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!

Chi-chi-chi-le-le-le, Viva Chile!

Futbol (soccer for those of you in the US) is almost a religion here. In fact, my history prof said that there’s a church in Argentina named after their famous hero, Diego something-or-other (you can tell how much I care about Argentinian soccer—I’m a Chile fan through and through). So, it was imperative for the sake of our cultural experience to go to a futbol game.

Chile vs Ecuador, October 14.
Chile classified for the World Cup when they played Colombia the weekend we were in Mendoza. Part of me wishes that I had been in Chile when it happened because everyone was celebrating. A few students were in Santiago at the time, and said that there was basically a riot! At any rate, the game against Ecuador did not matter much to Chile, since we already made the World Cup. However, the game was a major deciding factor for Ecuador, and affected Argentina’s standing as well. Of course, a major topic of conversation at lunch and once a few days in a row was—who would win?

I could NOT wait to go to this game. Almost everyone in the group bought a Chilean soccer jersey to show our support and undying loyalty. We arrived at the stadium several hours early to guarantee our seats. A few of us got free baseball caps saying Chile’s going to South Africa—great souvenir for sure.

As we walked down the steps to our spot, people were whistling, clapping, and cheering—I wondered what was going on in the field, but there was no one there…turns out they were reacting to us gringas. We definitely got our 15 minutes of fame. People would approach us and ask if they could take a picture with us…we obliged. I honestly felt like a celebrity. It got old very quickly, though, so to amuse ourselves, we started making funny faces as they snapped pictures…a few people laughed, but I think it deterred them from asking again.

The people sitting in front of us also kept us entertained as we waited for the game. They kept trying to set each other’s hair on fire…and one of them was quite successful. Burnt hair smell for awhile…Que feo!

The atmosphere kept getting more and more charged as the game approached. The entire stadium did the wave (hacer la ola), and it was really cool to watch as it went around the entire stadium. People began chanting at least an hour before the game, and it was more and more frequent as the time to start approached.

Everyone went wild when the players took the field. The first half, nothing much happened but a few close calls for both sides. Chile scored in the second half, and this was the most memorable moment of the entire game. Everyone was screaming, clapping, and setting off flares. The celebration lasted several minutes after the game began again. It was incredible to be there.

It was hard to pick out the words to some of the cheers, and there wasn’t an announcer so it was hard to keep track of what was happening all the time--but the crowd’s reaction said it all…
“Jess, did you catch what happened?”
“No, but they are yelling ‘hijo de puta’ so it can’t be good…”

“Hey, what is it that they are singing?”
“I dunno…the only word I caught was ‘whore.’”
Needless to say, we heard a lot of garabatos (swear words) in the stadium.

The few cheers I did catch:
Chi-chi-chi-le-le-le, viva Chile! ßThe most ubiquitous and well-known.
Vamos, vamos Chilenos, esta noche, tenemos que ganar!
Ole, ole ole ole, Chile, Chile! ßThis one’s really fun because you can go on as long as you like.

The end of the game was great, too—some of the more daring spectators started climbing the fence. It was similar to the atmosphere after scoring the goal, but the goal actually was a bigger deal.

I cannot tell you how much fun this was—it really is one of those things you have to experience in person. I wish we could go to more, and absolutely cannot wait for the World Cup this summer!

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We’re at the halfway point in our semester, so are leaving tonight for a week-long Spring Break trip to the south of Chile. We’re going to Chiloe, an island, and then making our way back slowly, passing through lots of cities. It should be a lot of fun, and is definitely a needed break…we have had several tests and papers this past week, and more the week get back. I probably won’t have much access to the Internet, so please don’t be offended or worried if I don’t get back to you! Hope you are all doing well—ciao, un besito!

Don't cry for me, Argentina

Argentina: Buenos Aires y Mendoza
Went to Buenos Aires two weekends ago, and loved Argentina so much that I decided to go again this past weekend to Mendoza.

Buenos Aires:
Went with Jess, Andria, Angie, and Alex.
LOVE LOVE LOVED this city. It is hard to put my finger on why exactly, but it has this energy about it. General atmosphere-wise, I’d call it the NYC of South America.

