Buenos Dias o en Chileno buenodia

My apologies for taking so long to write an update, I am sure that you all have been anxiously checking the site multiple times a day with the hope of a new fantastic bit of adventure writing. So hold your breath no longer, here it is! Oh and if anyone just can not live a second longer with out hearing my voice, you can give me a call on my cell phone: 011-56-9-7843-0404

The Andes! La Cordillera de los Andes! Simply getting there was quite an adventure. All 28 of us on this trip decided to go, even though it was not included in the study abroad program. We had to take two smaller buses because the mountain roads where too small for a normal coach bus. To get to the first resort we covered over 50 switchbacks, working our way up and up the mountain. Along the way we saw cars stopped putting chains on their tires, but seeing as the road was clear and dry our drivers did not feel like wasting the time. Needless to say as we come around curve 30 we slide to a stop on a nice big patch of snow covered road… in fact the rest of the road from there on out is snow covered. The following 45 minutes consist of the drivers who have most likely never driven in snow before attempting to get chains that are too small for our tires on and finally jerry-rigging the chains. We listened to the loose parts hit the wheel wells for the next 30 minutes and stopped again to unwrap the one that had gotten loose from the axel.

Finally, we arrived at the entrance to Valle Nevado, the name of the ski resort. As we parked next to the heliskiing helicopter it began to snow . (No I did not jump out of a helicopter with a snowboard attached to my feet… it was simply too expensive). The snow did not last long but I looked around at these huge mountains all around me I thought, how awesome is this? It is July and I am about the go snowboarding in the middle of the Andes!

Snowboarding in the Andes is quite different than any riding I have done in the states. Being above the tree line, there was no clear definition of where any of the runs were. I had an amazing time we got to explore plenty of back country and found some excellent patches of fresh untouched powder. Everyone stayed in a lodge called Refugio Los Andes. They cooked us dinner there and then we all had an great carreta (fiesta) around the fire place. Only a few of us wanted to go skiing the next day, and we went to a different resort called El Colorado. We got to ski for longer there and had an equally good time. Monday was another holiday and a great time to do some serious resting.

Tuesday after a very early Charla, we boarded the nicest bus we’ve ridden on yet with big leather seats that reclined quite far. After an hours ride we pulled up to a horse farm and were greeted by a handful of Gausos and soda and the best empanadas, Gauso is Chilean for Cowboy, in Argentina they are Gauchos. Empanadas are delicious pastries that can be stuffed with anything, usually cheese and meat, theses had cheese, onion, sauasage, and egg. We were given a tour of the farm and they explained how horses in Chile differ from others around the world. Horses here are shorter and a lot stockier, they have a shorter neck and sometimes have a long black stripe running down their spine. After our tour the Gausos put on a little show for us. Chilean horses are also some of the only horses in the world that gallop sideways. They are taught this because when corralling cattle the use their chests to move the cows around. One of the little girls on the ranch got in the ring and danced La Cuenca, Chiles national dance, with one of the horses! We had a delicious lunch in the restaurant on the ranch and then boarded the oh so comfortable bus and headed off to a Winery.

The winery we went to was called Casas del Bosque, houses of the forest. It was quite a small winery and only 20% of the wine bottled there stayed in Chile, 80% goes world wide. As for the tour, it was like any other winery in the world, they smash grapes, put them into big metal tanks, then oak barrels then into little glass bottles! We tasted a Vino Tinto and Vino Blanco, (red and white respectively) both were excellent and then they turned us loose in the gift shop. I bought a bottle of Carmenere, which is a type of grape now extinct in Europe that is grown almost exclusively in Chile, but am waiting to drink it until I am back home in the states.

Wednesday we had our final Caminata around Valparaíso, and it took us to another one of Pablo Neruda’s houses La Sebastiana. Architecturally speaking I liked this house a lot more than the other one we saw Isla Negra. This house was either four or five stories with only one, maybe two rooms on each floor, but with great views of Valparaíso. Neruda always made it a point to watch the fireworks over the Valpo harbour every New Years.

Thursday and Friday were basically normal days of class. I bought a one way ticket from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru and also contacted a moutain bike tour company in La Paz, Bolivia so the beginnings of that trip are starting to take shape. Now that I have the hard part of updating done, maybe I will get some pictures up and even a video soon. Again if anyone wants to call I would love to hear from you 011-56-9-7843-0404! In the meantime I love reading comments and emails too even if I do not get a chance to respond all the time. To answer Lindsay’s question when I am with the other gringos we speak English most of the time, all the other time is Spanish, all of our tours, classes etc. Vaya con Dios!

