Our program officially ended today, with an A in both classes! In a couple hours a friend and I will set out on a 24 hour bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama in the northern deserts of Chile. We’ll be visiting the salt flats, Valle de Luna, go stargazing in the best stargazing location in the world, swim in hot springs, etc. I’ll have some photos of my own to add when I get back. Hasta luego!
Until then, here’s yet another picture of me on a horse.
In case I never posted this beauty. I took this from my balcony a few weeks ago.
7 The past few weeks have been so busy and hectic that I’ve neglected to write…well, anything. So, while I have a few minutes here, where was I?
My group had an excursion to Santiago the weekend of the 1st. Wandered through the Museo de los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Human Rights) which fit exactly with all of the history we’d been learning in the Chilean culture class. Lots of things about the years of Pinochet’s dictatorship, the ending, and the efforts to rebuild since then. It was so strange to view it all and realize that these things were occurring IN MY LIFETIME. After that, a huge 4+ course meal (delicious, though 3 hours was a bit long to sit and eat), and then went to climb Cerro Santa Lucia again (did it my first day in Chile as well.)
We’d gotten a late start to the day so we had to trim a few things, but we had some time to wander through the Plaza de Armas and watch a bunch of people do the “cueca,” a traditional dance here in Chile that everyone knows and does at the drop of a hat.
We then had to take a quick dash past the infamous La Moneda, where Salvador Allende died during the military coup in ‘73.
——-New week: Learned to surf! I’d tried it before, but theres no comparison between Atlantic and Pacific when it comes to surfing. Never quite got on my feet, but I got pretty good on my knees. I think someone has decent pictures, but I was too busy to take any myself that day.
——-Spent another weekend with some friends that live in Santiago. We did lots of wandering, visiting cool markets, trying new foods. The World Press Photo (annual top photojournalism awards) exhibition was in Santiago, so I got a chance to see that, as well as Bella Artes, which I think was the oldest art museum in South America. I think…
Llama in the street in Santiago…
——-Paper writing, more surfing, Spiderman, more delicious empanadas, 10+ minute history presentation all on Spanish which I actually did really well on (a mark of having actually learned something!) Friday was a Chilean friend’s birthday, so we all went dancing at this place right on the beach.
After a few hours of dancing, the ocean starts looking pretty good, even in winter, and conveniently I was just wearing leggings under a dress. Just got close enough to freeze our aching feet…
A large portion of our program.
—-Then Saturday was horseback riding in Ritoque, about 45 minutes from Valpo. The place was incredible. We all saddled up, got our chaps on…
Then after several hours of galloping (literally. Ive never gone so fast on a horse in my life) across the beach, through the forest, across a river, around giant sand dunes, we returned to the house for a giant Chilean barbecue.
Some of the best steaks I have EVER had.
Obviously, there was spiced Chilean wine/sangria made over the open fire, followed by roasting marshmallows and sandwiching them in chocolate cookies to make easy s’mores, a soccer game, hammocks, trampolines, and good friends.
This dog was hilarious, and was quite the soccer player.
View of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and the Pacific Ocean from the ranch.
Big swollen bruise from my saddle, haha. Completely worth it, but 3 days later we are all still feeling it.
———Sunday was spent at a big lunch with most of my extended Chilean family (around 30 people?) I was only there a few hours, so I didn’t get to talk to everybody, but after sitting and chatting with my Chilean sister for about an hour, I realized that I’d just had an hour long conversation in Spanish, which was a really amazing feeling.
———Now off to show some friends around my neighborhood, which is one of the coolest in the city but none of them have spent much time up here. A routine stop will be made at either my favorite Café Vinilo (vinyl, because they always have old records on) or the adorable helado (gelato) and coffee shop.
On my sweaty horse in the Valle de Elqui.
On Friday morning before classes, a few friends and I were talking about how we wished we had plans to go somewhere for the 3 day weekend (Chilean holiday). So, after class we all tromped over to the bus station and spontaneously bought tickets to spend the weekend in a place called La Serena in the north of Chile, a solid 7 hour bus ride from Valpo. We left first thing Saturday morning, and the 8(!) of us met at the university so we could walk to the bus station together. Conveniently, the bus was a few minutes late because one of our members didn’t wake up until I called to ask why he wasn’t there yet. After a super fast packing job and taxi trip, he made it with about 2 minutes to spare. A 7 hour ride sounded a bit daunting, but I just stared out the window with my camera in hand the entire way. We had the Andes on the right and the pacific coast on the left, with the road winding along cliffs over the water at times, and the rest was every kind of landscape imaginable, from forest to purple and green desert. So beautiful.
