EZ Sniper

EZ Sniper – auction sniper

 

Valdivia and Life back in Santiago

Hello fellow aventureros,

After splitting off from Camila’s family, we headed towards Valdivia to start our own adventures.  However, since we were traveling and arriving in Valdivia on New Year’s Day everything was shut down and dead in the city.  Normally, Valdivia is a lively town with a health student population and offers great markets and city life down by the river front.  Also, the night life was said to be something to come for as well since they have lots of bars and clubs that are geared towards young people.  The second day was a Sunday and offered up little to do either inside of the actual city limits.  Instead, Camila and I headed outside of the city to go to a “Fería Costumbrista” which is a traditional kind of festival in a town called Niebla.  It was great fun since both Cami and I were clearly in a different world than the modern Chile that we both know so well in Santiago.  We were the tallest and whitest people in the festival and we enjoyed lunch and beer there.  I also took a photo with two people that were cooking empanadas; Cami and I were joking that I could tell people that they were her parents.  It’s easy to tell where Cami got her good looks.

The next day we went to the university gardens that were in Valdivia just across the river which was a great time.  After spending Monday morning in Valdivia we decided to come back to Santiago direct; we were considering going to Pichilemu but since I still had a wicked ingrown toenail we thought it better not to test it.  Late that night when we finally arrived in Santiago after 10 hours of driving, we decided to stop by my former abroad house, “La Casona” to see who was home.  There was a British guy staying in my room and he was the only one still up, so we made plans to meet up later.  A few days later on Wednesday we came back since he had said that the house would be full of people ‘pasándolo bien’ although when we arrived with a liter of beer in hand there was basically no one around except for a friendly Chileno and an amiable Frenchwoman.  We talked for a bit and did a tour of the old house to find that basically everything was the same as I had left it a year and a half ago, which was nice.

The next day started our time alone as a ‘real couple’ in Santiago with a house, a car, Jacuzzi and bedroom all to ourselves.  We had about 10 days in Santiago to enjoy time with Cami’s friends as well as enjoy time recorriendo la ciudad y viendo los sitios. I won’t explain day by day everything that we did, but some of the highlights were going to Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucia, touring the Católica Law School and Casa Central, seeing the new Gabriela Mistral cultural building, going on a vineyard tour and making our own wine blends at an all-organic, carbon-neutral winery an hour outside of the city, visiting Camila’s cousin up in the hills of Santiago and swimming at their pool with quite a view of the city below, eating pizza at Tiramisu (rated #4 in all the restaurants in Santiago on TripAdvisor), eating late night Chinese food, hanging out at the pool at Camila’s house, meeting with engineers from three different companies, meeting with two engineering professors and going to La Piojera.

Hope you enjoy all the photos,

I’ll be writing up the next bit about our trip north next!

Un abrazo a todos,

Ian

 

Trip to Temuco, Villa la Angostura. New Year!

After Christmas we went down south and visited Temuco, and Villa La Angostura in Argentina with Camila’s family.  We left on the 26th in the afternoon from Cami’s house in La Reina to head south in two cars: Cami and I in the red bullet, and the rest of the family in the SUV.  As we packed our things, Camila’s dad was so enthusiastic that he was running around the house pretending to be a “choo choo” train – all of our spirits were high.  It took about 6 hours to get to Temuco which actually seemed short since Camila and I got to be on our own in the car and decide our own schedule.  Some of the funny street and place names that we saw along the way were “Tinguiririca”(just fun to say) “Al Río” (to the river), “Peor es Nada” (This is better than having nothing!), Roma (Rome), Polonia (Poland) and Charquicán (a typical Chilean food).  I also took a picture with one of the guys that fills up your gas tank for you since I think it’s a funny contrast to the US.  Normally I think of us as being the laziest in all aspects of life, but not getting out of your car to fill up your tank is another level I think; although it creates a steady stream of jobs so I guess it has its upsides.

In Temuco we visited Camila’s uncle Ernesto and his family for a relaxed and fun dinner.  It was in a country house a little bit outside of the city on a hill with a great view of the low lying plains as the sun went down.  We played soccer outside and Camila attempted a brave header which amounted to her hitting the ball with her face.  Good fun and laughs for all (except Cami and her glasses).  We ate quiche of a few different varieties which were all very good, along with wine and Christmas cookies.  After dinner we hung out with their three kids Paloma, Nachito and Martín; played with an iPad and looked at Jupiter through a telescope that they had set up in the living room.  The grandparents Fernando and Angelita were also there and were charming.

