Bariloche and things...

Last weekend I went to a town in Argentina called Bariloche. It is tucked up in the Argentinean side of the andes and it is situated right alongside a high mountain lake, really an incredible place. At some point I´ll be trying to get some photos out to you all but for now, if you wanna check it out i´m sure you could type in ¨bariloche¨ into a google images search and come up with some pretty amazing photos. Speaking of amazing photos/views, while we were there we went to Cerro Campanario, which is basically a viewpoint of the lake and the andes, and as a matter of fact, National Geographic rates it in the top ten viewpoints in the world, i.e. pretty darn cool. Also while we were there we went to Cerro Catedral which is definitely one of THE places to go snowboarding in South America. There we didn´t actually rent any gear because there wasn´t much snow left on the mountain and only two lifts were open so we weren´t quite sure if it would be worth it, but we still bought the ~15 dollar ticket to get up to the lodge on the mountain and check out the views and at least be in the snow a little bit. However, I had the incredible luck of running into one of the guys that worked at the hostel we were staying at and he lent me his gear so i was able to, for 15 bucks, make a couple of runs (3 to be exact) in south america. I´ve got to tell you that it is definitely high up on my list of things to do to return to chile/S.A. for a winter and experience the ¨real¨ season down here. I can´t even begin to describe the magnitude of this mountain range, it truly is something that I never could have imagined... hmmm... what else? that night we came back to the hostel and where they were to be cooking up an asado (bbq - but definitely different than the kind of que we might do in the states, i´m talking like grilling up half of a cow for 20 people). It should be said that the Argentinean meat is famous for its deliciousness, and rightly so. Probably some of the best meat that I have ever tasted (no homo). Anyways, we each paid about 10 bucks, 40 argentinian pesos, and ate sausages on bread hot dog style (aka choripan), four courses of meat, salad, and potatoes, as well as plenty of wine to go around. I´d say that´s a pretty good deal. It should also be mentioned that at the hostel they had 3 beers on tap from a local microbrewery (friends of the owners) that we about 2 bucks a pint and delicious. At the hostel they had a couple of hammocks and I definitely spent a lazy afternoon reading, napping, and checking out the view in one of them. All in all, a very good vibe and an enjoyable weekend to say the least.

Now I am back in Valdivia. This weekend is pretty exciting here. There are a couple festivals going on: a film festival (which is apparently a pretty big deal here, people come from all over south america... something I didn´t know before coming here, but whatevs) and a brew festival with about 10 localish breweries and there beers (this is the first time ever this is happening here, kinda cool). So I will definitely be trying to get out and see the festivities this week. Another thing is that I am going to be filling in for one of the gringas at an english institute and I will be leading conversation classes (in english) for 10 bucks an hour. I´m hoping that I will soon surpass Miles and that I too will be earning a salary (lol, much love homie).

Really i´m not sure what else to tell you all about, hopefully you have been enjoying reading my memiors. Until next time, peace out yall, hope you are all doing well (whoever is actually reading my posts - and to the others I don´t give an S about you, jk). Ummm, yeah... keep on keeping it real in the states and I will do the same down here. chao, y a las chicas, besitos, anden con paz! me voy!

day 3: diez y ocho continued

If you havn´t read about the lagoons and the bike adventure that took place on day 2, please check out the last half of the previous post...

Day 3. The following photo is what we woke up to... gorgeous. A little side note, we were in the desert and so as we were sleeping the tempurature dropped to below freezing. Personally, I was fine because my bag is ¨la raja¨ (really good in chilean), however the other gringo that i was travelling with was far from fine, in fact, he was freezing because he didn´t not have a sleeping bag, pobrecito. He slept wearing all of his clothes as well as all of mine and he was still pretty darn cold, but he didn´t die and we had a grand ol´time, so it was definately worth it.


we went back to the B&B and opted to take a tour via auto this time because our hind quarters were a little sore from the bumpy ride. This was to be our last tourist destination in San Pedro, because we had decided to save money and catch a bus back to the Valdivia (1 1/2 days in bus) so as to be back there to celebrate the 18th (chilean independence day). So we went to Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon) and Valle de la muerte (valley of the dead), la luna being probably the most visited attraction around San Pedro. I believe they call it valley of the moon because it honestly looks like what I imagine the moon looks like. anyways, a photo is worth a thousand words (give or take) so check ´em out...

