Whirlwind finale

I’m home, in Seattle! I have decided to write once more to conclude this blog I’ve been keeping for the last five months. Now that I’m home, Chile seems unreal, like a dream. It’s strange adjusting back, but I’m fortunate to have my family and fabulous friends to help.

There is no way I can describe everything that has happened in the last few weeks, so many new places followed by too many sad goodbyes. First of all, I’ll tell you about La Gran Aventura. My trusty travelling team Chaz, Jacob and Annie travelled for 2.5 weeks to Northern Chile, Bolivia and Peru. It was a speed tour, more like a preview of the countries really. Before the trip, I’d made a rough schedule and amazingly we stayed on track the whole time! Here is a very abbreviated account of the trip.

We flew up north to Calama, and bussed to our first stop: San Pedro de Atacama. This is the driest dessert in the world, and is full of awesome rock formations and volcanoes. We went to the famous Valle de la Luna and Tatio Geysers, also swam in some salty thermal pools.

Tatio Geysers at 6am

From there, we took a 3 day tour through Salar de Uyuni, the world’s most expansive salt flats. We had some altitude sickness problems and it was much colder than we were prepared for, but still an incredible experience. We were in a jeep with our guide, Jose, and two new friends Cheryl & Lucas. Our days consisted of one breathtaking site after the next; we saw volcanoes, bubbling lava, llamas, cacti, lots of salt, cool rock formations, lakes and even flamingos!

Jump shot on the largest salt flats in the world!

The tour brought us into Bolivia, and from there we bussed through Potosi, the highest city in the world, to Sucre ‘la ciudad blanca’ – the white city. We really enjoyed this city, highlights included seeing real dinosaur tracks, eating pretty good $1.50 meals, visiting the cemetery and enjoying fresh smoothies from the fruit ladies every day.

One overnight bus to La Paz and an interesting bus ride (with a 7 hr wait to cross a channel) to arrive at Copacabana, a town on Lake Titicaca. We went to La Isla del Sol during a festival, so we saw Bolivians gathering at the holy Incan sites. The weather was a mix of rain and sun, so we were lucky to see a beautiful rainbow!

Bolivian women celebrating a festival

The magnificent Isla del Sol, notice the Inca planting platforms

Next we crossed the border into Peru and travelled to Cusco, and from there to Aguas Calientes. That trip involved lots of bussing, and a six hour taxi ride with an insane Peruvian-Japonese man who insisted on blasting awful music and tried multiple times to drop us off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we made it, then had a small but scenic hike to the town. We walked through the jungle and were surrounded by epic mountain peaks. The next day, we experienced Machu Picchu, which unlike many famous tourist attractions actually exceeded my expectations. We explored some of the different views and even played cribbage at the top! Unfortunately that day Annie and I both got some sort of food sickness, it was ironic that this happened in the most touristy place we’d been so far but luckily it only lasted about 12 hours.

We took a train to Ollantaytambo for a night and met my friend Courtney who was doing medical volunteering for the summer. It’s a cool town because it’s completely surrounded by ruins, which we explored the following day.

Then we took some more buses and arrived in Arequipa, another nice city. Highlights included trying the Peruvian pisco sour and cuy (guinea pig) and going to Colca Canyon. This canyon is the deepest in the world and known for the condors who soar over it. Seeing these huge birds (9 foot wingspan) in such a photogenic place was just wonderful.

From there, we made our way back to Chile and staying in Arica, where we flew back to Santiago. Saying goodbye to equipo gringo was really tough, we’d been together so much for the past semester and now it is hard to say when our next visit will be. They left for the US a week before I did, and I spent that evening crying with my host mama.

This began my 2^nd adventure to Buenos Aires with my friend Emily. In comparison to the places I’d been in the past couple of weeks, we lived a life of luxury in BA. There was indoor heating, delicious food and fancy stores, it reminded me a lot of Europe. I was struck by how gigantic the city is, there are so many neighborhoods that you really have a lot to see. We were lucky to meet with my friends Jen & Katelyn, Jen who had been studying in BA and understood the crazy bus system. We saw the city with a relaxed pace, making sure to stop for coffee, ice cream and wine as much as possible. In the end, I feel like I saw a really good amount, but there remains a lot to explore.

