You should see the stars tonight..

(Song reference: Stars by David Crowder Band, I recommend)

For those of you who are not currently in Chile, Sunday night 90% of the country was fortunate enough to experience a complete power outage! Apparently it has nothing to do with the recent earthquakes and aftershocks but is rather linked to a problem with the transformer. Hmmm.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/14/widespread-power-blackout-hits-chile/

I was walking to a nearby café with Ellie around 8:30 pm and all of a sudden all the lights in the entire city (stoplights, houses, street lights, etc) just turned off. It was weird walking around one of the biggest cities in South America in complete darkness! We still made it to the café and had our much-anticipated ice cream by candlelight and after about 45 minutes with still no lights we decided we would just start walking back.

Although a little frightening, this blackout offered the best view of the stars that I have seen since I've been here and reminded me that all of my loved ones back home are seeing the same stars as me. In fact, the view was so incredible that I decided to write a special post simply dedicated to that.

Although I obviously did not take this picture, this is what the sky looked like!

idk, my bff Diego Rivero?

Of course not my best friend, but one of the closest friends to Nobel prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda. Today our Wisconsin-Michigan group took a trip to one of his three homes near Santiago called La Chascona. Chascona is a word that means "uncombed" and refers to a woman with tousled hair. Neruda built this home in honor of his third wife, Matilde Urribe, and as you can see in the painting depicted of her, she had quite the mess of locks. That painting was indeed painted by Diego Rivera as a gift for Neruda and as we walked throughout the house we were able to see many of the things that were gifted to him by other famous artists, authors, and government officials. Not really a big deal or anything.
The house was built in 1953 and was designed by the poet himself and as we toured through we were able to see his secret passageways, his beautiful collections of dishes and other odds and ends, as well as see into the mind of the extraordinary poet. The tour was given in Spanish and it felt great to actually understand everything that the guide said! Slowly but surely our comprehension is improving each day! Another neat aspect about this house is that it was designed to resemble a boat; there are the round windows that are found on ships, the overlook shown in the picture is designed as the bow of the ship and inside the house there are a lot of little details that relate to water, ships or the sea.

After the tour we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant called Como agua para chocolate, which is a nice restaurant in Barrio Bellavista. There were some great appetizers, delicious juices (pineapple, orange-banana) and the main entree and dessert were top-notch. One of the dishes they were offering today they brought out wrapped in tin foil and lit it on fire! It was pretty cool to see the waitress holding a flaming tray of fish and only minutes later be able to open it up and see the steam coming out. We left the restaurant all a little loopy from everything we just ate, but it was a great day spending time and laughing with the other students in our program.

Tomorrow is another wonderful Sunday and I will actually be here in Santiago! What a treat!

Here is a link to a video that I made recording our penguin adventures from Chiloé: enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwVSCjNGlP4

Until next time!

Earth quaking, dogs barking and hammers pounding.

These sounds and sensations are a good way to sum up my past week here in Santiago. The next door neighbors are adding something to their house, and the same three construction workers have been there early in the morning, hammering away (and the way the houses are set up it is actually right outside my bedroom and I can feel the pounding!) and blaring a nice mix of all types of music to get the day started off right. Nothing better than waking up to Chicago's famous "You're the Inspiration" and remember jamming out to that with the roommies last year.

The minute I leave the house and walk down the street all of the "cute" neighborhood dogs attack their respective gates and bark until I am out of sight. I think the one that I'm going to become best friends with is the Scotty dog that has a bark like a German Shepherd. I have yet to walk by that house on either side of the street and not be barked at. Luckily the ones that bark are inside the fences while the dogs in the street are basically harmless, just hungry and looking for friends.

