El Fin

Thursday August 6th
we went to meet with a non-profit organization that helps civil society organizations thrive in emerging market countries. NESsT gave us a great presentation about how their organization strengthens these other organizations to create a greater social impact return. These kinds of organizations are all over the world, but NESsT is leading the way in emerging market countries. There is way more to explain, but the presentation they gave us was very in depth. This is the type of organization I would love to work for and I think their presentation was so great that all of us left the room thinking the same thing.

Following the meeting with NESsT we split up for lunch. I decided to go back to Plaza de Armas and walk around the shops. I was in the mood for exploring so I walked and walked and walked across the river back to some outdoor food markets, the mercado central (which is a fish market---the vendors were trying to stop me to sell me some huge raw eels. I pretended not to speak spanish or english and just kept walking). The I walked through the shops again, saw a demonstration of people in bumblebee suits (??), and just kept exploring. Our professor's husband (an urban planner) says you cannot know a city unless you walk it. That is very true. Unfortunately I waited until our last few days to walk around. In the most bizarre way I ran into Becky, Lindsay, Erin, Aliesha, and Lev on the street right before they were going to lunch so we all ate together.

Later that night I went to the small group lecture by Felipe Aguero who works at the Ford Foundation. He spoke to us more in depth about the human rights movements that are still taking place here in Chile. They are a small movement consisting of some determined working class mothers, widows, and family members of people who disappeared or died during the dictatorship. Along with a handful of lawyers who have been diligently working with them. The movement may not be as obvious as in other countries like Peru, but the determination and strength is still there.

This takes me to about 8 pm where I had to run home eat some dinner and get ready for our second to last night in Santiago. We went back to a club in Providencia to celebrate!

Friday the 7th
we had a lecture on citizen participation and environmental issues. Then we had a closing discussion about what we liked, disliked, wouldn't change, would change, about our time here. For the most part, everyone liked everything. Most of us just wanted it to be longer.

For dinner we went ventured down to Valentina's house for tons of food, drinking, dancing, singing, and fire spinning compliments of Lev. We had tons of salads, cheese, bread, veggies, steak, churrasco, pollo, potato salad, and cakes. (Recipes are coming home with me). We were playing games and towards the end of the night Anny's friend Juanita who is a music professor at the Universidad de Chile so she played the guitar and we had a sing along for the last hour of the night! Song from all over Latin America...and then we started singing some tunes we could sing along to as well (aka build me a buttercup and billy joel). It was a fantastic night to end with in Chile.

Right now it is 9:40 am and i am up and supposed to be packing because i get kicked out of my room at noon. I suppose I shall end here to start collecting my belongings and squeeze them into my suitcase.

Adios Amigos! See you tomorrow.

horsing around in the vineyard valleys

SaturdayAugust 1: we went to the Aconcagua Valley to the San Esteban Winery where we got a tour and to taste the world's best Carmenere wine. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. I snapped some romantic pictures with my roomates so I can frame them when I get home!

Then we bussed on over to the farm with the horses. Who were all corralled up so we could hop on and ride up into the mountains. It's been approximately 12 years since I was on a horse and 12 years since I decided that i am not necessarily fond of horses, but my professor convinced me to hop on up becaues I would regret not seeing the scenery. So with her help and the help of 3 people who worked on the ranch I was pushed up on my horse (which seemed a bit crazy and small, but I was glad to be close to the ground). the little boys who worked on the ranch were trying to teach me how to control the horse because it was not obeying me; it really wanted to go swimming in the pool. I did not.

I was having the greatest time at first when we left the ranch and trotted down the street. We were stopping traffic and getting waves from people we passed. however, about 20 minutes into the ride I was all set and I really needed to use the bathroom. Great. The ride continued for about 2 and a half more hours....through the towns, around the mountains/vineyards, and then we actually rode up a vineyard that was on the side of the mountain! this was the best view, but the absolute worst part because we were essentially riding on a steep cliff. My horse was attached to another girl's horse, so it insisted on having us ride side by side up and down this little cliff. AND riding downhill is PAINFUL! on the way back my little horsey was not having fun either and it decided it didn't want to move anymore. The guides had to pull me back the last 20-30 minutes. My horse was sweating and panting. i had horse sweat all over my boots...GROSS! All and all I realized that i still do not like horses and I probably never want to do that again....but i'm glad i did it.

