Argentina or Bust!!

So Jess and I made plans a long time ago to visit Argentina for a week from August 28th to July 4th. You may, however, notice that today is the 29th and yet I am still in Santiago. Sadly, we planned to take a bus to Córdoba, Argentina, spend a few days there, bus down to Buenos Aires and then fly back to Santiago (to save a little dinero.) UNFORTUNATELY what we weren't told is that the mountain pass closes all the time between Chile and Argentina and guess what- a snow storm rolled in Wednesday night. Terrible luck! Especially because you'll notice how nice it has been all week (I wore shorts to the Equality March!!!) So yesterday Jess got to the train station at 7:30AM (as a side story, I would have missed the bus yesterday anyway because my alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up til 8:30.. problematic when you were trying to make an 8AM bus. But it didn't turn out to be an issue.)  They told Jess that it was completely closed and we should try back tomorrow. Jess also went to the airport to see about stand by flights (pretty much nothing works online in this country) and the cheapest we could find was around $500, clearly out of the picture.
 So this morning we woke up at 6AM and went back to the train station only to find that, again, the pass was closed. Super disappointing and also frustrating because it seems, at least in the Santiago bus terminal, that nobody has any idea what is going on. We asked several people and we got answers ranging from "Yes definitely try again tomorrow." to "Well its looking like Monday or Tuesday at the earliest." We adopted the motto "we can trust nobody but eachother!!" haha.
So the plan now is that, LUCKILY, we found a company organizing a bus that is less direct and more pricey, but that leaves tonight that goes through a pass farther south. We figured this was our best bet since we, nor anyone else it seems, have any idea about when the pass will open. Fortunately I have experience with these kinds of things (Colorado, Utah;) Jess, on the other hand, seems a little bit frazzled, haha. But I am doing good, just cruising along for now. We'll see how I feel at the end of this long bus ride though!

What a weekend!

Alright, I'm hereby declaring that I'm going to start updating this more frequently!!
Well last weekend was great and a little bit crazy! Here's the break down (i'll add more pictures as they get put up on Facebook.) 


Thursday
I had class and then afterwards we went and got terremotos at La Piojera (if you remember they are very powerful Chilean beverages and La Piojera is the first place we all went and drank them when we first got to Chile) with a big group of my gringo friends. For some of them, it is probably the last time I'm going to see them! (So sad, can't believe it!!!) Afterwards Tom, Jess, Claire and I went and got pitas and talked til late.

Friday
During the day I procrastinated writing a paper for my Social Movements class. Then of course everything was rushed and panicked (why do I do this to myself??) and I had to write it, run, turn it in, and then show up for the "CIEE Re-Entry Workshop" which just means that most all of the gringos (except those with tests) met up at the Program Office and we talked about what its going to be like going back to the U.S. 
Turns out there is such a thing as reverse culture shock which occurs when you go back to your own country and its usually must worse than the actual culture shock of coming to the foreign country! Considering I don't think I experienced "culture shock" when I came to Chile.. I'd like to keep it that way for the way back! But basically what I learned is that there is a "honey moon period" where you come back and see everyone you've missed and eat cheeseburgers and your mom's cooking and everything is happy. But then eventually people will stop wanting to hear about your time in Chile and you'll start to miss Chile and you'll see how everyone has changed in the last 6 months, and also how you personally have changed from the experience.
Basically I'm hoping this doesn't happen to me, obvoiusly, but the workshop was actually really enjoyable and we talked about how this last semester has shaped our view of ourselves as Americans and of the American culture (suprisingly the concensus  was that it has made us more okay with being American, something that I would have betted against 5 months ago.) 
After the workshop we had our "Cena de Despedida" (Good-bye dinner) with the program, which was sad. They had a slideshow and everything. Afterwards they gave us each our own bottle of wine with a label that says (in spanish) "specially bottled for Piper" or whoever's name. So cute. Hopefully I can bring mine back through customs.

Haha, here is Anwesha trying to get a good photo at the good bye dinner and Mimi, Claire and Tatumn are in the background, photobombing. I made it large so you can really get a good look at Mimi's expression. Haha this is just to give you an idea of the group i'm working with here, haha, they are all clowns.

This is the adventure club! Jess, me, Mimi and Claire. These 3 girls are my favorite gringas/weones (weon(es)= Chilean phrase. it can be a really insulting swear word or it can be a term used between friends, depending on the context, haha)

So after the dinner Jess and I met up with our Chilean friend, Barbara, that we met on the flight back from Patagonia. She took us to a club with live music that was a band with tons of different instruments (drums, trumpets, trombones, clarient, etc) that played really cool dance music. After the band stopped playing, they just played music (we're talking 80's/09's music here: Nirvana, Jet, Rage Against the Machine, also, obviously, lots of Spanish bands that I didn't know.) Fun, but hard to dance to. Like typical Chileans, Barbara and her friends were still going strong at 4:30AM and Jess and I realized there was no way we were going to be able to keep up with them so we called it quits and headed for home. 


