No es adios, es hasta proximo

Querido Bubs

Estoy escribiendo esta carta mientras tres vacas aparecieron en el sendero de la campana. Que raro pero que Chileno no? Hace 4 meses y 4 dias llegaste aca en Chile. Que rapido el tiempo ha pasado. Hoy dia recordaste el bus desde el aeropuerto a Olmue. El primer día, jugando fútbol en el jardin y Nicole perdiendo la pelota. El proximo día aca en la campana con vivi y Pame. Las noches en Olmue, primer pisco, juegos de tomar. El primer día cuando Vivi gritó antes de bajarte el bus. El paseo por los calles de Viña, y dijiste si a todos. Que más pasó? Las primeras dos semanas tuviste mucha clase con Manuel. Ahora saves su vida pero no te diste cuenta sus propios desafios. Conocer la familia, conocer la ciudad, conocer, conocer, conocer. Tu primera noche de shock llegó en la cueva con los gringos por el cumple de Anna. Que fuerte el poder de pisco no? Y todo el tiempo absorbaste mas y mas de castillano. Recuerdas el primer asado con todas las familias? Que rico la celebracion. Oye que lento el primer mes. Solo ahora estás recordando el fin de semana en Santiago. Que suerte la opurtunidad para esquiar en Agosto. Y la noche, corriendo, tomando, y la situación con el hostal. Después solamente tuvisted 2 semanas antes del mejor viaje de tu vida. Conociste los padres de Nicole, y te diste cuenta porque vomitó esta noche. Fuiste al curso de pisco sour y el asado con Emilio y los weones. Y a las 5 Chau. No tengo que explicarte su experiencia en Argentina. Nunca vas a olvidarla por toda tu vida. Pero probablamente vas a olvidar los bagels. Oye que rico. Y llegaste por dieciocho y todas las fiestas. Asado en casa, a la casa de Eli a la casa de Gisela a la fila de barcos. Pero después llega la realidad la U empezó a durar y tuviste trabajo. Cada algunos días había un carrete o un asado. No puedes olvidar la vivi, (la otra vivi). Después a Mendoza. Por bus al noche y todo el resto es la historía. Otro fin de semana rico con las chicas de Argentina. Volviste a Viña y el resto de octubre con el asado de cumple de Weisser. Hasta Morir Hasta Morir, y si carreteamos hasta morir o por lo menos hasta la madrugada y el alamanecer. El primer carrete con los mecanicos y por supuesto no era el ultimo. Noviembre llegó. Pero antes de esto tuviste que ir a San Pedro. Otro fin de semana magnifico con algunos hipos. Pero por otro lado era Fabiana. Que bueno. Dos semanas de carrete con los mecanicos y fuiste a la Serena. Pero antes, parate y mira. La gente que has conocido. Las amigas de Ale, son buenas ondas pero a veces pueden molestarte. La relación entre Gabe y Eli cambia todos. Por mejor o peor, no viste este grupo más. Pero en momentos de cambio encuentras algo nuevo. Empesaste carretear con los mecanicos. En sus palabras Filete Weon. Gonzalo, el que le encanta carretear, que le avisó tu y Amelia tienes que vomitar, el que siempre esta listo para hablar y contar sus historias. Y Lohrmann el bombero con las expresiones inolvidable. que mira el NFL y siempre esta burlandote. Siempre en buen humor. Y mientras escribiendo las vacas están en tu mochila. Recuerdas la vez cuando querías decir torticolis pero en realidad dijiste cicatriz. Oye los momentos comicos de tu viaje. Quién más. Nacho, el que llevó la polera de surf y se sentó al lado de la piscina, y salió la fiesta temprano porque tuvo que despertarse temprano para hacer body board. Y German, el jugador no necesitas decir más. Pizarro, siempre estabas en la misma pagina con el. Como olvidas Pelao, el vecino, el hermano, el weon. Recuerdalo, dont fuck with him porque sabes que pasa en este momento. O Emilio, el weon mas manipulativo en todo el mundo, pero buena onda. Finalmente, El Weisser, el rey. Tu hermano y los dichos; Gatorade, Breaaaaaad, siempre huevonando bromeando carreteando. El maestro de la parilla, el bailador. Nunca vas a olvidar la noche en Scratch VIP, o Ovo, como tiene el poder, fucking weon. Los asados, las fiestas, nunca puedes decir gracias bastantes veces. La Vivi, muchas gracias por todos. Me encanta su voz, tu actitud, y tu consejos de la vida. No te preocupes cuando sea Bill Gates puedes tener cualquier casa quieres. Y Fernando, eres la roca. Siempre enseñandome el humor, y las cosas importantes de Chile y la vida. El sabio mas intelegente. Basta Bubs, ahora vuelves a tu experiencia. La ultima mes voló. Después de la Serena Amelia llegó y te disfrutaste much bubs. Tienes mucho suerte para tener una hermana y profesora de la cultrura como Amelia. Que rico la semana con ella. le amas mucho. Después era el día de acción de gracias, con la cena de despedida. Muchas gracias a IFSA y todas las madres. Sin las madres de miraflo, tu experiencia no estaría tan bueno. Sabes que si. Proximo día tuviste un gran día de acción de gracias. Recuerdas las duds tuviste? Pero buen hecho weon, tu chupaste arriba y ellos te probaron falso. Buen trabajo todos. Después los finales llegaron, y antes de podias creerlo estabas en un avion a Punta Arenas. No voy a decirte mucho sobre Patagonia, solamente que era un gran viaje para reflejar, pensar, y darte cuenta tu experiencia en total. Ahora estas saliendo. Vuelves a los Estados Unidos. Estas muerto de ganas para ver la Emily. Pero ten cuidado con el Shock Cultural Reverso. Cuando necesitas un recreo, parate y piensa sobre tu vista desde tu cama, avenida Valparaiso y donde JL y girafas, la playa, la feria, USM, las dunas, los puestos de sol, la familia, los amigos, y cada aventura. Tienes un monton de experiencia, y memorias. La unica cosa que tienes que hacer ahora es aprovecharlos, recordarlos, y sonreir.

The Beginning of the End

As I wrap up my Chilean experience I have been reflecting a lot and I realize that I should make my last blog post in spanish. I apologize for everyone reading back stateside. However, this blog will be for all of you guys who have probably wondered what the little captions at the bottom of each blog mean. Here I will translate each of them, starting with my very first blog post. Enjoy

I love the Chilean people, culture, and life. It will be a great experience. Until next time!

I really enjoy the family relationships of the Chilean people

The classes kinda suck but they are very important in the study abroad process. Im really lucky to be here.

But thats life no? I cant wait to see the next 5 months.

Its art, and all the world should know that the murals can be very important.

Good luck Bubs

The days fly by like the wind, each day faster and faster.

What a great saturday

You can sleep when youre dead, see ya

If each adventure is as good as the past one, I will be one happy man.

Just keep walking along the road for your whole life and breath.

I have to travel to another continent to be in a major motion picture.

SWEET I'm a resident officially

See you later

In the words of my friend, I could write poems if I lived here.

I love Chile's style

See you next week for Chile's independence day

What a life, the people of Argentina and Chile are incredible. And thank god for my friends. They are the shit

Happy independence day. Happy 200th birthday Chile. Thank you for letting me celebrate with you.

This weekend was really cool and I learned that I dont have to go to other places to still have wild adventures.

Its really fun to play with the kids, but when you are trying to teach them something its wicked hard. What a shame.

The hours the days the weeks move perfectly slowly. How awesome.

That sucks

CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE Long Live Chile

The strength is incredible

Happy Birthday Weisser. Thanks for your hospitality, friendship and the life you have shown me here in Chile

Wow Chile is crazy but I love it. Why dont they have a word for shenanigans in Spanish?

The desert, one day of rain a year. 80 degrees during the day 30 degrees at night. What power this planet has. How impressive San Pedro is. I will never forget the landscape of that place and the memories of that great land.

In the words of Anna. I love how 5 guys can dance together in South America

Thank you Pame and Vivi and all of IfSA I couldnt ask for anything more. You created the perfect trip this weekend and the perfect program overall.

Family. How rich are the relations between siblings. Never in my life have I experienced our relationship. Just me and Amelia together enjoying every moment we had. Life is good.

On a day to say thank you and remember all the oppurtunities in life, I have to think of my experience here in Chile, my experience in college, my decisions throughout life. They have been good, and bad, and learning the consequences is not easy. But really, life is life and I have a ton of things for which to say thank you for.

Enjoy life, but make sure you keep learning every day without fail.

You havent lived until you have seen the lights of Valpo in the night sky.

I have seen the big north, the little north, the central regions, and now the south. How impressive the difference is between each part of Chile. I will never be able to forget my experiences en each place but there is something special about Patagonia. Maybe its what the taxi driver said. In Patagonia, you can hear the silence.




Thank you all who have stuck with this blog through my whole trip. I hope you have enjoyed my stories.

PATAGONIAAAAAAA

It is only fitting that my experience of a lifetime was capped off by the trip of a lifetime. For those who don’t know, I spent the last 8 days in Southern Chile doing a 5 day backpacking trip through the Torres Del Paine National Parque in Patagonia. The scenery was gorgeous, the company was fantastic (but I already knew they were awesome travel buddies) and the overall experience was unforgettable. We trekked over 100 kilometers (around 60 miles) in the 5 days and even though we were dead tired and sore each day, it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heart beat. There are some places I have been in South America that have been really cool, but if I don’t know that I will ever return, Patagonia however, is a place that I know I will see again. So here goes the day by day play by play similar to my other blogs, so if you were bored reading those, you probably will want to close out this tab right about now.