valle de la luna

valle de la muerte

salt formations in valle de la luna

valle de la luna again

the owner & staff of the Incahuasi B&B (definately recommended to anyone who ever makes it to San Pedro de Atacama)...

we returned to Valdivia and I had an excellent time celebrating the holiday in true chilean style (excessive amounts of food and drink)

la semana del diez y ocho

Over the last week we didn´t have school because it was the week of chilean independence (the 18th), and so almost all of the gringos went off on their own adventures. I chose to go to the Atacama desert (about a day and a half in bus to the north of valdivia). I went in search of the sun, and i found it. I went with one other gringo, Jordan, and we had an excellent time. We did quite a bit for the little amount of time we were actually in the desert.

The first day, we arrived in the morning, because the thing to do is to take the bus during the night so that you don´t have to pay for a bus ticket and a place to sleep, you just sleep on the bus, and we struck out into the city... town... pueblo. San Pedro de Atacama is the name of the pueblo and I believe there are only about 1000 inhabitants year round... aka tourism. Anyways, we got off the bus and were immediately offered some pamphlet about a B & B called Incahuasi (house of the inca) of which we didn´t think much and we continued into the town to find a place to put our bags and sleep, at least for the night, and also a place to get some grub. We ate, and walked around and talked to the hostels and camping places and discovered that everything was incredibly expensive and that no where offered us the same kind of package as the Incahuasi B&B. For Ch$ 10.000 (chilean pesos, about 20 bucks) we could use their bicycles, have a bed to sleep in, and be fed in the morning... bottom line, pretty good deal. So we went to the Incahuasi, told them that we would like to stay, at least for the night, and they showed us to our room where we put down our bags and literally turned right around and left on their bikes on our first adventure. We were to ride the bike 30k to the termas (hotsprings), the only thing was 30k is pretty far and it was all uphill and I am not in the kind of biking shape that my travel buddy, Jordan, is in, so I ¨hice dedos¨ (hitch hiked - literally meaning ¨to do fingers or thumbs¨) and a pickup of workers picked us up and hauled us up the road to where they were working on the highway, some 5k short of the springs, close enough. We did the rest of it by bike and when we actually arrived, we realized that it was completely ¨vale la pena¨ (worth the pain/effort). Absolutely beautiful, see for yourselves....

And here´s Jordan on the return trip, which was downhill the whole way.... very, very entertaining

Somos gringos locos (we´re crazy gringos). We rented these bikes that have motors attatched to them for Ch$10.000/day, and we took them out to some lagoons out in the middle of the salt flat desert where we camped over night. The stars from there (in the middle of no where) were unreal. It was about 30k one way to the farthest lagoon. We left in the morning after breakfast so as to seize as much of the day as possible. The plan was to visit the two closer lagoons on the way to the third and camp along side the third, watch the sun set and check out the stars from the southern hemisphere perspective. Excellent I must say, sadly I don´t have the high quality of camera needed to take a night photo of the stars, so you´ll just have to believe me when I say it was incredible. The milky way stretched across the entire sky directly above our heads, practically dividing the sky in two. Also the southern cross was out and I made it a point to locate it, pretty cool. And I´m sure there were all sorts of other constalations that we saw and we had no idea we were seeing, but whatevs... anyways check out some of the photos.

ready to embark

this is in laguna cejar which has enough salt content in the water that you can float without moving, much like i´ve heard of people doing in the dead sea

flamencos (flamingos-if you couldn´t figure that one out i´d be very disappointed)... they apparently eat an insect that thrives in these salty lagoons, that insect has a pinkish hue and that is where the flamingos get their coloring (just a little ubi for you guys)

Laguna Cejar

inbetween the first two lagoons and the last are two holes in the ground that are filed with water (as shown above)... check out the bikes, bad-a

at the final lagoon, Tembinquinche, we were out there battleing the elements... here we used our rain fly to create a shady spot to eat a snack, rest a bit, and wait for the sun set

confused....?

what a camping spot!

the mountains during the sun set...

the lake during the set...

I´ll have to tell you about the next day in the next post

Playing 2 week catch up...

So as indicated by the title it has been a while since i´ve caught any of you northern hemisphere residents up on the goings on down here in the southern hemisphere. Sorry about the tardiness, but for one reason or another I just haven´t taken the time, and it probably would have been even more tardy if I hadn´t been prompted by the one and only Q who is bored with recovery from a knee surgery (pobrecito). So this one is for you Q.