When we got back, the horses were not the only ones panting. We were all starving because it was 4:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We scarfed everything down in a half hour. We got on the bus home and saw the tallest peak in the Andes...Mt. Aconcagua...i think. We were all so deliriously tired on the bus home we were singing Disney tunes until we passed out....nice and refreshed for a good night of dancing and celebrating our last weekend in Santiago and the end of the horseback riding!

We went out to a club called Subterrano, recommended by Becky's friend who studied abroad in in chile. Happy hour runs from 9-midnight or so, so we got some piscos outside before heading downstairs to dance. They were playing some great American hits from the 90's so it was a blast!

Monday August 3:
we had a lecture on urban planning from Francisco Sabatini...all about how Santiago's upper class has developed outward like a cone from the center of the city to the northeast. And then how gentrification of the city can actually be a good thing because the poorer people appreciate living next to upper class (unless expulsion takes place) because it makes them feel less marginalized.

We had lunch at this amazing vegetarian place...it was for all the vegetarian hippy travelers that pass thru Santiago.

We walked to Bellavista and talked to Lake Sagaris from Ciudad Viva about the community organizing that has taken place in the neighborhood. The citizens living in this community have organized against policies that were going to destroy the heritage of the old neighborhood. They have made a huge difference and saved their heritage from being destroyed from highways and being overtaken by discotheques and poor liquor laws. It doesn't take a lot to make a huge difference. Its a good thing that these neighbors got organized because Bellavista is one of the last neighborhoods that has not been taken over by city planning and been transformed into part of the greater metropolis. It still has the old world Latin American feeling.

For dinner i was craving a hot dog so a few of us went to this Germanesque restaurant where all 6 of us ordered sides of fries and the most fattening food you can think of. My Viensas completo was disgustingly amazing, but Emily's pork shoulder takes the cake for the most flat out disgusting thing i've seen on this trip.

Valle Nevado

Wednesday July 29th
We had a lecture about women at Republica on Wednesday. It was a pretty awesome lecture. I felt empowered when I left. They have made a lot of strides since the beginning of the military regime and the women's movement is the civil movement with the strongest momentum in Chile. Chile has a woman president...They're way ahead of the U.S. in that aspect.

After our lecture we field tripped to Pomaire (I was very excited because my travel book encouraged me to go here!). It was a very small rural town that makes a lot of pottery and trinkets. It was very touristy, but also very cheap. I bought some pottery...3 pots. How I'm going to get them home is beyond me. they were just so cute! I hope some people in the trip saved some room in their suitcases for me.

(view up the mountain)

THURSDAY JULY 30
We had a day off on Thursday for people to recovery from illness or just bum around. So instead of fully recovering from my cold I obviously joined the group of people who went skiing in the Andes. Yep, I went skiing in the Andes. When am I ever going to get to do that again? We went to this place that provides transportation, equipment, clothes, etc for the day at 7:30 to leave for the mountain by 8. It was a zoo of people trying to get on busses and rent equipment. We finally left the parking lot at 8:20. The ride up the mountain was s l o w and extremely curvy...back and forth up the side of the mountain for an hour an a half. I can't believe that this is the only way up to the resort because the road was hardly big enough for two cars. The views were amazing however...as long as you don't get car sick or afraid of heights...there were no gaurdrails on the mountain roads!!

We skied at Valle Nevado. It was the most breathtaking mountain I've ever skied on. We were well above the vegetation level so there are no trees anywhere on the mountain. We were also above the smog line!! BLUE SKIES!!!!! But with no trees, it is kind of hard to keep track of where the trails are. It would be hard to be a beginner on this place that is for sure because I definitely found myself off terrain and free styling quite a few times.

The WORST thing about this place is that they use T-bars for the most part. I am not experience with T-bars...especially T-bars that aren't quite bars...they are little round discs that you stick between your legs and its supposed to carry you up the mountain without any support. The first time I got on it i was slightly unstable and it wasn't wedged between my legs all the way so I fell off. OFF OF THE T-BAR! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOUNTAIN. So I had to roll around back onto the trail, which was extremely steep so I couldn't put my skis back on...so i had to walk down halfway and then put them on and then ski down to the T-Bar AGAIN. This time I was determined to make it up so I go on, and i crouched down to get some more leverage, and I fell off AGAIN! but thank god i was still at the bottom so I skied right back into line. This whole process took me a good 30-40 minutes. Nevertheless, I had to get over my phobia of T-discs very quickly because the whole backside of the mountain with the advanced slopes only had these things. I just don't understand how they think it's right to be pulled up hundreds of feet by a little disc smaller than a frisbee.

