San Pedro De Atacama

The weekend after Pucon, we got to go to San Pedro de Atacama with CIEE. SAn Pedro is in the north of Chile, and its technically the driest desert in the world. To be honest I was expecting a place like Tucson, but it was so much more desolate than Tucson. There were hardly any plants at all (but there are specific animals that live there: alpaca, condors, flamingoes, etc).

The town is this really interesting deserty, adobe, indigenous looking town (except that now its VERY touristy). But it was still very quaint and beautiful (and dry)! The first night we all had dinner together at Cuna restaurant (I would suggest it to anyone, very tasty).

The first full day we had in San Pedro, most people went on a bike ride to see some ruins (which I heard was really great), but I chose to take it easy because I was feeling sick. Jennifer and I spent the whole morning exploring the town and we made two great Peruvian friends. They both had tourist shops, but we were able to talk to them and it was really exciting to just learn about them and hear their opinions.

Later we went to La Valle de la Luna, which is a part of the desert that is so interesting and strange looking (but entirely natural made) that it looks like the moon. It was amazing! We got to see the sun set to which was so beautiful. Then that night we went to an observatory and looked through telescopes to see all teh stars. We saw the surface of the moon, saturn and yellow, blue, and red stars. It was really neat but VERY cold.

The next day we went to salt flats that had 3 different species of flamingoes. Salt flats, to be honest, are not very interesting. Then we got to go to a more secluded indigenous village, where i met an indigenous woman who invited me to her little shop and house to pet a baby alpaca!!

Later that day we went sand surfing! It was difficult and fun and also interesting becuase we ended up veryyy sandy!

One really great thing about SAn Pedro was that there were some really fun restaurants that had outdoor seating with fire pits.

I would suggest to anyone to got to San Pedro!

Pucón- Or Where I Realized That I Cant Get Enough of Extreme Sports

EPIPHANY:

All those adventures bring us to this past weekend…my trip to Pucón. CIEE takes all of us to Pucón and this had to be one of the best trips ive ever taken. We left Thursday night and drove for 10 hours to the south of Santiago. Pucón is a city in the Lakes region of Chile and it is a small city that is located right next to a volcano. Its latest eruption was in 1983, but the lava stopped flowing 3 years ago. I spoke to one of our guides who was in Pucón during the eruption and he showed me which way it flowed down the volcano and into the lake just barely bypassing the town.

We arrived early in the morning, and we were able to go to our cabins for a few hours before breakfast. We stayed on this beautiful area in cabins. It is called Resort El Dorado and they offered all CIEE students and family a lifetime discount…so if anyone wants to go let me know! There were lots of trees, flowers, and a little river. We were served breakfast (it included eggs!!) and then we went for an organized tour. We went outside of the city to an area with a waterfall and a little lake that had purely blue water. Then we went to see one of the bigger lakes around Pucón, “Lago Villarica.” After that we went for a short hike to see two waterfalls and we ate a boxed lunch together. Next they took us to some “termas” (hot springs). I had never been to hot springs before and they were amazing! Unfortunately Dante’s Peak was in the back of my mind for a bit of the trip…I was hoping not to be covered by lava while enjoying the hot springs. We went to the Termas Los Pozones. The termas were all right by a river (Liucura River), and we mainly had the termas all to ourselves. We stayed for a few hours- it was very relaxing and fun. A couple of us went to the river and jumped in (it was freezing) and then went back to termas (that made the termas bearable once they got too hot).

The next morning-really early- a few of us decided to do the “hike” to the top of the volcano. What did we expect? A difficult but not too difficult hike to see the top of the volcano. The man at the cabins said “todo el mundo” has done it—its not too tough. Hmm okay…I was ready for the 10-11 hour hike though. We got to the tour agencies office and they outfitted us with hiking boots, pants, and windbreakers. They also gave us backpacks but we had no idea what was in the backpacks. We drove about an hour to the base of the volcano. We got out of the van and they handed us each an ice pick…WAIT…I didn’t know this involved ice picks. I was a little scared at that point…I thought it was a hike. I had to admit though earlier I was wondering how we got past the snow on the top of the mountain. We had an option to hike all the way or pay a bit extra to take a Chairlift up the first hour of the hike. We split in half…I chose the chairlift because the first hour is supposed to be the most tiring part. After the chairlift our guide started up the mountain with us. We hike for about an hour or more and then we arrived at the snowy part of the mountain- the glacier. I really should specify that this “hiking” was pretty technical, more like hike-climbing than hiking. The trail was so unmarked and unclear that I never would have been able to follow it without a guide. It was very rocky and quite taxing.