Epic dessert 'Mil hojas' cake

Tango on the street

My last night in Viña included a visit with Chaz’s wonderful family and a dinner out with my host family. The goodbyes were very difficult as Chile is just so far away. I have been so lucky to have met such sweet loving people here, it’s really hard to imagine not seeing them for awhile…I can’t thank my family enough for the care and love they’ve showered me with for the past 5 months, they are such generous, loyal and sincere people. While these goodbyes are tough, I know that I am very fortunate to have not one, but TWO loving families and homes.

My family and me

Studying abroad was nothing like I imagined but so much more than I could’ve ever hoped for. It was exactly the big adventure I needed. I know I have grown and learned a lot during the past 5 months. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this experience and for everyone that is reading this and sharing it with me.

Con mucho amor para ustedes y para Chile,

Semester is over?!?!?

Hello! First of all, no, I have not forgotten about you! These last few weeks have been a mixture of three big things: 1) Final exams, projects and papers, 2 Checking off my To Do Before Leaving list for Viña and Valpo), and 3) Planning for the big upcoming adventure.

Starting with item #1, I’ve officially completed my junior year of college! The last two weeks were busy with work! Aside from tests and small papers, I had to make a movie and write a 15 page research paper. My friend Annie and I did our movie about ‘artistas callejeras’ who are street performers who literally perform in the middle of the street during red lights. It was pretty interesting interviewing the various break dancers, jugglers, magicians, and more! I also helped my Chaz & Jacob film their movie about quick & cheap places to eat in Viña and Valpo. We found some pretty interesting hole-in-the wall type places, it was fun and delicious! As for my research paper, I chose the topic of income disparity in Chile (it has the 14^th worst Gini coefficient, which just shows how much of a roadblock it is Chile’s path to becoming a developed nation.

Since arriving, I’d always wanted to take the 3 mile trek from Valparaíso to Viña by foot (normally we ride the bus). So one sunny day, I did it after class! Some parts were a tad sketchy, but mostly it was a beautiful walk and I saw some really nice angles of the two cities. If you’re wondering about other things on this List of things to do before leaving, well I tell you that I can officially check off taking a photo of el reloj de flores, getting my fill of pisco and also using ‘cachai’ while talking to a Chilean.

Equipo gringo in front of Reloj de Flores

Item 3 is la gran aventura that I am literally about to leave for! I’ll be travelling with friends Annie, Chaz and Jacob. We’re heading to Calama and San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile first. Then a tour of Salar de Uyuni’s awesome salt flats should bring us to Bolivia, where we’ll head through Potosí, Sucre, La Paz and Copacabana, which is on Lake Titicaca. Then we’ll go to Cusco and hopefully see Machu Picchu, then Arequipa and Colca Canyon in southern Peru, and lastly Arica before heading back to Santiago. It’s an ambitious plan, and I’ll admit I’m a little nervous, but with a great travel group and completely new terrain I know I’ll at least be able to set free my adventurous spirit!

Lastly, IFSA hosted a goodbye dinner at the fancy yacht club with all of the host moms and students. My host mama and I had a really fun time together (as always) and sat with Jacob, Chaz and his wonderful mom Alejandra.

Host mama and I getting ready for dinner!

Goodbye dinner at the Yacht club

That’s all the update for now. Hope you are all enjoying your summers!

PS. Look closely at this photo and you will observe Vina's #1 problem - the drains just dont work! Every time it rains, the streets change to rivers. So again, hope you're enjoying your sunny summers!

Feeling adjusted, plus a weekend in Santiago

¡Hola!

Just this last week, I realized I have adjusted to life in Viña and Valpo. I am no longer shocked by the things I see on a daily basis, I consider my daily commute relaxing, the food seems completely normal, interactions are no longer stressful and I am overall comfortable and content. While it is a nice feeling to have settled, the timing is ironic as I will be leaving in just about a month for a trip to Bolivia, Peru and Argentina; and then back home!