Time flies!

It is hard to believe that I have been here two weeks now! I feel like I have learned and experienced so much, but at the same time it feels like yesterday that I was in sunny warm Wilmington.

Tuesday was a long but extremely fun day. Class started at 8:30 in the morning with a charla about Chilean pop-culture. Everyone, including myself, really enjoyed this guest speaker. He was was easy to understand and had a great sense of humor. We had normal class afterwards however Valerie let us out early, because at 2:00 we were to meet her at a restaurant called Coco Loco for lunch. She did not tell us where it was and our "mission" was to find it without asking our families. It really was not too hard to find, only four blocks from where we have class and twenty or so stories up.

With our extra time, a group of us went up into the cerros to walk around. We found a neat little shop with lots of art, and hand crafted South American goods. Bren and Josh bought native looking shirts that were from Bolivia. I would have bought one, but I did not want to look like I just jumped on the band wagon, even though I did see them first! The other reason I did not buy a shirt is that when I heard they were from Bolivia, I figured I'd just get one when I am IN Boliva! (How is that for authentic?)

More about Coco Loco... After the shopping in the Cerros we treked back toward the restaurant, grabbed an elevator and headed to the top. Now, the truly unique thing about Coco Loco is that it is a "Restaurante Giratorio." Giratorio from the verb "girar" to spin! Not only was this an upscale restaurant, but it had a revolving floor giving diners a 360 degree view of Valparaíso. We had a full three course meal, with cocktails, wine, and tea, and it was Valerie's treat. Everything was delicious and we had and extremely long "sobremesa" which is after dinner conversation. Then the whole group including Valerie went to a local pub to grab a beer, and then head home.

Wednesday: normal class, lunch, exploring time, then 3:30pm our second caminata. This caminata began in the Plaza Sotomayor, right on the water. We all got into a boat and were given a tour of the harbor. Not only did this give us an amazing panoramic view of the city from the water, but we also got to see a huge bustling industrial port at work. We passed some of the ships of the Chilean Navy and some very, very big containers ships. After the boat tour we walked to another ascensor and rode it to the top of a different cerro. At the top there was another great look out point "mirador" and lots of vendors. One of the vendors had a whole slew of original watercolor paintings of the area which were all very reasonably priced. I am most definitely making a return trip for a purchase. Many of the vendors sell beautiful jewlry made out of silver and lapuz lazuli, both of which are found in Chile and hence fairly cheap. (I am taking orders now if anyone would like something!)

Thursday was our trip to Isla Negra, the house of Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda. If you do not know him, get on google, he is an extremely important man both in the world of poetry and politics. Neruda is from Chile, was an active member of the communist party (which after lots of studying on this subject I have come to learn that in America we are taught a profoundly biased view of communism and socialism) Neruda had three houses in Chile, La Sebastiana in Valpo, La Choscana in Santiago (Choscana means crazy hair and the house was so named after his third and favorite wife Matilde) and his favorite house Isla Negra. Isla Negra (not an island by the way) is situated right on the coast with a great view of the ocean. The house is extremely odd, just as many poets are. The running theme is nautical and a lot of the rooms resemble boats. The house was a lot different than I had thought, and not really all that impressive. Neruda collected lots and lots of stuff. None of it looked like it was of any great value, no famous paintings or art, more like 100 different pipes, or scupltures of hands, or seashells.

After the tour of the house we all hung out on the rocks by the beach for a while and then had a mediocre lunch in a local restaurant. It must have been the better of the few restaurants in the town though because the town of Isla Negra is essentially the sticks.

Now I should probably be sleeping because we are leaving at 6:00am for two days of skiing in the Andes. Ciao

Wow it is hard to believe that it has been since Wednesday that I last wrote. Unfortunately nothing too terribly exciting has happened since then, but if I rack my brain I think that I might be able to come up with something interesting to share.

Thursday morning we had our first of many "Charlas" or guest lectures. Our Charlas are usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays and are given by a local professor who is in expert in the subject. The only downside to these is that they begin at 8:30 in the morning and then we have class at the regular time 10:05 am. On Thursday the subject was the History and Geography of Chile, all spoken in Spanish of course. I was pleased with how well I understood the professor, however nearly everything he spoke about I had already read or studied on my own. Afterwards I did get a chance to talk with him about the Chilean economy under the military dictator General Pinochet (not a French pronunciation where the T is silent).