Also we met some other Gringa girls there (one from Colorado and one from New Jersey, just like jess and I!) and we swapped numbers.


Saturday
 would feel comfortable classifying Saturday as one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, day in Santiago so far. A Gay Pride Parade was schedule between 2-5pm and 50,000 people were expected to be in attendance. Jess, Tom and I went to the grocery store and bought some rainbow face paint (it turned out we were pretty much the only people who thought of this, and tons of people later commented on it. Crazy Chileans!) So we painted rainbow stripes, rainbow hearts and I had AM(heart outline)R on my cheek, so it read AMOR (or LOVE in Spanish). Once we got the facepaint on we headed to the parade. I'm not sure if 50,000 people were there, but there was definitely tons! The March closed down the main road through Santiago and we walked maybe 2-3 miles.

Tom, me, Jess, Ruthie, and Claire

Oh I also brought sparkles, so this is me spreading it on all my friends.

This is my face with tons of sparkles, but you can't really tell. haha

"Equales"

"Equality of rights. Our right to all be different"

I painted Tom's heart, turned out pretty good. But he had an allergic reation to it, so now he has a rash in the shape of a heart on his cheek. pobrecito!! (roughly "poor baby!")

The paint we used. We didn't have paintbrushes so we improvised with Q-tips.

The awesome sweater that I got. It says "Educate in diversity, live in equality"

I watched the guy paint it (from stencil) and it was a "pay what you want" system. pretty neat!

Some drag queens dancing on a roof in Santiago. No big deal I guess.

One of my favorite things about the march, aside from the general atmosphere of awesomeness, was that there wasn't any counterprotesters like there would have been in the US. I thought that was really neat. Another great part was when we decided to stop for ice cream, but the McDonald's had run out of ice cream (we couldn't believe it!) So we went next door and got some delicious fro-yo from a local vendor.

The march ended in front of La Moneda, the main Chilean government building, so we were just milling around, taking it all in, when Tom and I noticed a lot of people walking in one direction. We decided to follow, and promptly made the rest of the group come too,  as they led us to a drag queen show/free concert that was set up in the middle of a random road that was blocked off. It was amazing and hilarious. We saw the drag version of Adele, Beyonce, Cher, Britney Spears, and countless others. By far Beyonce was the best, if you were curious. After the drag show some popular Chilean artists that we recognized from the radio played their stuff, and overall it was just really awesome.

Afterwards we went to the Telepizza (just Tom, Ruthie, Jess and I at this point, everyone else had bailed) which is just like a VERY crappy, but cheap pizza chain here. We managed to stay at the telepizza until 11pm, just chatting, and then we met up with a bunch of gringos at a bar in Bellavista (a neat neighborhood in downtown Santiago.) We were mostly just killing time until 3AM because at 3 Ruthie's dad's show started. (Fun fact about Ruthie's host parents: While her dad is a married, straight man, he does drag shows on the weekends. For some ungodly reason the shows start at 3AM, so we had never been to one, but we figured this was probably our last chance.) So at 3 we headed over to the show.

The first thing I noticed was that there were about 5 girls, in total (out of maybe 100-200 people.) But the show was great. It was well done and funny and just great. There were some VERY fabulous people there and we had a great time. After the show we stayed later to dance, although none of us could even hope to compete with some of these gay guys, they had dancing skills! I think we threw in the towel around 5:30AM and i got into bed around 6. (We're turning Chilean, maybe?! haha)

Ruthie's dad is the one in white

Sunday
Sunday was obviously a slow day. I woke up around 10 and met Jess and our Gringa friend that we met at the bar on Friday at an eco-farmer's market. It was super cool. All sorts of crafts made from recycled goods and tons of organic food  (Free samples!!) It was really neat. We wandered around there for awhile and then headed over to a bar in the neighborhood to watch the fútbol match (soccer game) between two of Chile's best teams. It was really fun to be with all the passionate Chilean fans watching, although I, of course, hold not have cared less about the outcome. Jess and I walked home after the game (about an hour walk) and stumbled upon the hotel that we stayed at our first night in Santiago. It's funny because we had no idea where we were those first days, so it was funny to find it and know exactly where we were.
When I got home I was rightfully exhausted. I ate dinner with the fam and then laid on the couch by Cristobal and *tried* to watch the last Harry Potter movie in Spanish. What really happened is that I completely fell asleep.