Our flight left on Friday at 3:00 pm so we finally got the luxury of sleeping in and not having to take the LAN bus at 5:00 am like we have done each of our other times going to the Santiago airport. Therefore in typical Chilean fashion we went to an asado until 5:00am, which was perfect, because that is precisely when gabe left for his earlier flight. After getting on the bus and watching ned say goodbye, we were on our way. A smooth flight south to Punta Arenas (the furthest southern city in Chile) was capped off with a slightly choppy landing due to the wind; something we would soon learn was a constant in Patagonia. We went to the bus desk to ask about the buses to Puerto Natales, our first stop on the way to the park, however, we soon found out that all the buses were full…shit. Thanks to annas quick thinking we decided to take a cab for the three hours instead of putting us behind schedule and messing up our plans. It was expensive (about 50 dollars a person) but we got really lucky and our taxi driver was also a tour guide. He let us stop and take pictures of the sheep, flamingoes, and the gorgeous sunset, and explained everything and anything we wanted to know about the area. What a great taxi driver, and what a way to see most of the twelfth region. We made it to our hostel around 11:00 that night, met up with gabe, and then crashed because we had a 7:30 bus to the park the next morning.

Day two was an early one, and the whole crowd caught some Z’s on the bus heading to the park. Around 10:00 we made it into the park. Luckily for us Gabe made a great call on using our Chilean IDs to get the admission price reduced from 30 dollars to 8. Such a deal. We had to switch buses and it was for good reason, because about 10 minutes later we had to cross a bridge that was only about 6 inches wider on each side than the new little bus was. Very funny watching the driver manage that one. We made it to the trailhead and by 11:00 we were on the trail. But before we could start hiking we ran into some of our German friends that we had met up in northern Chile. Crazy coincidence, one of many we encountered along the trail. We also met up with Gordi, a guy from the advanced program who was doing the W as well. After a solid couple of hours on the trail we make it to our first refugio, Refugio Chileno. Refugio means shelter, but these places were far from just shelters. With hot showers and three meals a day I was definitely doing some luxury backpacking, but hey, it was well worth it. We ate lunch and dropped off our packs before starting our side hike up to the Torres del Paine lookout post. It’s a good thing we were able to ditch the packs because this hike was very steep and somewhat slippery at times. But the views at the top were absolutely amazing. As we reached the crest of the hill we found an emerald glacier pond at the bottom and the torres rising above. What a sight. We hung out there for a while, exchanged a couple of friendly snowballs in one of the better snowball fights of my life, and gabe was even able to find a granite “Lay-z-boy” that was actually rather comfortable. We managed to leave just in time though, because within minutes of our descent, the winds came, the clouds moved in and you could no longer see the torres. An overall understatement of the week is that we got lucky with the weather. Usually the weather changes by the hour and rain snow sleet hail winds are very common. We were knocking on wood all the way along and luckily for us it never rained and only was cloudy for a bit of the week. We made it back to the refugio a little early so we just hung out and chatted with the other trekkers. At one point a man looked right at me and anna, snapped his fingers and yelled “hey guy”. We were somewhat taken aback and tried to respond, only to realize that he was actually talking to his buddy directly behind us. Oops. That night we ate a great dinner and met Gaston our Argentinean friend who was doing the trek in the same way we were. For the next three days he would be our closest companion. He also had an awesome job, as we came to learn. He is the athletic director for a school in Buenos Aires and he was giving a speech in Punta Arenas. The school he was speaking at not only paid him to come, but also paid for his transportation and a 4 day trek through Torres del Paine. What a bause. Everyone was dead tired so we went to bed around 9:30, even though the sun wouldn’t set for another hour and a half. Welcome to the bottom of the world 10 days from the longest day of the year.

The following day we were up early again, eager to get back on the trail because we had quite the long day ahead of us. As we were trekking along gabe noticed a guanaco, a local animal similar to a llama, in the distance. We kept walking and noticed that he hadn’t moved. He was just hanging out next to the trail and we eventually got to about 15 to 20 feet from him before he turned around and trotted off. Very cool, I don’t know that I have ever been that close to a wild game animal of that size in my life. The on-trail encounters continue, this time we ran in to the Argentinean girls and exchanged stories of the trail for a little bit. (Direct quote from the notebook “now we know why Ned was sprinting along the trail all day). About an hour later we made it to refugio Cuernos and once again ate lunch and dropped our packs. The refugio had lost their power, therefore there was a little mix up regarding who was supposed to stay that night, but luckily in typical trusting Chilean style everything worked out very smoothly. Shiela, gabes mom who was also trekking with us, decided to hang out there instead of going up valle frances, so she kept watch on the bags while we made the trek. With the wind blowing like crazy, we crossed a raging river, walked along the beach, and booked it up the mountain to make it to the mirador. After a long and strenuous hike even without packs, a woman stops us and tells us that we are really close. Our moral was lifted but only for a second because we realized she in fact had no idea what she was talking about and we were still a couple hours out. But after a while we finally made it to the look out and let me tell you vale la pena. It was definitely worth it, as we got a gorgeous 360 degree view. We met up with another friend from the trail, this guy from spain and shared the views and some stories with him. As we came back down we saw an avalanche take place on glacier frances. Absolutely awesome. Our water bottles were empty, but fear not we stopped by a river and drank straight from the glacier. The water was pure and never tasted so good. We then had to hustle a bit in order to make it back for dinner, but we did, exhausted but satisfied, and amazed by what we had seen. Unfortunately me and gabe each took a digger, but we came up none the worse and everyone made it back in one piece. In total that day we hiked over 33 kilometers (roughly 20 miles) but every single step led to another spectacular view. The wind that night was wild, and unfortunately it kept me up for a while. But as I fell asleep a huge smile crept across my face. I was in complete awe of where I was.

After a long and tough day 2 we decided to sleep in as day 3 was significantly easier. Another hearty breakfast and we were back on the trail, once again having to cross the river, this time with our packs. Fun, fun, fun. We had already seen that part of the trail yesterday during our hike so we didn’t take too much time to stop and look around, instead we just hiked on through to campamiento italiano. After crossing a crazy wooden suspension bridge, we found out that Shielas hip belt broke. Neds quick thinking immediately came up with a plan to fix it and we were back on the trail. The entire second part of the trail that day was full on wind. At one point it started to rain than the wind blew the rain upward instead of downward. A couple of minutes later a gust came so strong that it blew Anna over, and me and ned had to grab on to each other and crouch down in order to keep our footing. After about 4 hours of hiking we make it to our next spot, refugio Paine Grande. This was definitely not a refugio as it came with wifi, satellite tv and a full bar. Once again the crew went out for a day hike this time to the lookout spot at lake Pehoe. Anna takes us up a rock face thinking it’s the lookout, and it sure did have a great view, but we realized that it wasn’t so Ned “Usain Bolt” Lutz led us back down the jagged rock face and back onto the trail. It was here he also earned the nicknames Larry Longlegs and Sir Strides-a-lot. When we got to the lookout point it was well worth the hike. Another gorgeous view of the rock formations and a crystal clear lake in the foreground. I know I have said it before, but it was amazing. Back to the refugio for dinner, and some down time talking with Gaston. We talked a lot about politics and social issues, you know typical conversation topics while backpacking in Southern Chile. That night we taught him how to play hearts and he quickly caught on. Another fun, but early night.

It was only fitting that the skies were grey when we woke up the next day. We were on our way to Lake and Glacier Grey. The hike was once again nice, this time we had a very wooded trail that took us up a valley and then over a couple hills. We made it to the first look out spot and were unfortunately almost blown off the mountain because of the wind, but fear not, everyone made it and the pictures look pretty funny as well. Our next refugio finally felt like we were camping. It was this little spot along the lake with a very hodge podge lodge type feeling. The rooms were packed with little bunk beds, the wood burning stove was crackling and everything had a very lodgy type feel to it. To our surprise we found out that Anna had indeed paid for full board that night and to our delight we once again ate like kings at the refugio. Another drop of the packs and we were up to the close look out point to check out the glacier. The glacier was awesome, impressive and I couldn’t believe that these mountains of ice even existed. After the lookout we climbed down to the shore of the lake and each got to touch an iceberg. That night we came back, watched the sunset, met some german folks that reminded me of Thurston Howell III and his wife, and listened to anna and gabes fantastic letters. It was a great way to end the W as well as our time in Chile.

Day 5 we woke up early and hiked out in order to get the catamaran back to the entrance of the park and bus out to Puerto Natales. Those five days were gone in a blink of an eye, but the photos and the memories will remain forever. That day we just hung out in Natales, nursed our sore legs and enjoyed a delicious pizza dinner at the local favorite called Mesita Grande. It was a really cool restaurant and everyone sat at this giant table that stretched across the whole place.

The following day we were again on a bus, this time to Punta Arenas. We got in, checked out our hostal and then took a van to see a penguin colony. Very fun afternoon, minus the howling winds, but those little guys were awfully cute. I know now why they refer to it as the penguin suit. We came home, grabbed a delicious meal and then said our goodbyes to Gabe and Shiela. We made it back to the hostel and realized that everyone else was Israeli. For the first time in 5 months a language other than Spanish or English dominated the room and it felt somewhat odd. But they were pretty nice so we chatted it up for a while and then went to bed.

Day 7 we had nothing to do so we walked around the city, tried to get into the Austral Brewery, and hung out in the sky bar at the casino for a while. Only problem was that all these places were closed. But it was a fun and relaxing day. We went back to the hostel watched some Christmas movies on tv in Spanish and ended up buying the hostel workers cards off him so we had something to do. At 10:00pm we took the taxi to the airport to wait for our 3:30 am flight. We met up with some other gringos in the airport and chatted it up with them before getting on the plane and passing out. We finally made it back to Santiago, said goodbye to Ned which was really weird, and came back to Vina. What a trip, I cant believe its over.

He visto en norte grande, el norte chico, las regiones central, y ahora el sur. Que impresionante la diferencia entre todo Chile. Nunca podria olvidar mi experiencia en todos los lugares, pero hay algo especial en Patagonia. Quizas sea el dicho del chaufer. En Patagonia puedes oir el silencio.

Puro Carrete Puro Amistad

Its gonna be really tough to leave here.

No has vivido hasta has visto las luces de valpo en en cielo de noche.