Seriously, took these from the bus.
We arrived in La Serena late afternoon and all 8 gringos made the 20ish minute walk to the hostel we’d reserved ahead of time. (Good thing, too, because we claimed the last 8 beds in the place!) The city as we walked was a lovely little historic place that reminded me a bit of St. Augustine, FL, which may mean nothing to you, dear reader. The hostel itself was beautiful, and for 2 nights and 2 breakfasts, it cost a grand total of about $30. It was 4 floors, and half inside, half out. The whole place was covered with murals, mosaics, and quotes. The kitchen was in a submerged basement type area, with the part over the tables open to the sky. There was a cozy reception area/living room near where all of our rooms were, a glass enclosed floor full of games and futons above that, and above THAT was a rooftop balcony complete with tables, hammock, and little day bed, with a view of the whole city, the Andes, the Pacific, sunrise, sunset, and a man who sat in the plaza non-committal dancing to whatever 80s/90s pop music played from the mini-market next to him. I got a video, don’t worry.
The blue in the top photo is the Pacific, those are the Andes in the bottom.
So anyway. First night we made some friends in the hostel, then went out to hunt down some dinner, which we found but, though it was delicious and Lord of the Rings was playing in Spanish on a TV in a corner (Gollum is terrifying with voice-dubbing!), there wasn’t anything particularly unique about it. Except the fresh papaya juice we all felt obligated to try because they grow in the region, but everyone had to fight their gag-reflex against the awkward floating chunks. After that, we headed back to watch the city from the roof of the hostel and play games in the glass room and bond. The next day we’d all talked about taking a trip to a nearby area called Valle de Elqui because all of our host families recommended it, but none of us knew what was there. I was one of the first up, and went down to catch breakfast. I found one of our other girls had been talking to the hostel owner about going to the valley and the lady had invited her along. Since we weren’t sure when or if anyone else would be up and ready to go, we both joined in with the hostel owner, her daughters, and a few other friends we made over breakfast that morning, and hopped a bus for the hour and a half trip ($4, in case you’re wondering).
Turns out, Valle de Elqui is desert valley between purple mountains, with a string of rustic little agriculture towns and pisco vineyards. We got out in a tiny town called Pisco Elqui and wandered around just looking through little shops.
We stopped to look for a bathroom at this beautiful little hotel and the owner invited us down through the grounds, between the brightly painted cabanas and pool, for a great view of the valley.
We sampled some grapes straight off a vine we passed, and then decided to try to continue on to the last little town we passed that had little artisan shops. So we headed straight out of town, down the mountain, and ended up hiking for almost an hour to get there, but it probably only took that long because we stopped every 3 minutes for more incredible pictures.
We stopped for some lunch at the next town at a place that didn’t even have a menu, so we just had to point at the food on the table next to us and ask for the same. It was delicious.
That’s fresh banana/mango juice.
Then onto the next town, because we still hadnt found the shops. We got there late afternoon, and found that it wasn’t really one of the touristy villages, but was more rustic vineyards. We wandered around for a bit, and found a little stream and a perfect way up part of a mountain. So, obviously, shimmied up that just in time to watch the sun begin to set between the mountains.
One of our goals for the day had been to ride horses, but we hadn’t found any yet. We began to wander back toward the road when we passed by a ranch with quite a few beautiful horses all gathered around. The friendly little family said hello and we chatted for a bit before continuing on our way. We made it about 15 feet before we realized we were passing up a possible opportunity, so we ran back to ask if it would be possible for us to ride at all. Turns out, the place actually does trail rides, and they were just about to set out. So we joined the adorable family we’d chatted with before, complete with a 4ish year old named Santiago and his horse named Platano, and the dad who is a lemon, orange, and clementine exporter. As we rode, we got to watch the sunset and moonrise both. Before we got back it was dark, so we were riding by the light of the full moon and stargazing, because that valley is famed for being one of the best stargazing places in the world. We got back, dismounted, and were preparing to pay for the ride (around $10) when the dad of the family stops us and tells us all has been taken care of, and just to have a wonderful trip. Then he collected all of the adorable children and left, and we said goodbye to our caballeros and went to catch our bus back to La Sarena.