Well that's my weekend. I'll add more pictures when I can, sorry it was so long and picture-less!

Lazy Sunday

It was a rainy day in Santiago today so Cristobal and I stayed home and chilled all day. After waking up at noon, I pretty much just resigned myself to laziness. It was really great though, we had a big lunch and (for lack of anything better to do) Cristobal and I lavishly decorated the table: 10+ candles, full silverware, place mats, small plate on top of big plate, excessive condiments, juice for Cristo, water for host-mom, and tea for me. Lunch was delicious, chop suey (cooked veggies and rice) and salad.

I only changed out of my pajamas and put my contacts in at 5:30pm when I decided to go for a run because it had stopped raining. Yeah it was a great day here in Santiago. A much needed rest to pump me up for the coming week (I have 3 papers due), then the week after that 3 finals! and then my subsequent travels (Jess and I have plans to go to Argentina, Peru and Bolivia!)

San Pedro de Atacama

This long weekend I went to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world! I had an amazing time. Claire, Jess, Mimi and I made plans to go and then a lot of other gringos expressed interest in going too, so we ended up with a huge group (11 people!) which I was a little weary about at first but ended up being great because we got tons of discounts on tours and rentals and stuff.

So we flew into Calama, the largest nearby city, at around 12am Thursday night/Friday morning and then took a transfer into San Pedro and arrived by 1:30. We stayed in the cheapest hostel in the town, La Casa Del Sol Naciente (Roughly the House of the Rising- or maybe "New"- Sun: literally "the House of the Born Sun") 

The common area of the hostel

I liked all the books they had stacked up for our reading pleasure.

The some-what sketchy kitchen

Friday morning we got up early and prepared oatmeal for breakfast and then went out to explore the town, which is super cute and small. Only about half of the town has paved roads and a lot of the houses and fences are made out of clay stuff. 

You can see these two volcanos from almost anywhere in town. I'm pretty sure the one on the left is actually in Bolivia, we were really close to the border of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

We also explored the town church and the museum at the University there (I was suprised that such a small town had a university but there you have it)

Part of the large group of gringos

the church was cute but a little.. I don't know strange? Why is there a doll, I don't know..

This is the university, right inside is the museum

The museum was very beautiful but freezing cold!

We didn't stay long enough to figure out who this guy was because it was too cold to stop and read things, but he seems important.

After exploring the town we went back to the hostel and had lunch. (Avocado and tomato sandwiches. yum!)

Then at 3 it was time for our tour (which we got a smokin' deal for: 22 dollars instead of $56 each, for 2 days worth of tours because our group was so big!) So the first day's tour included Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), las Tres Marias (The 3 Marias), Valle de la Muerte (Valley of the Death) and la Piedra de Coyote (Coyote Rock). (Brace yourself for a bunch of pictures.)

We had to stop at the park entrance to pay a small fee (we got a student discount) so we took a group photo. This is the self-proclaimed "Aventuroso Club" ("Adventure Club") made up of Jess, Claire, Mimi and me. haha

Okay first off: Valle de la Luna

Aww, me and Jess

This is a picture of the sweet hat that I bought as a gift for Connor, but I think I'm going to end up keeping it because I've grown attached to it, sorry bro! :)

Our guide showed us with sand how the valley was formed and why it was so salty. Basically a series of earthquakes caused the mountains to form and trapped ocean water inside the valley. When the water evaporated all the salt was left behind. (It was a little more complicated but she explained it in Spanish about 5 days ago, so that's the best I can remember!)

Then the guide made the group be silent and we could hear the entire mountain creaking. She explained to us that the salt heats up during the day and cools down at night so its constantly expanding and contracting. It was a little bit scary that it was cracking so audibly, we all thought we were about to be killed in a rockslide or something. haha

It looks snowy but its just that salty.

The sun was super powerful, we were at about 4,000 feet and there was very little shade so during the day it was like summer, but once the sun set you had to wear several layers to stay warm.

Next on the tour was Las 3 Marias, which unfortunately now is more like the 2.5 Marias because the one on the left was knocked over by a French tourist awhile ago, thus we couldn't actually get near them to take photos. The one on the right is praying, the one in the middle is holding a child, and the one on the left was in a position of repentence, which she kind of still is if you squint just right. 

'

According to our guide this is the part for the kids, its either the Pacman or the Dinosaur (Dinosaurio), and in the background the little hills are called los Huevos de Dinosaurios (The Dinosaur Eggs) and unfortunately I don't remember how the guide said they were formed, maybe ask Stevie if you are really curious, she would know! :)

Next stop was Valle de la Muerte, but it was really windy so we didn't take many pictures, but we went back the next day so don't worry.