Valle Nevado is apparently one of the best resorts in the Andes- world class status. I met a lot of Europeans who were there on vacation skiing because it's the best. Well, obviously, I only ski the best too ;)

More Pictures

La Moneda

Las Condes (our neighborhood)

Men painting pictures in Plaza de Armas

A man with his llama in Valaparaiso. 1000 peso para foto. i snuck mine in.

my octopus dinner!

some kind of shepard's pie concoction. potatoes, ground beef, chicken breast, hard boiled egg, one olive, and sugar baked on top!

Some pictures!

View from Cerro San Cristobal!
Pouring wine at Vina Santa Carolina

Sunset in Valaparaiso
Street Art
Valaparaiso

"Hola Mujeres!!"

Thursday July 23

Lecture by Jose Zalaquett on Human Rights during Pinochett and a touch of International Law during the case of Pinochett's extradiction. Extremely interesting, especially coming from a lawyer who lived through the dictatorship and was exiled himself.

The group went to Bella Vista for lunch and we settled on eating in a small (TINY) cafe/clothing boutique. not only were we eating on top of ourselves but also on top of the clothing haha. The cafe was so small an underequipped for our large group they had to go grocery shopping to make our meals. But the food was surprisingly great.

We ventured to the outskirts of town to Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi which was the spot of one of the biggest torture houses during the dictatorship. Over 5,000 people were kept here and tortured. The facilities were destroyed by the army to destroy evidence, but survivors bought the land and made it into a beautiful parque. There are symbols of the facilities and the acts of torture, but the survivors wanted to make it a beautiful place for people to visit. This place hits very close to home for many Chileans. Even our professor said she had friends who had spent a week or so in this facility.

Friday July 24

Morning lecture on poverty in Chile. Our lecturer spoke in Spanish but he spoke slowly and clearly and HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT: I understood! well, most of it anyway.

Half of the group left to go to La Serena 6 hours north of Santiago on the beach. The other half, the leftovers, aka the smart people who didnt want to sit on a bus for six + hours were treated to lunch at Coco Loco which is a pricy seafood restaurant with fabulousss food!

The small group of us went out for Karaoke and Piscos at a place called play back. And yes, I got up on stage with Naris to sing a fantastic rendition of Ace of Base "All that she wants." sounded great with my congestion

Saturday July 25

Beautiful day for a trip to the Santa Carolina Winery. It is a national historic landmark and the original facilities from the 19th century are still there. We got to sample some of their red and white wines. They are the 4th largest producer of wine in Chile.

Then we went up to Cerro San Cristobal which is the mountain with the large pregnant virgin mary that looks over Santiago. In true Chilean fashion, the girl at the information booth told us the bus to go up the mountain could be here in 20 minutes or an hour or whenever. sweet. When it did come, we all didnt fit, so we had to wait another 45 minutes anyway. So when we finally got up, the view was amazing. We were well above the cloud line and the smog line. We could see for miles and we had snowy mountains and palm trees in the same picture...when do you ever get that? I also got to see Mary up close and personal. She had man hands. The guy in the souvenier shop kept teasing me and would make me speak to him in Spanish so buying my postcards took much longer than necessary.

A few of us got all fancied up and went out for dinner to this very nice restaurant Valentina recommended called Liguria. Here is the review from Lonely Planet:

A legend on the Santiago restaurant circuit, Liguria has a simple recipe for its incredible popularity: line your walls with pictures and memorabilia, offer a great menu at a surprisingly low price and add a hefty pinch of bohemia and bustle overseen by slick waiters, then watch your locales fill so much that many would-be diners end up disappointed even on a weeknight. The great and the notorious have long flocked to Liguria - a drunken Marcelo Ríos (former world tennis number one) famously caused a kerfuffle here.

The atmosphere was great, our waiter was fun, and the food was delish. We were given the VIP room that Cat Power sat in last week. Beck also comes to this place for its honey ice cream. Now Rachel Staley goes to this place for its honey ice cream. great ending to a great day.

Sunday July 26

I slept in. I have nothing planned. It feels great.

Santa Lucia

I went downtown and climbed cerro Santa Lucia yesterday afternoon. This is a hill downtown where the Spainards stood and planned out the city. It's a large castle that sits on top of a rocky cliff. But it also reminds me of some tropical oasis scattered with fountains and palm trees. It is a park for young lovers apparently too. The view was fabulous. And they have handmade gifts from indigenous people downstairs.