And now apparently planet Earth is a little unhappy with Chile! Today there were three consecutive aftershocks but they all registered as greater than 6.0's, with the main one receiving a 7.2 and this leads me to believe that they could be labeled as earthquakes instead of just "temblores." I was actually in Santiago this time and during the main shock I was in the metro with Ellie and our new Scottish friend, Aidan, who we picked up along the way to show around campus. I had no idea of the shock until afterward when Ellie told me she felt it pretty strong but it just seemed like the normal metro ride, so I remained oblivious yet again. It was not until we got to San Joaquin, the campus where my classes are, when we saw Johanna and she informed us it was a 7.2 and was even felt in California! This led to the release of another tsunami warning but luckily this time I have no plans to travel to the Pacific coast and go hiking.

The irony of the situation is that we were actually on our way to go help out with FEUC (Federación de los estudiantes de la Universidad Católica), the student org on campus that was organizing, sorting, and packing the immense amounts of donations that they have received in the past week for los damnificados, or all of the people left without food and shelter. It is extremely impressive to see just what La Católica alone has collected in four days and I cannot even imagine how much throughout all of Chile has been collected. At almost every church, in all the metro stations, and in a lot of stores there are opportunities to donate nonperishable food items and items such as milk, flour, rice, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, diapers etc. It was a cool experience to be able to help with something like this for a while because although what I really want to do is go straight to the epicenter and clean up destroyed buildings, broken windows, etc, these tasks need to get done too! It was also a pretty easy way to talk to the other Chilean students that were there helping out and make some friends.

Another thing I have noticed is that every conversation revolves around the earthquake(s). "Where are you from? When did you arrive in Chile? Where were you during the earthquake?" These are the token first three questions that people ask you, sometimes even omitting the first one and jumping right to the topic of the quake. It is really great just being able to say that I was down in Chiloé without a care in the world. I am so lucky.


This week was also the first official week of classes and I am all signed up! It was not nearly as hard as I imagined and the two buildings where my classes are held are right next to each other in the prettiest part of campus, so needless to say I think this will be a fun semester. I am taking two political science classes, one about Asia and another about armed conflict, and one Spanish novel class in addition to our Español para extranjeros course. I think the novel class will be the hardest due to the fact that I can understand about 20% or less of what the professor is saying, but he seems really nice and if nothing else it will be great practice!

Overall this week was very productive and after trying out six different courses I found four that work for me. Also, I will only have class Tuesday-Thursday which is a definite plus. Everything is going almost a little too smoothly for me and I am beginning to wonder when something will actually go wrong. The biggest aftershock I have truly felt was today when I was eating lunch with Mama and all of a sudden the ground and table just started shaking. It is a pretty interesting experience and as long as they stay under 15 seconds and don't get much more intense than that, I'll be set.

Until next time, peace!

Better late than never!

Here is a video of the fish market that we went to a few weeks back when Steph, Laura and I went to Valdivia for a few days. For those of you who saw the article in the Sauk Prairie Eagle, this was where that picture was taken. And now if you could only smell the fresh fish! Mmmm!

Vino y Libertad!

Wine and liberty! I heard this phrase repeated multiple times last night at Mendoza's famous annual Festival de Vendimia, or rather, grape harvest festival. Mendoza, Argentina, also known as Wine Country, is famous for its multiple bodegas and exquisite wines. I was fortunate enough to try only a few of the wines, and although only $2.50/bottle, they could certainly put any other red wine to the test. A group of six Wisconsinites went for the weekend to celebrate the Vendimia because we had heard it was quite the production. The rumors were true! There were people everywhere, and the parade we went to on Friday night certainly was quite the production! It was certainly unlike any parade I have ever witnessed in Wisconsin, and there were people of all ages, from child to grandparent, going crazy over the grapes that were being thrown from the floats. The floats were all amazing, and they all had the same thing: beauty queens and grapes. Along with the annual festival of vendimia is an extreme beauty pageant, where wineries from all over the country come and bring their prettiest girls to compete and one will become La Reina (the Queen) of Vendimia. This year was especially important because Argentina is celebrating its bicentenario, or 200 years of independence from Europe, hence the common phrase, "vino y libertad."

