so, i bought a ticket on tuesday to pichilemu, which is a 3 hr bus ride to the southwest of santiago. my guide book told me it had a charming victorian feel and hosted the first casino in chile. it failed to mention that the only victorian building is the casino, which is currently being restored. there are about a million little cabins and hotels to stay in once you get there, and i had researched cabañas hecmar, which were about six blocks out of town. the best thing about it was, though, no matter where you walked you weren't more than 3 blocks away from the beach. and what a beach! the sand was dark which kept my feet warm during the cloudy weather, and the swells were some of the biggest ive ever seen. apparently it's the surf capital of the sixth region, and i understand why.
i met my friend gina in pucón. she's from chicago and is studying in concepción. i messaged her to see if she was interested, and we met up in pichilemu on friday. we mostly walked around the town, sat on the beach, took a few pictures and went grocery shopping. the cabin was awesome because it had cable and a full service kitchen, so we spent the nights making dinner and watching american movies with spanish subtitles. had the clouds gone away it would have been a perfect beach weekend, but oh well, we still had a great time. after she boarded her bus back home i made a quick (and cheap 80 cents) lunch and watched arrested development, which hasnt gone into syndication in the states yet. chile knows whats up
my favorite part of the trip was the cost. my bus ticket was $9 down and $8 back. since its still off season, the cabin was $26 dollars a night, so split it was $26 for the weekend. we ate out once, which cost $9, and the rest of the time we ate groceries which totaled about $7. i spent $3 on souvenirs, so all together it came to$62. not bad for a weekend.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
let's talk
ive been reading my friends blogs and realized that they do a way better job of logging their experiences abroad. ive lately been using this site as a cop out to post pictures, thinking that they express what's really happening right now. i have so many small experiences that, in addition to the bigger experiences, make this whole thing pretty amazing.
to start, today on the way home this woman asked me in spanish if i knew the bible. she didn't really seem to believe when i told her yes, and she kept asking me if i understood it, because its very hard to understand. i told her yes again, and she asked me where i was from. we exchanged a little in english, she said she had been in new york for three months and when i asked her if she liked it she said "not to live. i prefer my own country". i understood completely. she ended up giving me a religious track, in spanish, talking about how difficult the bible is to understand.
being away last week made me realize that i need to travel as much as i can. i bought a bus ticket to a small beach town called Pichilemu. it set me back about 4.500 pesos ($9). when we were in Pucón we met these two girls from Chicago who are studying in Concepción. one was Gina, and she's meeting me in Pichilemu this friday to pass a calm and hopefully dull weekend out of the city.
Pucón was as beautiful as everyone told me it would be. a friend of a friend, jack, studied there (or in the general area) when he was in high school, and without knowing that we already had plans to go there, he recommended it to us. the first day we did a 40km bike ride, all the way to these waterfalls called ojos de caburga. we didn't know it was going to be that long (it converts to 25 miles, más o menos) but it was definitely an experience. the next few days were spent being generally lazy, since the holiday took up a whole day. we took a rowboat out on lake villaricca for about 30 minutes, we ate lunch, we lounged around our hostel, we drank chicha. chicha is a traditional sparkling alcohol made from grapes, but it's not the same as pisco. i guess its traditional because we've only heard about it around fiestas patrias, and we haven't seen it since.
one of the best choices on the trip was to take a day excursion to Valdivia, which is my new favorite place that i've been so far. the day started off like shit-- we thought the gate was locked; the three other girls jumped the wall and amy skinned her knee. i woke up the owner of the hostel to let me out, because the only bus available by the time we bought the tickets was at 6:05 and i thought i was going to miss it. weve learned that buses in chile dont generally run on schedule, and at about 7 we finally boarded the bus. it only took about 2 hours to get there, but since it was the morning after independence day everything was closed and people were still drunk. luckily we found a kitch-tastic seafood restaurant to eat breakfast, which really was like eating lunch at 930 am. luckily fish markets never sleep, and we hit that up, staring at the pelicans, sea lions and rows of every kind of seafood, including purple crabs! we also found a really cheap artisan market and bought souvenirs to our hearts content.
that day (sept 19) was the military celebration day, and we watched the parade with much enthusiasm. at one point we spent about an hour just watching the rows of young chilean men pass, trying to wink at them. our favorite part was that their army has a special ski department to rescue people in the mountains.