Actually, I can pinpoint a few particular things I loved about it:
1) Zapallo (squash). The hostel we stayed at had the most magnificent (and perhaps only) squash jelly I have ever tasted. I could eat entire jars of it every day. Squash and pumpkins were definitely a big thing in Argentina—had pumpkin ravioli the first night there…need I say more?
2) Coffee. We had legit coffee in Buenos Aires. None of Chile’s powdered wannabe coffee.
3) Books. Chile has no publishing companies, so the books are all imported and therefore super expensive. Buenos Aires, on the other hand, has publishing companies. Books were definitely less expensive, though about on par with those in the US.
4) Cheap food. First night there, we had been traveling all day without much sustenance. So, we went to a pasta place and decided to splurge a little…ordered nachos and a bottle of wine to split and our individual dishes of pasta (mine was the highly-acclaimed pumpkin ravioli in a 4-cheese sauce)…came to about 12 USD a person. Ridiculously cheap for the quality and quantity of the food. Another highlight restaurant was the Irish Pub…in Argentina.

Basically, we only had 2 full days in Argentina (travel ate up a LOT of time). We spent those days falling in love with the city as we walked through it. Some highlights were La Casa Rosa (the Pink House—it used to be white like the White House, but some president decided he didn’t want to copy the US or something like that, so he pained it red, but then this other president thought it was too Communist so they painted it over with white paint, but it could only tone down the red instead of fully covering it…at least, that’s what Alex told me), the garden (peaceful in the big city), El Museo de Bellas Artes (fine arts museum), the Cathedral, the Obelisco (looks like the Washington Monument), the widest street in the world (not counting freeways), a giant rose sculpture that opens in the day and closes at night, La Boca (colorful little neighborhood full of artisan crafts and where people tangoed in the streets), streets full of shops, and too many plazas and parks to count.

Our hostel was also really cool. We all hung out on the roof terrace and the second night we were there, watched a piano concert/light show. The building across the street was celebrating its 100 year birthday, so the street was closed, a stage was set up, and this guy played the piano. There is a floor of the building called purgatorio “purgatory,” so the music and light show (which was projected on the building itself) related to Dante’s Divine Comedy, starting with hell, then purgatory, then heaven.

Another highlight was making dinner one night in the hostel. Jess, Andria, and I missed cooking, so we made the food and Angie and Alex did the dishes. We settled on making vegetable stir-fry because we were all dying for a meal that wasn’t based solely on meat and bread. We way overestimated the amount of vegetables that we needed, so ended up bingeing on vegetables and pawning off a couple plates on people who came in the kitchen to eat their sad dinner of cereal.

Overall impression: If you find yourself in South America, do yourself a favor and go to Buenos Aires.

Mendoza:
Went with Andria, Beth, and Jess.
When your trip begins with the bus playing cheesy karaoke music, you know that it’ll be an amazingly quirky experience. The bus ride plus customs lasted a whopping 10 hours, which, ironically, is the same amount of time that it takes to fly from the US to Chile. However, between the karaoke, the best worst movie I have ever seen entitled Papa se volvio loco! (Dad went crazy!), and a blast from the past with 90’s music videos, it was fairly entertaining overall.
The first place we went in Mendoza was to the police station…to ask for directions to our hostel. Our hostel, what words can I give to describe it? We passed it at first because it was not marked very well…so we backtracked and saw this dark door on the opposite side of the street, “Uh…what does that sign say? I’m hoping that’s not it…ohh yep, THAT’S our hostel.” Looked pretty sketchy, no one really wanted to go in, but we braved it. It really wasn’t that bad inside, we were greeted by our hostel poet who never sleeps, Gaston. He’s your typical starving artist, and read us one of his poems, inspired by an argument with a friend, of which I will give you a brief translation so you understand the nature of his sheer poetic brilliance.
“I defecated from the passage of the colon of egoism,
I vomited the hatred during fanfare…” You get the picture.
He also found all four of us a four-leaf clover. If he had spent as much time cleaning the bathrooms as he did finding four-leaf clovers for us, the hostel would have been much improved. There was toilet paper for a couple hours of the day, so you learned fast that you needed to steal it when you could…and thus you participated in the vicious cycle. There was an entire colony of flies living on the ceiling of the downstairs shower…but at least there was a shower curtain in that one.
Our actual room was pretty nice, though…we were lucky that we got to share a 4-person room. It was like a 3-day long slumber party…I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. The number of inside jokes we have from Mendoza is innumerable—absolutely adore the girls I went with.