We sat down and ate a few cookies and nuts right under the glacier. All I could see was one smallish wall of ice that looked like it went straight up…I thought that seems really far, how do we do this even, and where does the glacier end…it was a lot bigger than what I could see. Our guide then said okay girls (we were all girls to the extreme enjoyment of both our guide and all his other guide friends who loved to all make jokes and point it out…our guide called us his angels) get out your crampones. I think everyone can tell that crampones means crampons. We were like huh…crampons, really. They were waiting for us in our backpacks. Out guide strapped on our crampons and then gave us a brief lesson on how to use crampons. He also showed us how to use our ice picks in case of falling down the glacier. We started up the mountain on this little trail. It must have been about 2 hours of trekking up the glacier. It was the funnest thing ive ever done. I can’t believe I walked up a glacier in crampons. It was a lot of work and every time we stopped I had to take off my jackets and just be in my tee shirt I was so hot. It was amazing, looking down the volcano at the forest, the lakes, and the town while sitting on a glacier! I couldn’t believe my luck that I could be doing this…I was very very content.

When we finished crossing the glacier we had climb up a rocky cliff to the top of the volcano. The volcanic rock we had to climb up was very loose and therefore it was tough going, but we eventually made it. There was smoke and sulfur spewing up from the volcano cone. There was an amazing view, but I felt almost unnatural but also satisfied to be at the top. Surely humans aren’t supposed to be at the top of a volcano, but as I looked at what I did to get there I was extremely content and proud. After some time at the top, we headed back down. The climb down the rocky cliff was probably the hardest, because everyone was scared, and out guide decided to go faster than the group could. He was long gone and so I was the “new leader.” I helped find footholds and everything for those who were scared. When we got to the glacier our guide let us sit on our butts and slide down part of the glacier…it was pretty fun and exciting. Then we put on out crampons and walked down the rest of the glacier. Lastly we hiked back down the bottom part of the volcano…our guide once again was about a half an hour ahead of us the whole time (out of sight for part of it)…we definitely got the worst guide because the other groups had guides that helped them the entire way. I think our guide wanted to get home. Upon finishing we all had blisters and bruises from the boots and bruises, but I can say that I was happy even with all the pain and soreness. I felt very fulfilled and wished I could do it again (maybe after resting a while though : ).

The next morning (our last day in Pucón) some of us when rafting. I got to be one of two in the front most position of our boat…Matt and I set the pace for the rowing, and got the brunt of the water. To start off our rafting guide asked us if we wanted to do a balance test: for the balance test Matt and I stood on one side of the raft and out guide on the other, he jumped in and knocked us into the water. It was really refreshing and fun. None of the other girls in the raft chose to do it. They were pretty scared for the rapids but I was simply happy (in every picture I have the biggest goofiest smile). Our guide led us down some really fun rapids (they were class 4 and 5). Our guide was even invited to do rapid kayaking in the US in a few months. We got to a point where we had to pass a class 6 rapid so we all had to get out and the guide took the raft through by himself. We had to hike around the rapid but then they led us to a cliff. We got to jump into the water from the cliff! Then we got back into the boat and did more rafting. It was really fun, I got really wet, and I just didn’t want to stop at all.

I think I have rediscovered my calling: extreme sports. I can’t wait to see what I do next!!

Im adding here some information on the AMAZING meal we had at École, which is an organic, vegetarian restaurant in Pucon. I would suggest it to anyone (its also a hostel). It was the best meal I have had in Chile.



I would like to thank everyone for reading my blogs! It means so much to me and remember that I LOVE comments so feel free. I will add pictures to all these posts very soon!

What you've all missed out on...the short version.

Since I last posted I have had many adventures. Here I will summarize the a few highlights from the past month.

March 13: I visited Cerro San Cristobal for the first time with Berta (my Chilean ambassador) and our little group. Berta is a great friend and she plans events for us to all do together. At all our events Berta brings her pololo (boyfriend) Carlos. Often only Jennifer, Kate, and I attend the events but the five of us always have so much fun! It’s so nice to have Berta and feel close to a Chilean girl. Its also so much fun to see Berta and Carlos at school sometimes. They are the nicest friends!
Cerro San Cristobal is a big hill in the middle of Santiago that has a statue of the Virgin on top. To get there you can take a funicular or a teleferico (aerial tramway)…or walk, but we decided to enter on the teleferico and leave on the funicular. It is very beautiful and the mountain is huge (it has a little church, a zoo, and a pool).