I was startled when I first saw them throwing bunches of green and red grapes from the floats, and then pears, peaches and apples. But these became the norm until I saw a float with racks of meat and one of the guys toss pieces of rib-like meat out into the masses of people! Only minutes after that I witnessed Ellie getting pegged in the side with a huge muskmelon! It certainly is quite the event, and the people that are throwing the grapes, peaches, melons, etc are all beauty queens! The parade simply consists of float after float of these beautiful, young women and it is quite the sight to see them chucking melons at you.

The next night is the main show, where there is a theater-like production followed by the crowning of the queen. Unfortunately when we went to buy tickets they had just sold out, but we discovered that you can go watch it from the cerros, or the hills. So after spending the day walking through the park, getting lunch, and checking out the super cheap leather at the artisan market, we all came back and took much needed showers, went and bought some bread, cheese, fruit and wine for dinner, and toted it up to the cerro via taxi. The announcer was really loud, and we were sitting merely on a sheet to cover the gravel underneath, but thanks to the long day, heat, and a few glasses of vino, the six Americans were asleep before the crowning of the queen.

Unfortunately we were unable to see the stage from where we were sitting, so we did not feel like we were missing out on a whole lot. Although it certainly was cool to be a part of such an event!

The reason we had gotten such simple amenities for dinner last night was due to the fact that we each ate almost an entire animal for lunch. We went to a parrilla, or a restaurant-grill, and we shared two "Parrillas para dos" which included everything-from chicken to beef to liver to kidney... etc. There was just a little bit of everything on these grills, and I was a little overwhelmed when they brought out a separate table just for the parrilla. I was brave and tried a little bit of everything, and while some of it was good, most of it tasted and felt exactly as it should, due to what it was. For example, the kidney. It looked and had the exact texture of a kidney. I also gave the intestines a shot, and to get a better look at what they look like, here's a photo:
All in all, we had an interesting lunch and were all laughing afterward.

And now for a couple quick notes on Argentinian life from the little I observed, and some traits that make them different from our beloved Chileans:
1) A lot more European.
2) Slightly more "cultured" and better-dressed.
3) Stay out even later (6 or 7 in the morning)
4) Very cheap leather (there were genuine leather belts for $5 and less!)
5) H-O-T! Not only was Mendoza a lot warmer than Santiago, but it was also very humid. Something I haven't felt in a long time!
6) Alfajores are delicious. An Argentine cookie specialty!
7) Grocery stores are a lot fewer and far between and have a much poorer produce selection.
8) Drainage system (only in Mendoza) on the sides of all the streets. Misstep and fall 2 feet!
9) Most hostels have A/C. No indoor heating or cooling in Chile!
10) You can easily go to Argentina with less than $100 and have enough money to last you for 4 or 5 days if you spend wisely!

All in all it was a fun and exciting weekend in Mendoza, and I hope to go back soon and see what else Argentina has to offer! Here is a short video clip of part of the parade on Friday night to get a little taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ3srJPfBOs

Until next time!

Being "Trapped" in Southern Chile is not such a bad thing!

¡Hola a todos! Now that you know that I made it to and from place to place, and have safely landed back in Santiago, it is time to fill you in with details on our fun trip to Chiloé, despite the terremoto.

Beth, Johanna and myself decided to celebrate our last weekend before La Universidad Católica actually begins classes by going south while the weather is still nice. We took off Thursday after Spanish class for Puerto Montt, where we would then buy bus tickets to cross the Canal de Chacao by ferry and head straight to Castro, which is smack-dab in the middle of the island of Chiloé, just a ferry ride away from the mainland. After 14 hours on a bus we arrived early on Friday morning and got to Castro before noon. We were ble to walk around the city for about an hour and a half before our next bus to Cucao, where we would begin our hike in Parque Nacional de Chiloé. In Castro we were able to see the famous palafitos, which are colorful houses on stilts in the water, as well as one of Chiloé's famous painted churches, la Iglesia San Francisco.
Although the church, similarly to the palafitos, was in need of a paint job, it was still really neat to see the church entirely made of wood, and painted a salmon-y color with violet trim. I saw another church that was bright blue and yellow, pretty neat!

