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.