March 20
On this weekend Facundo (my host cousin from Argentina- when I studied there in high school) came to visit me. We had a very packed, fun-filled weekend. We went to San Cerro Cristobal again, we saw La Moneda (presidential palace), all of the senate buildings, Viña del mar and a palace there, and Cerro Santa Lucia. Cerro Santa Lucia is a hill that was transformed into a park. It is very beautiful (architecture and landscaping) and has a magnificent view from the top. I prefer Cerro Santa Lucia to Cerro San Cristobal. Cerro Santa Lucia also has a Mapuche fair where you can buy Mapuche made jewelry and instruments, medicines and food. Facu had a great time and he was able to meet all of my friends too!

Unfortunately the next two weekends I mainly studied a lot, with of course breaks to see my friends and a few movies. I had a very difficult test in my ir class, which I worked very hard for.

April 09
By the time Semana Santa rolled around (Easter week) I was ready for some fun. I went to Cajon del Maipo (a rural area about 2 hours outside of Santiago) with Peter, Leif, Kate, Naomi (Lief’s friend from school who is studying in Argentina). We went to San Alfonso which is one of the towns in Cajon Del Maipo. We got there early Friday morning and we set out to find a hostel. We walked around the whole town and went to about 7 hostels but all were full. One man though told us there was a house we could rent. He took us to this man’s house and he rented us the house next to his for 30 mil (30,000 pesos). Pretty cheap for 5 people. It was really nice and had four bedrooms and a living room, a kitchen and fancy bathrooms. We got all situated and then we went for a hike in Cascada de las Animas (supposedly has great waterfalls).

It was a bit of a rip of because we had to pay about 8 dollars to enter the park and take a 5-hour hike, but it was really beautiful! It is a desert-type landscape (there were cacti) but with amazing mountains and some interesting plant life. We hiked past a horse, goat, and boar ranch to a lookout on top of the mountain. We thought about hiking to the “fall” but we saw it from higher up and it wasn’t a very notable waterfall, more like a trickle. The hike was really fun, but I did fall on a cactus (which proved to be a little problematic). After out hike we decided to make dinner. Kate and I grabbed a colectivo (type of taxi that only goes to certain places) to head to the next town to a grocery store. We bought food for dinner and breakfast and headed back to start cooking. We made guacamole to start with, and then we made pasta with fresh made vegetable sauce and chicken. We also made a tasty salad for everyone. Peter bought the worst tasting wine I have ever had called Gato, which tasted like grape juice. It was a great time and then we had ice cream cake for dessert.

We encountered a bit of a problem when I was washing the dishes. I was talking with Leif and washing the dishes when Leif yelled “The Calefont is out, the Calefont is out!!!” He then ran into the living room and sat on the floor hiding in the corner. The calefont is what most Chileans use to heat their water. The calefont pilot light must always be on, otherwise if the calefont is on and the pilot light is off then toxic gases are released. While Leif was hiding, I opened the window, but was doubtful that it was a problem. Leif called Elsa (one of the CIEE administrators) and she told us how to turn it off so that it wouldn’t release toxic gases. We then had to explain why we were in Cajon del Maipo for the night, because we forgot to tell CIEE that we were going. At the same time (same weekend) two of our other friends got robbed and others didn’t tell CIEE that they were going on vacation. So now all of us have to attend a safety meeting at CIEE next week. Opps!

After the calefont drama we all played cards. We were a little tired after that so we decided to go to bed. Leif read Black Beauty to us (we found it in English in the house) as we fell asleep, haha. The next morning, as always I woke up two hours before everyone else so I woke everyone up with breakfast: eggs in a basket.

After breakfast we packed up and went walking in the direction of Santiago. We found a “sala de te” (tea house) along the road that was really cute and was run by a really nice woman who spoke Spanish, French, and some English. She used to live in France. It was also a campground. We had real coffee (made from beans not Nescafe) and homemade crepes with manjar (it’s the Chilean version of Dulce de Leche but its made a little differently so its not quite as good). We also had really tasty bread with two kinds of homemade jam. The jam was the best ive ever had!

After that we caught the bus back to Santiago and headed home. On Easter Sunday I went to church with Eliana. It was a very nice service and it was at a church very close to our house.

I've been absent but now im back in full swing!!

First I would like to apologize for my lack of communication the past month. I started to get really busy what with school, travel, adventures, meeting new people, and being present for each moment. Because of this lapse, I have much to tell and hope I don’t overwhelm anyone with the ensuing posts. Here’s to adventures abroad!

Time + Chile = nonexistant

Time. In Chile. Is so different than time in the United States. Everything goes late. Everything starts late. Everyone is late. Sometimes teachers show up 20 minutes late to class, sometimes they dont show up at all. Dinner is often served at 10:00pm and lunch at 2:00pm. Kids go dancing until 7:00am. Then sleep till 5:00pm. And all this is not jsut expected, but normal.