Today I'm sick and it is no fun. :(

Valparaiso

Sunday July 19
We field tripped to Valparaiso, the first port on the Pacific. It was a booming port city until the Panama Canal was built. Now it barely survives on tourism, universities, and some exports. We got a tour by Vale's friend who grew up in Valaparaiso and she wanted to show us two different sides of the city aka the social divisions. The social divisions are extremely evident. The poorer you are, the higher up on the hills you live. And you don't cross neighborhood lines ever. And there are hundreds of people live on the streets with the hundreds of stray dogs.

We started our tour on a boat to get a view of the city from the water. All of the houses and buildings are crammed onto hills and it looks like favelas or a shantytown from the water. When you get up close and walk around the streets it looks a little different-in some neighborhoods- but there is great street art and beautiful architecture. As we were getting pulled into shore everyone on the boat hears this "CRACK" noise and we look up and a man hit another man over the head with a 2 x 4 piece of wood. ha ha no big deal. This guys is literally gushing blood and people are screaming and yelling and it was all because the guy wanted to pull the boat in. Welcome to Valaparaiso!

The next surprise moment was the man who brought his pet llama right behind the group scaring the crap out of me. 1000 pesos for a picture of the llama hahah.

Later on we saw a dog fight too.

Anyway, We got to go up into one of the elevators that brings you up the hill side. there are only about 30 working elevators in this city of about 256,000 people. Therefore locals walk up hills and stairs. We happened to get this experience when the second elevator we wanted to go on was broken. Awesome. 239,234,309 stairs later we made it to the top. I guess the view was worth it, but seriously we were huffing and puffing. Even "gimpy" our three legged stray dog mascot for the day made it up before us. the other half of the group rode the bus to the top of the hill to see Pablo Neruda's third house. Obviously i made the wrong decision haha.

The day was extremely eye opening. we ended it by stopping off for a beer before we got on the bus for the ride home so we would all pass out. And we did.

p.s. I climbed to the 11th floor when we got home because the line for the elevator was too long. I almost passed out by the 8th floor....too many stairs for one day.

Monday July 20
Our lecture was in Barrio Nunoa and it was the first time that we went there. Therefore we got EXTREMELY lost getting to the universidad de chile. I'm talking like we re-traced our steps, got on the wrong bus, rode the metro one stop from home, walked in a circle, etc etc. fun way to start the morning is all I can say, especially when I have a sore throat, runny nose, and on the verge of a fever. All I wanted to do was go back to bed. Our lecture was all about tripartism, unions, and the difficulty in getting things done in the chilean political system. Afterwards we had a nice lunch somewhere around something in nunoa. Still, not a clue about that neighborhood haha.

la bicicleta verde

Deephers in Chile!

Saturday July 18

Bike tour day! Myself and a few others were slightly nervous about riding a bike since it has legitimately been years since i've been on one. And it only made me a little less nervous when our tour guide said that for the MOST part we would be on small roads...only large roads sometimes...ha! Our tourguide was an American who found himself in Chile for the past year and a half after living in Moscow and not wanting to return home. He was from tennessee. His accent was strangely refreshing. Maybe it was just the english part of it.

Anyway, so all 20 something of us get on our bikes and put on our helmets and follow each other all around the city. it was so great. It was beautiful out and it was just so nice to get a sense of the city and see new things like Bella Artes, La Moneda from the other side, differt parks, etc. The coolest thing was the mural on the Gabriela Mistral cultural center that they are rebuilding. If you go left to right, this block long mural depicts Chilean regions and cultural icons from north to south. It was beautiful. I was totally in my happy place all afternoon. We even got some political and history lessons. AND ice cream!! Well, the ice cream was gross. but still! what a great deal. My butt is sore.

THEN we went to a korean/japanese restaurant in Bella Vista. There were 18 of us and they sat us right away...okay so that was promising...but the menu was totally in KOREAN and the spanish words for the korean food. luckily there is one girl on the trip who is fluent in korean, spanish, and english. How lucky were we? She literally had to translate the entire menu for all of us. It was a nightmare. I was being adventurous and ordered some octopus dish. it was spicy and delicious and flavorful. I am all about the food here in chile, but a lot of it is simple and no spices or flavor. this was such a delicious change of pace.