the next part of the day was spent taking a boat tour down the river to see two spanish forts from the 17th century. i cant even describe the views, but the best way is to say that i felt like i was in a decemberists song. a strong colonial european air was left about the island (isla mancera and isla corral), something really beautiful and interesting. we were on the boat for about 6 hours. we ate lunch and had a small dessert with tea, and the whole thing was $24. i highly recommend it next to youre down there.
other than that, i guess i've got no much else to report. i promise to try to be better about updating with funny anecdotes and whatnot. until then, take care of the us for me.
to start, today on the way home this woman asked me in spanish if i knew the bible. she didn't really seem to believe when i told her yes, and she kept asking me if i understood it, because its very hard to understand. i told her yes again, and she asked me where i was from. we exchanged a little in english, she said she had been in new york for three months and when i asked her if she liked it she said "not to live. i prefer my own country". i understood completely. she ended up giving me a religious track, in spanish, talking about how difficult the bible is to understand.
being away last week made me realize that i need to travel as much as i can. i bought a bus ticket to a small beach town called Pichilemu. it set me back about 4.500 pesos ($9). when we were in Pucón we met these two girls from Chicago who are studying in Concepción. one was Gina, and she's meeting me in Pichilemu this friday to pass a calm and hopefully dull weekend out of the city.
Pucón was as beautiful as everyone told me it would be. a friend of a friend, jack, studied there (or in the general area) when he was in high school, and without knowing that we already had plans to go there, he recommended it to us. the first day we did a 40km bike ride, all the way to these waterfalls called ojos de caburga. we didn't know it was going to be that long (it converts to 25 miles, más o menos) but it was definitely an experience. the next few days were spent being generally lazy, since the holiday took up a whole day. we took a rowboat out on lake villaricca for about 30 minutes, we ate lunch, we lounged around our hostel, we drank chicha. chicha is a traditional sparkling alcohol made from grapes, but it's not the same as pisco. i guess its traditional because we've only heard about it around fiestas patrias, and we haven't seen it since.
one of the best choices on the trip was to take a day excursion to Valdivia, which is my new favorite place that i've been so far. the day started off like shit-- we thought the gate was locked; the three other girls jumped the wall and amy skinned her knee. i woke up the owner of the hostel to let me out, because the only bus available by the time we bought the tickets was at 6:05 and i thought i was going to miss it. weve learned that buses in chile dont generally run on schedule, and at about 7 we finally boarded the bus. it only took about 2 hours to get there, but since it was the morning after independence day everything was closed and people were still drunk. luckily we found a kitch-tastic seafood restaurant to eat breakfast, which really was like eating lunch at 930 am. luckily fish markets never sleep, and we hit that up, staring at the pelicans, sea lions and rows of every kind of seafood, including purple crabs! we also found a really cheap artisan market and bought souvenirs to our hearts content.
that day (sept 19) was the military celebration day, and we watched the parade with much enthusiasm. at one point we spent about an hour just watching the rows of young chilean men pass, trying to wink at them. our favorite part was that their army has a special ski department to rescue people in the mountains.
the next part of the day was spent taking a boat tour down the river to see two spanish forts from the 17th century. i cant even describe the views, but the best way is to say that i felt like i was in a decemberists song. a strong colonial european air was left about the island (isla mancera and isla corral), something really beautiful and interesting. we were on the boat for about 6 hours. we ate lunch and had a small dessert with tea, and the whole thing was $24. i highly recommend it next to youre down there.
other than that, i guess i've got no much else to report. i promise to try to be better about updating with funny anecdotes and whatnot. until then, take care of the us for me.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
dissent is patriotic
im finally starting to pick up on the more subtle nuances of the culture here, and im finally starting to understand why people dont hate pinochet as much as we think they should. at first i thought it was just because he straightened out the economy and made goods and services available again, and that's part of it, but it goes deeper than that. pinochet truly did run a police state, as someone explained to me last night. the streets were safe at any time of night, and crime didnt happen because the punishments were so severe. i tried to counter that security like that is valuable but not as valuable as political freedom, but my friend didnt want to hear it. i suppose it all stems back to maslow's hierarchy of needs, where intellectual needs can only be met once basic biological needs are filled-food, medicine, etc. the chileans miss the rightist dictator because although they forsook their liberties they were provided for. the exchange was worth it.
