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.