We then walked over to a decently sized artisan market where we were able to spend about 15 minutes until we had to run to catch our bus. We caught the bus with no problem, but this is where our adventure actually began. The views we caught of the lakes we were passing were breathtaking, and we decided to hop off the bus at the entrance to the national park, which seemed logical. Our destination was actually a small indigenous Mapuche village in Huentemó, where Lonely Planet had promised was located an hospedaje. Hospedajes are very common in Chile, especially on the island of Chiloé, and they are oftentimes a house that the dueño (owner) opens up to rent for cheap to tourists, campers, etc. during high season. They are often basic and while they may provide warm beds and showers, they are often void of toilet paper and free breakfast. Luckily the three of us stocked up on tuna, avocados, crackers, bread and plums before we left, so we had some food to last for a few days.
After pushing our way off the bus at the National Park entrance, we discovered that the Sendero (path) Cole-Cole (a 25 km trail that intersects Huentemó) was actually about a 4 hour hike down the not-so-well-beaten gravel road. The CONAF representative suggested we start walking and go "a dedo" a.k.a. hitchhike. We began walking and after getting passed up by a couple cars a bus crossed our path and took us about 10 minutes further where it then stopped and was turning back around. We paid our 300 pesos (about 70 cents) and started again. We started hiking and were surrounded first by sand dunes and the Pacific and then by other small bodies of water and we were without a clue as to what to do. We eventually saw a big dump-truck typed vehicle speed up and plow straight through the water, so I flagged down the driver and asked him if he knew how to get to Huentemó. He told us to roll up our pants and just follow the beach all the way there! So, despite a little hesitation, I rolled up my jeans as far as I could and tried to make it through without getting wet. Unfortunately my plan failed and I was soaked. When we got to the other side it was all worth it and we were able to soak in the warm, sandy beach and the crashing waves of the ocean for the next three hours as we made our way to the hospedaje. We eventually made it there and along the way the only living creatures we saw were birds, cows and a jeep or two carting people back from who knows where. The sun was shining, the sand felt great between my toes and when we eventually arrived to the hospedaje the dueño (or his son, I'm not entirely sure who was in charge here) came out to greet us accompanied by four or five pigs. The first thing he said to us was asking our forgiveness for the
craziness on the phone the day before, but he had just finished getting married! Had we known we would have tried our luck with some other arrangement but he insisted that we feel like family and make ourselves at home. We settled in and then took our tuna salad, avocado and cracker dinners to the beach just outside and had ourselves a nice little picnic accompanied by some huge rocks and an ocean view. There was not a lot to do at the house so I crashed pretty early and apparently went down pretty hard. As a matter of fact, had there been an earthquake I would have slept right through it. And I did! Johanna had been woken up when the house, our beds, etc. were shaking, but luckily my Kaufman genes kicked in and I slept straight through, completely oblivious until Johanna told me about it in the morning! Imagine that.

The next morning we got up and made haste to start the walk back to the national park entrance to do a smaller hike, seeing as the 25 km Cole-Cole was out of the question. We hitched a ride with some nice Frenchmen who toted us in the back of their pick-up for about 5 minutes and after getting to the trail we ran into some nice people from California who filled us in about the Tsunami warning. The three of us were in shock when we heard the news as we had just been walking along the beach for the last 2 1/2 hours! We decided to skip the hike and get away from the coast and back to Castro as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately we had just missed the bus and the next one was not scheduled to arrive for nearly two hours, so we decided that we would just follow the other campers and start walking, hopefully finding something along the way (if nothing else the bus would eventually meet us and we could hop on). My guardian angel was getting bombarded with prayers and within the first five minutes of our walk a jeep pulled up with a wide open backseat. I asked where they were headed and of course, just my luck, they were going to Castro. The nice, middle-aged couple gave us a lift and we were able to hear about the 8,8 (8,5 at the time) terremoto and the tsunami warning for the first time via radio. It was quite the whirlwind!