Refleción

As we are now in december I realize that I have less than a month remaining in the great nation of Chile. As I take a break from my finals to prepare for one last night at Journal I look back on what a time I have had here. I had tea with my Chilean mom today and just talked with her. It wasnt out of the ordinary but it was just a perfect talk about life and experiences. Then at dinner we discussed hand gun laws, and what I am going to be doing about it when I work in the White House. (My Chilean mom has told me that I have to work in the White House one day, and I also have to become the next Bill Gates so that I can buy her a house on the coast of Chile) For those of you who do not know Vivi, thats a little preview of my wild and crazy, somewhat spacey but none the less fantastic host mom.

The last four ish months have been such a whirlwind of life that its hard to sum up. Im glad I have been blogging so one day I can go back and relive all the fun memories I have had. But this blog is a little different. Nothing overly exciting has happened, I havent traveled anywhere, and I dont have any wild and crazy nights to recount. Just normal things like listening to my host brother practice the same 5 measures of some random song that he just learned on the recorder. Or listening to Vivi dance around the kitchen singing everything from Phantom of the Opera to Old McDonald had a farm, to Fernando always saying dont worry be happy in his very chilean english accent. I have been so lucky to get a family like the Weissers I cannot even describe.

Then there is school. Yes school is school even in south america, but I realized today how cool it is that I finished a ten page research paper in spanish. I groan and grumble every time a DU professor tells me to write ten pages and thats in the language I have spoken for my entire life. I arrived in Chile not knowing what the hell I was gonna do with myself. I understood about 2 percent of what the lady on the plane from atlanta said to me. I had no vocabulary, and my favorite word was si. I replied si to everything. But its amazing what happens when you live in a culture. I will never forget the transformation of my language skills, and hope desperately I can hold on to them. Well first week of finals is over, one short weekend and two finals before school in south america is finished.

Disfruta la vida pero aprende aprende aprende cada dia sin falta.

La accion de gracias

While everyone back at home was stuffing turkeys, playing football, and spending time with family, I was sitting in class just like any other thursday would be. It was a rather weird feeling not being home for thanksgiving, as this is the first time in my life I have been outside the united states for the holiday. After somewhat of a crazy hectic week that seemed like the world was coming crashing to a halt, I was kinda bummed out not to be home. Fortunately however, through the use of technology I was able to skype with the hodge podge and hear all the stories and see everyone together. It almost felt like I was there. Couple that with a Patriots win and it felt just like turkey day. That night the gringos and their moms went to our programs Goodbye Dinner. We still have two weeks left but the advanced students are more or less done with their curriculum. It was a great meal at the Recreo Yacht Club and a perfect way to get my mind away from thanksgiving. Conversing with all of our chilean moms and seeing all the study abroad kids together one last time was fantastic. We got home and crashed that night because friday, it was our turn to put on a thanksgiving.

Friday morning Gabe, Anna, Nicole and I met at Jumbo to plan out and buy our thanksgiving feast; turkey, salad, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, bread, and green beans and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. By 11:00 Gabe and I were preparing the bird, while Anna was putting the stuffing together, and Nicole worked on the potatoes. It was a lot of fun spending the whole day in the kitchen, making food, eating food, and every once in a while searching google for one recipe or another. None of us had ever made a turkey before but somehow we managed to pull it off. And we didnt even have a turkey baster. At around 4:00 our chilean families started trickling in and we were eating by 4:30. With plenty of food to go around and a table full of people, it felt just like a thanksgiving should. Except for the fact that we were eating on the patio wearing shorts and sunglasses, but thats beside the point. It was an awesome meal, and of course the leftovers were great too. After the meal we just hung out for a while. Neds family came and we were introduced to them, as we shared stories for the rest of the day. That night it was warm enough to take a swim in my pool and then hang out some more an relax. After debating politics with Emilio, Gabes host brother, I came home and passed out. A long day, but a great thanksgiving none the less.

Saturday morning I woke up to Anna's phone call and I forgot that we were supposed to go parapente today. I use the spanish word beacuse I dont really know what it is in english. Its either paragliding or hangliding or parachuting or whatever. All I can say is that it was absolutely amazing. They strap you into this onesie and then connect you to your guide who has a parachute on his back. Then you just start running and in about 10 seconds you are airborne and literally flying. The place we went was Maitencillo a little coastal town to the north of Valparaiso. It was the first time in my life that I actually felt like a bird. The guide controlled the parachute so I didnt really have to do much other than sit back and look around. What a cool experience. Other than a slight complication with the bus, me and anna made it back to Vina, exhausted after a specatular day.

Contrary to what many of you have read in this blog so far, the next two weeks will be rather difficult academically. From writing a ten page research paper to a fifteen page business plan all in spanish, while coming up with a 10 minute presentation on the interaction between the environment and the economy, I think I will have my nose to the grindstone. If I make it out alive its on to Patagonia for an 8 day backpacking trek. I cant wait for the Torres de Paine.

En un dia para decir gracias y recordar todas las opurtuniadades en tu vida, tengo que pensar en la experiencia aca en chile, mi experiencia en la universidad, y mis decisiones en toda mi vida. Hay buenos y hay malos. Aprender las consecuencias no es facil. Pero en realidad, la vida es la vida, y tengo un monton de cosas para decir muchisimas gracias.

Oh what a week it has been.

This past week I traded my student hat for the tour guide hat, as Amelia was in South America for a visit. It was absolutely wonderful to see her, and an amazing time was had by all, even though it was rather short.

She arrived on Monday so I skipped out of school and went to the airport with my mom to pick her up. We gathered her after a slight confusion, but never the less we were on our way to Viña. Amelia quickly learned who my mom was and within minutes they were chatting in french english and spanish about all sorts of fun things. We got home ate lunch and then decided to check out Viña. Amelia was introduced to the beaches of Chile as well as the beggars who come up to you and start playing the flute really loudly in your ear. Note to self, if ever asking for money, dont play the flute obnoxiously close to anyones ears. We went home for dinner and the Weissers definitely put on a show for her first night. Vivi pulled out the guitar and everyone was singing along including Christian who later did a rather interesting pearl jam impression. We finally headed to bed and crashed almost immidiately.

Tuesday I took Amelia to school, because I had to take a test, but also so she could see the beautiful Santa Maria campus. Then after school got out we went into Valpo. For lunch we of course went to the famous J Cruz, the sight of my recent TV fame, and then took an ascensor up to the hills of Valpo. We wandered around, made a new friend with Juan, an artisan at the top of cerro concepcion, and then met up with anna. That evening we took a boat cruise with Gabe and his parents so we could see Valpo from the water. Afterwards we shared a Girafa at our favorite local spot and then went home for dinner. That nights dinner table adventure included signing Frere Jacque in four languanges in a round. Like I said the Weissers really jazzed up the meals for Amelia.

Wednesday I cut out of class again so I could show Viña to Amelia. We first went to the fruit market in the river and picked up a kilo of strawberries for the low low price of a dollar. Then we wandered around all the way to the plaza of Viña before turning back home for lunch. After lunch we got a random driving tour of Viña Reñaca and Con Con from Vivi before meeting up with Anna and Ned at Quinta Vergara, the giant amphitheater and park in viña. We then wandered down Avenida Valparaiso and introduced Amelia to manjar, the best food ever. More exploring led us to the beach and the feria where we checked out all the local artisan crafts and Amelia picked up a pair of the very chilean pants that everyone wears down here. We went home for dinner, but were soon back out in Viña, hitting up the Journal with Ned. Journal was its typical great atmosphere, and we spent a couple hours just hanging out, talking, and sharing a few brews. A great night was had by all.

Thursday was a bit of a struggle because I had to get up at 7 to make it to my 8 oclock class and four hours of sleep just isnt enough, but hey, es la vida. Amelia went for a morning adventure with Vivi and we reunited after I got home from school. After sharing some delicious seafood empanadas, we went to Reñaca to check out the dunes. Id never been there and it was an amazing day. With just enough clouds and sun and everything, you could see all of Valpo and Viña and watch the sun slowly fading into the west. It was a really cool sight to see, I cant believe its taken me so long to make it out there. Thursday night we hung out and relaxed, preparing ourselves for the weekend. And oh what a weekend it would be.

Friday, we got to sleep in and then after lunch we headed back to Valpo. We went to the house of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and diplomat, who we have decided lived the coolest life ever. This guy lived such an awesome life, from traveling the world, to collecting all sorts of weird objects to designing his house in such a unique manner that no one would ever be able to replicate it. After that we did some more wandering through the hills of valpo, met up with Anna again and tried the most delicious lemon pastry ever. Yum. We then went back home and started planning for the nights barbeque. People started showing up around 1030 and the fun was on from there. Amelia got to meet all of our Chilean friends, and it was easy for her to fit in with everyone that was there. The mecanicos were great as usual sharing laughs and stories, and including everyone, even us gringos in with the mix. After the asado we decided to head out, and our first stop was the Casino. Unfortunately our favorite club inside the casino was closed so we did a 180 and went to Stingray. We got to skip the line by paying a pretty high cover, but it was well worth it. We all had a great time dancing and singing in an awesome club. Aside from the loud ringing in our ears as we left the club it was 100 percent worth it. A great night.

After a somewhat late evening (530 AM) we decided to sleep in on Saturday. Once we finally ate lunch and got motivated we went to the beach to hang out, and recount stories from the past night. It was a great time and a fun reflection. Also important note, the Viña water is definitely getting warmer, meaning that summer is basically here. We went home had dinner, and then relaxed, just talking and watching movies until we made the late night trek to the bus. Amelia hopped on and that was that. A week that seemed to go by in an instant was over, and I was back to being a student again. It was sad, but what an amazing week I had with Amelia. I wish she could have stayed longer, but Thanksgiving with the Mos is calling. Have fun in Vermont everyone I will surely be missing you down here. And thank you Amelia for a fabulous vacation in my home city.

La familia, que rico las relaciones con hermanos. Nunca en mi vida había una experiencia como esta. Solo hermanos juntos, disfrutabamos todos y todo el tiempo juntos. Me encanta la vida.