We stayed at a really nice hostel called Hostal Porvenir (Future Hostel) which I thought was a bit funny since we were there with three couples, two of them young.  Julia and Andrés and Camila and I were the young and growing couples staying with the experienced parents in a hostel that is all about the future.  These thoughts ran through my head as I nodded off to sleep beside Camila.  Breakfast was tasty and adequate; everyone in the family seemed to get a kick out of the Lazy Susan that was at the center of the table since they had never heard of that name before.  I also learned that there is a tool, like a wire cutter, that is called a “Napoleon” here and that if you walked into a hardware store asking for a Napoleon they would know exactly what you’re looking for.  What a quirky place Chile can be.

That next day we drove our way south and then east through the pass in the Andes that leads towards Bariloche, Argentina.  Our destination lay slightly before Bariloche in a valley – the small touristy village of Villa La Angostura.  The route to our lake side cabins was a long and windy one which had us asking for directions nearly every block as we inched our way towards our final point of arrival.  The wiggly roads were well worth the trouble since the cabins were absolutely gorgeous, made of mostly wood with a style reminiscent of northern Minnesota log cabins.  The views out onto the lake were beyond belief and made for a great ambiance at all times of the day.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with an asado (bar-b-que) out in the back yard of the cabin near the lake.  It was a delicious and lengthy event lasting until about one in the morning with plenty of wine (a Spanish bottle called “Sangre de Toro” which was delectable despite the crude name).  The day times were mostly spent relaxing or doing shopping in Villa La Angostura; the restaurants were tasty and cheap: Cami and I went to the nicest looking Italian place we could find and I ordered the most expensive steak on the menu; price: $15.  Can’t complain about that, especially since it was two steaks that arrived on my plate along side an entire liter of Stella Artois.

After feeling mildly buzzed from the steak and beer we decided that it was time for me to get an Argentinian haircut, which some Chileans travel all the way across the border to have.  Photos are to come later since we used a different camera in the salon, but it was a hilarious and inefficient experience.  Camila laughed as the barbers talked to customers coming in, chatting to their spouses and kids who came to visit and watched the news about gas prices – all of this while I sat with a wet head waiting to get my trim.  This was anything but American efficiency and my gringo insides squirming with impatience.  Camila assured me that this was all part of the process and that it was nothing personal.  However, after five minutes of waiting (what felt like fifteen) I decided to put my American foot down and ask for service.  With a grin and a spring in his step, the barber finally began snipping away at my unruly bush of hair.  Afterwards I was more clean cut and had a better appreciation for the Argentinean model of customer service.  It wasn’t all bad, though, as we got to sip on maté and took photos with the hairdressers afterwards.

In the center while in a grocery store we experienced two brief power outages which reminded me yet again that I was outside of the overly industrialized and hyper-connected US.

A bit of adventure followed as we took a day to explore the Argentinean forests surrounding the village.  We went by boat out to the end of a peninsula to check out a forest called Bosque de los Arrayanes which was overrated in Alfonso’s opinion.  Those are the photos with the tall, light brown trees and the terraced walkway.  Afterwards we headed back to the village on bicycle via a relatively arduous path that was designed much more for walking rather than biking.  About 10% of the way on the 12 km trail, we had a major bike malfunction and Andrés had to carry his now useless metal companion the remaining 10 km.  Along with this and Camila’s mild heart condition, the trip was slow going but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The next chapter of our adventure was Valdivia when Camila and I split off from the main pack and headed northwest to Valdivia which will be in the next entry.

Cheers to all and a big abrazo from Chile,

Ian

 

Back to the Southern Hemisphere!

So for the winter vacation I’ve escaped the frozen northern hemisphere to arrive at a more enchanting and comfortable zone of Chile and Argentina.  Before making my way back to St Paul for my flight on Thursday morning of the 23rd, I had to first finish up my overly-hectic end of semester, which included too many formal presentations and few final exams and a final paper in my Spanish literature class.  I had my last final at 7:45AM on Tuesday for Wind Energy Site Design and Construction and celebrated with an extremely unhealthy brunch of 4 eggs over easy, 8 pieces of bacon and an ice-cold IPA.