Let´s take it back a couple of weeks to the end of my tourism stint (yeah right) and the beginning of the grueling studies (hardly). I left Santiago on a wednesday night so that I would travel the ~10 hour bus trip over night and arrive in Valdivia the following morning. I was more than ready to get out of the hussle and bussle of the capital city and settle into my more Oregonian lifestyle of the smaller Valdivia. Little did I know that the Valdivian lifestyle was going to be Oregonian in more ways than the one stated above. When I got to Valdivia the weather was partly cloudy and as I rolled into the bus station at the same time the sun was peaking over the horizon, I got a nice view of the rivers, the city, and the horizon, all of which were indicative of what was to be my home for the next few months. After taking a few moments to enjoy the sunrise, I met up with my host father, Egils (a name that is in no way chilean or spanish but latvian as a matter of fact - there´s a big German/European influence in town), and we went off into the city and to my new home. I spent the next couple of days walking around and exploring Valdivia on my own... I walked by the submarine which is apparently a tourist attraction, but I highly doubt it alone brings in any outsiders, and on down the river I walked and came across another tourist attraction/natural anomoly which probably does actually bring in a couple people a year... Lobos del mar, meaning sea lions, have taken over a dock along side the river and apparently in the summer will take over the sidewalk as well (looking forward to seeing it, haha). Apparently it is quite the problem because the authorities do not have the ability to move them without endangering themselves. I find this quite hilarious. I picture the carabineros (police men) with long oversized brooms attempting to shoo away these massive blobs of potential aggression with absolutely no results save their own embarressment.

Moving on... on Saturday we met with the entire group of gringos (not used in Chile in any sense of malintent or dislike), 18 in total, and we went over a little welcoming to the program, get a schedule of things we were going to do, took a tour of the campus, met the people we were going to be working with, yada yada yada, until we went out to lunch at a delicious sea food restaurant as one big group. Great experience, but this for me was when Valdivia started to reflect Oregon in a way which was less than agreeable. The rain began. And it continued for the next 4 or 5 or 6 days (really hard to tell when really all you can do is eat and sleep for fear of what might happen to you if you step outside). And this was the real ¨Bienvenidos a Valdivia¨ (also known as Valdlluvia, lluvia meaning rain, quite the lovely place to say the least). The truth is, it is quite the lovely place if and when the sun actually shines. I have gotten the chance to see it, although I thought that day would never come. We got 3 days of partly cloudy cold, tail of winter days, followed by one gorgeous, pure blue, nearly spring day, only to be followed by today, another day with a tramendous amount of rainfall. The funny thing about the rain here that is completely different to what we have in Oregon, and probably the only difference in the style of rain, is that the rain here is combined with winds that come from all directions. You cannot imagine how many times I´ve seen umbrellas broken and forlorn, deserted on the sides of the streets because the wind has turned them inside out. Umbrellas do not work here. I am fully greatfull for the wonderful gortex jacket that I have, I think it is the only thing with sufficient durability to battle the Valdivian rains. Most Excellent.

However, although it may sound like it, Valdivia has not been completely dreary and boring. on the contrary it has been great getting to know my host family, especially my host mother who is about 4 and 1/2 feet tall with the personality of a giantess. She really is great. She is an English teacher at a private school in town so she speaks perfect English, perfect Castellano (the spanish taught in the states), and perfect Chileno, which is not taught anywhere because it makes absolutely no sense what so over, but the Chileans are born and raised with this absurd dialect pouring from their bodies and so it is necessary to learn in order to get along here in Chile. It is also very entertaining to learn the Chileanismos because of how absurd they are when translated literally. I already have a four full pages of sayings in a little moleskin notebook i´ve been using (thanks Miles, it is perfect, and you´ll get quite a kick out of these dichos).

