Fin de Semana in La Serena, day 1

This weekend Annie, Tyesha, another classmate - Jacqui - and I went to La Serena, a city that is about 475 km north of Santiago.  We took an overnight bus Friday night, leaving around 11:30 (after washing faces, brushing teeth, and putting on PJs, of course):

After a (relatively) comfortable bus ride, we got to La Serena around 5:30am.  Our hostel was awesome and let us go to sleep for a few hours in the room that we were taking Saturday night.  They also arranged our tours for the day: to the Elqui Valley (home of Pisco, Chile's brandy) and the observatory Mamalluca. 

In the morning (as opposed to the hours around dawn!) we re-awoke and hopped onto a tour to the Elqui Valley.  Having booked it through our hostel at 6 in the morning, we had no clue what we were in store for, but it turned out to be awesome!  The drive East from La Serena into the Valley demonstrated once again how gorgeous the Chilean countryside is.

The region is well-known for its agriculture because of the great climate and mineral-rich soil in the region.  In fact, the area typically yields 3 harvests a year, which our tour guide insinuated was really good and sounds pretty impressive to me.  They grow lots of strawberries, avocados, lettuce, spinach, artichokes and GRAPES... table grapes, wine grapes and pisco grapes.  All of the produce I've had while here - especially the strawberries - here have been ridiculously good so this region is doing something right. According to Annie, the produce goddess, Chile's grapes are the best and are one of the reasons we ended up coming to Santiago to study.  The only problem: Chile's table grapes are solely for export! Annie was relegated to staring at the grapes from our car:

Needless to say, Grapes are an incredibly important export for Chile.  We learned how to tell the difference between vines for the various types of grapes, and also learned how the farmers manipulate the sugar content for various markets (Germans like their grapes less sweet than other markets) by using light shields, like the white one seen below which will reflect light, as opposed to a dark net which will concentrate light (and therefore sugar) in the grapes.

These nets are shielding the delicate crops from the strong valley wind:

On the tour we also went to:

• The Puclaro Dam, which had this really cool art installation (the horns of this Toro were also a harp, being played by the wind):

• The city of Vicuna, birthplace of Chilean poet Gabriella Mistral.  As the first Latin American, and only Latina, to win the Nobel Prize, she's quite a hero and her likeness is everywhere.  For example, in the town fountain (creepy? yes.):

• The town of Pisco, re-named by a former Chilean President so that Chile would also have a claim on Pisco (there is a rivalry over this brandy between Peru and Chile).  The town is adorable and we went to a gorgeous place to have some pisco in Pisco.  It had tons of old world charm (but new world amenities!), just look at this picture:
  

• Lunch at a typical Chilean place, where they use Hornos del Sol (solar ovens):
  

• A Pisco distillery:

• And plenty of places to take in spectacular views of the valley
  

That evening we went out to the Mamalluca observatory.  For a New Yorker, seeing the stars is a real treat, and the Elqui Valley boasts some of the clearest night skies in the world, so there are a bunch of scientific observatories dedicated to astromony.  There are also a few dedicated to tourists, and Mamalluca is the most famous of these.  We saw Jupiter so clearly through their telescope that we could see its rings, and its two planets (did you know that Jupiter is 300x the mass of the Earth?!).  I finally got to see the Southern Cross and even neighboring galaxies (the Magellanic Clouds) with my bare eyes!  Seeing the constellations, so many stars (new blue ones and old, almost-dying red ones) was awe-inspiring... I even teared up, dear Readers, thinking about our Creator and what else might be out there.  When you get the chance to do this, you should.
Our tour guide was an adorable and petite Chilean woman with a cute, high voice that was especially hysterical while she was showing us digital representations of the sun dying in a few millions years: "it is not fun to see how we will die, but that's it.  Here goes Mars... there goes Earth... oh, we died again."  It may not sound so funny, but it was.  Here are the pictures of Jupiter:

Stay tuned to hear all about Sunday in La Serena!

Tourist in the City

This week I did a few very touristy things (like take a picture with two thumbs up... in my neighborhood):

Sunday Annie and I went to the Mercado Central and Cerro San Cristobal.  I really can't tell you much of the history of the Mercado, but basically it is a pretty old structure that was prefabricated in England and then brought to Santiago. It houses lots of independent fish mongers and some fruit and vegetable stands. You can find any type of fish or seafood you might want - even barnacles, which apparently they eat in Chile. As you walk by, the shop owners call out to try to encourage you to buy from them so it was a great way to practice Spanish ("no, gracias" especially).
There are a bunch of smaller restaurants in the Mercado and one really large one in the center where we ate lunch. The calamari was some of the best I've ever had - really tender - and the prawns were large and sweet. Delish!

To work off lunch we hiked up Cerro San Cristobal to the highest point in the city where there is a statue of the Virgin Mary which France gave to the city early in the last century. (On a side note, what's with France giving away tall monuments?) The view of the city, even on a particularly smoggy and overcast day, was still magnificent. Here are some pictures:

Like a Virgin:

Looking over Santiago:

Jesus' head on a rock:

After exploring the amphitheater and doing some people-watching we had Mote Con Huesillo's - a typical Chilean drink/dessert - from a stand which my teacher recommended as the best in the country. As you can see from the sign, it's a drink made by re-hydrating dried peaches and then pouring the fruit tea over a whole grain (similar to wheat or barley) called Mote. It's served cold and was really refreshing. Yum!