After four hours or so in Mad-Bus I was bewildered and home; I got to spend a little more than 36 hours total at home with Bart, Bonnie, Charlie, Tucker, Ali and Kai, as well as the family, before heading out in the morning for my flight at around 5:30AM.  The first leg of the trip from St Paul to Miami was very easy, although I didn’t get any sleep of any substantial measure since I had my earbuds in my bag in the overhead compartment and couldn’t block out any noise; I also didn’t have a pillow which didn’t help the situation.  This sleepless flight combined with two and half hours of ‘sleep’ the night before after going to the Muddy Pig for drinks had set me up for a long day.  I got into Miami at noon and didn’t have a flight until 9:55PM..which was bad, but even worse, the flight was delayed by nearly three hours so I spent 12 hours in the airport.  I bought the airport wi-fi for the first time in my life so I could video chat with Camila and Eddy whenever they were available.  The little sleep I got was on the floor near an entrance way to the street that had two outlets that I could use to charge my phone and computer while I napped.  The best I could muster up was an hour of sleep at a time with all of the noise of the airport (ridiculously annoying holiday jazz music and announcements at five-minute intervals) although one good thing was the $20 meal voucher which bought me way more over-priced pizza than one person should eat in a sitting.  Eventually I got on the plane and was headed to Chile on flight 503.

After 9 hours or so, I woke up in the plane and saw that the giant cartoon plane the size of Florida that was on the map was quickly approaching Santiago.  This is the first time that any emotion resembling nervousness entered into my heart.  I was seated next to a Spanish man aged 38 that also had a Chilean girlfriend that he was going to visit for the first time; they had been together for four years in Barcelona.  I felt like I was part of a small  but distinctive club (maybe not so small since Chilean women seem to love extranjeros) of foreigner boyfriends coming to visit their pololas.

After sweating my way through customs with two laptops without issue, an obvious infraction that is definitely punishable by fine, and dripping as I waited for my gray companion at the baggage claim carousel.  At this point everything was surreal and even though I had already gone through the same airport and process before, everything seemed completely new to me.  The only thing that was familiar and certain was the Chilean Spanish littered with “Po’s,” “Huevon’s” and other gems like “lata,” “raja” and “wea.”  Waiting for me at the gate was my one and only prize: Camila.  She had been waiting for me for more than an hour anxiously looking at each person that came out of the gate that vaguely represented a six-foot tall gringo.  She approached me like a crazed pop-fan crossing the rope with an agility that I’ve never seen before out of her.  We did a funny dance consisting of many hugs and kisses and very few steps forward towards the car park.  Distracted in a moment of passion and joy, I put a book with my passport on top of her little red car while we got familiar with each other’s lips.  As things progressed, we realized that we had three onlookers parked in a truck directly facing ours just a couple feet away: three guys all watching our aberrant making out session: they honked their horn as we started to push the limits of PDA.  We took note of their kind gesture and departed.  Of course, I didn’t realize that those two little items were still on top of the car when we drove away, nor did we hear the yells of the parking attendant as he saw the passport fall to the ground.  After we drove about half of the forty minute drive back to her house, Camila and I both realized that I didn’t have my passport after being on the ground for a mere hour.  We turned back as soon as we could, which wasn’t that soon since we were on an expressway that cuts across the city, to head back to the airport, worried that this trip might already be tainted with the misfortune of a lost passport.  Luckily, when we arrived at the parking lot, they had my passport more or less waiting there for me.  One of the guys had brought it across the property in his truck so we waited for a bit while he brought it back.  A combination of relief, ecstasy and disbelief we drove back together to Camila’s house in the “Red bullet,” the name donned unto the car by myself.

It was Christmas Eve day and also the day of my arrival  We ate a lunch of porotos granados and chirimoya alegre, which is a tasty tropical fruit doused in orange juice with Camila’s dad, Alfonso, and the other international guest in the house Julia, a 20 year old Austrian that is the girlfriend of Andres (Cami’s brother.)  I found myself in the  middle of a loving family in the most beautiful of weather possible with sunshine and 80 degrees, and the girl of my dreams by my side: complaining was not an option anymore, things were just too good.  My friend Anca, who moved down to Chile with her Latin lover Javier came and visited us – I passed off the contraband brand new laptop that I had brought down for him and we made plans to meet again after Cami and I got back from vacation to the South of Chile and Argentina.

