TERREMOTO (Earthquake)

Last night in Chile an 8.8 mag earthquake struck Concepción, which is about 300 miles from Santiago. I think the magnitude in Santiago was something like 7.4. I was in a dance club in Bellavista Barrio at the time with some friends. At first, I didn't realize what was happening. I thought maybe the speakers were shaking the room, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't the case. The room started to shake violently and I slipped and fell. Luckily, the Chilean boy I had been dancing with caught me, grabbed my hand and dragged me over to an archway where we rode out the earthquake. Apparently it was 90 seconds long, but it felt more like an hour. It was absolutely terrifying, people were screaming, glass was breaking, people were throwing bottles and the building was shaking so intensely that I honestly thought it was going to collapse on us. Thank God for Chile's strict building codes.

When it ended, we all made for the exit and found the other half of our group. The three Chilean boys with us very kindly offered to walk us back to the apartment building of our friends. Hundreds of people were out in the streets. There was glass and rubble everywhere. Nobody's phones were working, and there wasn't a taxi in sight. The walk back to the building was a long one, I'm pretty sure we were lost for some of it. When we got back to the building, we found our other friend who had left us earlier and were happy to see her safe and sound. She said she had been sleeping at the time and had been thrown from her bed. Our Chilean escorts parted with us to go check on their friends and family.

After about an hour, most of our friends went upstairs to their apartment, but one girl and I were determined to get home. We spent almost four hours outside, trying to hail cabs, talking to various Chileans, trying to find buses and at about 7:30 we had a little luck. The phones were operating again and I was able to get in touch with my host family who came and picked us up. I was so happy to see them! And see that they were alright. We got back to the house around 8am where I promptly went to bed. I woke up three hours later to watch some of the news reports. The damage looks catastrophic. Luckily I was also able to call my parents before they saw anything on the news. It seems that everyone I know here is fine, just shaken up. Pun intended. I'll try to take some pictures of the damage if I get out into the city, but for now the public transportation isn't working.

Chau for now!

Pata-oh-my-God-nia

Well, I'm back in Santiago after eight crazy days at the bottom of the world. Here's the story.

We arrived in Punta Arenas early in the morning on February 17th. There isn't much in that town, except the airport. It's really just a gateway to Puerto Natales, which in itself is a gateway to Torres del Paine. After a three hour bus ride to Puerto Natales we found our hostel, "Erratic Rock" and dropped our bags off. After some lunch and some sightseeing (the town is situated on a beautiful lake with a gorgeous backdrop of snow-covered mountains) we headed to the building next door to our hostel to listen to the free seminar on how best to approach the W (the hike through Torres del Paine). The guide was helpful and after the seminar we rented some tents, stoves, bowls and mugs and decided to go shopping for some last minute food and supplies. We loaded up on dried fruit, salami, nuts, instant soup and chocolate and cooked dinner at the hostel. We decided to spend the night in, watching a movie and getting some sleep to prepare for our 7:30 AM bus in the morning.

The bus ride was about four hours after a couple stops. We had been advised to do the hike backwards so we opted for that and then we also opted for a little extra hike to save money on a catamaran that you could ride to the first camp. We set off in fairly good weather (just a slight drizzle) and with five hours and 18km ahead of us we were in good spirits. About an hour into the hike the group split into two and myself and two girls walked a little slower to take in the scenery. Our only stipulation was to make it to the camp by sunset so we had plenty of time.

The first hour or so was fairly boring. Miles and miles of grass and not much else. After that, the mountains came into view and they were absolutely spectacular. Just as we rounded that corner a team of wild horses crossed our path. We really were in the middle of nowhere. When we stopped talking, we couldn't hear a single noise except for the wind. It was breathtaking.

The trail eventually lead to a river where we refilled our canteens with the third cleanest water in the world (third after Antarctica and Greenland). When we hit the halfway mark we sat down for a picnic. The sun was starting to come out and it was really quite nice out. We walked for a couple more hours, always getting closer to Paine Grande, the huge mountain looming in the distance. We passed a horse skeleton on the trail, hopeful not to run into a Patagonia Puma. About an hour before camp there was something called a miradora, which is a lookout point. The mountains stood behind an enormous lake, Lago Pehoé and we couldn't help but marvel at it for a minute. Then, we started what was arguably the most difficult part of the trail. After four hours of hiking with thirty-pound backpacks our legs were almost jello and this was the rockiest and uppy-downiest part of the trail. Then suddenly, as we were walking along a rocky ledge, I tripped on a rock and my enormous backpack took me down. I fell hard, skinning my knee badly and spraining my ankle. The camp was only fifteen minutes away so we continued walking but as the night and next morning wore on, it became abundantly clear that I was in no shape to continue walking. I met up with some students from our program and took the boat back to the place to take the bus back to Puerto Natales.

