood restaurants…and fish markets are the worst as far as piropos (compliments paid on the street) go. Being mistaken for a model is always an ego-booster, as is being called “reina del pescado” (queen of the fish)—which is one I surprisingly had never heard before. We were hassled by the fishmongers until we finally sat down and ordered “Joyas del Mar” (jewels of the sea)…which was a sampler platter of a bunch of types of shellfish. Some we honestly had a hard time with, especially the ones we called “tongues.” The snails still had their little antennae. I think we had more fun playing with our food than actually eating it—it was an experience for sure!
· Adorable puppies in the plaza—they were so tiny. They were either street puppies or recently abandoned…so sad, but so cute we played with them for a long time.
· Museum in the plaza—saw a whale skeleton and saw some mummies, including an 8-year-old boy who was naturally mummified when he was put into a chamber as a sacrifice.
We had a ton of fun on this trip, but it’s really difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what it is that we did—for the most part, we just wandered the city to get the feel of it. And we really liked what we saw—Santiago has a lot of personality.

Another perk (and the main reason we chose this weekend to go to Santiago) was that my parents and sister visited Chile! I managed the Santiago Metro and bus to the airport on my own as well as bargaining with the transport guy to lower the price to get to the bus station. I think that earns me a few bragging points J
It was a lot of fun to show my family around—taking 3 gringos who speak little to no Spanish on the city buses was definitely an experience. I got to show off how much I knew about my temporary home city and the surrounding area as well as being a translator (which finally made me feel like my Spanish is getting somewhere!) We ate a ton of typical Chilean food, toured Renaca and Valpo, hung out with my host family (a choque (crash) of my two worlds!), and hung around the ever-beautiful Vina del Mar. It was great to have them see my life here, and the week went by so quickly! I’m not going into detail because the things I did with my family are things that I’ve blogged about before—but they were all things that I loved and so was incredibly grateful to have an excuse to do them again! It also meant a lot to me that they’d trek down to South America to see me.

The day that they left, the group went on a tour to the last of Pablo Neruda’s houses, Isla Negra. His decorating style is just so quirky—almost everything can be traced back to his love for the sea. The living room was full of the wooden ladies that you see on the front of ships; he had a room for his many collections of boats in a bottle, masks from Africa, bugs, and lots of other random stuff; and his bedroom window faced the ocean—I would kill for a view like that. Good ol’Pabs also had a room built especially to house his horse statue (located outside of his downstairs bathroom) which did not have a tail—so at this one party he threw, 3 friends brought him tails for this special horse. And Pablo put all 3 tails on it. This is not surprising when you consider the fact that he has another room dedicated to his narwhale horn—seriously, besides a few shells, that is the only thing in the room. However, his poetry is absolutely stunning, so I suppose he has license to do whatever he wants.

As I look at the calendar, I realize that not only has it been 3 weeks since my last blog, but that I’m returning to the US in 4 weeks from tomorrow! Although I’ve LOVED being here, I am also excited to go back home—and count myself incredibly blessed that I’ve built a life in the States that I’m looking forward to returning to, even as I’m enjoying the end of my time here in Chile.

Classes are starting to pick up again…all my major exams/essays/projects are due December 8 (perfect timing—I’ll be basically free by my birthday!) actually, right now I’m in a café “working” on my art paper! Speaking of which…probably time to get back to that…

Spring Break in October

I can’t believe that today is the 1st of November. Time has been flying even faster than usual…but since time flies when you’re having fun, then I must be doing something right.

Spring Break in Chiloe

Saturday, October 17
Around 8 at night, we all met up outside Museo Fonck, which has been our punto de encuentro (meeting place) ever since we met our families there two and a half months ago. It is definitely an easy place to spot due to the small Moai (Isla de Pascua/Easter Island head) outside.
The bus was actually pretty comfortable, and thankfully I slept almost the entire 16 hours it took us to arrive in the south.

Sunday, October 18
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m feeling kind of lazy and unenthusiastic about writing about this vacation because it happened such a long time ago. So, since I had to write a paper for art about my experience in Chiloe, I thought that I’d just use the Microsoft Word translate option as an experiment…turns out pretty funny, but I think you’ll get the general idea…I’ll include just a few paragraphs.

“After 16 hours by bus, I woke up and found myself in Chiloe. I was surprised to landscape. I do not know exactly expected, but weren't the hills smoothed with a carpet of trees or pastures where rearing sheep and cows. The bus took us by the Nice field that was very similar to the landscape of Washington, where is my home. Then, when I was in the South, the nostalgia not left me; was like a ghost accompanying me constantly. In Washington as in Chiloe, bloom yellow flowers shrubs frequently rain and fog hung over the sea and the mountains as a delicate mantilla. Some people think that this type of landscape is depressed, but for me, was an area where the imagination can go without limit. It could almost see the Caleuche, the fascinating boat ghosts and nightmares, sailing through the fog ensnared among the hills. This land of shadows and Moss, can cross the line between reality and dreams. I think as rich captions culture developed due to the influence of this nature very beautiful but a little Gothic.
The day we arrived, was cold. We visited Angelmó, a village of port, where there was a full product not polished wood and thick wool clothing fair. These are the typical memories of the South, and the amount of handicrafts impressed me. I must thank them to the flames because my feet were warm and dry due to socks I bought. We also went to a market near the sea which smelt like seafood and fish. I watched while a man cut off the head of a fish and removed the scales. I have never seen it before. I gave disgust, but at the same time, I was fascinated by because it is part of the sea life. When we walked by the market, we were surrounded by offers of seafood dishes. The voices of sellers were fight to capture our attention - and our silver. Dinner in a small sea food restaurant, where I tried chupe crab and fried salmon, two unforgettable and rich flavors. Warm dishes were perfect for a very cold day.”