One small complaint that I found was that the peanut brittle I was carrying in my suitcase had opened up and put a candy coating on about half of my clothes.  Cami and I went to work on that little problem while I came to terms with the fact that I was really in Chile with my love.

Camila and I tried our best to rest for a  while before the Christmas guests arrived at around 9PM for the start of the celebration.  The guests for the night were twenty plus members of Camila’s family including her mom’s four sisters and one brother, as well as two grandmothers (Omi and Sisty) and seven cousins all younger than Camila.  The food was amazing and plentiful, with many moms cooking like there was no tomorrow: there was multiple large dishes of lasagna, two large paellas filled with seafood, and three entire cakes to eat for our familial group.  Christmas started around 9PM and went until around 4AM, with much of the time spent out in the summer breeze on the patio and people dressed in short dresses, polo shirts and shorts.  Just slightly different than the holidays in Minnesota.  I actually had three Christmases this year: one at home with family and friends where I was the only one opening presents, one with Camila’s extended family where we watched the “little guys” open presents then fall asleep around 3AM then a third Christmas where just Camila’s close family and Julia and myself opened present in their parents’ bedroom.    The next day we also did a video call with my family and Camila’s family to show off gifts and talk about Christmas and how crazy the celebration is here compared to back home.

I gave Camila’s family peanut brittle, chocolates, a Word a Day book, tiramisu, mix for Olive Oil rosemary bread, a Bob Marley remixed CD and “Earth,” the Jon Stewart book, for her brother, chocolates for the family, a framed photo of Camila and I, a pearl and diamond necklace for Cami, “Eating Animals” the book for Cami and some socks also for Cami.  For some reason on the plane I was still thinking that I wasn’t bringing enough gifts but now that I write them all out it looks like it was plenty.

From Cami and her family I got an I Heart Chile mug, Norweisser Chocolates (the best in Chile apparently), a hat that I won’t be wearing any time soon, “How to Survive the Chilean Jungle: 2″ which is all about Chilean slang and really hard to find in the US, as well as, of course, more chocolates, a mosaic of Camila’s trip to MN as well as a gift from her parents of a private wine tour where we get to make our own wine.  Here’s the link to the vineyard’s website; we’re going late next week in the morning, and it should be really fun.

I’ll be writing more on the last 5 days or so when I get a chance.

Un abrazo to all of you reading this,

Ian

 

Perú is the past – Argentina is the future… Chile is my present.

Hey there guys and gals,

I have no idea if anyone still reads this blog, but you know what, I’m going to write nonetheless.

I’m in the dry town of Arica up here at the top of the country of Chile. We explored the harbour today and fed the pelicans and sea lions that were hanging out by the dock. The sea lions are unbelievably fat and pelicans are really weird looking up close, but they both love fish, so it was pretty fun. We saw the Chilean Navy marching along side the United States Navy here in the port today, and I heard my national anthem played by the Chilean military band. I felt very patriotic about the whole thing.

It feels great to be back in Chile and away from the possibility of getting rocks thrown at us as we drive past burning tires, like what happened twice by Ica in Perú. We made it out of Perú without a scratch, and I already miss some parts of the Peruvian life, one of them being the insanely cheap food and lunches that were available (you can get an enormous lunch for $2 just about anywhere in the country.)  We celebrated our arrival with a very Chilean dinner of super big sandwiches and enormous completos followed up by some Escudo. Tasty.

The end of this trip and my time in South America is bitersweet in many ways. We said goodbye to our good friend from our university and travel buddy David as his trip ended today; he’s headed back to Santiago today. I am excited for the next leg of the trip, but at the same time am sad that our vacation has to end so quickly.   I am looking forward to my last couple days in Santiago and seing a few special people there before I leave, but that just means that I have to say even more goodbye’s, some of them forever.  Bitterweet.