Once back in Puerto Natales I found two guys from the program who were planning on taking a day trip to the glacier in Calafate, Argentina the following day. I booked a ticket on their bus and the next morning was another early one. This was a long drive, about five hours including crossing the border. I experienced the magic of the US passport, noticing that the US citizens were the only people who didn't have to fill out any paperwork to leave Chile or to enter Argentina.

The glacier was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. I didn't even really realize what a glacier was until I saw this one, but it really is a giant river of frozen solid ice. Luckily, as for almost all of my trip to Patagonia, the weather was flawless so I got to enjoy the glacier in the sunshine with a backdrop of brilliant blue sky. The tour guide said that due to global warming it's melting and moving at an alarming rate, so I'm happy I got to see it while it is still in its glory years. I enjoyed about an hour of listening to my i-Pod and sitting on a deck staring at the glacier. Sometimes, nature is just unbelievable.

We arrived back in Puerto Natales rather late. The next day and a half I spent mostly hanging out with some nice people I met in my hostel. I had an advantage to make friends, because out of everyone I met I was by far the most proficient in Spanish so I acted as a translator from English to Spanish not only in restaurants, but for the caretaker of my hostel as well. A very rewarding experience, but I was thrilled when the rest of my group returned from their hike. They were dirty, exhausted and full of stories but it seemed that they had the time of their lives. I was jealous that I wasn't able to share the experience with them, but I had plenty of experiences of my own as well. We stayed that night in Puerto Natales and then took the 10AM bus back to Punta Arenas where we parted with half the group who had earlier flights back to Santiago.

Immediately when we arrived in Punta Arenas we set to work to find a hostel to stay the night and also to find a tour to the island where a giant colony of penguins lives. These were not easy tasks. The hostels in the center of the city were expensive and we hit three travel agencies before we found one that had a boat big enough to survive the foul weather that also fit our time frames. Backpacks in hand, we took a cab to the ferry on which we spent two rocky hours (through the Strait of Magellan) to arrive at the island. Isla Magdalena is home to a colony of 150,000 Magellanic penguins that live there between September and March of every year. The weather and length of daylight are apparently perfect for the breeding of these penguins.

I've never seen anything quite like a colony of penguins in the wild. The penguins seemed to be quite used to the presence of humans and would often waddle right past you on the path. We weren't allowed to touch them, of course, but it would have been easy. Penguins are cute on tv, and in the zoo but in the wild it's a whole new experience. We had an hour on the island to take pictures of all the little guys. It was a once in a lifetime experience. We remarked that in order to see something like this, you have to be in that part of the world, which is no easy feat. Chile was clearly the right choice to study abroad.

One last night in Punta Arenas, and then about half a day there to find some cheap Llama wool hats and choripan (bread and chorizo). We head to the airport early, in hopes that we could find an earlier flight than ours which wasn't scheduled to leave until 7AM the following morning. We had limited success, catching one at 2AM and got back into Santiago around 5AM. Exhausted, and sick of traveling we headed to our respective houses. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to enjoy it. Pictures in the next post!!!

Fotos de Valpo, Viña, Reñaca y ConCón

Beautiful buildings.
Valparaíso in the sunlight.
The port of Valparaíso.
The hills of Valparaíso.
Allende graffiti.
Graffiti in Valparaíso
Delicious empanadas in ConCón.
Beach at ConCón.
Making empanadas.

Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, ConCón & Reñaca

I spent this Valentine's Day weekend with three friends exploring some beach towns about and hour and a half outside of Santiago. We stayed at a hostel in a town called Valparaíso, which is a short bus ride away from three other towns called Viña del Mar, Reñaca and ConCón. The town of Valparaíso is small and most of the city is relatively uninteresting, but the hills of Valparaíso are something to behold. More about that later, here's a blow by blow of the weekend.