I loved the energy and personality of Buenos Aires, but Mendoza was so much more fun and felt like a mini-vacation. Saturday was spent shopping—we found a chocolate/wine factory and an alfajor factory (alfajor=specialty Argentinian cookie sandwich with dulce de leche in the middle), but the majority of our shopping excursions involved shoes because Mendoza is known for its cheap shoes. Never have I seen so many shoes in one city. There were huge window displays, and we had to attempt to point out to the salespeople which shoe we wanted to try from the window.
The weather was hotter across the cordillera (mountain range), so it was a good thing that helado (ice cream) was about as common as the shoes. We found the most ridickulous (misspelling intended) ice cream cones I have ever seen at La Reinese. They were specially made for a double-scoop, so there were two cups for the scoops of ice cream attached to a regular cone…they looked curiously like male anatomy.
I met a very complimentary old man in La Reinese. He asked me if I was from Germany (sidenote: third time someone has tagged me as a German, but once I was asked if I was Australian because I talked like Olivia Newton-John—go figure). He then proceeded to talk to me about my “belleza”—“You’re beautiful [turning to the workers behind the counter, all male] Isn’t she beautiful?” The guys behind the counter could hardly keep from laughing. He then complimented me on my Spanish, which was far more flattering, though a compliment I don’t think I deserve. At any rate, once he finally got over my “belleza” and found out I was from the US, he started talking to me about Obama and how wonderful it is that he won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’ve talked to a few Americans about this, and most people react saying that Obama hasn’t really done anything yet. But everyone in South America has been extremely excited about it and genuinely believe Obama deserves it. My host parents have told me time and time again how much they love Obama. I don’t think that we understand how much it means to other countries around the globe that Obama is our president.

I love the prices of Argentinian food. Between ice cream, Subway, and our homemade vegetable stir-fry (SO good) and chocolate banana pancakes, we spent roughly $5-6 USD on food for one day. Our last night there, we treated ourselves to a meal of steak and wine…Que rico. The steak is really tender in Argentina because the landscape is so flat—the cattle do not develop their muscles and so the meat is better.

The most adventurous part of the trip was rafting. We all had a love-hate relationship with our instructor, whose rugged attractiveness was equal only to how much he wanted us to get soaked. The scenery was gorgeous and looked rather similar to the Southwest US. The river was turquoise and carved a canyon into the reddish rock—perfect day for rafting. We wore these ridiculous blue jumpsuits, orange lifevests, and a white helmet—ready for anything. The start of the ride was lovely and Beth was telling us how much we would thank her for pushing us to go.
Not more than 5 minutes later, we were screaming as water poured into the raft. We were caught in a current and we moved from one side of the raft to the other as it spun around. We had gotten rid of our paddles before because we were supposed to disembark—however, the current had sucked us back in (though we have our suspicions that our guide merely wanted to pretend that we were stuck). There was this guy standing on a rock pointing at us and laughing as we clung to one another and screamed; I hated that man. My one thought of survival was, “Don’t let go of Beth!” We were all almost sobbing because of how shocked we were from the cold water, and apparently at one point I yelled, “Jesus, you have the power to stop this—why aren’t you using it?!?!” But honestly, it was one of my favorite memories from the Mendoza trip, and really hilarious when I look back. We realized how incredibly lame the current actually was when the instructors offered to the people on the other raft to get “caught” in the same current—for fun. Felt more than slightly ridiculous after that.
The rest of the trip was gorgeous and without problem. Our instructor had us all stand up in the boat and put one foot on each edge—the “prueba de vikingos” (Viking test). Rafting was incredibly fun, and incredibly worth it.

We also went out dancing one night, advised where to go by our kind shoe-saleswoman. There was a live band and the Argentinians all knew the words, so that was a really fun environment. Lots of students from the program were in Mendoza this weekend, though we stayed at a few different hostels, but most of us ended up in the same club—purely by chance!

The artisan fairs were also a lot of fun. We bought a few small souvenirs and the biggest cotton candy I have ever seen. The next day, we went to all the major plazas in the city—Italia with it’s gorgeous fountain, Espana with its many colored tiles, Chile with benches decorated for the different regions, and a few others—all with statues of important people. One plaza by the church where we went to Mass had a wooden slide. A child had left notes on it saying that you WOULD fall if you tried to go down…so of course we tried and it was actually really fun and no one got splinters. The trip to Mendoza was full of lots of little quirky, random experiences like that, but those are what made the trip so fun and unique.