It sounds like Salta and northwest Argentina is going to be awesome. Good wine and meat.  There are vineyards, national parks and historic buildings to check out.  I’m not going to be particularly happy to have to put up with the “sha, sha, she, she” Spanish of the Argentinians, but I’ll do my best not to laugh in their faces as they shush their way all over the place. 

Cheers from down here in the southern hemisphere, guys.  I’ll be back before you know it.  I’ve got quite the to do list set out for when I get back home.  Number one on the list is go to Chipotle, so whoever picks me up from the airport is going there with me ASAP.  I’ve got about 20 other things that I want to do when I get back.  One of them is to volunteer at a place where I can use my Spanish so I don’t lose it right away.  Mom, can you organize something through Neighborhood house for me?

Saludos amigos,

Ian J

 

A Small Update from Perú

Hey there guys,

So I am writing to you from a noisy internet cafè in Nazca, Perú where we are trying to change our travel plans around with limited success. We have successfully scaled the heights of Machu Picchu and seen the historic churches and museums of Cusco, which were the main goals of our trip, so I am happy with that. Our original plans had us going through Lima over to the Cordillera Blanca to do a 4 day trek through beautiful snow capped mountains, 23 of which are over 16,000 feet in altitude. However, the worker strikes here have made travel quite difficult to organize safely and consistently, so we are going to head out of the country and explore northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.

There are a number of national parks with varied wildlife as well as an elegant city called Salta in Argentina that sound worth the effort. We were able to change the city that we embark onto our flight, so our travel plans work out a bit more smoothly.

We’ve had quite the interesting time these last couple of days and I think we´ll all be relieved to get out of the country and back into our South American homeland of Chile. I’ll be updating my blog with pictures when I get back into Santiago. I’ve gotten gifts for a good number of you guys while here in Perú, although packing them all up will be a challenge. Is anyone interested in South American alcohol, like some wine or pisco? Let me know and I can pick you up a bottle.

Cheers from Perú,

Ian J

 

Concha y Toro, Last Weeks of School and Crummy Weather

Hey there guys,

So, my good friend Eddy recently finished his trip to Ireland and also finished his blog after nine months of keeping at it more diligently than I expected them to when first convincing him to start writing down his thoughts. So now, there is one less of my friends doing international blogging although a former coworker of mine is still writing about her experiences in the Swiss Alps.

 

It has been a little while since I’ve last written here, although it has not been for lack of free time. I’ve been enjoying my weekends with friends and parties in the house, as well as going out this past Friday for a birthday party and clubbing afterwards that turned out to be a great night. I think I will be having a repeat of this sort of night this upcoming Friday when I have a joint birthday party with my good friend Anya. We’ve rented out a pretty classy portion of a bar called Cienfuegos, and afterwards will be rocking the house next door at bar Constitución until the wee hours of the morning.

At a friend Jennifer’s birthday party, one week before my party. So many parties!

 

This past weekend I had the joy of doing a wine tour with our group from school, a group of about 15 kids. The vineyard is an exquisite and surprisingly technological place that has a rich history of more than 120 years of winemaking. They are the largest vineyard in Chile and are named Concha y Toro.  Although the grounds and buildings are breathtaking, it is winter and thus the grapevines were empty, and bare. We did get to sample wine, obviously, but only of two varieties which was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. Although the second wine that we did try was the best wine that they make, and was positively delicious. As a group we bought a couple of bottles of wine and planned on enjoying them on the terrace right outside of the vineyard’s gift shop, but were stunned to find out that the vineyard does not have an alcohol license, and therefore could not open our bottles of wine and let us drink them on the premises. So, we ended up at a friend’s sushi restaurant where we enjoyed wine and sushi together, a wonderful combination.

 

 

 

 

At Concha y Toro – Group shot after the tour

 

I also went this past weekend to the Museo de Arte Pre-Colombiano in downtown Santiago, which is supposedly the best museum in the country for this sort of thing.  It was well laid out and classy and I must say that I learned a lot. One of the funniest things that I learned about was the ancient tradition of taking hallucinogenic substances. The brave natives searching for an out of body experience were first required to purge their stomachs using a sort of vomiting spatula to purify their digestive systems before taking the drugs. After that, they would strap themselves to a chair as to eliminate any possibility of movement during the experience. There were a couple drawings that depicted purging and throwing up that were a little bit over the top.  We also checked out the cathedral, too.  Around the Plaza de Armas, where we were walking around, I noticed a number of suspicious looking men that I had pegged as pickpockets for their extremely darty eyes and aimless, repetitive walking patterns.  After having been pick pocketed once, I was not about to have it happen again, catchai?