Certain things I have encountered here have been quite inefficient adding to the lack of time here. It seems like time has no meaning anymore. I say ill be somewhere in an hour but if it takes me 2 hours I dont worry. Life is relaxed here, and I never feel the need to check the time. Its quite an odd feeling and I also can't believe I have been here for 4 weeks. On one hand it feels like its been no time at all, and on the other I feel like I have been here forever.

Good news: I FINALLY have all my classes. Im taking 3 classes with chileans (and extranjeros- foreign people) and 2 classes for only extranjeros. Im getting credit for 5 classes and most importantly: im graduating ON TIME!! Im taking Procesos de Integracion en America Latina (Processes of integration in Latin AMerica) which is supposed to be really hard, but I love the teacher: shes fun and smart and the class is very interesting. Im also taking Chilean Folklore, the teacher is a little boring but the material seems interesting and the class looks easy. My extranjero classes are Spanish grammar and chilean culture (which hasnt started yet : ). They both seem like busy work classes. I am also taking Digital photography!! In Spanish!! It seems like it may be my favorite class. All my classes except photo are in Campus San Joaquin, but photo is in Campus Oriente (which is so beautiful, it used to be a nunnery adn it looks like a really old castle).

Speaking of inneficiencies the last time I went to Campus Oriente, Jenn and I got on a bus and told the bus driver we were going to campus oriente of la catolica (my university) and he said oh of course!! Ill take you right there! But then we passed the street the school was on and I said wait isnt it here? And Mr. Friendly busdriver said no no im going around so that I can drop you off closer. Well then he dropped us off about half an hour away from the school, makeing me 20 minutes late to my class. We had to somehow find our way back too...its a little funny...but also made me really annoyed : ). The bus drivers here dont ever like to admit that they are wrong...so they pretend they know what they are doing...something to keep in mind next time im lost haha.

I am really happy to finally know what classes im taking since it is the third week of classes. We celebrated by goign to the beach again yesterday (at Viña del Mar). It turned out to be really cloudy, but of course I love it when its cloudy so it was perfect for me. We walked around and looked at all the artisans wares. Here is a picture of me in front of all the pretty scarves. There is definately always something fun to do here!

Weekends!

Just wanted to give you all an update: Lately I have been spending half of my time trying to find classes that I can take here that will transfer to USC and the other half just enjoying myself. Just to make it clear its a lie that its easy to go abroad and find classes that work for USC...and I may graduate in Dec of 2010. Wow, great things to look forward to. On the bright side, last week I attended 3 potential classes at La Catolica, San Joaquin campus, and none of the teachers came. So I have been getting a lot of free passes. Classes start more officially on Monday, but I still dont knwo what classes USC is allowing me to take so I may have to somehow try to go to extra classes just in case, or I may just not go at all...I may boycott school. Ill keep you posted.

On Friday Jennifer, Kate and I had a great day. We went to Las Condes to have an American breakfast which was the best breakfast Ive had here! Steph Chow it made me miss our weekly brunches, I think you would really like this restaurant too (its called Cafe Melba) maybe sometime you can come here and we can have brunch there : ). Then we went to the mall Parque Arucano...we shopped a bit and saw Simplemente no te quiere (Hes just not that into you). It was a fantastic friday! For dinner Leif and I went out for sushi...who would think you could find cheap and tasty sushi in Santiago? We ended the day at another great party hosted by our friends Matt and Pedro. Yesterday we had a pool day at Jennifer's apartment...the water was too cold to go into though. Essentially we are just having a great time!! Later today we are having a Ping Pong tournament at Jennifers house.

In summary, even if I never graduate I know Ill be having fun while not graduating : )

MAS FOTOS

The Best Trip I have EVER been on...

This week we had a few says off for vacations and I decided to plan a trip to the South of Chile, Patagonia. I went with Jennifer, Kate, Matt, Leif, and Beth. I did most of the planning which was both hard and fun, and I'm really proud of how the trip turned out. We only had from Wednesday to Sunday to make the trip so we weren't able to fit in everything we wanted. I had two important attractions that HAD to be seen: the Penguins and Torres del Paine. So we took the four hour flight down to Punta Arenas where we could go see the Pinguinos (Penguins)!! We found a local bar (La Madera) on Wednesday night and we danced salsa with all the locals (or at least tried to).

On Thursday we cought a big boat from Punta Arenas to Isla Magdalena. It was a two hour boat ride then we got to hang out with the Penguins on Isla Magdalena (which is in the Strait of Magellan) for a whole hour. There were thousands of penguins and i got so close to one that we were almost touching!