Friday night, after a normal day of classes, most everyone decided to go to the local Casino, which is supposedly one of the only in all of Chile. It was "festive" for lack of a better word, mostly reinforcing my view of Casinos in general, that being I do not care to spend much time in them. Being a man of excellent self discipline, I only gambled $10. I only played a few slot machines because I felt like I at least understood the basic concept of those. At one point I was up $2 on the house and almost stopped there simply so I could say I won some money.

Later, being around 1:30am, we left the Casino and headed with some Chilean friends to Club Scratch. Thanks to our Chilean friends we all had VIP access and one free drink. We stayed out until 5 in the morning which to my recollection is the latest I've stayed out with the exception of one time back home, at the beach, with a few crazy kids to watch the sunrise.

Saturday I went to an asado, or cookout, with Mercelo and Alvaro and later we watched the Chile Brasil gam in which Chile lost to Brazil 1-6! Sunday morning I tried my hand(s and feet) at rock climbing, but did not get too far up the face of the rock because it was more than vertical, coming back over our heads, if that makes sense.

This coming week I will be making a point to post multiple times due to the fact that so much will be going on. I think if I waited until Monday to post, everyone would probably give up reading what I wrote because it would be so long! On the docket for this week: Two Charlas, One caminata, almuerzo with Valerie tomorrow at Coco Loco a rotating restaurant, Thursday an excursion to Isla Negra, the main house of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Saturday morning at 6:00am we leave for the Andes for a two day ski trip! As for this afternoon, maybe a little run, maybe a little sandboarding on the dunes in Concón, who knows! ¡Qué todos pasen un buen semana!

Photos

As you can see I've added some pictures to my last post. On the right side of the page is a link to more pictures. They're on a free picture hosting website so I don't have to take up space on the blog. Ciao

Comida, Cerros, Clases, Caminata

Well I sat down to write this earlier, and did even though I was a little weary. I had written quite a lot and finished, when the page froze up and I lost everything, now I’m writing in MS Word first saving it and copying it to the blog!

Since Sunday was the last time I wrote, It seems like Monday would be a good place to start with! Monday was a national holiday, and much thanks goes to Saint Peter for that, there was no class and no work. Can you guess what dominant religion is here in Chile? If not here is a hint; the name of the university where we have class is Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Pontificia by the why is an honor bestowed by the Pope on the best Catholic Universities in the world. In the morning I went with Bernardo (Ruth’s Husband) and Alvaro to Valpo because they decided I needed a TV in my room. We went down to the port, I think there is a store there, but when there was no parking they decided to abandon the mission. We then drove up to Cerro Concepción to explore some.
A little background information: Valpo is a port city, but unlike Wilmington it is only flat in a small area. After that flat part, the land rises quite sharply forming lots of different hills called cerros surrounding the city. The flat area of Valpo is traditionally the commercial area, also where some of the University buildings are housed, and the cerros are more residential.
We walked around Cerro Concepción for a little while and then stopped at a little restaurant that had a view of all Valpo, for some piscosours. Pisco is a liquor derived from grapes that todos los chilenos beben (all Chileans drink). After the drinks we headed back to Viña for almuerzo.
Insert more background information here: Almuerzo is lunch in Spanish, but in Latino American culture almuerzo is the big meal of the day. For example the other day we had a salad that consisted of lettuce with half of a fruit called palta and that was stuffed with tuna and topped with mayo (add a little lemon juice and oil for dressing) We then had lentejas a bean soup with some vegetables and pickled onions and of course some pan (bread). Dinner is a lot less formal, usually sandwiches or hotdogs, or some re-heated lunch. Also sometimes in between lunch and dinner we have “once” (ohn-say). Once is a chilenismo so it is only used here and it is essentially a snack around 6:00pm of maybe some bread, cheese fruit etc.

After lunch I went with Alvaro to the place just north of here in between the towns of Reñaca and Concón, called Roca Oceanica (Ocean Rock). It was this huge outcropping of rocks and cliffs, which happened to be ideally suited for rock climbing. Both Alvaro and Mercelo climb, and I told him that I would, but when I got there and saw all the other people that were also climbing I decided I’d rather learn with less people watching.

Tuesday was our first official day of class. Everyone lives in Viña del Mar, but we have class in Valparaíso, which is about five miles away. In order to get to class we have to take the bus, which are not called busses, or autobuses here, they’re called Micros (ME-KROS). The stomach churning trip takes about 20 minutes and it’s best to look out the sides of the bus and not what the crazy driver is doing up front. One way ticket costs $400 pesos, about $.75 US, and make sure you keep your ticket because it serves as proof that you were on the bus for insurance in the ever so slight chance there were an accident (haha). Our families rode with us on the bus the first day and rode back with us, so that they could explain the routes and how the bus system worked.