We got back and met up with everyone else, made pasta at the hostel, played games and talked for a bit before deciding that with the Pacific 2 miles away, we had no excuse not to go see the beach. So we got directions from the surf instructor/engineering student working the desk, and headed out, collecting a pack of 8 stray dogs as we walked. (The strays here are just wonderful, and anytime I’m out at night, i invite them all to walk with me, which they happily do. There were several husky mixes, a few German shepherd mixes, a few labs, and several lovely mutts, and all just wanted to cuddle more than anything but had to be content just to walk with my hand on their heads.) The beach was beautiful, and the waves are still so strange to Atlantic-raised me. We headed back, rinsed all the sand and salt from our feet, and hung out for a bit before bed. All got up early Monday morning, had coffee on the roof, watched the bad dancer in the plaza for around an hour, then went down to get ready to catch the bus around noon.
Not without a group picture first…
Ode to Valparaíso
by Pablo Neruda (trans. Hermitina)
VALPARAÍSO,
what an absurdity
you are,
how crazy:
a crazy port.
What a head
of disheveled
hills,
that you never finish
combing.
Never
did you have
time to dress yourself,
and always
you were surprised
by life.
Death woke you up,
in your nightshirt,
in your long johns
fringed with colors,
naked
with a name
tattooed on your stomach,
and with a hat.
The earthquake caught you,
and you ran
crazedly,
you broke your fingernails.
The waters and the stones
the sidewalks,
the sea,
the night,
all were shaken.
You slept
on the ground,
tired
from your navigation,
and the furious
earth
lifted its waves
more tempestuous
than a marine gale.
The dust
covered up
your eyes.
The flames
burned your shoes.
The solid houses
of the bankers
trembled
like injured whales,
while above,
the houses of the poor
jumped
into the void
like imprisoned
birds
who test their wings
and fall to the ground.
Soon,
Valparaíso,
sailor,
you forget
about your tears.
You return
to hanging your dwellings,
to painting doors
green,
and windows
yellow.
You transform
everything into a boat.
You are
the patched-up prow
of a small
brave
ship.
The foamy crown
of the tempest.
Your ropes that sing
and the ocean light
that makes the shirts
and flags tremble
with your indestructible swaying.
Dark
star
you are
from far away.
In the height of the coast
you shine
and soon
you surrender
your hidden fire.
The rocking
of your muffled alleys,
the uninhibitedness
of your movement,
the clarity
of your seamanship.
Here I conclude
this ode,
Valparaíso:
so little
like a destitute
undershirt,
hanging
raggedly in your windows
rocking
in the wind
of the ocean,
saturated
with all
the sorrows
of your land,
receiving
the dew
of the seas, the kiss
of the wide irritable ocean
that with all its strength
beats against your stones.
It couldn’t
knock you down,
because within your southern chest
are tattooed:
struggle,
hope,
solidarity
and happiness
like anchors
that withstand
the waves of the earth.
Just a quick update.
Today in “Conversation and Chilean Culture” we were taken to one of the many markets surrounding the university and given questions to ask vendors. I bought a funny shaped orange from one guy in hopes of striking up a conversation, but his attention was immediately called elsewhere and I had to move on. One man and his daughter selling lettuce asked about the paper in my hand, so I asked them a few questions, but his accent was a bit strong and she was very shy, so I was struggling a bit…in addition to struggling with the fact that they were speaking Spanish. So I moved on. I smiled at a tiny old lady selling broccoli and cauliflower, and she hurried toward me to offer some veggies, which I declined. She didn’t seem to mind much, and continued to talk to me for another 10 minutes, about life, veggies, language, earthquakes, her old job as a taxi driver, and probably lots of other things I couldn’t catch (she wasn’t much easier to understand than the first guy). We got to a bit of a stopping point and she asked if i cooked, or had a kitchen where I was living. When I said yes, she grabbed a lovely giant head of broccoli, wrapped it up, and insisted I take it as a gift. So off she sent me with lots of confusion, a failing voice, and a bunch of fresh broccoli.
We also had a second tour today, this time up to La Sebastiana, one of Pablo Neruda’s houses. Very cool. It is very reminiscent of a ship, with porthole windows and incredibly views of the Pacific rom almost every room.. We weren’t allowed to take any photos, unfortunately, but google can probably help out on that one. We continued with a lovely evening stroll through a new cerro I had yet to visit, ending with all 18 or so of us piling into a little empanada shop and overwhelming the cook. I couldn’t finish mine, but conveniently, 2 hungry german shepherd wandered in and asked to help me out. I led them outside and split it in half for each of them, and afterwards they just snuggled against my legs until it was time to go. Some days it is freezing, but the nights have actually been perfect.
My first steps into the Pacific.
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A Hostel near my house, Cerro Alegre, Valparaiso, Chile.
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