Our last night there was also a night to remember. The night we arrived, we checked e-mail and saw that our hostel had said that there was space only for the first night or two…thanks for telling us sooner! We made sure to inquire about our third night every chance we got to make sure we’d have enough time to find another hostel…but I’m pretty sure Gaston just wanted to avoid the whole situation. At any rate, it was our last day there and we returned from our dinner around 12:30…to find that we did not have a room that night. Gaston apologized a lot and said we could sleep on the floor of the lobby—for free. We ended up sleeping in what we called the “fish bowl,” which was the middle room with the TV and couch that was surrounded by glass walls. We didn’t really mind much, especially since we got a free night so ended up paying $12 USD for 3 nights there, and were all able to laugh at it. So great to travel with such an easygoing group! My host parents were not at all surprised…Que fresos los argentinos!

The bus ride back was really long, too, as was customs. We kind of ran into trouble with Andria’s unfinished wood artisan craft and Jess accidentally sort-of kicking the police dog…but we made it back to Vina just fine.

Overall impression: Although we ran into a lot of little frustrations this trip, we had a blast. I would not change any of it!

You know you’re in Argentina when…
1) You get kissing noises from your admirers on the street, rather than the whistle and car honks (or, the car horns that sound like whistles) of Chile.
2) No one has coin money—a minimarket even had a sign that read “No hay moneda—de verdad” (We don’t have coins, it’s true). As an econ minor, I have to wonder how much they have in circulation.
3) The “ll” is pronounced with a “j” sound, which I think is really pretty.
4) You can also hear the Italian influence in people’s speech. However, my host mom says she does not like the way they talk at all...
5) No one respects the stoplights and pedestrian crossings—ten cuidado!
6) The unibrow is not uncommon. However, Argentinian men are known for being “mas hermoso” than the Chileans…if they were, I don’t know where they were hiding.

I'll have to attach pictures later...we're heading out for Chiloe tonight, so I'm a little pressed for time!

Santiago

Realized that I have completely failed on updating my blog recently, but that’s only because I’ve been so busy! Here’s a quick tour through Santiago…

The weekend after Fiestas Patrias, the program scheduled a trip to Santiago that related a lot to the Ethics Seminar about Justice and Impunity in Latin America (real uplifting stuff). In Chile’s case, Pinochet was a controversial military dictator…very generally speaking, he was popular with the elite for his economics and anti-Marxist attitudes…and unpopular with the lower classes for the same reasons. During his anti-Marxist crusade, many people were tortured, killed, or “disappeared,” and the Chilean government still has not completely acknowledged what happened…there is definitely a lack of reconciliation. The places we went were:
1) La Vicaria de Solidaridad—Catholic organization that has compiled archives about the people who were taken and disappeared under Pinochet’s regime.
2) La Villa Grimauldi—Current site of a park for peace that commemorates the victims. The really creepy thing about this place is that it used to be the site of a torture and detention center. The building was destroyed but the foundation still exists, and is what the park’s landscape is designed around. The victims’ families wanted to turn such a horrible place into something beautiful that works to bring about awareness and reconciliation. However, I felt it was incredibly eerie to think about the atrocities that happened there…playing classical music loudly to cover up the sounds of people being tortured. I felt unsettled and actually could not wait to get out of the place, despite the fact that it was now a park.
3) La Fundacion Pinochet—We wanted to get the other perspective and see why people supported, and continue to justify, Pinochet. The Pinochet Foundation is located in Pinochet’s old office from where he worked as a “Senator for Life.” After he lost the plebiscite and would no longer be president, he used his remaining time in power to put mechanisms in place to protect the military and himself—including giving himself the title “Senator for Life.” The speaker at the Foundation buttered us up first with coffee and cookies, then proceeded to talk about why the military should not be held responsible for following orders, and that everybody does bad things. We toured Pinochet’s office, and saw cases upon cases of medals (many of which he probably awarded himself) as well as his throne in front of this tiny TV in his study. Special, special man.
4) El Cementerio General—Toured a big cemetery that housed the graves of several past presidents—including Balmaceda (the first person to commit suicide who was permitted to be buried there) and Allende (the Socialist president who was overthrown by Pinochet). Very interesting to see a cemetery in a different country. There were rows upon rows of very intricate family sepulchers…almost like little chapels—extremely beautiful. Another area had literally a wall where coffins are kept for a certain amount of time for the families to raise enough money to construct a sepulcher…but after enough time passes, the bodies are transferred to a general grave site. There was also a poorer part of the cemetery—rows upon rows of metal crosses. These graves were decorated with soccer jerseys and flags, toys, windmills—it had almost a cheerful atmosphere. It was interesting to think about how two cultures approach death. But really, it was not as morbid as it sounds. We also saw families of victims gathered at the cemetery…clearly, there is still pain and uncertainty after all this time.

