the journey itself

Some have asked how i found myself in Patagonia... well here you go...

1. Host mom drove me to bus station

2. (wait) 1.5 Hour bus to Santiago

3. 20 Min shuttle to aeropuerto

4. (wait) 3.5 Hour flight to Punta Arenas

5. 30 Min van shuttle thing into Punta Arenas

6. (wait) 3 Hour bus ride to Puerto Natales

    (overnight in Puerto Natales) 

7. 2 Hour bus ride to Torres del Paine

8. 20 Min shuttle to first campsite

So yeah. It was a pretty significant journey... but worth every peso! 

Also, sorry that the post right before this was so ghetto. I tried to format it nicely, but blogspot had other ideas. 

Trekking Adventure in Patagonia !

  Well world, my trip in Torres del Paine in Patagonia went off without a hitch! It was so amazing!

  I went with 2 other girls from my program, Jessica and Kelsey, and we flew from Santiago to Punta Arenas on Sunday, 22 Mar, camped for 3 nights and trekked for 4 full days, finishing the whole W from East to West, and then went back to Punta Arenas for a day and flew home to Vina (by way of Santiago) on Saturday, 28 Mar. 

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  Our first day (Monday, 23 Mar) started around 7am when we took a bus from Puerto Natales to the national park (Torres del Paine). Since we now have the equivalent of Chilean Social Security Numbers, we got to pay the Chilean price to get in, after the man assured us we were Chileans and not Americans! We set up campsite #1 at Hosteria Las Torres in the bottom right corner of the W, had lunch, and went up that prong the first day (About 7 hours) to Las Torres. It was about 3.5 or 4 hours up -- a suuuper steep hike at the end-- and 3ish hours down, without all of our gear (thank goodness). We encountered ALL sorts of weather on the way up, (rain, wind, rainbows, sun) and when we finally reached the top, it was snowy and kind of overcast, but still amazing! We got back after it started getting dark, made dinner (delicious risotto and corn), ate our chocolate bar (a little treat for the end of each trek) and went straight to bed.

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  Our second day (Tuesday, 24 Mar) took us from la 

Hosteria Las Torres west to campamiento Italiano with all of our gear. There wasn't a particular site to see on this leg of the journey, we just had to make sure to get all the way to Italiano. About 2 hours away from camp, it started raining super hard, and so once we finally arrived, all of our stuff (EVERYTHING) was drenched. What a bummer!! However, when we got to camp, we found some English friends we'd made in the Hostal in Puerto Natales on Sunday night, so that was fun to catch up with them

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  Day 3 (Wednesday, 25 Mar) took us up the Valle Frances and then West again to Campamiento Pehoe in our gear that was still pretty wet from the night before. La Valle Frances was awesome because we walked along this snowy 

mountain valley thing where there are frequent avalanches... so pretty! We then walked the only "easy" part of the trail to get to Pehoe where we had our last night of camping. It rained again this day, but stopped before we got to Pehoe, so we didn't have to set up camp in the rain again (thank goodness!) After eating our delicious spaghetti dinner, we settled into the tent, and it started to rain and be really windy again. This weather continued all night, and kept me up in my panic/fear/terror of what might happen to us/and the techo of our tent.

Of course, nothing actually happened, and we laughed about my paranoia in the morning.... but this was the most scared I've been in a long, long time. Needless to say, I was pretty glad this was our last night of camping.  

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    Day 4 (Thursday, 26 Mar) took us up from Pehoe to Glaciar Grey! It was absolutely breath-taking to see a glacier that close (though I refused to go and touch it ... I have issues with touching the already rapidly melting glacier... weird, I know...) But it was sooo beautiful! There were a bunch of ice berg-y things in the lakes all around the glacier, too, which were incredibly bright blue! This day we had absolutely fantastic weather all day long, so it was a perfect end to our trekking adventure!

 

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   I'm back in Vina now - resting, healing, eating, etc. It was a great week, and I'm not particularly looking forward to classes tomorrow, but it's nice to be back with my host family where there's plenty of food and options other than peanut butter and trail mix

The most important part of my life in Chile...

Oh gosh, world - sorry it's been so long! The registration/inscription/class-selection process is ridiculous here, but I think I've finally figured out what classes I'm gonna take... I know that you have been on pins and needles!

1- Spanish (Blah, required to take it through my program)

2- Social and Economic History of Chile (Doesn't actually meet for the first month because my teacher is 'out of town'....? Mostly Chilenos, but I have a few gringo friends in the class, too)

3- Modern History of Chile (An all gringo [white people] class, but it has real potential to be interesting. Right now we're learning about colonial chile... which is not so modern/ interesting...?)

4- Evolution of Cinema (Ooooh yes. Very challenging.)

5- Oral and Written Expression (Basically just learning how to speak in public.. I'm currently the only gringa, which I like... and the prof has been very friendly and seems like she will be good)

... What a relief that that's all done! 

Also, I'm well on my way to being a legit Chilena. I went to register my visa today (Of course, I didn't have one of the necessary documents, so I returned home to find it, and was unable. I had to go back to the International Police Station across town to get a new form... then returned to visa register-ing place... only to find the original document in my secret compartment in my purse. Dangit! Luckily, the lady from program was with me, or else I would have never made it!)... so after about 2 weeks, I'll go back and get my carne (ID card) -- yippee!

ALSO also, I'm leaving on Sunday morning for my 7-day viaje to Torres del Paine, in Chilean Patagonia!! It's about a 3.5 hour plane ride down there (it's the southern most populated place in the WORLD) and then a 3ish hour bus ride to the national park where we'll be trekking and camping for 4ish days, and then (tentatively) hanging around Puerto Natales to see the sights... which may or may not include a penguin sanctuary! Pray for safe travels/trekking please, but it should be an amaazing trip! 