 

Viña del Mar, a Mini Cooper and Hernan Cattaneo

So, it’s been a little more than a week since I last wrote to y’all, and although I have been staying in Santiago, I have not been wanton for adventure.  My life has recently been surprisingly shaped by a 1980 blue Mini Cooper, for a couple reasons.  First being that last weekend I took a little road trip out to Viña del Mar with my housemates.  It was myself, the three Frenchies (Ben, Xavier and Constant), the two Mexicanos (Alvaro and Eduardo) and another Frenchie (Macha).  I had the distinct pleasure of riding out there in the Mini Cooper, recently bought by Eduardo.  It really is a masterwork of a Mini Cooper, "Why buy the car of the year, when you can have the car of the century?"  That’s the praise that most Mini owners shower upon their little gems.  I must say that the old mini’s are almost ridiculously small, but they do manage to comfortably fit four people, which is commendable considering its dimensions. 

Note: The pictures without my watermark were taken by my friend Alvaro, you can check out his Flickr photos here.

The friends that we were visiting in Viña were mainly a French group, but with some Americans and Germans intermingled.  Their abode for the semester was far from humble, situated well off the ground floor of one of many luxury apartment buildings lining the coast of Viña del Mar.  The views offered up by the apartment are really unrivaled, as the sunsets over the ocean stir up many different emotions from inspiration to nostalgia depending on your mood.  We spent hours and hours drinking and being merry with about 30 other social minded people from around the globe until we went off in search of a dance club at about two in the morning.  We found a fairly classy place that gave us a group discount where we moved our bodies to a respectable variety of music including the ubiquitous reggaetón, as well as house music and some Latin American pop.

After the club we meandered through the blocks in a quest for drunken cuisine: we found what we were looking for beneath the golden arches of a neon McDonald’s ‘M’ where I would have a wonderful date with a Grande Big Mac combo meal.  Satisfied with their food, my annebriated French compadres felt like there was no time like the present to rustle up some trouble as a scuffle broke out between some Chileans and the French kind.  It was really pretty funny, even at the time, as drunken insults were dealt and received by both sides, as well as the occasional bitch slap or punch.  Since we were a group of about 15 people still by then, I was not the least bit worried and to be honest, I was still preoccupied with the tantalizing idea of getting a second Big Mac.  We finally went to bed at about 8:30 in the morning after some 7:00 am Jack Daniels.  If you haven’t found out already, the French love to party, and that’s one reason I have a great amount of gratitude towards my French friends.

This weekend also offered up a nice smorgasbord of friends, drinking, dancing and general "living it up" experiences.  On both Thursday and Friday night we had parties at our house, with the Friday night event getting the best turnout.  We probably had about 50 people over throughout the course of the night and I’m pretty sure that everyone had quite a good time.  We drank and danced until the early morning as we love to do, although after a fervent Mexican led sort of tap dancing, pop music fest put on by my housemates at 5:30am that marked the final climax of the party I was more than ready to hit the hay.

Last night being Saturday night, I adventurously headed out with my Mexican housemate Eduardo, a Chilean and a Brazillian to check out a late night electronic dance party that was a bit across town.  The main man of the night was Hernan Catanneo, an Argentinian DJ and producer who is a friend and collaborator with the infamous Paul Oakenfold (widely considered to be the ‘best DJ in the world.’)  Hernan put on a frenzy of a show that took place in a place called Espacio Riesco which turned out to be a surprisingly classy concert venue, complete with body-painted dancers, plasma screen drink menus, marble floored entry with chandeliers and ample security at the front door.  My buddy Eduardo brought along his ridiculous, silver Luche Libre wrestling mask, whose presence alone made our group about 100 friends.  At one point during the nonstop 5 hour dance fest, the mask was tossed up to Hernan to wear, but he was unable to because of the necessity of his DJ headphones.  Graciously, he threw it back to its rightful owner, so it could continue to draw curious looks and surprised smiles. 