As educational and interesting as these places were, I am going to be honest and say that between all these activities, it was rather an emotionally-draining couple of days. Thank goodness for the other activities for distraction.

1) La Plaza and Catedral—Big central plazas are trademarks of Spanish colonialism…and always colorful and cheerful. I also LOVE going into cathedrals, and this one was absolutely magnificent. High vaulted ceilings, statues of saints, incredibly details…basically the hallmarks of any great Cathedral.
2) La Moneda—Literally, coin currency. It used to be a money-minting factory but because of the famous architect who designed it (so famous I recall his name, even—think he was the same one to design the Cathedral, though) it was turned into the Presidential Palace. There are guards out front like at Buckingham Palace…though these ones were not as hardcore.
3) La Chascona—one of Pablo Neruda’s houses. Very interesting architecture, modeled after a ship, so it was extremely cool. Besides that, I am in love with Pabs’ poetry. He lived there with his mistress, Matilde. She had this crazy hair, hence the name “la chascona,” which translates to “disheveled” but in an endearing way. When the guide was explaining the name, he kept looking at my hair like he wasn’t sure whether or not he should point me out as an example.
4) El Barrio Bellavista—Good place to buy artisan crafts and eat food. We found a leftist café and had a fabulous lunch—murals on the wall, pictures of Che, almost felt like I was back in Olympia. The place was called La Casa en el Aire (the House in the Sky), based off of a poem. We decided that anything with “aire” in it is a good thing. Our list? The song Manos al Aire by Nelly Furtado, Pomaire, Buenos Aires, and the café.
5) Los Vikingos—Best Viking-themed restaurant ever. A group of about 10 of us went for dinner on Friday night…the decorations were crazy, and everything was covered in animal skins…including the table and the ceiling. Some of the servers wore Viking hats. It was great. But the best part was the bathroom. Each stall was like a dungeon chamber, with handcuffs hanging from the ceiling which you pulled to flush the toilet. Classy.

Overall impression: Meh. I’m glad we went because Santiago’s the capital city and is important for historic reasons, but I found it to be a city without much of a personality. However, that might just be because of the types of places that we visited…I feel like I didn’t get to see all that Santiago has to offer…perhaps we’ll return again for a weekend to see the un-educational side of the city. So many places to go!

Fiestas Patrias: Come, bebe y baila cueca

So you’re a gringo and you want to know, what are Fiestas Patrias?

My extended host family

Brief Description and Oversimplified History:
Fiestas Patrias are celebrated on September 18 and 19…but the party starts the evening of the 17 and ends on the 20. The 18 (el Dieciocho) commemorates the first junta formed in 1810 in Chile during Spain’s colonial rule. Spain was experiencing problems with Napoleon and so a local government formed, giving Chile autonomy but not independence (which didn’t happen until February 12, 1818). Why September? Spring in this hemisphere starts the 21st so Fiestas Patrias is also a celebration of the end of winter. The 19 is Armed Forces Day, which is a big deal here, and there’s a 3 hour parade in Santiago.

How does one disfrutar (enjoy) this national holiday?
In a nutshell: drink a lot, eat even more, and dance cueca.

So now you’re thinking, “I’d love to get in on this Fiestas Patrias thing…but I’m from the USA and don’t know what to do.”

That is where I come in. Celebrating Fiestas Patrias is not a difficult concept. Here’s a brief how-to guide, featuring the staple food, drinks, and activities. With my guidance, you’ll be enjoying Fiestas Patrias in no time.

Eat, Drink, and Dance Cueca: Your How-To Guide to Fiestas Patrias

FOOD
This is perhaps the most important aspect, so pay close attention.

Two of my nieces, nephew, and me

Remember: VEGETARIANISM HAS NO PLACE IN FIESTAS PATRIAS.

The key component is CARNE (meat) and lots of it.
You had a wide variety to choose from:
Choripan: If chorizo=sausage and pan=bread, then choripan=small sausage (more flavorful than a bratwurst) in a toasted bun.
Anticucho: kabob with roasted meat and onions.
Carne asado: usually beef, roasted over a grill
Empanada de pino: Chile’s specialty, a pocket of dough filled with beef, onions, olives, and half a hard-boiled egg. Empanadas are eaten all throughout the year and the fillings can be different, but pino is the MUST for Fiestas Patrias.