And that is why I cannot use Microsoft Translate to write my essays.

After spending time at the ferias (bazaars) in Angelmó, we drove to Puerto Montt where we got on a ferry that took us to the island of Chiloe. The landscape did look a lot like Washington to me, especially since it was rainy and there were lots of trees and even plants that looked like Scotch Broom. The other students said it looked like Minnesota but with more hills.
We went to an agrotourism place (complete with a goat named Pepito in the front yard) for a dinner of the traditional dish, curanto. To make it, you heat up rocks in a hole in the ground and then pile on shellfish, chicken, potatoes, potato dough, and meat. Everything is covered up with leaves and burlap sacks to cook for awhile. In the meantime, we listened to some traditional folk music and a few people danced. The food was really good, I was surprised at how much I liked the shellfish. Still don’t love them, but they were much better and less chewy than I expected.

Much of the group stayed at the agrotourism farm for the night, but ten of us girls had to go to a different agrotourism place. It was a wooden house with lots of bedrooms upstairs and a huge table for eating. We called the lady who lived there our abuela because she greeted us so warmly and took such good care of us. Our breakfast was incredible. Biscuits, milk from her cow, cheese, marmalade, cookies, cake, sweet bread—she made everything herself. After the day’s activities, the two nights we spent there were like a huge slumber party—we bonded as a group and had a lot of fun.



I’m having a hard time remembering what happened which day because our plans changed from our itinerary due to the weather (cold and rainy at least half of our time there) and the days blend together because we spent at least 3 hours on the bus each day…and oftentimes more. Our activities were:

Monday, October 19
Parque Nacional de Chile—it was raining, but we still braved the weather and walked through the park—it looked like something out of a fantasy story, lots of green and moss.


Tuesday, October 20
City of Castro—saw houses on stilts (palafitos), went to another feria, and saw a church. Chiloe is famous for its churches, which are made out of wood, which is unique to Chiloe and doesn’t need to be finished—it doesn’t expand with water.

National park—saw a waterfall and the most incredible blue-green water I’ve ever seen. Also stopped at the lake Todos Los Santos for a boat ride—it was absolutely gorgeous, especially with the view of the volcano close by.

Wednesday, October 21
City of Valdivia—went to the Kuntzmann (lots of German immigrants in the South) cerveceria (brewery) for a tour and a beer—everyone was in such a great mood after that.
However, the rest of the rainy afternoon was spent at fuerte de Niebla (a fort) and a couple of museums…which were extremely boring. We left for Villarrica afterwards and had a group fiesta, which was so much fun it made up for the weather and the fome museos.


Thursday, October 22
The plan was to go to Pucon to hike the volcano and then go rafting, kayaking, or ziplining…however, it rained so we couldn’t. Instead, we went to some outdoor hot springs and spent the afternoon relaxing. Very strange sensation to be in hot water while it’s raining. Stopped in town for dinner, a small group of girls and I went to this little Italian place and had a great time. Another group fiesta that night.


Friday, October 23
Left Villarrica for Lota, a mining town. The mine, called Chiflon del Diablo (devil’s whistle), is no longer in use but is still a tourist attraction. A famous Chilean author wrote a book about the mine which was later made into a movie, so we got to see the set. The guide explained some sayings that are particular to the mining community, such as cama caliente (a miner on the day shift would sleep in the same bed as a miner on the night shift—they would simply switch once one got off work, so the bed was always warm) and pata negra (a man could tell if his wife was having an affair with another miner if the miner left behind a black footprint from the coal). After getting some background information on the mine, we went into it—outfitted with our own headlamps of course. We descended in an elevator that looked more like a cage and then walked a path through part of the mine. An interesting and kind of frightening fact is that the mine is underneath the sea—so on top of tons of rock above your head, you knew that the ocean was there as well. At one point in the tour, we all turned off our headlamps to experience complete darkness, and at another, we squeezed through a tunnel to experience what life was like for the miners. It was definitely a unique experience, really cool yet kind of scary at the same time.
Stayed in Linares that night.


Saturday, October 24
Museo del Colchagua in Santa Cruz—after the boring museums, no one was excited for this one, but it was actually really amazing. Fossils, the Chilean Declaration of Independence, old portraits, shrunken heads, an Arican mummy (different process—they removed all organs and stuffed the body with vegetation and placed a clay mask on the face), indigenous art (some cultures I was able to recognize before reading the plaque—thank you, Salomo), old cars, weapons from around the world, jewelry—and it was a private collection.
Returned to Viña, which was great because everyone was exhausted, tired from the bus, and needing some time away from each other. I spent the evening watching episodes of The Office and Grey’s Anatomy…so relaxing. It was funny how we all felt like we were going “home” after a week away from Viña and our host families. Guess we really have gotten used to living here!



Chiloé marked the halfway-plus point in our trip, so upon returning, we’ve all decided that we need to make sure we do everything that we want to while we’re here so there are no regrets when we leave. Viva Chile!