Playa Playa Playa

            Oh what a weekend it has been. I realized I haven’t updated this guy in a while and that’s basically because life has been rather routine for a while here in Viña, but this past weekend me and all of the IFSA Butler students got the treat of spending a weekend in the beach town of La Serena on the programs tab. Always a good start.

            So we were excused from classes on Thursday and instead took the 6 hour bus ride north. With a stop over for lunch we arrived in La Serena around 7. After going to the grocery store we moved into our cabanas and then went for a walk on the beach. That night, Ned and I went to meet up with some Germans and Chileans for a great meal and then went to a club. I realized the next day not only did I have a ton of fun but we also didn’t wake up wreaking of cigarettes. Win Win situation. Ned and I made it home around 3:00 and weren’t ready to go to bed so we decided to wake up Anna so she could enjoy our stories. After a late night taco we went to bed.

            The next morning we slept in and then me and Ned decided to venture into town. We asked the bus driver if he could take us there and after he said yes we decided to go with him. Too bad he lied and actually took us to another city, but its an adventure right? The bus driver then forgot to tell us when we got to the plaza and continued to drive around. Finally when he realized we were the only ones on the bus he felt bad so he drove us to this awesome monument called the cross of the third millennium. It is a giant church, that you can go to the top and look out over the bay and the entire city. What a view. From there we could see into the world cup stadium from the 1950s and also we could see where we originally wanted to go. We decided it’s a lot easier to map ones journey from a birds eye view. We headed back down and into town passing through a vegetable market that was also selling baby ducklings for 2 dollars. We almost bought one. I made the interesting observation that at all the little vendor stands people sell the weirdest things. For example one person was selling kitchen knives, socks and door handles. If anyone can tell me the common thread between those three I will be very impressed. After the market we went to the beach for the first time, The sun was shining the water was warm and it ws a perfect beach day. There is something euphoric about floating in the ocean with the waves crashing all around you. We then decided to play some soccer on the beach and after our warm up game with Ned Anna and Jeff we were challenged by a couple of Chileans. It was so much fun to play an international soccer game on the beach. To cap off the beach day me and Ned surprised Anna with her favorite animal shell, a crap, on her back.

            We ate dinner early that day so we could be ready to go to Valle De Elqui and see one of the biggest observatories in the world. It was a clear night and the stars were amazing. I have never really looked at the stars through a microscope and it was an awesome first experience. A cool fact we learned is that all the constellations in south America are inverted so everything down here is upside down. We finally made it home around 2:00 and everyone immediately passed out.

            Saturday we went back to Valle de Elqui and ate lunch at a restaurant where everything is cooked with solar energy, either in solar ovens or using solar panels to cook the food. Needless to say it was rather hot and sunny. After lunch we went to a pisco distillery, which is the national drink of Chile. The next stop was the museum of Gabriella Mistral, the first nobel prize winner in South America. We made it home around 7:00 just in time for a quick evening swim. Perfect.

            The night got going around 8:00 and it felt good to have a good old fashioned gringo fun night, filled with all our fun gringo activities. This morning we woke up and headed into town (the actual town this time) It was cool because we practically woke up the town. Never the less it was cool to check out the big market in town before getting back on the bus to head home. What a weekend, definitely one of the most exciting and relaxing weekends I have had in Chile.  Gracias a Vivi y Pame y todo IFSA no puedo solicitar algo mas. Creaste el viaje perfecto este fin de semana y este semestre en total.

Viernes

After a long three day week that seemed to last forever, I was in much need of a relaxing weekend. Friday kicked off in its usual fashion, sleeping in eating lunch. I then met up with anna and hung out on the beach for a bit before going to school to watch ned play soccer. It was a fun game and a good way to do nothing. On the way home, I was surprised to hear Rah Rah Rasputin come on the radio. Hmm thats a funny flashback to sophmore year of high school history. When I got home I talked to my brother and we decided to have a barbeque before going out. We grilled out with some drinks and good company. I am really starting to get close with my host brother and his friends. Our schedules kind of clashed when I first got here, but Im now realizing what a crazy and fun guy he is. We chatted for a while and then decided to go to the Casino because they have one of the best clubs in town. When we got there we were a little late to get in free and instead of paying the 15 dollar cover we decided to go to another club. Somehow we made it upstairs, never been there before, and were able to dance in what felt like our own bar. Highlights of the night include dancing to spice girls and my favorite Chilean song that I dont know the name of. The group had cut in half, but none the less, Anna, Weisser, some of his friends and I had a great night. I dont think I have ever danced like that in my life. Last night was definitely one of the best nights I have had in Viña.

En las palabras de Anna, me encanta que 5 hombres puedan bailar juntos en Sur America.

When in the driest desert in the world...al seco

This past weekend, four of the gringos traveled up north to a tiny oasis town in the middle of the driest desert in the world, San Pedro de Atacama. It was a wild and crazy weekend, without sleep, but it was easily one of the coolest places I have ever seen.

To start at the beginning; our bus to the airport left at 5:00 am friday morning so naturally I decided not to go to sleep the night before. We hung out with some of our Chilean friends and then around 2:00 anna, ned, and I ventured out for some food. We found an awesome late night chorrillana place that was the perfect stop. Anna went home to get an hour nap in so I walked around with ned for a while until we headed to the bus. Once on the bus we all passed out and made it to the airport with ease. We were supposed to have a 7:55 flight but it ended up getting delayed until around 10:00. But hey we got free breakfast and hung out for a while. The plane ride was smooth and once in Calama, I realized I was in the smallest airport I'd ever seen. It is slightly the size of Norwood airport...and yes it will be an international airport by next year. A quick taxi to the bus station and we were on our way to San Pedro.

We arrived in San Pedro and because of the plane delay we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to make an afternoon tour so we rushed to our hostel to throw our stuff down. I would be lying if I said that I was not worried about our hostel as we were driving down this dirt road and all the buildings looked like they were gonna fall apart. But as I learned from my first ever trip to the desert, all things are not as they appear and the hostel turned out to be really nice, and comfortable. It was kind of funny though that the wireless network works 24 hours a day, but the water only works for 17 hours each day. After dropping our stuff off we headed back to town and started searching the tour companies for our first tour. We found a rather cheap one that took us to Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte (Valley of the moon and Valley of the dead). We got an awesome tour guide named Leo and a bus that (mom close your eyes) we could ride on the roof for. Dont worry i was only up there for about 5 minutes. We hiked around, saw an abandoned salt mine and saw some of the coolest rock formations I have seen. Very similar to Arizona and Colorado with the red rocks. This part of Chile also has ten percent of the worlds active volcanoes and they scattered the landscape everywhere we went.  We then hiked up this hill to watch the sunset, and oh what a sunset it was. With the sun reflecting of the rocks and sand it was absolutely amazing. We returned to town and ventured out to find some dinner. Our stomachs empty we wandered into the first place we found and were lucky enough to find amazing food. For 5 bucks I got half a chicken and a plate of french fries. Delicious and nutritious as mom always says. Tired and ready for the weekend we went home and crashed.

Saturday morning we woke up around 7:30 to get picked up by the bus to go to Lagunas Altiplanicas. We met our tour guide Fabiola, who was the nicest and most knowledgeable tour guide we could have asked for. Definitely a one in the definition of Ned. (The Altiplanic lagoons) Our first stop was the salt flats that surround the entire town of San Pedro. Here we saw flamingos in their natural habitat. It was pretty cool, but the amazing part of this trip was the salt flats. For as far as the eye can see the ground was made up of salt crystals. It looked like coral and felt like crushed snow. Our next stop was to another set of lagoons high up in the Andes. At 14,000 feet we came across these two gorgeous lakes in the middle of the desert. Its amazing to see the most faded brown, tan, and red rocks and then deep blue and green water right next to one another. With the mountains in the background, the scenery was amazing. Our next stop was the little town of Socaire where we ate a delicious lunch and hung out for a bit. Continuing on we made it to Turipa another oasis town that is pretty much abandoned today other than its tourism and picnic spots. Fed by a mountain stream, the water was clean enough that you could drink right from the stream: truly amazing. Because of the size of the river (roughly 3 feet wide) the soil fertility was only about 100 yards wide. It was pretty funny to see this strip of green in the middle of the desert. A quick stop in a little town with a 400 year old church and we were back to San Pedro. That night we made it an early night because we had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning, but that didnt stop us from grabbing a beer and having another great meal. The waiter thought it was hilarious that Anna is allergic to potatoes and proceeded to tell us that no one in South America has ever heard of a potato allergy. Que comico.

I was ready to wake up at 3:30 but instead I woke up around 3:15 to the sound of loud bass and a huge party raging next door. I wandered out into the main area of the hostel to see what was going on, only to find the hostel workers watching out the window. When I tried to open the door she screamed "no the cops are coming" so I just sat inside and watched the giant party break up. Half an hour later our bus came and we were headed up to the mountains to see the geysers. We had to get there before dawn so that we could see them in action, as they only are active when it is super cold. And cold it was. When we got off the bus it was around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Bundled up in all the clothing we had with us, we wandered around this open field of geysers that was so cool. Every five or ten minutes different geysers would explode and steam was always pouring out of hundreds of craters. Once again a first time experience for this guy, and definitely worth the early morning. The tour guides hard boiled eggs in the geysers and we were ready for one of the most unique breakfasts I've ever eaten. A quick dip in the hot springs and we were back on the road headed to the llama farm. We were a little late and couldnt try the llama meat but never the less it was cool to hang out in a town that has only 20 inhabitants and 600 llamas. Finally we went back to San Pedro around noon but it felt like 5:30.