Tuesday morning I went with 3 new classmates to the Pre-Colombian Museum, where there is an amazing collection of indigenous art from all over Latinamerica. My favorites were the intricate gold pieces (first made in wax, then covered with clay and baked so the wax melted and you were left with a mold)

and the wooden Chemamull (large statues used during Mapuche burial ceremonies).

And this "Joven mujer" from Cultura Veracruz (300 - 900 ACE) whose "deformed cranium and carved teeth are unmistakable signs of her noble lineage."

Also, this little guy:

The next part of the day was a big highlight of my time in Santiago: having a full (almost) conversation with my Taxi driver in Spanish. Chileans know when someone is speaking Chilean Spanish or not, and since I pronounce most syllables, don't drop s' or end my words in "stai" it's obvious I'm not from here (I swear those are the only things giving me away). Once he asked me where I'm from and why I'm in Chile we got into a great discussion about his children (one of whom works on a cruise line and is touring the world) and how dangerous it is to move to a country without speaking the language, which he felt particularly strongly about. He even corrected my grammar, encouraged my studies and refused a tip - what a good teacher!

Tuesday and Wednesday nights we went out to higher-end restaurants that our guide book had recommended, but it felt authentic because one of our housemates, Emmett, arranged dinner parties with his Chilean, Peruvian and Brazillian friends. Of course, they had all gone to business schools in the US and were working in finance or consulting, but it certainly felt authentic! Anyway, Japon (the best sushi in the city, supposedly) and Astrid y Gaston (awesome Peruvian food) were delicious and our dinners companions were charming. Here is a picture of Emmett with "Squishy" a kitten we found on our way home:

The week ended with a nice dinner at home with the Casa Loca family to celebrate Lily, Emmett and Josh's departures. They're all off traveling now - and I can hardly believe I have just one more week in Santiago!

Enough about commercialized holidays and on to what might be the highlight of my 8 wks away:

(Ok, Miss Gillian, here is your shout-out and also a warning: this post is a bit loquacious, as you say.  But I think even skimming it you'll catch the highlights!)

This past Saturday the school went horseback riding through the Andes. We drove about 90 minutes outside of the city, to this farm that can only be described as deliverance-style creepy: goat heads tacked to the front of an about-to-crumble structure, a skinned horse hide thrown over the rails of the horse pen, dogs with 3 1/2 legs chewing on recently-amputated goat limbs.  Quickly (and in Spanish) we were put onto horses and - for those of us who hadn't been riding since we we last went to the Rocking Horse Dude Ranch - taught how to ride.  Soon we were climbing single file along a trail that clung to the side of the mountain.  I won't lie, at first I was so scared that I considered staying with the dogs chewing on goat legs, but they had joined our pack up the mountain so I had to stay on my horse, who I named Esmerelda.  And yes, the black lab with 3 1/2 legs climbed all the way up on his own, what an inspiring dog.

In addition to the 3 dogs that came along to guide us on the trail, we had 4 or 5 Huaso (cowboy) guides who communicated with the horses in a fantastic mix of Spanish, Mapuche and horse-whispering. The views were absolutely spectacular and Esmerelda (potentially the oldest mare in central Chile) knew the trail so well that before long I was calm enough to enjoy them.  Honestly, words can't really do justice to the exhilaration of being high over the world, looking at the terrain from atop the most perfect guide.  All I can say is that it was utterly breathtaking, and if you ever find yourself able to do something similar you should.

Some pictures to sway you (although for the best parts, I was either too distracted or too scared to pull out my camera!):

Ascending up the mountain

From atop my fine steed:

Lily and Patricia, atop the mountain:

 

View from the trail:

These dogs walked up the entire way with us:

Annie returns to the homestead:

Esmerelda, my equine heroine (as you can tell from the massive amts of gray hair, she is getting on in years...):

After riding, I played with the baby goats:

More pics will are on their way. (Pictures of me actually riding are on other pple's cameras. Apparently there is a really amazing one of me looking completely freaked out when we first started riding and also one of a baby goat licking my face). Be on the lookout!

Noche de Brujas

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but when I came to Chile I thought I would have to miss out on celebrating it in 2009. What I didn't realize is that international candy companies have far-reaching hands, and have exported - like so many other strange things - the holiday to this country.  But here, they do the whole Halloween thing as bizarrely as some of their "western foods" (hot dog with mayo, anyone?) - kids don't really trick-or-treat and the point for many adults is to look as scary as possible (yeah, that whole truism from Mean Girls only kinda exists here).  But, the school did have a party, and we were able to scrounge up some costumes from the super market (although the concept of a fallen angel fell a bit flat - people kept asking me if I was an evil butterfly!) Some pics from the festivities:

Las Diablas:


American Prince(ss) and Scottish Cowboy:


The ladies of La Casa Loca:


Annie trying on Tyesha's 5'' heels!