The final stop was Piedra de Coyote, or Coyote Rock. We got to take some embarassing tourist pictures and then watch the sunset.

Watching the sunset (L to R) Liz, Mimi, Me, Sophie, Jess and Lizzie

Ah, so pretty!

Pretty neat! After the tour we went back and ate some pasta dinner at the hostel, played some cards, and then went out to stargaze because there was almost no light pollution and no clouds. We saw several shooting stars and the Milky Way was also super visible which was cool.

DAY 2

We woke up early, ate some more oatmeal, and headed over to a different tourist agency where we rented bikes and sandboards (again, we got a sweet discount) and then headed off to Valle de la Muerte for sandboarding. The bikeride was easy, only twenty minutes, but hiking up the hill over and over was exaughsting! We started on the "bunny hill" and then moved to the big one. It was pretty scary but really fun. Afterwards I said sand everywhere (I found some in my ear hours later!)

Sandboarding was probably my favorite thing we did. More pictures (and videos!) exist, but I'm waiting for people to put them up, so for now these will have to do. As you can see we couldn't take very many runs because it was exhausting hiking up the hill everytime!! 

Afterwards we had the second half of our tour. We went to three different lakes: Laguna Cejar (I'm not sure how that translates,) Ojos del Salar (roughly Eyes of the Saltflat,) and Tebenquiche (which I think must be Mapuche or otherwise not-Spanish.)

Laguna Cejar was super cool. It was so salty that it was like the Dead Sea, you could just float! Swimming.. or I guess floating.. in it was really fun but getting out was so cold!!

The guide had to carry fresh water so we could rinse off. The saltiness kind of burned after awhile and my shins were like pure white because I didn't rinse them well enough. Crazy!

You can see me, Jess and Claire floating in the background, haha.

 Ojos del Salar was alright, basically its two salty lakes formed from when they tried to dig for oil but found water instead. Bummer for the oil company, but good for the desert.

As you can see, there was an enormous group of us, but it was lots of fun.

Just a hole in the ground, and there is another one behind the camera, thus "ojos" ("eyes")

Tebenquiche was also really cool. It was a a salt flat with about 3 inches of water on it. The bottom was pure white and incredibly smooth, it was awesome to walk around on. We watched the sunset here and got some snacks and Pisco Sour (delicious Chilean drink) from the tour guide.

I think because the bottom is so smooth and white it looks deceptively deep. Look, we're walking on water!!

haha, embarassing. 

Did I mention this place was BEAUTIFUL?

 That night we went back and made some more pasta (Mimi bought dinner, but she wasn't sure what to get for us since Jess is vegetarian, so we had pasta every night with various sauces, which is great because none of our host families feed us enough pasta, haha.) After dinner we played Hearts until late and I tried, with arguable success, to explain the game in Spanish to a Chilean that was watching us.

DAY 3

Mercifully we had nothing planned for the morning so we got to explore the town, buy some gifts, and soak up the sun. After lunch we met at the tourist agency to go for a horseback ride (and yes we got another sweet deal because of the size of our group.) I was pleasantly suprised at how fun it was (everyone was shocked to learn that the girl from Idaho had never ridden a horse.) Anyway my horse was named Negro, but I renamed him Buckbeak (from Harry Potter, if you are familiar) and it was more fun to pretend that I was flying on a hippogriff. 

My hat! (I'm on the left)

Such good posture, I was practically a natural. Haha, not!!

But look, evidence of me actually riding. I got that sucker up to a trot, but we didn't canter or gallop. Basically Negro/Buckbeak figured out that I had no idea what I was doing so then he just messed with me. I would try for like 10 minutes to get him to go faster, but he wasn't havin' it. then I would give up and then he's randomly take off!! It was a little alarming but I enjoyed it. haha.

After the horseback riding we ran to check out some Incan ruins before the sunset. We got there just as it was closing so we couldn't explore much, which was a bummer, but it was still really neat to see it.

After the ruins we went back to the hotel, got our stuff and went up to catch the bus. We stopped for dinner next door to the bus depot and talked to the restaurant owner (who was super nice!) while our food was being prepared.

Then we had an hour and a half bus ride, followed by a short taxi ride, then an hour or so waiting in a tiny airport (still can't get over how easy airport security is!) On the way back, Mimi, Claire and I were on a later flight than everyone else, which was a bummer, but then we each got a row to ourselves on the plane!

Well that's it. What a trip! Although I'm staying in South America til August, the rest of the Adventuroso Club leaves between late June and mid-July, so this was our last trip with the four of us! Can't believe this journey is over half way done! I'm incredibly glad I decided to stay as late as possible because I'm not ready to go home yet!!