They dropped us off at the main bus terminal in Castro, and we decided it would be safest to stay there for the night so we found Hospedaje Jhovian for about $12/person and parked there. After making frantic phone calls and searching high and low for internet service, we discovered that the island was cut off from all internet and phone lines but still were able to get the news and the radio (which we could never quite figure out).
We had calmed down a bit and decided that while there was nothing we could really do, we would go try curanto, one of Chiloé's other famous assets. It is a big bowl of meat, potatoes, dumplings, clams, oysters and some sausages and is cooked in the ground in what is called a fogón, underneath piles of huge leaves. Delicioso! We shared the curanto, got some chicken and french fries, and a liter of beer to keep our spirits high while we waited for news from Antonia, our program director. We eventually got in contact with her, spent the night in Castro and the next day got up and went to Mass at 9, got on the bus at 10:10, went to Puerto Montt to change our return tickets to Santiago and then went back to the island to stay in Ancud (a city in northern Chiloé) for the next two nights. Although that involved a lot of ferry crossing and bus riding, the ferry was no Colsac III, but the sky was clear which afforded us views of distant snow-capped mountains as well as the chance to watch the sea lions in their natural environment. We got back to Ancud around 20:00 (I am starting to get used to 24-hour time, and enjoying it!) without a place to stay but we had been combing through Lonely Planet and figured we could find a low-cost hospedaje without a problem. We stepped out of the bus terminal and luckily for us one man came up to us and asked if we were looking for a place to stay.
**SIDE NOTE: This may sound sketchy, dangerous and unreliable, but it is actually very common (and helpful!) for dueños of hospedajes to go to the bus terminals and try to promote their hospedaje to unaccounted-for tourists, such as ourselves.

The cost was less than $10/person/night and included breakfast, so we decided to at least go check it out. Although the house could have easily been built 100 years ago and never refurbished or fixed-up, there were three beds in one room (which would be a first for this trip), two bathrooms, a large, fly-infested kitchen, and a big living room. We accepted, paid our 5000 pesos and headed for the kitchen to make our favorite dinner: tuna salad, tomatoes, avocado, and homemade bread from Castro. As we were finishing up, the other five people staying in the hospedaje walked through carrying boxed wine and cans of frutilla (canned and sweetened strawberries, also a very popular flavor for ice-cream, milk, candy, etc). They came back in search of a bowl to make borgoño, which is a sugary combination of red wine and frutilla, and as they were making their concoction we introduced ourselves and grasped the opportunity to practice our Castellano with them. Their names are Juan Pablo and Sebastian and they shared the borgoño with us in a friendly setting as we chatted in the living room. We were delighted to practice our spanish with them and Juan P was equally as excited to learn some english from us. We soon discovered that they are santianguiños (citizens of Santiago) as well and before heading to bed we exchanged numbers with the hopes of meeting up sometime in Santiago for personal tours and some language practice.
The next morning we got up at around 6:15 so we could catch us a bus out to Puñihuil (puhn-YEE-will), which means "strong winds," and see the penguins. This was something we had really been looking forward to doing since the beginning of the trip, so it was exciting to actually have the opportunity. The bus dropped us off about a 1/2 hour hike from the beach so we started walking, watching the sun rise and the moon slowly disappear. The sky and scenery were beautiful and we got to Playa Puñihuil around 8:00 and soon found out that the first tour was not until 10:00. We tried devising a way to get out to the islotes (small islands, essentially just huge rocks with grass growing on them where the penguins live) without having to pay for a tour, but a couple of friendly fishermen came up to us and gave us a good deal for a private tour in their special boat. They took us out in their extremely shabby boat, taught us about the penguins and we were able to see them before they all went under to go fish for the day.