As for school and regular life, not many new updates. Still have class Tuesday through Thursday each week, nice long relaxing weekends that all seem to blend together in the end. I have some big final projects to work on this last month that include writing a 15 page research paper on the income gap in Chile and making a movie about the street performers who literally juggle, eat fire and do acrobatics in the street during red lights, among other papers and tests.

This past weekend I went on a two day excursion to Santiago, the capital of Chile. The first day, IFSA took us on a human rights tour that dealt with the 1973 military golpe or pronuncamiento. The term you use depends on your opinion of the event, golpe meaning 'hit' would describe the military's actions more strongly. For anyone who isn’t familiar with this, the basic situation is that Salvador Allende was the first Socialist president elected democratically in 1970, but due to increasing economic troubles and the communist scare, the military rebelled (with support from the US) in 1973, bombing the presidential palace. This precipitated Allende’s death, most likely a suicide. Pinochet was a strong dictator whose Washington Consensus style free market reforms from the Chicago Boys (Milton Friedman's proteges) created an economic boom in Chile. Yet, he also violently sought out opposition and caused thousands of people to ‘disappear’ during his 16 year term. This period of history is still highly controversial and is generally not discussed in typical conversation. Since it was so recent, most Chileans have personally experienced the consequences of this political turmoil. If anyone is interested, I would highly recommend watching the film ‘Machuca’ as it is a fantastic movie and will help to understand this conflict.

Anyways, the first stop on our tour was watching a video made by the Pinochet Foundation that was in black & white until the glorious day of the military rebellion after which the movie is suddenly in color. Clearly a biased film but nonetheless interesting, it is not available in the US so it was special to see. Our second stop was the General Cemetery of Santiago; this was the most amazing cemetery I have ever seen in my life! It is a beautiful, well-groomed garden filled with elaborate mausoleums and sculptures. All but two of Chile’s presidents are buried in this cemetery, so we were able to see Allende’s mausoleum among many other notable figures. Interestingly Pinochet is one of the presidents who is not buried in this cemetery, he was cremated and there is no gravestone to mark his passing. Another important part of this cemetery is the memorial for all of those who ‘disappeared’ or were politically executed during Pinochet’s regime.

As this is the municipal cemetery, there were many small graves such as this crumbling mausoleum.

Our final stop on the tour was Villa Grimaldi, a former torture and extermination site during Pinochet’s rule that has been transformed into a memorial and park for peace. Chile only began to openly speak of this dark period of history in 1998, and this park was founded in 2004, so it is a new memorial and a relatively new topic in Chilean history. There is not much left from the years of torture and cruelty as everything was burnt down, but there are a few eerie remains and symbolic representation of what once was there. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about the park and recalled a number of personal accounts from survivors of the torture. I cannot describe the wave of emotions that I experienced in my two hours at the park, intolerance and murder are two things I will never understand.

This tower was recreated in the style of the original and was the location of the worst torture and majority of deaths.

Moving on with the day, my friends Jacob and Chaz and I decided to leave the tour and spend the night in Santiago. We treated ourselves to a very special dinner in a restaurant called Como Agua para Chocolate and dined on ceviche, fajitas and a fudgy ice cream dessert. It was absolutely delicious and the live guitar and drums added to the pleasant ambiance. We spent the rest of the evening exploring the night life of Bellavista, the happening, young ‘hippie’ area of Santiago.

Jacob with the ceviche

After a lovely night of sleeping to techno music, we woke up and walked over to Cerro San Cristóbal, an expansive park in the Northern part of the city. After a long and sweaty climb, we reached the statue of the Virgin Mary. From the top we could see a nice view of the city, as well as the very polluted atmosphere.

We trekked back down the hill and wandered through a few different neighborhoods of Santiago. We passed through the huge central market, and walked into the historical district of town. Highlights were the Plaza de las Armas and La Moneda, which is the capital building that was blown up by the military in 1973 to mark the official takedown of Allende’s government, and has since been rebuilt.