So onto some of the good times that I´ve had here. For the most part I have been going out with the consejeros (counselors, who are chilean students at the University and have chosen to take up the position of showing us around the town and helping us get accustumed to the Chilean lifestyle that takes place outside of the classroom), as well as with the other gringos. We went to a brewery called Kuntzmann, which is said to be the best beer in Chile and is brewed right here in Valdivia, and there, at the brewery, they serve 2.5 liter columns of beer that are just delightful. We had a good time there. I´d say that they probably do brew the best brew in the country. I´ve also gone out with either the gringos, or the consejeros, or a combo of the the two to a couple other places around town. My favorite so far would have to be a place called trota mundos (or something like that), that has a super laid back vibe, actually played good music (like some zep, the doors, stones, some good chilean reggea...) instead of the usual shitty beatles covers that I hear in various different locations. Nothing worse than hearing some dub/salsa version of ¨While my guitar gently weeps¨, absolutely terrible! So that place is chill, and we have also gone out dancing at the casino in town which has a nice dance club in the basement. And I have to tell you about one night coming back from this place... one of the consejeros was DD for the evening and I was last to get out because I live close to him, so as we were coming back towards our houses and we rounded a corner, we see this Chilean dude at one end of the crosswalk completely nude. As we come around the corner, he begins to run, passing directly in front of our car, across the street, and into the park on the other side and all we could do was just laugh at the rediculousness of the situation. Quite rediculous indeed.

Well I think that is all for now, I´ve got to be getting a move on and begin thinking in spanish all over again. Much love to all (I think about 3 now), but truly much love, and I hope that all is well in the northern hemisphere. No se preocupen too much for I will soon be in spring and then summer, HA! Besos. Chau.

Arrived and already doing it...

I made it in to the Santiago International Airport after a a full 24+ hours of traveling only to be met and rushed away by Jessica (who had arrived 3 1/2 hours before me) almost immediately to actually finish the travel stint and make it to the place where I would be able to finally put my bags for a couple of days.  The place is La Chimba, a hostel in the bellavista district which is known almost solely for its nightlife.  Its a beautiful spot, right next to anything we might need (ie wine, food, and good walks). 

 After staking our claim to our room (putting our bags down and locking the door behind us) we walked up to the top of Virgen Cumbre, a  little peak that juts up a thousand+ feet over Santiago with a big, white statue of the Virgin Mary on top.  The views were spectacular both in the distance and in the forefront.  The city sprawled out below us until it reaches the mountains where it abruptly stops because it just can't go any farther.  The mountains jet up thousands of feet practically out of no where, quite the panorama if I do say so myself.  However, like I said, amazing things were happening in the forefront as well.  What immediately comes to mind was the dog that we saw, i think the proper term would be air humping directly above another dog (not making contact) that was trying to take a nap and succeeding as far as I could tell.  The thing that really topped it off for me was that this was all taking place in the sanctuary of immaculate conception. I believe the dog knew that it would be wrong to actually hump in that place so he just air humped.  Really an intelligent and holy creature.

Enough about that, we came down from the cumbre (summit) to get a bite to eat and then take a nap.  Post nap we went a block down the street to get a bottle of wine and then returned to the hostel to make friends.  We met some good people, a couple guys traveling from St. Louis, a couple guys from San Fran down on a snowboarding trip (still looking forward to hearing from those guys tonight about the epic rides which i'm sure they had because the mountains have just been seriously dumped on, awesome!), and best of all a group of five irish girls (age 27 give or take) who we went our for drinks with and just had an absolute blast.  These girls speak practically no spanish and an english which can be hard to understand at times, and they have been traveling around south america for 4 months now and doing it well from the stories they told.  Seriously impressive to see these girls  laughing and joking and haggling their way through la bellavista with hardly any spanish under their belt.  Needless to say, quite the enjoyable evening.  

That is pretty much all that has happened up til now in my aventuras in south america.  Its shaping up to be quite the experience.  I already feel like I've been here a week and it has only been a funfilled 24 hours.  Much love to all (probably just Miles for now, but love ya homie) and I hope you are all having a good time doing whatever it is that you are doing.  Hasta el proximo vez, Peace!

One of many

So, here we go into the world of blogging. I'll keep it short and sweet because I'm almost positive that no one will ever read this more than the one time I am reading it as I type it. Anyways, Miles I dedicate this post to you as you have been my inspiration for actually getting my ass off the couch and up to the computer to set this SOB up. For those of you who don't speak spanish or can't figure it out, this blog is going to be about my adventures abroad, and it will be a good way of keeping any of you who are interested up to date on my goings ons with as little invasion of personal space as possible (ie filling up each others' inboxes with emails that neither of us want to spend the time to actually read and respond). This will be a good way for me to let the ambiguous "you" know what i've been doing and for "you" to catch up at your leisure. Well, that's plenty for now, more will surely come as the aventuras unfold.