Friday we took an early bus to Puerto Natales (three hours away). You can only access Torres del Paine from Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is anther port city that has brightly colored houses and tin roofs. We had lunch at a great pizza place then took another two hour bus ride to one of the entrances to Torres del Paine (called Laguna Amarga). We had encountered a little problem in planning where we were going to stay at Torres del Paine. We thought we could stay at a refugio (hostel) on the mountain but we went and asked the information serivces in Punta Arenas and they informed us that we could only stay at this hotel called Las Torres. And she informed us that for 3 twin beds it would cost $300 dollars. So we had decided to cheat the system, we made a reservation for 3 people but we decided that all 6 of us would stay there. We were really upset that that was our only option but we knew we had come too far to turn back. We took a transfer (small bus) from the entrance to the park (Laguna Amarga) to Las Torres (the hotel next to which the trail that we wanted to take started). The transfer was a really long bus that was super narrow. We drove half an hour over a dirt road and over a tiny bridge that barely had enough clearance widthwise.

We arrived at the hotel Las Torres and half of us checked in while the other half of us snuck in. Lo and Behold...the super expensive hotel only had 3 twin beds!! So we decided it is what it is. Then we saw a refugio down the road, and we were really angry that the tourism lady had blatently lied to us. We decided to take a short hike and then have dinner. The area is like a storybook land- the most beautiful place I have EVER seen in my life. We hiked around for a few hours and we found some horses and a stream. We went back to the hotel and went to the ONLY restaurant in the area (its quite secluded!). It was a very fancy hotel where they were appaled when we asked for tap water and they referred to us as Jovenes (young people). Quite an interesting experience...

Our next problem that we encountered was that to hike to the viewpoint to see the Torres (for which Torres del Paine is famous) was supposed to be a 9 hour hike round trip. Also the only bus back from Laguna Amarga on Saturday left at 2:30. You can do the math...its impossible. So I decided that NOTHING is immpossible and we would wake up at 5:30 and see how far we could get hiking as fast as we could. The girls had to each share a twin bed and one of the boys camped out on the floor as an extreme stormed raged outside (I thought well guess we wont be hiking tomorrow if this continues). When I woke up the next morning at 5:30 ready to round up the troops I realized that it was still dark outside. So I let everyone sleep in until 6:30 and then we were able to get out of the hotel by 7:00. Just in time to start hiking as the sun rose over the mountains. We had made PB&J sandwiches the night before and had decieded to only take two small backpacks with us so we could hike as fast as possible. One was mine, in which I put my big camera (very heavy haha) and the other held our food. We didn't end up starting the trail until 7:30 but it started out absolutely beautiful! After about 20 mins we realized that we were essentially hiking straight up a mountain in the mud (from the rain). It was the hardest hike I had ever done, and also the most beautiful. We had two people in our group who hadn't ever hiked before and although I worried about them I knew that our only chance to see the Torres was to keep up a fast pace. We kept going and going even admist much dismay and mutiny, but we were able to keep the group together. We ent up the mountain, through a valley, accross a windy drop off, over many simple bridges and FINALLY made it to a lookout where we could see the torres. It rained a bit throughout the hike but mostly only drizziling. At the lookout we admired the Torres which were covered in mist and then we ate our PB&J's and prepared for the trek back. We kapt up a good pace back the way we had come and we arrived back at the hotel at 12:30...we did a 9 hour hike in 5 hours!! I was so proud of everyone...especially our non-hikers!!!

We got back in time for the free transfer that left our hotel at one to take us back to Laguna Amarga. Luckily there were 6 seats left. We walked up and the snooty transfer driver told us we couldn't take the bus becasue we didn't stay at the hotel (ageism). WE told him indeed we did stay at the hotel and he told us no this is private (while the other guest were telling him to let us on). We argued and argued and finally he let us on. We went to Laguna Amarga where we caught our next 2 hour bus back to Puerto Natales. In Puerto Natales we cought our 3 hour bus back to Punta Arena. We arrived back at Punta Arenas around 8 and returned to our first hostel (Hostal Fitz-Roy...as suggested by K&A...great place!). We went out to a nice seafood dinner for Beth's 21st birthday!! WE had the BEST seafood Ive ever had in Punta Arenas. After dinner we trudged over to a dancing club where they played 80's music and music videos. Then at the club Beth and I participated in a salsa lesson, until it turned into a competition and we ran away. We were every tired so we didn't stay long. Then we woke up the next day at 8 so we could get on our plane back to Santiago.

A very tiring, fast-paced, and succesful vacation!!!