We took a bus into Valpo at around 4pm on Saturday and arrived just after 5pm. We checked into our room at the hostel, freshened up quickly and headed out to catch a bus for ConCón. During the cultural viaje presentations the week before our friend Morgan's group had done a presentation on ConCón and had told us about the amazingly fresh seafood empanadas available there. Hungry as usual, we took the bus to its very last stop, a block or so from the restaurant. I had a jaiba con queso empanada (jaiba is crab, queso is cheese, and an empanada is those two things wrapped in a delicious flaky crust) and it was incredible. So fresh and so delicious, and so cheap! I've never eaten real crab for $2 US before, but I can't say that anymore! We were happy and full, so we walked around ConCón for a while, including some time on the beach. It is a charming little city full of authentic Chilean food and vendors. Around 8pm we decided to take the bus back to Valpo for the night. The bus ride back was a long one. There seems to be constant traffic between the cities during summer. We made it back around ten and started to get ready to go out. We met a guy at the hostel who turned out to be one of the most unpleasant people I've ever met, and unfortunately he shoved his way into our group and went out with us. I have to say, Valpo is lovely during the day, but you can't beat Santiago for nightlife.

The next morning we slept in, had a great Valentine's Day breakfast at the hostel and checked out around 11:30. The owners of the hostel were extremely kind and helpful and they let us leave our luggage there while we went exploring. We walked to a feria (fair) in Valpo and then we decided to walk up into the hills. (I might mention that the weather was absolutely not beach weather and we all had our bathing suits on because we planned to go to the beach) The hills of Valpo are stacked with hundreds of brightly colored houses and covered in intricate, beautiful and often politically conscious graffiti. (Pictures in the next post) We climbed a hill to the top and experienced a gorgeous view of the hills and the port. Afterwards we hopped on a bus to go to Reñaca and enjoy the beach, hopeful that it would clear up.

This was another long bus ride and by the end we were all famished. We stopped at the first place we saw, a seafood cafe, and ordered empanadas (with mariscos, which are various shellfish) and a plate of delicious food that we scarfed down in about five minutes. We also had one of Chile's specialties: jugo natural, which is freshly made fruit juice made by blending fruit, sugar and ice together. Ours was frambuesa flavored (raspberry) and it was lovely. The sun began to shine a little so we walked down to the beach. It wasn't warm, but we enjoyed sitting around and talking. After a few minutes our friend Morgan excused himself and went for a walk. The two other girls and I sat around, recalling the night before and laughing. It was a really great time. After about half an hour Morgan returned holding three roses; one for each of us. It was a very sweet gesture and totally made our day.

After a quick siesta on the beach we went back to Valpo to explore the hills a little more and have dinner. We ate at the top of a hill (more empanadas) and after we hustled back to the hostel to pick up our luggage. Our bus left at 9:45 and luckily we already had tickets because the place was packed. An hour and a half on the bus and we were back home in Santiago. What a wonderful way to spend Valentine's Day! Pictures coming soon!

Cultural Viaje Fotos

The group outside the park.
A closer look.
The lagoon we hiked to.
Siete Tazas. Can you see all siete?
Bruno, our new dog pal.
Standing room only for 2 hours!
Bus stop in Molina.
Top of Cerro Christopher Condell.

Cultural Viaje (Curicó, Molina & Siete Tazas)

For part of our ILP program we had to do something called a Cultural Viaje where we separate into groups of five people and go explore something near Santiago. Some groups went to the nearby beach towns of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, a couple went to Isla Negra to visit Pablo Neruda's house and our group went south to visit Siete Tazas National Park. It's called Siete Tazas (Seven Teacups) because the main attraction is seven waterfalls that fall concurrently into seven little pools. I knew absolutely nothing about the place prior to the trip. My friend Brittany and I sort of glommed on to an already formed group and just hoped for the best. The only boy in our group, Eric, seemed to have some idea of the travels ahead but for the most part we were flying blind, armed only with bus tickets to Curicó: a town about halfway in between Santiago and Siete Tazas.

The trip to Curicó wasn't bad. We were on a charter bus. The weird thing about transportation in Santiago is that buses seem to stop at completely random places along the freeway to pick up passengers. More than once we picked up a passenger or two and looking around could not see a house or any sort of residence for the life of us. They also pick up food vendors who stay on the bus between one or two stops selling dulce de leche or something similar. We arrived in Curicó at about 7:30 Friday evening and walked to our hostel which looked fairly "flaite" (sketchy, unsavory) on the outside but ended up being quite charming. We spent the evening walking around Curicó. We walked up Cerro Christopher Condell, which was a fairly large hill at the top of which you could see the whole city. Then we found some dinner at an incredibly authentic Chilean restaurant. The names of the dishes were unrecognizable and the waiter was shocked to find that I spoke Spanish. We hit the hay around midnight to prepare for the 8am bus the next morning.