 

 

The real adventure of the night actually came after the concert, when the Mini Cooper that we had driven in decided to break down about half a mile from the concert.  We found ourselves trying for more than an hour to do anything we could think of to get it to start, including putting in more gas, using jumper cables and pushing it up to a sprinting speed with the hopes of pumping life into the engine during ignition.  Alas, all of our efforts were for not, and by about 6:30am, we had to make a decision.  We decided not to leave the car alone low class neighborhood we were in (which would have happened had we taken a taxi) and instead opted to spend the night, the four of us, in the Mini Cooper.  Believe me, it is tough to get a good night’s sleep in the back seat of the smallest production car on the planet, but that’s what had to be done.

At about 10:30 the next morning a helpful man in a truck offered to tow us back to our place for 10,000 pesos; not a bad deal ($17).  Now, you must realize that I use the word "tow" lightly, considering that he pulled us behind his truck using a startlingly weak looking length of blue rope that was frayed in many different places.  He did manage to drag us the 20 minutes back home, though, so all my fretting over the dwindling fibers of the rope were for not. 

A couple side notes that I found out later about the neighborhood and street that we spent the night at: first is that the street is nicknamed "Asalto" or "Assault" because there are often robberies and assaults that take place along its stretches.  Also, in the morning after staggering our way out of the Mini, we saw a very small puppy in a funny pink doggy shirt, and naturally we started to pet it until its owner, a gruff looking 20 something year old guy came and took it inside of his house.  We were told later that he was actually a  known criminal.  So, I suppose we lucked out and made it out without a scratch from our mishap filled, one night stay on Asalto Street.

Well, I just thought I would update you guys on the adventures of life down here, and do not fear: I am alive and well.

 

Trip to Pablo Neruda’s “Isla Negra” and other goings ons…

So it’s been a good while since I’ve last written, although it has not been for a lack of source material.  My weekends have been full and interesting for the most part, and I have heard many an interesting story from my fellow abroaders.  I’ve met new people, grown my hair out even longer, begun a workout program and been inspired more than once.  I’ll do my best to get some things out of my head and onto your screens.

So my last post was a couple of weeks ago and was about Chiloé and my adventures there.  Since then, more than a couple of my friends have decided to make the same trip and I know of other still that are planning on making the voyage out to the enchanted archipelago.  I think that’s a great thing.  Moreover, I decided to do one of my final papers for my folklore class on the subject of Chilote Mythology.  So far, research has been quite easy, as a former student of La Catolica wrote a lengthy graduate thesis on the subject, and since we have full access to all of the thesis’ recently written, I can use that as one of my prime sources.  Another interesting source I found was an etymologic dictionary of Chilote words, which goes to show you how different Chiloé is than main land Chile, considering they’ve got their own language for all intents and purposes.

As far as traveling and adventuring outside of Santiago, there is not a wealth of things that I have to talk about, although we did have our last group trip out to one of Pablo Neruda’s houses.  Pablo Neruda ( 1904-1973) is a sort of national icon here in Chile; I consider him to be like a pop star of the Chilean poetic and literary spheres.  He is revered by many, although I do not think that most have read his poetry or heard it read.  However, my good friend listened to some older recordings of Pablo reading his poetry and he described it to me as one of the most dull and drab experiences of his life.  Apparently he puts so little emotion into his words that it hurts.  Regardless, he is a national hero and deserves respect for that; he was one of the first Chileans to win the Nobel Prize, which he did in 1971 if I’m not mistaken.  He was a well known communist and also supported the socialist Salvador Allende, whom I’ve decided is my favorite Chilean leader in modern history (I saw his memorial at the Cementerio General, and that’s where our tour guide broke into tears). 

Since I was not allowed to take any pictures inside of his house, I will describe it instead.  The house of Neruda’s that we went to (this is one of his three houses, all are well traveled by tourists) is known as Isla Negra and contrary to its name is not on an island.  In fact, it’s a wondrous house built by the seaside on the Pacific coast where a large number of black rocks rest on shore, hence lending to the “Black Island” naming.  Mr. Neruda was enamored by the sea and loved all things nautical although he was terrified of actually going out into the ocean, or any large bodies of water; go figure.  His house was filled with wondrous collections of all sorts of things: the large mast-head collection in his living room, a ridiculously cool sea-shell collection, African/Asian/North and South American mask collection as well as very cool beetle and butterfly collections.  The house also reflects the landscape: the portion of the house that faces the land is decorated with browns and dark greens while the side that faces the sea has blues of different hues and aqua marine colors.  Another interesting facet of the house’s design is the fact that the architectural dimensions align closely with those of an actual ship, so the door ways are about 12" – 15” wide and no more than 5’6” in heights, so it really feels like you’re on a ship as you walk from room to room.  Now a few pictures for your enjoyment:

Sign on a mural in front of the Pablo Neruda house “Isla Negra”

Me in front of the Pacific Ocean – notice Neruda’s personal sailboat that he never took out onto the open waters because of his fear of the ocean

The fish that is one of the trademark symbols of the Isla Negra house

 

This is a shot that shows just how awesome the clouds were that day.     One of the many beautiful flowers around the Pablo Neruda house and gardens.

The last picture that you see there was taken from inside of the restaurant that we ate in after seeing the house.  We had some really great seafood stew, which had an entire fish fillet in it; that was after we had a course of bread AND an empanada.  I can actually feel my mouth watering and my stomach growing hungrier as I write about it.  All in all a pretty good day, especially since we didn’t have to pay for any part of it (pre paid with the program).

So that was my Isla Negra day, I’ve got a new gallery up with all of the best pictures from the day on my PICASA WEB ALBUMS if you’d like to check it out.  If you guys want to I could easily make another video slide show in HD, if you thought that was a good way to check out the pictures.  I’ll be writing more pronto.

Chao. Ian J.

 

Salida a Terreno, Winter in Santiago and My First South American Cold

Hey there guys, I seem to be on a bit of a roll tonight, and despite a brief power outage caused by a blow fuse in the second floor of my house, I plan on being able to finish up two entries tonight, this being the second.  At the current moment I am being fueled by my delicious home made dinner of a whole chicken with baked potatoes, the power of Windows Live Writer, a couple glasses of wine, a cup of chai tea and some quite relaxing Asian meditation music.  I had a moment of great nostalgia and realization today on the metro as I came back from class listening to the newest Coldplay album “Viva la Vida;” my realization was that I have an astoundingly short time left here in Chile.  I felt a wave of desire to do all sorts of things and show everyone that is close to me as much love as possible.  I figure we really do not have any time to lose and there is no better day than today to become who you want to be.  With that, I begin.

So my last entry was originally intended to cover all of the topics mentioned in the title of this entry, but the entry became very large, very quickly and here we are.  So the previous week I went on a Salida a Terreno (Field Trip) with my Flora Nativa class out to the mountains to the east of Santiago.  The purpose was to walk around with our ayudantes (pretty much like a T.A. except they are often older) and identify plant species, taking photos and measuring the relative densities of the different plant species as we climbed up the mountain face.  The hypothesis was that as you go higher in the mountains, there should be less plants, and although this was generally true, I think we skewed the results a good deal based on which spots we chose to take measurements on.  I suppose it’s not all that scientific of a class but the engineering part of my personality didn’t feel right having mushy and subjective data.  I guess that’s just another example of the Chilean informality with most things academic.  This can also be seen in the fact that many people do not even bother showing up to class, and some of those that do come in up to an hour after the beginning of class.  I also have found that deadlines are very flexible: this week in my Folklore class, a girl asked a question vaguely involving the timing of our next paper’s due date and the professor nonchalantly gave us another whole week for the paper!  That would never happen in the U.S., at least it’s never happened to me, not without a fight and a lot of groaning from the whole class.

With no further ado, here are a few pictures from the Salida:

 Seeds of a small plant that stick to your clothes – Chile’s try at burrs.

One of the few flowers on the trip since it is fall going on winter here.

Close-up of a cactus with curved spines Nice close-up of some fiery red plants growing in between the rocks.

Big ant that a lot of people were frightened of for some reason.  I just thought it was a pretty awesome hormiga (ant).

Our “Facultad de Agronomia” bus that had definitely seen its fair share of road time over the years.  Gotta dig a giant blue school bus with that written on the side of it.

 

Well, this post has already gotten a bit lengthy, so I’ll start another one where I actually cover more recent events   The winter in Santiago and my first cold coming up next!

Chao. Ian J.