After a quick nap, we headed back into town to figure out our transport home. We thought we were gonna have to pay for a 25 dollar taxi but luckily we were able to barter with the bus company down to only 8 dollars a person. Me and gabe then grabbed a pizza and waited for the tour to leave. The first stop was a salt water pool similar to the dead sea. Floating was so cool and a great way to relax after an early morning. The water was cool to, for at the surface it was really warm but only a couple feet down the water was freezing. Our next stop was called Ojos del Salar (the eyes of the salt flats) They were two tiny lakes in the middle of the salt flats that we were able to cliff jump into. Fortunately Anna was taking pictures and we got some good aerial shots. Our final destination that day was the salt flats again where we watched the sunset with a Pisco sour. Another gorgeous sunset and a relaxing drink was the perfect way to end a weekend...or so we thought.

We made it back to town only to realize that we didnt have enough cash to pay the hostel and they didnt take credit cards. Anna and I went back into town and tried to use the ATMs but of course they were all out of money. All three ATMs were out of cash. Fantastico. At that point I tried to sell my newly purchased hammock to the hostel but they wouldnt take it. After a minor freak out session gabe came to the rescue with a travelers check. Now we just hope it works. Who ever said we could have a trip without a little stress here or there. We finally went to bed content after a great weekend.

The following day was just travel, waking up, bus to the airport, back on the plane, and back to Viña. In just two days I can now say that Ive seen a desert, natural geysers, and been in the highest elevation of my life. What a trip what a place, the Atacama desert. One thing I forgot to add. With no cities for miles and miles, the stars each night were absolutely incredible. One more thing, this is the link to all my pictures so that you can see everything I have described http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067627&id=1239840389&l=77c8f83e3d

El desierto, un dia de lluvia cada año, 30 grados en el dia 0 grados durante la noche, el poder de este planeta es magnifico. Que impresionante San Pedro, nunca puedo olvidar el paisaje y las memorias de su tierra.

In the immortal words of Anna Farnsworth: Shenanigans

Usually I blog after a fun an exciting weekend, summarizing the work/school week in a relatively boring sentence. However I certainly cannot do that today. On tuesday we learned that our class had been canceled and the professor only emailed ned for some reason. Everyone else woke up and got ready, just to find out that we didnt have to go to school. So instead we decided to take a day exploring Valparaiso. We wandered around the hills for a while and made it to this outdoor mural museum. The museum was pretty cool but the murals outside the museum were amazing. You are probably sick of me yapping about all the wall art down here, but it is absolutely fascinating.

Around noonish we got hungry and decided to stop at a famous restaurant called J Cruz that everyone had recommended to us for chorrillana, a traditional Chilean dish with french fries onions steak sausage and a fried egg on top. Delicious. Little did we know, however, that today happened to be chorrillana day and that there was a news contest to find the best chorrillana. So Gabe Anna and I were sitting there when 4 news teams show up out of no where. They start filming and then we get interviewed by two different networks. Of course our spanish was not perfect (when they asked me to give it a grade all I said was "The best the best") but we were having a great time and laughing our heads off. We hung around for a little while longer and then headed off to the old folks home that we volunteer at to play bingo. That night we went to a friends house to have sushi and hang out. Sure enough when the nightly news came on, after all the depressing real news, there were the gringos eating chorrillana. We instantly became stars. That night a neighbor called me to tell me they saw me, then the next day our professor said he saw me, the librarian said she saw me, the nanny that works at my house saw me, and for the next couple of days the gringos were famous.

Last night me and anna decided to head to Valpo since we usually dont head in that direction. We met up with Mari, our friend who we havent seen in a while and she knew of a party somewhere. We made it to the club La Playa, around 2 and what an interesting club it was. It had this weird walk way to get into it then opened up into a bar. The upstairs was packed however so we ventured downstairs to another "bar" that resembled my basement at home. Uneven dirt/cement floor. Exposed ceiling beams, odd support pillars in random places, but the music was good and the people were great so it was well worth the trip. Around 430 me and anna decided to leave and we caught a micro right outside plaza sotomayor. After a quick trip we had to change micros and thats when the shenanigans really started. We got onto this packed micro and all of a sudden people started singing. First it was a song about the miners then they switched to the national anthem then they switched to god knows what. But it was fun with everyone singing along and pounding out the beat on windows, floors, chairs, whatever. Finally made it home, exhausted but very content.

Oye Chile eres loco, y me encanta. Porque no hay una palabra para shenanigans en tu idioma?

Hasta Mañana

So it is now Sunday night and instead of finishing up the last bits of my politics paper I decided to write another installment of the good old blog. Since I last posted, the country has gone crazy for the rescued miners. They are all in good health and it has been really cool to see the entire nation behind them. On a more local front, school was school last week, except for one part of my business class. We went to the student business office which is a building that student clubs can rent space in for their startup companies. In addition these businesses can apply for university funding in order to help get their company off the ground. We met with three guys starting an interactive software company and it was amazing to listen to what these students had created. It makes me think why our universities back home are giving all sorts of different clubs money while no one is getting any university funding to start their own business. Im all for giving out money so that students can enjoy doing something they are passionate about while in college, but I dont know of many people that leverage their experience in college clubs into a job after graduation. Every student who rents space in this office has clear goals for how they will run and expand their business when school is over. It was a really cool little field trip from our typical lecture style class. Once the field trip was over we were free for the weekend. Thursday night we had a little asado (BBQ) at gabes house to celebrate his brothers new grill. Delicious food and great company followed by some dancing in downtown Viña. Friday was a very relaxed day for me, sleeping in and then going to play some futbol on the beach with Ned and Anna. My sister and her kids arrived friday night to help plan for my brothers birthday. We hung around and talked for a while and I picked her brain about the mine rescue because she works for the president and her job for the past three months was to manage all the press located at the San Jose Mine. She had a ton of stories that we couldnt see on tv. That night we all went downtown to our friend Javis house for a pre. Accomplishment of the night: I took my first colectivo home, why it took me this long, I do not know. The following day was the day of my brothers birthday party. We went to the supermarket in the morning and bought an obscene amount of party food. I got excited. I hung out for the rest of the day and helped him prepare for the festivities. The party was scheduled to start around 9 so Christian lit the grill as the first guest showed up. From then on there was nothing but amazing food until the party ended (which i will get to in a second). No one really showed up til around 11, typical chilean style, but once the party got going to really got going. It was so much fun hanging out with all his friends, listening to music, and of course eating an amazing barbeque. We had a ton of steak, pork, chicken and also some of the best guacamoles and salsas ive ever had. And of course the birthday cake that was probably about 2 feet in diameter. Add a couple of piscolas on top and it made for one hell of a 25th birthday party. People kept coming and going and before I knew it the clock struck four. Around five most of the partiers had left and Christians closest friends stayed. I guess some got the drunchies cus around 530 we threw another steak on the grill. It wasnt until the birds started chirping that we began to clean up and by the time everyone left and I finally went to bed it was 730 am and the sun was fully shining. Oh what a night. Unfortunately my sisters kids were running around the house at 10am which made it somewhat difficult to sleep. I got up and started hung around until we had lunch around 3. Lunch with the family outside was a perfect way to rap up the weekend. Plus the benefit of a great Pats game today to give me a little taste of home. On to another week in Chile. Feliz cumpleaños hermano. Muchas gracias por su hospitalidad tu amistad y la vida que me muestras aca en Chile.

LOS MINEROS DE CHILE: The Chilean miners are finally rescued after 70 days underground

It is absolutely amazing to be here in Chile for such an important day. What an inspiring image of the people of this country. La fuerza es increible
 

Driving on the moon

As I should have realized a long time ago, the United States is not the only country to celebrate Colombus day and in fact he did discover all of the Americas so it makes sense that they have a holiday down here as well. That being said the South Americans do little more to "celebrate" than the North Americans, but we do get the day off from school so that gave the cinco gringos the perfect opportunity to cross the Andes and spend a weekend in the wine country of Mendoza, Argentina. The trip started with an all night bus ride (with the quick midnight stop at customs) from Santiago Chile to Mendoza. Crossing the Andes at night was absolutely amazing. These mountains make the Rockies look like foothills. It looked like we were literally on the moon. We arrived around 6 am and walked over to our hostel. A couple hours later our friends from Buenos Aires arrived and we planned out our first day. Around 11am we packed up and headed to Mr. Hugo's the rental shop for our biking wine tour. For about 8 dollars we got to rent bikes and enjoy a couple of glasses of wine at the bike shop. Then we set out on the road and traveled for about a half our to our first vineyard. We got to take a really cool tour of the winery including the outdated fermentation tanks. Really cool. Then we got a wine tasting and lunch all for about 15 bucks. Afterwards we hopped back on the bikes and made our way to the next winery. Because we got a late start we didnt make the whole circuit which includes 9 wineries a distillery and a brewery. The group split up and Gabe Anna and I chose to go to the distillery, which also happened to be a chocolate factory and a marmalade factory. We got a tour and then we were able to try the liquors, chocolate and spreads. I've never been much of an after dinner liquor type person but these drinks were absolutely delicious. We headed back to return the bikes and enjoyed a couple more glasses of free wine before getting the bus back to town. We got back but unfortunately couldnt find a place to eat for the longest time. Finally Anna Gabe and I split from the group and found the best burgers I'd had since coming down here. We wandered back to the hostel via this giant plaza that was bustling with people and musicians and artisans at 1 am. The next day we decided to relax and wander around Mendoza. We walked to the second largest city park in south America and spent the day hanging out there. There were a ton of little shops and restaurants in the park as well as lakes and fields and of course many people out enjoying the beginning of spring. Inside the park is one of the Argentine national soccer stadiums built for the 1978 world cup so we decided to check it out. It was a really cool stadium and we were able to walk right in and down to the front row of seats. There was not a single person there and it was kind of eerily empty. Not until Anna stood on the railing in front of the stands did we realize there was even a security guard. Interesting note about Argentine soccer stadiums, they have moats around them so that the wild fans cannot jump onto the field. They also have both barbed wire and razor wire separating the cheap seats from the expensive seats in case anyone wants to start a riot, which is quite common at Argentine soccer games. After a quick nap in the park we headed back to the hostel stopping at a couple cool plazas along the way. That night we did some more exploring around the city and finally stopped for dinner at a traditional Argentine barbeque. This includes some amazing steak but also kidney and intestine...not so delicious. The following morning we woke up early to meet our guide for our day in the mountains but in traditional south american fashion they were 2 hours late. No worries we hung out and played cards until they showed up. But it was well worth the wait. We bussed into the mountains (45 minutes) then started trekking up around all over these hills. After a bit of hiking we made it to our first repelling site. I'd never repelled before but it was quite the cool experience. We also got to rock climb there and after a delicious lunch we capped of the trip with a visit to the hot springs. We just barely made it home as the guides lost our transport, however we made it back safely and they bought us a beer for the miscommunication. That night we went to a Iberian festival in the Spanish plaza. It was a wild little festival with everything from tapas to paella to spanish bagpipers. Who knew they had bagpipers in spain. The next morning we woke up and caught the bus home after another amazing and fun filled weekend. As I am writing this I am watching the rescue of the chilean miners who have been trapped undergroud for 69 days now, the exact time that I have been in this country. It is a truly amazing and inspiring show of bravery and patriotism. CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!