The two types of penguins that live in this colony are the Humboldt (which are nearly extinct) and the Magellanic. In the end of March they all leave, half of them traveling up north to Peru and the other half down south to Punta Arenas. After the boat tour we had some time to kill until the next bus, as the story often goes, so we decided to explore one of the trails. We ended up finding one of the most beautiful and secluded places on the island and had it all to ourselves.

After ogling over the ocean and countryside for a bit we made our way back up to the bus stop and waited for it to come tote us back to Ancud. We got back to the hospedaje and found Juan P and Sebastian watching the news so we decided that we should all go find something to do as a distraction. In Ancud finding that "something" is not such an easy task, especially after an enormous earthquake. Nonetheless, we went to Fuerte San Antonio, Spain's last Chilean outpost built in the early 19th century.
After seeing the canons we walked around the city and eventually wound up in a pool hall and played "poolina" (the crazy Chilean version of billiards) for a while. After taking about an hour and a half to finish one game we decided to get the heck out of there and go make some dinner. We braved the supermarket which was bursting at the seams with people, and got some ingredients so Sebastian could make us his favorite pasta dish. Finally, a dinner that did not consist of tuna salad! Although I love a good tuna sandwich it was certainly a nice change. We enjoyed the last night in Ancud and left in the morning for Puerto Montt where we would hopefully obtain bus tickets for that day back to Santiago.

We got our bus tickets, bummed around Puerto Montt for the day, dodged some huge stray dogs and at 11:00 boarded our bus back home. I have now been back for a couple of days; Las Condes seems to be rather unaffected by the quake and everything in Mama Maria's house is just fine. I have yet to actually see any of Santiago's real damage, and to be honest I am a little nervous. Last weekend we planned a trip and booked a hostel for a trip to Mendoza, Argentina for this weekend, so unfortunately my efforts will have to wait until I get back, but we are all itchin' to pitch in (yes that rhyme was intentional) and do whatever we can. It seems as though most of the efforts right now are to get food, basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sleeping bags, tents, milk and water to those in need and I have seen a lot of campaigns beginning and doing their part. During the time it has taken me to write this I felt three tremors from the aftershock, each lasting about 5-10 seconds, which will likely continue for a couple of months after the initial quake. I am sure they were mere ants in comparison to what happened here on Saturday but just feeling the ground move and knowing that there is nothing you can do about it is quite a sensation!







Well that is all for now, I will be sure to keep you all updated as we uncover more about our shifting tectonic plates (Pun intended)!
¡Besitos!

From Puerto Montt to Santiago...

Saludos, amigos!

I am currently plopped in a Centro de llamadas (a.k.a. an internet café) in Puerto Montt, Chile. Despite the road conditions from here to Santiago we were able to obtain bus tickets to leave here at 11 pm tonight and make our way back home. Although being in Chiloé was a really fun experience, I am ready to be back in Santiago with Mamá María, and see what we can do to help out. It sounds like there are already some campaigns starting, and there is no way I am going to sit around and do nothing! I am mortified by what happened here, especially with the tsunami and all of the raids of stores etc that have been going on, but we have been so removed and far from it that it is hard to believe it is real. I suppose we will see when we get back to Santiago just what kind of straits the city is in, and I will also be able to update you with my fun stories from Chiloé, because it really is extremely beautiful! It is crazy to think that something so devastating can happen in one part of the country, yet the hills and beaches that we were seeing just remain untouched, unaware of everything. I am so thankful for being as fortunate as I am, and until I can actually get back and help out, everyone else in Chile will remain in my prayers and I hope in all of yours as well! If you want to read up a little bit about it here is the NY Times version of the devastation, even though it does not compare to the footage we have seen on the news down here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/world/americas/02chile.html?pagewanted=1&em

Until next time, St. Christopher, patron of travelers, pray for us!