Hasta luego!

things Chileans love

- Fannypacks

- Mullets (esp ones that turn into dreadlocks)

- Bread 

- Being late

- Smoking

- Hammer pants / genie pants 

- Kissing the cheek to greet you

- walking slowly

- writing on graph paper

- 1way streets

- Confusing gringos with their eating/life schedule

... just a few of the reasons I love this place.

A series of rather unfortunate events...

   So today was my first day of school... and luckily my only class was my all-gringo Spanish class in the building I'm most familiar with, so I felt like I could ease into learning again.... False.

    First, I ate lunch by myself because I had to leave before lunch time to get to my class. Little did I know, this ended up being a huge blessing... My nana (the housekeeper/servant, named Senora Carmen) brought me soup, (which was incredibly delicious) but I was kinda bummed, bc that's kind of light lunch...  But, a few mins later, she brings another plate of food, and I'm like, "oh yay, legit lunch"... how wrong I was... 

   It's hard to describe what I ate. It was about an inch thick cut into perfect squares and triangles, with wrinkly skin on one side, and blubbery stuff on the other side, with no actual meat to speak of. It originated from a large sheet of whatever it is, and has been chilling in the fridge for the past couple of days. Not only was its smell not-so-apetizing, but I was very skeptical because of the perfect shapes it was cut into. But the texture, people, that was the kicker. No matter how much weird red sauce there was on it, that texture.... it was squishy and gummy,  but also tough... words cannot describe.

   I could only take three bites. 

   Side note: It is not uncommon for me to not really love certain foods, I'm kind of particular about what I like, but I don't ever remember just physically not being able to eat something. This was one such case. With each bite, I literally just wanted to vomitar, and there were no vegetables to buffer, and the rice just did not do the trick. I was literally thinking about flushing it in the toilet, but didn't know how I would explain myself if it clogged the toilet, I was that desperate. My solution? I ate pretty much all of the rice that accompanied it and moved the mysterious meat around my plate like a 5yr old to make it look like I'd eaten some.

   When I sheepishly went to the kitchen when I was done to give Sra Carmen my (full) plate, I just wanted to remove myself from the situation ASAP, so I didn't ask her what it was... 

   After some research, I'm reasonably sure that what I had was just pure honeycomb tripe, aka the stomach of either beef, goat, pig, or deer... it looked a lot like the image on the left. I'm not sure if this looks appetizing to anyone, but I found this picture so that we can all get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

   So then, I go to school for my 15:40 class. But, oops... I don't know where this mysterious new classroom is, so I have to have this lady take me there (through the gym and a greenhouse... it was very odd)... so I arrive at the class like 2 mins late, so I just barge on into the classroom. The class has definitely already started and the teacher and all the students (my fellow Butler people) are looking at me like I'm crazy... and the prof tells me I am definitely not in this class... so I awkwardly leave and ask the guy at the little desk where I am supposed to be... so he helps me learn that my class starts at 15:40, which means 3:40... not 2:40 like I thought... meaning I walked in on the middle of their class, and had an hour to kill until my class... woops. (Also, she is the professor of my class, too)

  Anyway, just another adventure in the life of Juli. 

Hasta luego!

Photos from the journey

... it won't let me put these in any kind of reasonable order, but you get the idea..

Tour of Valpo!

Hello faithful readers,

  Today my IFSA-Butler group went on a tour of Valparaiso, Chile, which is the big city near the suburb-city-ish thing where I live (called Vina del Mar)... they're about a 20 min bus ride away from each other. (and Valpo is where most of my classes are, so I'm getting very familiar with said trip) Valpo is where the Chilean Congress lives, and was the first port city in Latin America... so it's a pretty big city with lots of barcas along the coast.

  We started at (one of) Pablo Neruda's houses (Chilean poet/ Nobel Prize winner/ 

Communist political activist/ almost-president instead of Allende)... so he's kind of famous and his house is BEAUTIFUL. Each room was a different, super bright color, with about 8 half-floors, with really cool art and furniture everywhere, and incredible views out of each window. 

  Next we went to some of the cerros (hills) around a few cute towns. Valpo is known for its homes that are brightly colored, from every different style of architecture, and built right into the mountainside- it was so picturesque! 

  We also rode on an ascensor, which is a diagonal elevator that takes you up mountains, found all over Valpo. The took us back to our tour bus that took us to the mall where we had lunch. (????) 

  We finished the tour with a boat ride along the coast of Valpo / Vina del Mar. We saw sea lions (or as they're called here, wolves of the sea, haha)... just hanging out on a cement island (?) in the ocean! There were a bunch of navy-looking ships and big freight-carrier ships, too, as well as a few sail boats. Que linda! 

Well that was my exciting day..

Hasta luego!

curious facts...

Just some random things I've learned about life in Chile...

- No one is ever barefoot in the house

- It's rude to wait for everyone to have their food before you start eating yours

- There aren't bus stops, per say, you just stand up and push your way to the door when you're ready to get off ... and the bus driver will slow down, maybe even stop, to let you off

- The temp is usually super cold in the morning and then super hot by the afternoon

- Even the children go to bed at like 11:00pm

- Eating schedule confuses me and I'm always hungry, but never quite sure if I should be eating...

- I have seen 2 /5 of the males I live with in their underwear already, and no one seems as bothered by this as I am...

- It's pretty much true that only gringos wear flip flops

- TV must be turned on as often as possible, with the volume turned up as high as possible 

- Everyone just piles into Mom and Dad's bed to watch said TV, not in the TV room, and not on a couch... 

So yeah... life is great, just a couple things to get used to...