Thankfully, we were able to leave our luggage at the hostel and embark with just some food and water for the day. The 8am bus ride was about half an hour and it took us to a town called Molina where we then had to catch another bus to get to Siete Tazas. Molina was even smaller than Curicó. When we went to purchase tickets for Siete Tazas we found that the bus was standing room only for two hours. It was too late to turn back at this point, so we decided to just accept it. We had about two hours to kill so we wandered around Molina. We made friends with a dog (there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere in Chile and they are very even-tempered and well cared for) and then found some pathetic instant coffee (that's all they have in Chile, which is surprising for a country that is on the same continent as Colombia) and made our way to the bus at about 11. They weren't kidding about standing room only. The bus was as packed as it could be with each part of your body touching someone else. It wasn't hot, which was a small mercy, and after we came to terms with the situation it was actually pretty fun. About halfway through a Chilean boy pulled out his guitar and started playing some music and a Chilean woman offered us some cold beers.

We arrived at the park around 1pm and had to pay to get in. This was the moment of truth. Was it, in fact, a four hour hike like we thought? It wasn't. It was actually about a four minute walk to see the waterfalls which were absolutely beautiful. The water was a clear, tropical bluish green and the scenery was lovely. After walking to various viewing points we decided to follow the trail because we were told there was an area in which we could swim. We hiked down to the river, then had to traverse the river for about twenty minutes over very uneven and slippery rocks. I was terrified of spraining my ankle the whole time but eventually we made it to a little lagoon where a bunch of Chileans were already enjoying the water. There was a waterfall and it was incredibly picturesque. We hung out for about an hour and a half and then started walking back up to catch the 5 o'clock bus to Molina, on which we had seats.

On the bus ride back we discussed the day and how we hadn't seen a single gringo the whole time we'd been out. We really were Chilean for a weekend, and it was pretty cool. I would never have seen that part of the country if I hadn't gone on this trip.

After a long day we arrived back in Santiago around 12:30am, but not before we each had a completo! A completo is the Chilean version of a hot dog and this is one Chilenismo I simply cannot get behind. The hot dog comes in a french bread type bun, which is actually tasty, but then the hot dog is literally drowned in avocado, tomato, and the kicker: mayonnaise. By the end I had scraped off everything but the tomatoes and it still wasn't good at all. Trying one was my goal, so I guess it was a success.

All in all, an interesting and informative weekend.

La Moneda

On Thursday my group visited La Moneda, which can probably be most easily described as the Chilean White House. There are a couple key differences. First of all, the President doesn't live in La Moneda, it's just where she works. She actually lives about 2 blocks from me in my neighborhood called Las Condes. Another major difference is that La Moneda is not stuck way out in the country, it's actually located right in the center of Santiago.

The tour was very interesting and lasted about an hour. We had an armed guard following us the whole time. We learned about the history of the building a little about the history of Chile. You may not know that Chile has it's own September 11th, literally. On September 11th 1971 La Moneda was attacked and the President of the time (Salvador Allende) along with a number of other staff members was killed.

The pictures are of La Moneda, me and some friends with the guards in front and the window of the offices where La Presidenta works. If you want a closer look just click on the pictures.

After the tour our student guides took us out to a nearby pub where we tried the famous Chilean drinks known as Terremotos. They consist of wine, triple sec and pineapple sorbet. Que rico!

Concha y Toro

Yesterday we went to a winery as part of our ILP program. It was lovely, and nice to get out of the city. It's Chile's oldest and one if its most famous wineries: Concha y Toro. The tour of the grounds was beautiful and the wine was very good. We tried an '06 Chardonnay and an '06 Cabernet as well. They were both delicious. It felt just like home, except everything was in Spanish. The picture is of me and three friends tasting our Cabernets at the winery.

Más Fotos

Cool building at Santa Lucia.
A park near Cerro Santa Lucia.
The house fruit shelf. Gotta eat up, the season ends in March!
The Andes from my bedroom window.
Campus Oriente, where we have our ILP classes. It looks like Hogwarts!