A glimpse of the historical district of Santiago, you can see the mix of old and new

Chaz, Jacob and I in front of La Moneda

It was good to see Santiago, and while it is a nice city, I’m happy I decided to study in Viña instead. Until next time, GO CHILE in the world cup!

Flags supporting Chile's soccer team in the market

PUCÓN in 36 hours

Hi blog followers!

I just returned from a fantastic trip to Pucón, which is South of Viña del Mar in the Lakes District of Chile. I really enjoyed myself because not only was it a spectacular place, it was the most efficient trip I have ever been on!

On Wednesday night, I ran straight from class to the bus station and we took the 13 hour overnight bus to Pucón. I was travelling with my friend Emily, from IFSA, and her twin brother Peter who was visiting from the U.S. Anyway, the drive into Pucón in the early hours of the morning was beautiful as we had our first peek of Villarrica Volcano in the glow of the yellow morning light. As we climbed off the bus, I was immediately stuck but the chilly, fresh mountain air that I just love! After checking into our cute hostel, we took a local bus to Ojos de Caburga to see three waterfalls in the forest plunging into a deep pool of crystal clear water. I enjoyed exploring the little wooden bridges and wandering through the colorful fall leaves.

Ojos de Caburga

Cool swirly tree

Next we walked along the road for awhile in order to find the bus to Huerquehue National Park. Once we arrived, we successfully convinced the park ranger to let us in for the reduced entrance fee by using our Chilean ID cards (this made me feel like a legitimate Chilean, I was pretty excited!) We hiked for about three hours through a moist forest, then up a ways to arrive at a beautiful waterfall, and finally a marvelous view of the Villarrica Lake and Volcano. I saw a lot of interesting birds, but unfortunately didn’t have my dad along to identify them. Other animals included a fox, jackrabbits, cows and sheep. This was my first real wildlife excursion since arriving in Chile, and every second of it was fantastic!

Our trail through the forest, notice the bamboo!

Villarrica Lake and Volcano

That evening, we treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at a restaurant that was playing Jack Johnson and had cool rock candles. After dinner and what already seemed like a very long day, we decided to venture to the ‘thermas,’ or natural hot springs. Since it is the beginning of winter here, we hit Pucón during off-season and there were barely any tourists. This was definitely true at the hot springs, where there was just one other couple and six different pools to lounge in. It was a very natural environment, sandy pools surrounded by large rocks filled with some of the clearest water I’ve ever experienced. We enjoyed the moonlight pools and starry sky, which was only obstructed with steam from the hot springs. After a chilly day of exploring and the previous night on the bus, the hot water was exactly what my body needed. I know we all slept very soundly that night at the hostel.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to climb Villarrica Volcano! This is one of the four volcanoes worldwide known to have an active lava lake within its crater. Our group of six had two great guides who outfitted us with heavy jackets, pants, backpacks, helmets, crampons and ice picks. We began the hike at the base of the ski lift (which was not operating at the time) and made our way up at a slow and steady pace. The majority of the hike was in snow, so I became accustomed to using my crampons for grip, then the ice pick for balance and in case of a fall. It was a steep and grueling climb, but I knew from my past hiking experience that a strong mentality was critical. So I kept myself going by singing songs and thinking of happy memories. Don’t let me forget the absolutely breathtaking view that we had the entire time, it was just awe-inspiring. We were up on a volcano, far above the clouds and had views of lakes and mountains that seemed to go on forever. I had to keep reminding myself that this was real because everything seemed to amazing to be true. As we gained elevation, there were some awesome ice structures that reminded me of Dale Chihuly’s glass art. However, these were hazardous as they were sometimes blown down the mountain at outrageous speeds by the wind and could potentially hit climbers.

It's hard to tell, but this is me climbing with all my gear!