During class everyone was really excited to see each other because we had all been separated since Saturday. We were given an orientation and a tour of the main university building Casa Central. Most everyone decided to meet up at the mall in Viña later to hang out. Brent the guy that lives across from my and I walked to the mall in the afternoon and pretty much everyone was there, and where did they decide to hang out… Ruby Tuesdays! Now its time to learn another new word… GRINGO. Gringo is a word used by latin Americans to describe us, and while it is not necessarily a derogative term, it does not really carry the best connotation. While I would like to do as much as possible not to perpetuate that stereotype, not too many others were concerned. That being said the rest of the afternoon and night was a “gringofest” with lots of loud loud Americans being fairly stupid.

Today we had class again, and most everyone was last with the exception of course being me. A walking tour (caminata) was scheduled for the afternoon so instead of going home for lunch most of us stayed in town and ate. I ate with 4 other guys at a little hole in the wall restaurant with excellent food and we got out of there for the equivalent of $4 US per person. Then two of the guys, Bren (not Brent) Josh, and myself went exploring up the very steep Cerro Merced.

Our caminata took us to Cerros Concepción and Alegre, where I had been on Monday. This time we took an acensor up to the top. Acensores are essentially rickety little boxes that follow a track up the cerro at a 45 degree angle. When we got to the top we did a lot of walking saw some neat places and amazing views. Cerros Concepción and Alegre form an area that was extremely important in the designation of Valparaíso as a UNESCO World Heritage sight in 2003. Interestingly though one of the reasons is took the city so long to get that designation was the presence of stray dogs. They are everywhere! They are all mutts and pretty much just roam of the streets, when walking you always have to look down so you do not step in caca dog crap. Finally it was decided that the dogs were not a “problem” and Valpo received the designation.

After the walking tour we all got on our respective Micros and headed back to Viña. Now I’m sitting here watching the Copa America (soccer) and writing this (for the second time). Photos coming soon, maybe a few on this page and more on a picture hosting site. FIN

Our long lost luggage arrived this evening, and with it my computer cord, hoody and razor (the three things I wanted most out of that bag)! There is so much to say about these first two days, I will try and condense it all into one little reader's digest version.

I managed to sleep for about 5hrs on the plane, with the help of earplugs, eye mask from delta, and a little bit of medicine. In the morning before we landed we had a little continental breakfast. A croissant, two cups of coffee (yes I drank coffee) and I was ready to go. I had a window seat on the port side of the plane which turned out to be the best seat in the house, or plane. It was the best because I had a perfect view of the sunrise over la cordillera de los Andes (the Andean mountain range) The horizon was such a bright orange that it looked like it was on fire. It was without a doubt the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen and a great welcome to Chile!

It's been cloudy the last two days here, and did I mention cold!? The worst thing about it being cold here is that the houses do not have heat. Some have little portable heaters, we have one but it doesn't throw out much heat. Oh well, I'm sure I'll live.

My "mom's" name is Ruth, I don't know her husband's name I think he works a lot and I've only seen him a few times. They have two son's Mercelo and Alvaro. Mercelo is 23 and Alvaro is 26 or 27. Both of them live at home but Alvaro works and Mercelo is in college, and has final exam's right now. I've gotten to hang out with him some though and his polola (chilean for girlfriend) Triny.

Mercelo and Alvaro speak English fairly well (I think) but they almost almost always speak with me in Spanish because Ruth said I'm here to learn Spanish! It's difficult to understand though because they speak quickly and with a very different accent. Valerie said learning Spanish in Chile is like learning English in Brooklyn!

There is another guy from our group, Brent, who lives in the house across from mine. This afternoon his "mom," Rosa took him and me up to a town called Reñaca (Rey-nyah-ka). We walked around the beach there and then she dropped us at the mall in Viña. We really just walked around a couple of times and then walked home, stopping at the beach in Viña and going out on the pier (muelle) (Side note, for my family and the other non Spanish speakers... double LL's in Spanish are pronounced like a Y in this case mway-yay. Also N's with a ˜ over them are pronounced like an nyah in the case of Viña (Vee-nyah) with an a after the ñ or año (Ah-nyo) with an o. Those are some of the more important rules because for example if you say "tengo 21 años" (I am 21 years old) and pronounce año like ano you are saying I have 21 buttholes... to put it nicely.)

That's all for now, so much for the short version. Oh yeah the food is wonderful, some stuff I haven't seen before and some I've never tried (guacamole for one ... I like it a lot! we had it on hotdogs with tomatoes tonight) If I would have come here when I was younger I probably would have starved, but now I'm loving the opportunity to try new things.