Fly over

Today as I was sitting in the courtyard of the local elementary school where the gringos volunteer, a bird shat on my head and left shoulder. What a way to start the weekend. Que Lata.

La festival de mil tambores

This weekend was another fun filled couple of days around Viña. It all started on thursday with the going away party of Gabes sister. We hung out at his house for a while with all of our Chilean friends as well as the gringos. We went dancing and stayed out til the club closed which down here is around four thirty a.m. Since Ale was leaving we decided to keep the party going and head back to her house. I finally had to head to bed around 6 but the party kept going. What a great night and a great way to say adios and send her on her way to the States and Europe. As a result the next day didnt start until 2 pm when the nana knocked on my door asking if I wanted lunch. After a delicious lunch the gringos headed to Valpo for the festival of mil tambores. It was a giant street festival with all sorts of different percussion groups performing. They also had body painters and a bunch of people were running around as living art. After hanging out in the square for a while, the bands started moving and it turned into this giant parade of drum groups. Every once in a while the band would stop and jam for a while before carrying on their way. We stuck with this group the whole way and after about 4 hours of walking we made it to the stadium where the parade finished up. There were jugglers and fire spinner guys and all sorts of people on crazy stilts in costume. All in all it was a really cool show and no street fair is ever complete without a man dressed as a baby juggling toilet plungers so I am really glad he decided to follow the same band we did. We were all pretty tired so after the festival we each headed home. Saturday started bright and early with our trip to Santiago. It was the most recent of our excursions organized by our program. This tour took us to the University of Chile, the national cemetery, and a detention camp that was used during Pinochets military dictatorship. It was kind of eerie to see a beautiful park on the ground where just thirty years before people had been horribly tortured by the government. After an always fun bus ride home with the best bus buddy ever, anna, we started our next adventure to Reñaca. And what an adventure it was. Reñaca is the next town over but for some reason it is never easy to get there. After waiting about 20 minutes for the right bus to come, we took it to the wrong stop, and then had to walk back towards town to get another bus. We finally made it to our friends house and had a lovely little gathering with the Chileans. Another night of dancing was ahead of us but when we got to the club the line to get in was forever so we headed back for an early night (330). However, I wasnt late enough for my parents who went to a wedding last night and got home around 5 am. They of course did not wake up til around 130 this afternoon. Looks like the parents were the party animals this weekend. But as a result I did get to try my first Chilean Chinese food. Fear not its the exact same as in the States. Today was a study day, yes those do exist down here, because tomorrow we have a big test in our environmental science class. Should be fun. Well that caps another fun weekend in Viña. Las horas las dias las semanas mueven perfectamente lento, que bakan.

From learning to teaching

I have made it through another week down here in South America, and like all the weeks before it there were individual aspects that made it unforgetable. Although the week seemed rather basic, going to school, taking my first test, starting to work on projects and the sort, the week had to conclude in the most hectic way possible. As part of our curriculum we are required to do ten hours of service in the community. To earn one extra credit to transfer back we can continue the program for an additional 20 hours. We all chose to continue and so for the next 10 weeks we will go to an elementary school to help teach english. We will also go to the salvation army to spend time with some elders who have been displaced from their homes. Today was our first trip to the school on our own without our professor. However, we soon learned that we were really on our own, because the english teacher at the school had called in sick as well. Very Interesting. That being said we were prepared with our lesson plan so we started the class as we planned. Within five minutes the we had lost the class. fighting with our own spanish was difficult enough and then we had to try to keep the kids from screaming and running around. I can now say that I have much more admiration for all of the third and fourth grade teachers out there. That is not an easy job. We finally made it through without losing anyone or having anyone kill each other so I would consider that a success. Fortunately for us the restaurant next to the school was having a burrito deal so we stopped for burritos (2 for 3 bucks) and celebrated the end of another school week in Chile. This time we were both students and teachers. All I can say is I hope the teacher shows up next week. Es muy entretenido cuando estamos jugando con los chicos pero es un poco mas dificil cuando tenemos que enseñar, que lastima.

The misterious happenings of calefonts and tire treads

As I sit here on sunday night I look back over a fun filled weekend in my home town of vina del mar. Thursday night consisted of a pre at a friends house in the center of town and then a night of clubbing followed. Friday was a rather relaxing day around the house and around the neighborhood. Saturday however proved to be on of the most adventure filled days so far here in Chile. In the morning we headed out to Con Con to try out "La Vivi" the old motor boat my dad owns that he claims was built in the 1960's and I absolutely believe him. I was amazed that we were going to put this in the water, but none the less we did. First however, we had to get to the lake which was tucked back in the hills and you had to traverse this crazy road to get there. After a wild ride somewhat similar to that of "the home slice" we made it to a friends house who let us use his property to put the boat in. So off we went cruising around this gorgeous lake in this tiny little boat. After a quick tour Fernando busted out the water skis. I had never been able to get up on skis before but somehow I managed to do it yesterday and what a cool feeling it was. Very similar to the first time I got up on a wakeboard at Masi's lake this summer. It was awesome. So we skied around for about a half an hour and then went back to the friends house for lunch. He was building a little vacation home and when I say little I mean it was tiny. For all of those who know, imagine the OLD hodge podge lodge and then take half of that. There will be a kitchen a bedroom and a small patio, and then bathroom is outside. But it looked like the perfect little getaway house on a gorgeous piece of property. After lunch we went back to the lake to do some more skiing but after gabe took a few laps the clutch on the engine broke and "La vivi" se murio. Unfortunately that meant we had to figure out a way of getting it back to the trailer. In come the rescuers, with ned paddling, gabe making sure we didnt hit anything and me swimming we made it safely to the landing and got the boat on the trailer. Not until this morning when my entire body hurt did I realize how difficult it was to pull a boat through water while swimming. We finally got the boat back on land and headed home. After a quick stop at home I went over to gabes sisters bazar to raise money for her trip to Espana. After that we went to a party and took our first late night trip the classiest mcdonalds ive ever been to. Today was another relaxing day, I had the traditional lunch with the grandparents and then took a stroll around vina with anna. A good day was had by all, and hey the Pats even won too, although I wasnt able to watch. pero es la vida. Este fin de semana fue super bakan y aprendi que no tengo que ir a lugares diferentes para tener gran aventuras.

Mar Pacifico

Yesterday I swam in the Pacific Ocean... pretty awesome.

Feliz Bicentenario

This weekend happened to be the bicentennial anniversary of Chile's independence from Spain. Therefore, not only was independence day a special day, but it was most likely the biggest party in Chile for quite some time. For this reason, the bicentennial lasted 4.5 days. The traditional thing to do for independence day is have large barbeques all weekend, dance the cueca, listen to music, and drink chicha. It has come to my attention that certain people think my blog is too long and boring and that I should change it up with some lists, so for the sake of the readers i'll try a new style with this blog post.

1. Asados (BBQ's)-The barbeques are crazy, with tons and tons of steak, pork, chicken, sausages, and salads like crazy. They last all day and into the night, and usually you go to multiple in a day. On saturday (the actual independence day) I went to one from 2-5 and then another from 10- 6am. The later one, we did not eat til midnight and didnt finish eating til aroud 3 am.

2. Cueca-This is the traditional Chilean dance that kinda reminds me of square dancing but better. Its really cool to watch and most Chileans can dance it really well. Me on the other hand, not so smooth.

3. Music-They call it folklor and its the Chilean version of patriotic songs. They are all really light and upbeat, and many have either environmental or political messages in them. Everyone knows the words to all of them, and its great to hear everyone having a sing along after the BBQ's.

4. Chicha-Chileans only drink Chicha on independence day and I now understand why. It is made from fermented apples, but it tastes nothing like hard cider. It has a very distinct taste, and I can't say that I am a fan. Never the less there was plenty to go around, so I had to try a glass or two.

The other awesome part of the celebration was the ramada. Its this giant tent carnival that many people go to and its open 24 hours a day. There are ramadas all over the place and there are tons of people there at all times. To complete the weekend, there were two fireworks shows as well as a naval parade today. A ton of ships from Chile's navy were out in the harbor as well as a couple ships from the USA, Canada, Brazil and Greece. They also had 6 or 7 flyovers with everything from helicopters to old style bombers to jets. It was a spectacular site to see everyone on the beach watching and cheering along. What a weekend, what a way to finish off a week. Feliz fiesta de patrias. Feliz cumpleanos Chile doscientos anos, gracias por la opurtunidad para celebrar contigo.

Nosotros Chocamos un caballo

So this will most likely be the longest blog post I will write so let this be a warning to all. Anyone who gets to the end will win a prize...I promise. Just to start things off, I am currently sitting by the pool on a gorgeous spring day here in vina.