Fiestaaa

i also did some exploring of Plaza de Armas yesterday. It is a big tourist/shopping/museum/church area. it reminds me a lot of Duomo in Milan. Except it's a little better since i didn't get flocked by pigeons...yet...

learning how to salsa^

we went out for someone's 21st birthday tonight...techodiscoteca in bella vista where we were the only people there. obviously all 26 of us bring the fun. Then we moved on to another place...we picked up a friend along the way who promised us no entrance charge and a good time...sounds iffy, but we ended up at this local smallish restaurant which pulled apart the tables and opened up the floor so they could teach us how to salsa!! First we got a show, then we did the congo line and got salsa lessons, drinks, and food!! S O M U C H F U N! This was the best time i've had so far! Talk about hospitality!

los completos! (hot dogs)

Wednesday July 15:
we had a lecture at the University of Chile with Joe Ramos, an economics professor with an impressive career record in Latin American political economic sector. ((He was born in the US- Philly to be exact- so it was in english!)) The lecture was Chilean economics for dummies...a basic overview of the social inequality, the Chilean 'Miracle' (economy boom in the 1990s), the education system, and the advances Chile has taken and how far they still have to go. Chile is at the upper echelon of developing countries but by 2025, many hope it can reach standards of Portugal or New Zealand.

We finally met up with Valentina and she took us to a museum at the President's Palace (La Moneda) downtown. We also witnessed another protest going on. Something to do with wanting more state control. I was informed that if a bomb should go off, to head towards the subway. Awesome. Don't worry mom, it was an unlikelyhood, but you never know if there are radicals. We saw exhibits about Violeta Parra (a famous folk singer and artist) and the islands of the Pacific. All in Spanish. and yes, i was standing around with my dictionary trying to translate. We also played with the big lifesize gladiator toys at the museum. Us and all of the 5 year olds.

We reached our lunch destination STARVING. literally ALL of the bread was gone from the table in 5 minutes. I've never had so much lunch before in my life. We had bread and salsa, salad, steak, pork ribs, chicken, potatoes, french fries, and empanadas. Gluttony much? The meat and potatoes arrived on this huge roasting pot (pictures to come) with hot coals. It was pretty amazing. We waddled out. I had to let the food digest for 2 hours, but i forced myself to go to the gym due to the gluttony.

Christina and i decided to go on a date and see Harry Potter last night. Others from the group decided to stay in and drink haha. We got dropped off at Parque Arauco on the outskirts of town. It was this amazing outdoor/indoor mall complex straight out of palm springs or something with multiple American restaurants. I'm totally up for a trip back to TGIFridays. Anyway, we had the time wrong so we had to buy tickets for the dubbed Harry Potter. no big deal for her, since she speaks spanish really well. Kind of a big deal for me. (But i actually got by relatively well. Apparently they speak slower in Hollywood spanish than Chilean spanish). I also ordered a hot dog at the theater (yeah, i forgot about lunch). But it was not a regular hot dog, it was the condiment king of hot dogs. They serve hot dogs here with guacamole, ketchup, mustard, mayonase, cheese whiz, and tomatoes. A M A Z I N G and obviously good for my cholestrol. I'm totally going to start eating hot dogs that way. anyway, i cannot wait to see Harry Potter in English.

Thursday July 16

Holiday so no classes!! Instead, we had a field trip to Pablo Neruda's 2nd house in Isla Negra which is about 2 hours away. He is a collector of all things from shells to easter island figurines, to ships in a bottle, to dishes and busts from ships. It was a pretty awesome house. Also very swiss family robinson-equse. It was also BEAUTIFUL. It looked like Hawaii, right on the ocean with rocks and clifs and tropical flowers. There are a lot of vendors selling handmade jewelry and etc.

We went into town where our tour bus was supposed to drop us off for lunch. However, we needed a pass to drive through town because it was a tiny tourist town and tour buses are no bueno. So literally, we had to go to the police and call the MAYOR of the town to let us drive and park at the restaurant. Can't wait for tomorrow's headline.

Lunch was all seafood because we were right on the ocean. ((We were also right next to this beach resort that has the largest swimming pool in the world...weird?)) I got some Reinata fish. but I also sampled some other people's food, including some odd concoction of raw shellfish. I think i ate some razor clams and sea urchins? no seasoning or sauce....yucky. We walked around this little beach semi touristy town and there were small marketplaces along the beach. Something like the Ocean City boardwalk...but actually not at all. The best part of my day was the caramel (manjar) filled churro i bought. It was as good as it sounds. It got cold. we left at 6. 2 hours home. time for bed.