perhaps im just too american or maybe i really dont understand the situation as well as i think i do, but i cant imagine living like this. i get upset when i think the us government can check my library records, but i here i have an ID card with my right thumb print on it. i value my ability to disagree much more than the security of knowing i wont be robbed. its almost like the ability to make the wrong decision is more important than actually making it. it's the freedom of choice, the liberty to exist as one wishes, and to not forsake this for lesser ideals.
perhaps im just too american or maybe i really dont understand the situation as well as i think i do, but i cant imagine living like this. i get upset when i think the us government can check my library records, but i here i have an ID card with my right thumb print on it. i value my ability to disagree much more than the security of knowing i wont be robbed. its almost like the ability to make the wrong decision is more important than actually making it. it's the freedom of choice, the liberty to exist as one wishes, and to not forsake this for lesser ideals.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
fiestas patrias
chilean independence day is september 18th, and this week it falls on a tuesday. this means that the chilenos get monday off too, making the long weekend start today and end on thursday. university students get the whole week off. so, in order to celebrate this together the university closed and a party started in the common area at about 1230 today. cerveza was 400 pesetas (about 80 cents), piscola was 500ps (an even buck). we learned some tipical chilean dances and met a lot of new chilean friends before we had to dash off to watch a movie about the overthrow of salvador allende (as one classmate put it, kindof a buzzkill. i mean, we each had a few piscolas).
all im saying is the us needs to step it up come fourth of july. it needs to be a week long thing, at least, and it needs to make us as proud as the chilenos are. or at least as drunk.
all im saying is the us needs to step it up come fourth of july. it needs to be a week long thing, at least, and it needs to make us as proud as the chilenos are. or at least as drunk.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
mariscos
so my chilean mom, patricia, was really craving some locos, which as far as they could explain to me is seafood. like a shrimp, but not, is what david added. so they decided to go out for lunch (the first time in three weeks that i've eaten out with them) and we ended up across the city at a seafood restaurant called ocean pacific's. i knew i'd feel at home at any seafood restaurant, but i couldn't have imagined the greatness of this one-- it was like souvenir city in restaurant form! we walked in and everything- the walls, floors, ceilings, tables- was covered in tacky shells, fake fish, mermaids and pirates. and to top it all off, everything was for sale. seashell crusted mirrors, hanging shell lamps, mounted fish (i didn't even attempt explaining a white marlin or the tournament). patricia got her locos, which was really similar to eating conch (so, not exactly shrimp like after all). i ate calamari, and we listened to what could only be described as a mix of music from disneyworld and the best of the 60s and 70s. the whole time i was enchanted that my favorite store had been turned into the kitch-iest restaurant ever.
que rico!
que rico!
Friday, September 7, 2007
this one's all about me
so, i stole these from all my friends' pictures. since i never get tired of looking at myself i thought everyone else might enjoy these too.the first one, with my sunglasses, that one's pretty cool because you can see the mountains in the reflection. you can also see the photographer, jess. next is me pointing in the middle of some valley. they stopped the tour buses on the hotsprings to show us this weird moss (which isnt pictured) that the miners burned as fuel. now it's endangered. i had to pee and was being ornery, so i stood on a rock and kelly took a picture. you can just barely see the moon in the sky. it was about 8 am.
next is me in the streets of san pedro wearing this face mask that i lifted from a pizza shop. im currently working on how to incorporate it into my halloween costume. fourth is me trying to sandboard; no surprise that after about 7 feet or 10 mph i would fall over. you can just barely see that i was wearing my handkerchief over my mouth, swearing it made me go faster. also, our teacher, eduardo, is standing at the top of the hill in the orange board shorts totally checking me out. he drove me there in his truck (it was actually called the valley of death) and he kept turning around asking, "estas bien?" it's safe to say he was my first real chilean crush.
finally there's me at the crest of the hill/mountain in the valley of the moon watching the sunset. it really was one of the best trips i have ever experienced.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
this one's for my mom
so the last time i talked to my moms on the phone she asked if there were any animals here. there are about a zillion stray dogs in the city, but not much more. since i just got back from the desert, i thought i'd display the wide range of animals i saw. you can guess what most of them are; little llamas and a fox. there are flamingos in one picture and the other bird is called a giant cot. click here for the rest of the pictures from the trip.
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