One of the many beautiful views

After about a solid six hours of climbing, a few breaks and some wobbly legs, we reached the summit! The view was extraordinary in every direction; we could even see two other nearby volcanoes. Not to mention peeking down the inside of the crater of an active volcano, an experience I will not soon forget. We could smell the sulfur gas, but luckily the wind was strong enough that we were able to hang out on top for a good 20 minutes before heading down. We trekked back down the mountain at a much quicker speed, although my knees and ankles quickly began to hate me. Once we’d gone about halfway, we pulled out our plastic sleds and SLID down the volcano! No, I am not kidding! There were pathways made by previous groups, so we weaved down the tracks at a good speed. I felt like I was doing the luge! It was a little painful at times, but SO much fun!

Emily and me in front of the crater. Please notice our homemade tie-dye shirts.

That same evening, we had to pick up and leave Pucón to take the night bus back to Viña. The trip was very refreshing and I left with a sense of accomplishment, as well as some pretty sore legs!

Once again, thanks for reading!

Easter Island: Paradise found.

It is impossible to put into words the experience I had on La Isla de Pascuas. It may be the most beautiful place I have ever been.

To fly to the island, essentially you travel directly West of Santiago for 4.5 hours and are above the bright blue ocean the entire time. All of a sudden, you see a little tiny island below and there you are on Easter Island! My first impression was that everything reminded me of ‘LOST,’ the terrain, small communities and mysterious elements.

As we walked off the plane, we were greeted with a humid sunny day and tropical breeze, quite a change from the chilly weather we’ve been having in Viña. The airport is very cute as there is only one flight to the island every day. We chatted with a very odd but nice woman named Teresa and decided to stay in her home during our 4 nights on the island. She gave Annie and me beautiful flower leis and brought us to her home. It was a nice place with a pretty garden, and breakfast consisting of bread, marmalade and tea was provided every morning.

The first day we wandered past a beautiful cemetery into the small town of Hanga Roa. On the way we saw our first Moai, which are the large stone heads that scatter the island. The island has an extremely interesting history with many significant knowledge gaps. Nobody knows who exactly created the Moai, what they mean or the explanations for their locations on the island. It is amazing to think about the mass production and transportation necessary to make so many Moai. At one point, all of them had fallen due to a tsunami, and today about half of them have been restored back to standing. Just to give you an idea, there are over 800 Moai, most face inward towards the center of the island, some are alone, others in groups, and some have hats, and all of them sit on stone platforms. I spent a lot of time thinking about these stone figures and just really enjoyed this unsolved mystery.

Our second day on the island, we rented a jeep in order to take a self-guided tour around the perimeter of the island. We discovered what I would consider the best radio station in the world as it played an amazing combination of the most popular US songs and reggaeton songs plus the occasional islander song. So we spent the day exploring the coast, climbing out onto rocks in the ocean, discovering Moai and seeing one gorgeous place after the next.

A highlight for me was coming upon a grassy hill that seemed to look out over the ocean. We hopped out of the car and as we walked to the edge of the hill, we saw the most beautiful beach imaginable. One of those white sand, curved beaches that you only see in postcards of paradise. We ran down to the teal blue water and went swimming and of course, the temperature was perfect!

The next morning we drove to an amazing volcanic crater Rano Kau and from there had a good view of the town and most of the island.

Equipo gringo: Jacob, Annie, me and Chaz

A nice view of Hanga Roa

Our last day on the island, we explored the other coast of the island and discovered a series of caves that are really lava tubes. Despite our lack of light, we thoroughly explored every cave and were excited to find some that opened up to views of the ocean. While we were on the island, there were extraordinarily large waves and they were just spectacular! One night we went out to watch the waves crash and look at the beautiful starry sky while eating some delicious dark chocolate, talk about the perfect combination!

Photo taken from the cave!

We had a bit of bad luck at the end of our trip as someone threw a rock through our jeep window and stole all of our daypacks, which included money, clothes, ID and credit cards and a camera. So we got to experience the police station and according to them, this is an extremely rare occurrence on the island. Although it was pretty stressful, I was proud of our Spanish skills in figuring out all the complicated logistics and I’m happy we are all safe. Overall this was an amazing trip and one I will never forget.

Did I mention that I saw some of the most breathtaking sunsets I’ve ever seen?