So since the last time I blogged, I feel like I have done so much. Last thursday we went to a course on how to make pisco sours, the national drink of chile. They turned out pretty good and it was a lot of fun hanging out with Americans, Germans, Chileans, and a ton of other people from different countries. After the pisco night, the cuatro gringos decided to stay up all night since our bus the next morning was at 5am and it was already 1. So we had a barbeque in gabes back yard and watched the time pass before our bus. Before the sun rose we headed down to the center of vina to catch the bus to the airport. Immediately after boarding the bus we all crashed and slept the hour and a half away until we got to santiago. Only a slight delay clearing Chilean customs and we were through security and to our gate...3 and a half hours early. We each made camp at the gate and fell asleep again using our packs as pillows mattresses and the like. The blessing was the dunkin donuts at the gate which unlike in the states had a delicious pastrami sandwhich which I ate for breakfast. Then onto the plane we went and off to Argentina. A rather bumpy ride across the Andes and we landed safely in Buenos Aires. We thought we could be suave  travelers and use our newly acquired Chilean residence cards to bypass the 140 dollar entrance fee but unfortunately the immigration officers would not have any of that. After clearing customs and making our way out into the terminal we were immediately accosted by taxi drivers. Luckily the police officer quickly told us that you should never accept cabs from people talking to you, instead you have to go to the cab stand. We found a safe cab and took the 45 minute drive into the city. Our first stop was the bus station. It is hands down the largest bus station I have ever seen and the terminal seemed to go on forever. After shopping around for the best deal we settled on Rio Uruguay for our trip to Iguazu. Little did we know of the adventures we had in store (more details to come later). We then hopped in another cab to go to our hostel. We think we got ripped off this time but he was a very nice cab driver who loved to talk and gave us a nice tour of the city. We also got our first glimpse of the largest city street in the world. All 21 lanes of it. We made it to our hostel, unpacked and met up with Avery, Ned's friend and our tour guide for the week. Our first sight seeing spot was a little coffee shop where we got real coffee (not the fake nescafe shit they have in Chile) submarinos, which are hot glasses of milk that you drop a chocolate bar into and alfajores, which are chocolate cookies filled with dulce de leche. Que delicioso. While enjoying our cookies and drinks, the heavens decided to open up and it rained cats and dogs for about 20 minutes. We made it back to our hostel relatively dry and decided to take a nap before getting ready to go to dinner. And what a dinner it was. We decided to go to Siga la Vaca (follow the cow) an steak restaurant in the center of Buenos Aires. For the low low price of 83 pesos (about 21 american dollars) each person got all they could eat salad, steak, and a personal bottle of wine as well as a dessert. We sat down at around 10 and did not leave the restaurant until 1am. Not only was I in heaven with the best steak I have ever eaten but the atmosphere and the company was spectacular. I dont know why but it always seems like the best meals of my life take place in other countries. The steak was to die for, they had ribs and all sorts of different cuts, as well as pork chicken and sausage. They also had interesting options like kidney and intestines that we had to try just because we could. We ate and drank like kings for 3 hours, and in between bites we laughed and laughed and laughed. What a night, one I will never forget. After making it back to the hostel we had a drink of the roof deck and called it a night.

The next morning we woke up ready to hit the city and explore. Unfortunately we were about 15 minutes late and we missed breakfast. Never the less we hopped a bus and went to la boca a really touristy neighborhood famous for their soccer. We toured around these really cool brightly colored buildings and watched tango dancers stroll around the street. It was a really cool cultural experience. They have these sculpted figurines hanging out of all the windows and its really cool to see the people wandering amongst them. La boca is also the original team of Maradona, the argentine soccer god. His picture is literally everywhere around the neighborhood and city. We also tried the most delicious churros filled with dulce de leche, amazing. After la boca we went to el centro, which is the government district. The casa rosada, or the pink house is their version of the white house. We toured around there and also went into the giant cathedral. It was gorgeous with a very European feel to it. It also houses the tomb of the liberator of south america which was really cool to see. As it turned out we also wandered into a polish dance festival in the center of Buenos Aires. We hung around there and then continued to meander around the neighborhood. We found our first street vendors and as our spanish professor told us we had to pick up a pair of fake sunglasses. I am now the owner of a sweet new pair of aviators. We got hungry so we went for these sandwhiches that smelled delicious. It was grilled meat with all sorts of sauces on them and they hit the spot. Another bus ride and we were over in recoleta. Recoleta is a shopping district with a ton of shops and vendors as well as the grand cemetery in buenos Aires. We were a little late for the cemetery but we still managed to wander through all the shops. There were also these acrobats that were suspended from trees with what looked like bed sheets, really cool tricks as well. Right before leaving we caught a tango show in the street which was awesome. They can really dance down here. We caught a bus and headed back to the hostel after a long day, and everyone was exhausted. However, right before our stop we saw a huge fireworks show. We hopped off the bus and sprinted up about 4 blocks to a church where we could see the fireworks. It was awesome everyone was out on the street and the church bells were ringing while the fireworks exploded in the background. Amazing sight. We wandered back to the central plaza and everything was lit up in bright colors. Another amazing sight. The highlight of the walk home was definitely crossing the biggest street in the world. We filmed the whole thing and its a rather funny video. I'm sure it will find its way to facebook soon so keep your eyes peeled. We made it back to the hostel and took a much needed nap before the pub crawl that awaited us that night. Slight complications with the hostel sing and we were ready to head out. A short walk to the pub crawl and we were there, with what seemed like every gringo in the city. It was a lot of fun and we got a free shot at each bar, however the free pizza was rather gross. Me and gabe had a great time trying to converse with Colombians and were rather successful at least thats what we thought until they walked away randomly. We ended up at this giant club which was a lot of fun...until we all lost our hearing. finally around 4 we got a cab and made it back to the hostel. Unfortunately we couldnt find any food, and gabes brilliant idea of getting more beer turned out worse than originally anticipated. Around 5 we all crashed.

Around 10am we were up once more, this time checking out of our first hostel and heading back to recoleta to see the cemetery. Its unlike any cemetery i've ever seen in my life. Each family has a mausoleum and they are really well crafted out of all sorts of marble. We saw Evita's tomb which was really cool, but rather small in comparison to some others we saw. After recoleta we bussed over to San Telmo, the giant street fair they have in Buenos Aires. Many of the same vendors we had seen around the city were there, including the old fat guy who sold bird whistles. We also found a cure for our chipotle craving with a burrito vendor on the side of the road. After wandering around San Telmo for a while we headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and go to the bus to start our trip to Iguazu. Our first subte (subway) ride was rather unique. It lasted one stop, and a fellow passenger was captain Jack Sparrow. Or someone that was dressed to the nines in his exact costume. Well around 645 we made it to the bus and boarded our first of two 18 hour bus rides.

I need to make a new paragraph just for the bus ride because what a trip it was. It started off on a great note. They give you a snack a glass of whiskey wine with dinner and they top it off with two glasses of champagne before bed time. With our additional two piscocolas we were all set. After watching a rather depressing movie, my sisters keeper, I passed out around 1130. Roughly an hour later I wake up to anna hitting me with a pillow and I soon realized that we were not moving. Before I gained complete consciousness, she told me that we had hit a horse. Now for someone that just woke up on it is rather startling and somewhat confusing to hear someone tell you that we have just hit a horse. Turns out there had been a horse running around near the road and decided to hop in front of our bus. The windshield shattered and about a half an hour later the next bus came so we could switch. Fortunately however we got upgraded to the cama suite, which is a fully reclining chair that turns into a bed. We started up again and I fell asleep only to wake up an hour later as we drove through a hail storm. I finally made it to bed for a final time. However, when I woke up the next morning I noticed that the older black man who was sitting across the isle from me had turned into a mom with a baby. Weird things happen on these buses I guess. We then had to switch buses one more time before making it to Iguazu. Our final bus was great expect that the only movie that had was the bucket list, which they showed three times in a row, in spanish with Portuguese subtitles. Great.

We finally made it to Iguazu and headed to to hostel. A quick bag drop and we were back on a bus to the national park. The falls are located way up north on the border of Argentina and Brazil so it was rather tropical which was great. We wandered around the upper and lower falls and when we finally got a glimpse of the falls it was absolutely breathtaking. I got chills watching the immense power that these waterfalls contained. I have never been to Niagra falls, but Iguazu is absolutely mind blowing. Its truly a hidden gem that is a must see in South America. The falls seem to go on forever, and the mist rising from the bottom is so strong it seems like it was shot from a cannon. Absolutely amazing, and the best part was the number of different angles you could see the falls from, and how each different angle showed something else. Totally awesome. The pictures unfortunately cannot do this wondrous place justice. The park was closing so we headed back to the hostel to experience the life in the town of Puerto Iguazu. The hostel we were staying at happened to have a buffet that night for 15 pesos (4 dollars) so we decided to check it out. After a couple of piscolas we walked down to the buffet. It was quite the buffet for 4 bucks with pasta salad, steak, chicken, grilled vegetables, rice and of course vino. The total meal for 4 people and a bottle of wine cost about 20 dollars. What a night. The funniest part was we had a power outage in the middle of dinner and no one flinched. The entire place just kept on chatting and eating. It was great. After a short walk back to the hostel, we grabbed a forty and went to bed.

The next morning we were up and out on the first bus to the falls again. This time we went to la garganta de diablo, the throat of the devil. We hadnt seen this side of the falls and it proved to be the best part. It was just a ridiculous amount of water cascading over this cliff in a continuous downpour. It was crazy. After walking around there for a while, we took a hike down to the San Martin Island where we could view the entire panoramic of the falls. Another breathtaking view and plenty of more pictures. We even saw a wild deer prancing around the woods. Around 12 we headed back to the bus station that would take us home to Buenos Aires, hoping that this bus would be a little bit smoother. However, an hour into the trip we get a flat tire and have to change. Fortunately that was the only hiccup on the return voyage and I was able to sleep for a good 14 hours back.