DRINK
Second in importance only to food…but only because drinking on an empty stomach is a must NOT.

Helpful hint: The more you eat, the more you can drink without ending up “curada” like Tia Monica pole-dancing on the trellis.

Word to my mother: No te preocupes, although drinking is definitely an expected cultural aspect of Fiestas Patrias (especially since I am not a minor here), I promise that I did not overdo drinking.

Chicha: Fermented fruit, so it is sweet and tastes a lot like cider. Most popular drink of Fiestas Patrias, and served almost exclusively during this time of the year. It’s origins can actually be traced back to the indigenous people living in Chile.
Cola de mono: Literally, “monkey’s tail.” Mama taught me how to make it, and now I will pass on this knowledge to you. First you boil water with cinnamon and cloves, and then add sugar and stir. Add some instant coffee powder, stir, and then let cool. Pour the mixture into another pot with milk and add aguardiente (the alcohol—very strong stuff) to taste. Store in old Pisco bottles and chill. I have two words for you, QUE RICO.
Terremoto: Piña (pineapple) ice cream, a couple shots of rum, and white wine. The name translates to “earthquake”…and it is DEFINITELY an earthquake. Probably my least favorite Fiestas Patrias drink…though with much more ice cream, I think it has potential.
Canelito: Perhaps my favorite, but the one I know the least about. All I know is that it’s not too strong and has an aftertaste like a spearmint spice drop (which I adore).

Your non-alcoholic options at any asado are, as per usual, orange Fanta or agua con gas (carbonated water).


ACTIVITIES:
Eating and drinking are the primary activities, but here are some enjoyable supplementary options:

Cueca: Chile’s national dance, but you really only see it during Fiestas Patrias. Basically, it is a dance of the “conquest.” The man pursues the woman, who must play hard to get. Both have little hankies that they wave around. The steps are pretty simple, 3-step patterns in a half-moon circle. My host parents danced it for me in the living room—pretty much the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Mama and I then went over to Claudia’s apartment in the next building to teach me the steps and drink some cola de mono.

Asado: Basically, a barbeque. The rule? Attend as many as possible. I went to 3…one with the students from the program, the big family asado, and my niece’s friend’s asado. The family asado is the most important. We went to a town called Los Andes (located, curiously, in the foothills of the Andes Mountains). Someone in the family has a tiny house in the country there, so we all went to for a family asado. It was a really nice family day especially since my host family has accepted me like a member of their family. Even still, it was a little bittersweet because it reminded me of my own big family gatherings.

Ramada: The base of the word, “rama,” means “branch.” Ramadas in the past were little houses constructed with branches where people would have asados. Now, the word refers to what is basically a fair--booths (many of which are constructed with branches) selling typical food and drinks, artisan crafts, and games. If you are not at an asado with friends and family, then you better be at a ramada. Everyone goes, including the gringos, which is apparently newsworthy. A group of us students went together and ended up getting interviewed by the local new station.

You may have noticed trend by now—except for Cueca, all the activities have to do with food. Clearly, people gain weight during Fiestas Patrias. How much? There was a wide range of estimates, but the most common was 5-6 pounds.
To avoid said weight gain, us gringos went to La Campana, a national park, on Sunday. It was absolutely gorgeous; neither words nor pictures can quite do it justice. We hiked all day—the trail had very much of an incline so we really got a work-out. On the way down, we saw two huge tarantulas…actually very cool to see them in the South American wilderness.

After hiking, we had a completo to complete our Fiestas Patrias experience. I thought a completo sounded disgusting, but since it’s definitely an indispensible part of Chilean culture, I knew I had to try it at some point. And what better time than when I was absolutely starving and anything sounded good?
Completo: A hot dog in a toasted bun, topped with literally a mountain of tomatoes, palta (avocado), and covered with more mayonesa (it’s a cognate, I’m not going to hold your hand and translate on this one) than you ever need to eat in your life. You can get two sizes, normal or gigante. I have no idea how anyone could eat a gigante because completos are extremely messy…which means a perro vago (street dog) will follow you around to lick up the tomato-palta trail that any true completo will inevitably leave behind.

If you follow these simple instructions, you too can experience the glory that is Fiestas Patrias. Not only that, but you will come into contact with your inner Chilean, who is ready and waiting to eat, drink, and dance cueca.