We arrived back in Buenos Aires to a warm bagel breakfast that Avery had won in some sort of contest. They were delicious and the perfect breakfast after a long bus ride. We all grabbed a quick shower since it had been a couple days and then we went out to explore the parks of palermo. We wandered for about two hours and ended up in the japanese gardens. They were gorgeous and a perfect place to stop and relax. After the gardens me and gabe ventured out to find the mysterious cigarettes. Our friends from Chile told us that cigarettes were much cheaper in Argentina and asked if we could bring some back for them. however we couldnt find these partiuclar ones anywhere. We started at the supermarket and then the pharmacy but had no luck. Our next stop was the kiosko or the little shops on all the streets. The first place had 3 packs so we bought those and cleaned them our of cigarettes. The next stop had 5 packs so once again we cleaned them out. The adventure lasted a good hour and a half wandering around trying to find these darn cigarettes. But it was an adventure eh? We met up witht the group once more and this time headed for the leather district. Argentina is known for their leather so we had to at least check it out. After window shopping for a while, I picked up a new pair of shoes and gabers bought a super suave jacket. Dinner that night was in China town and once again I could hardly contain my excitement for hearing asians speak spanish. On the way back home we stopped at store and picked up a couple forties so that we could pregame the bar. That night we tried ferenet, the most disgusting liquor ever. It tastes like burnt plants. that being said we had to try it. Around 1 we were all tired so we headed back to the hostel to try and catch some z's before the flight home. Our taxi came at 545 so we were up early once again. This time on the way to the airport. Our bags packed, memory cards full of pictures, and a week of unforgettable memories as well. What a week to travel. what great people I spent the vacation with. It was truly amazing.

Congradulations to everyone that has read to this point. I promise you will all get a prize next time I see you.

Que linda la vida me encanta la gente de Argentina y Chile, y gracias por dios mis companeros. Ellos son huevon huevones.

Spring Break 2010

I love being in South America because I get the luxury of having another spring break trip this year. I had my last day of classes today and tomorrow morning we are off to Buenos Aires. We will be hanging out in Buenos Aires for a couple of days before taking the 18 hour bus ride to Iguazu falls. Iguazu for a night and day and then back to Buenos Aires for a night before coming home to Chile. It will be a crazy week but I'm sure it will be action packed and loads of fun. I probably wont be able to update my blog while i'm there but I am sure to have plenty of stories once I return. Adios hasta proximo semana y el dia de los patrias!

Vacuum the Fire

This is going to be a short post but funny none the less. I learned a new method for starting a grill today. They dont use charcoal down here just wood, so in order to get the grill going today my father lit the wood and then pulled out the vacuum cleaner turned it on reverse and vacuumed the fire for about five minutes. Never knew the power of ordinary house hold objects. Me gusta el estilo de chile.

The sun is sometimes wrong.

What a weekend I have had so far and its still only saturday night. Last night my neighbor had a party with her friends and invited the cinco gringos. It was a lot of fun hanging out on a small scale without having to party to hard. That doesnt mean we didnt party however. The first person I met ironically lived in Mt. Lebo for 4 years in high school and her mom still lives there. Small small world. Later in the night we taught the Chileans beer pong. Let me tell you it is rather difficult explaining such things as the elbow rule and heating up to a bunch of Chileans. I dont know why. But anyway we hung out til about 3:30 and then I went home because we had an excursion today. Four short hours later I was awake again...driving the bus. First we went to the town of Curacavi and toured a local chocolate factory. They had all different kinds of chocolate and the best was hands down chocolate filled with marscipone cheese. Delicious. We also stopped for an empenada before heading on to our next town, Pomaire, a little artisan village. They are famous for their ceramics and these things were absolutely beautiful. And they were priced at around 3 dollars each. Our next stop was la Isla Negra, a small town that is the home to Pablo Neruda's beach house. I know I have mentioned him previously but I want to reiterate that he was the coolest person ever. His houses were amazing, decked out with all sorts of stuff from his worldly travels. We finally boarded the bus back to Vina after a long but enjoyable day. Pictures will be up soon dont worry. And now as I am writing this post, I can hear my mom singing Jay Z's empire state of mind. Weird. Aright I am off to a BBQ and then who knows. En las palabras de me amigo, yo podria escribir poemas si yo viva aca.

Esto es para mi madre

After getting home tonight, I found an amazing email from my mother. So this post will be for her. Tonight we went to cafe journal, the usual hangout for gringos on wednesday. Each wednesday its packed with foreign people and its always a good time. Tonight my brother came out and it was especially nice to have a chilean there with us. Also this week has been good in terms of getting used to classes. Even though we dont have too much homework we have a good understanding of how the classes will work. Saturday we have our first excursion to a chocolate factory and then pablo nerudas house on the ocean. I will be sure to post after that. Until then, hasta luego.

Officially unofficial

I picked up my Chilean ID card today which means I am an official resident of the country of Chile. It actually means nothing because it says all over it EXTRANJERO which means foreigner/non-citizen but it is pretty cool to have a form of Chilean ID so I dont have to carry my passport everywhere. Que bueno soy residente!

Homework? You call this homework?

So our most recent homework for Spanish class was to go to Valpo and interview people we saw around town. We had to at least go down to the docks and talk to people there and also take a funicular and talk to people up in the hills. I was pretty excited to go just because it was a nice day and it would help us get to know the city a little bit better. So we met up and wandered around the docks talked to some of the artisans selling jewelery and paintings and scarves and all that fun stuff. Then we walked back to the main plaza and over toward the hills. As we were walking we noticed some people blocking off the street so we stopped for a minute to see what was going on. We then noticed a police SUV with bullet holes all over the side and front windshield. The only issue was that it seemed perfectly normal, no one was gathered around the car, people were just walking around minding their way. So we round the corner and find ourselves in the middle of a movie set. It was so cool to see the amount of production equipment that that these guys had. The camera car was so cool. We decided to wait and see what was going on and about ten minutes later these guys starting screaming "no one can cross the street". We hung out on the sidewalk for a minute or two and then we hear the director yell "when I say action, everyone start walking". Literally ten seconds later we heard action and everyone around us started hustling and bustling up and down this street. Another ten seconds later the SUV we saw before was speeding up this street followed by the camera car. I couldnt believe that I was actually on the set of a movie. It felt like the bourne identity. So Cool. Tengo que viajar a otro continento para estar en una pelicula.

Sigue andando el camino por toda su vida...respira BREATHE

I have now been in Chile for almost a month and I am at the point where life is very normal. However with that comes some of the trials and tribulations of normal life. I realized this weekend that I have to relax and just breathe more often. There is not a whole lot I can do about other people and the way they carry themselves so I need to just keep walking along the path for all your life and breathe. Sigue andando el camino por toda su vida, respira

From Colorado to Colorado

This past weekend marked my first adventure down here in Chile and what an adventure it was. Although it only lasted a short 48 hours it seemed to last forever. We made our first trip to Santiago to ski the andes which was one of the things I really wanted to do while in Chile. The bus to Santiago was comfortable and our first cab ride was pretty good, basically we didnt get ripped off because we were able to negotiate a price. 1 point for understanding Chilean cab drivers. This weekend also marked my first time staying in a hostel and I can now see exactly why my dad wanted to write a book about them. They are such great meeting places as well as welcome locations for people from out of town or out of the country. Our first hostel was, from what I've heard, very hostely. We had a room with five beds in it and a shared bathroom, then there was a kitchen downstairs with a little bar and living room that people were hanging out with. Unfortunately we didnt get to hang out in the hostel for very long because we had to be up at 6 am the next morning to hit the slopes. Me and ned however did take a walk around santiago attempting to meet up with one of his friends. It turned a little bit flite (sketchy) when we experienced our first high speed car chase and take down for the caribineros (police) but all was well when we made it back to our hostel to crash. The alarms rang super early and the next day we were up and on our way to the ski shop. We rented our gear and then purchased our tickets, but lucky us, friday happened to be buy one get two free day. I kinda felt like I was back working at JAB for a bit but hey we took the deal and ran. So that means that the lift ticket which was originally 34 dollars turned out to be 12 dollars. I couldnt believe it. In total with rentals, tickets, and transportation we paid about 60 dollars. I love being the Chilean exchange rate. So we hopped on the bus and I quickly passed out, only to wake up on the craziest mountain pass I had ever seen in my life. The switchbacks were crazy and it made Loveland pass look like nothing. The bus would bottom out on every turn and I was convinced we were going over the edge at somepoint. But everyone seemed calm, until the bus driver stopped at the wrong mountain and the entire bus erupted in argument. I thought this one Chilean was going to throw the driver out. We finally made it to the mountain and hit the slopes. It was a gorgeous day probably around 50 and the spring skiing was incredible. The snow softened up really nicely as the day went on and we skied nonstop for about 6 and a half hours. Its nice because the lifts dont close until 5:00 pm so we skied a little later then headed home. We had met up with two of neds friends and skied with them all day and then enjoyed the apreski listening to an elvis cover band. Dont worry all the pictures are on facebook for you to see. The bus ride down was just as hairy but we all made it back safe and sound. After dropping our stuff off at the ski shop we decided to test the Santiago subway system. With only one little mistake (getting on an express train that flew past our stop) we made it to our next hostel which proved to be far different from our first. We had booked a four person room only to realize that it was actually a sweet loft apartment with a kitchen king bed and two twin beds. For the low low price of 20 dollars a night. And i shouldt forget the roof deck observatory from which you can see the entire city. It was incredible. We hung out for a bit then went to dinner at this nice little restaurant and ate a fantastic Chilean meal. Its called Chorianna and it is made up of french fries chicken steak sausage and two fried eggs on top. Not the most healthy of meals but it certainly hit the spot, especially when you add the pitcher of beer we had with dinner. We walked around santiago for a bit and then headed home as we were all exhausted from a long day on the mountain. This morning we woke up and started on our self guided tour of the city. Santiago is huge but we tried to cover the downtown area. We ended the tour by going up to the top of this hill that looks over all the city. It was amazing to see the size of Santiago from high above. After a nice lunch in the city we grabbed our stuff and headed back to Vina after a full and amazing weekend. What a first adventure to have. Si cada aventura es tan buena yo estare un hombre contento. En serio.