The things I didn't say...

So as much as I've tried to be a faithful blogger, I've actually hidden quite a few trips from you all.

1.  Iquique and Pica

I went to Iquique and Pica in the northern region of Tarapaca in Chile with my CIEE program.  It was an incredibly beautiful experience.  Chile is the land of poets, and I can understand why with such inspiration in the surroundings.

Iquique at its poorest, is the more beautiful sister of the Jersey Shore.  

At its most, it is the strangest, most bipolar place I have ever been.  On one side of Iquique is the beautiful blue Pacific ocean complete with sea lions and pelicans, and on the other is the driest desert in the world (Atacama).

Pica was an oddball too.  The first oasis I have ever been to, Pica is miraculous.  First, you are driving through this incredible desert.  The earth is cracked; the outskirts of your vision shimmer with heat, and all of sudden you find this patch of green.  And then as you get closer, you smell the amazing perfume of the oranges and grapefruit growing there.  Suddenly, you are enjoying the deliciously green trees, the juicy fruit and taking a soak in a terma.  I imagine that if I wanted to drop out of the world, I would go to Pica to enjoy the rest of my solitary time.

In between Iquique and Pica are old salitre companies.  Mining for salitre was the heart of Chilean commerce, and also once was the driving economic force in the country.  Thus, visiting old salitre companies was an amazing historical sight.  The towns and factories were deplete of people so it was akin to a western ghost town.  Or how I imagined a western ghost town to look like since I had never been to one.  Then again, it was said that that the salitre miners and factory workers liked Westerns because it reminded them of where they lived, so my speculation can't be too, too off.

Humberstone

Between Iquique and Pica are these amazing geoglyphs etched into the hills.  They were left by the Incas as road symbols and for other unknown reasons. 

2.  Temuco, Puerto Saavedra and the Mapuche community

For our second CIEE outing, we went to the south of Chile in the Region de la Araucania to Temuco.  Temuco is the region of Chile where the majority of the Mapuche community reside.  Our trip was planned so that we could spend a lovely time at a Mapuche school and then at a Mapuche community.

At the school, we painted the school building, made smores with the kids and then played a massive game of capture the flag. 

In the Mapuche community, we watched as they introduced their culture and community.  The community was situated on a piece of land right next to a lake.  The scenery was incredible.  During our visit, the boys played palin a sport reminiscent of field hockey.  And since the girls were not allowed to play, they watched.  But since it was my first time at a rural farm, instead of watching the game, I asked to see the farm animals.  Some lovely Mapuche women acquiesced and led me and a few others on a little farm tour.  I saw so many baby animals!  And I learned about Mapuche textiles and medicine.

While interactions with the Mapuche people were definitely the highlight of the trip, the most beautiful place we went to was actually Puerto Saavedra.  We stayed at a hostel on the beach and went to a Mirador in the morning with the most amazing scenery. On the beach side of the hills, the sky is clear, blue and gorgeous; On the land side of the hills, it is cloudy and broody.  All of that action can fit in one picture!

3.  Mendoza, Argentina

I went to Mendoza the other weekend.  I hate to be repetitive, but Mendoza was a beautiful city as well.  It was very open and relaxed and well organized.  Mendoza is interesting because there is a park right above the city that is about the same size as the city itself.  I feel like the city folk from Mendoza were much more athletic than any Chilean counterparts.

We went on a bike wine tour.

And we went paragliding.  I didn't know how I would feel about paragliding, but after doing it, it compares to the most freeing, beautiful and exciting swing ride one can ever enjoy in life.  You are literally sailing in the wind.

When we finally left Mendoza, it was over 28 C, but interestingly enough, at the Chilean/Argentine border in the Andes it was snowing!  Thought it would cool to share.

Chugga Chugga poot poot

Now that I have less than a month left of Chile, I feel like all the energy has been sucked out of me and leaves me with nothing to write.  "Es Chile" is a phrase that is now etched in my head.  Using glue sticks and paper cutouts in university class?  Es Chile.  The metro is late?  Es Chile.  Can't find an open pharmacy on Sunday? Es Chile.  The pet dogs are dressed in skirts and capes?  Es Chile.  I have become accustomed to the strangeness that is this country and now, even when something exciting or odd happens, I tend to be just "eh".

However, I know that I should appreciate the interesting times because I will miss them when I leave.  Thus, I will share my fun thing of the week: attending two soccer games.

On Wednesday night, I went to the Chile vs. Uruguay friendly match.  The game was at Estadio Monumental close to my university campus, San Joaquin.  I was quite excited for the game. (Shhh this is a secret since I was cheering for the Chilean team, but ever since I watched the World Cup this summer, I have been in love with Diego Forlan from Uruguay, and think he is the most riveting soccer player ever. Plus, what a beautiful blonde mane!  Also, the Uruguay goalie Fernando Muslera is pretty cute too.)

Thus, I was super worried when it was 8:40 pm, and we were still in a massive line to get into the 8:45 pm game.  I had heard to arrive at a soccer game an hour beforehand, but in line, I heard people say that for international games, it was better to leave 2 hours beforehand.  Unfortunately, it was a little too late for that memo.  Consequently, I was afraid of the game starting without us.  Luckily at 8:43 pm, the line started to move very quickly.  In fact, we all started to run into the stadium (I kept asking people in my group "Why are we running?").  I'm not sure why the attendants waited until then to let everyone in, but the good thing was that we made it into the stadium before the game started.

The Chile-Uruguay game was my first soccer game in South America.  In fact, it was my first real soccer game unless one counts a murky memory of a Kixx game.  Thus, to me, it was incredible.  The stadium was filled with more that 41,000 people and almost all of them were in red/blue/white for Chile.  Some of the people were in black to "mourn the death of Chilean soccer" since the coach Marcela Bielsa was going to retire.

Since I come from a school where students attend football games to throw toast the 3rd quarter and then leave, the audience was amazing.  They were involved and excited throughout the game.  Despite the lack of national anthem, the Chileans sang enough patriotic songs during the game to equal ten American sports games.  Man, can the crowd cheer.  And man, do they love fire and flares.  When the Chilean team scored their first goal, four flares lit up in the audience.

A red-carded Uruguayan player and 2 goals later, the Chilean team won, and I couldn't stop grinning.  The game was so fun.

(PS- Alexis Sanchez from Chile is pretty great)

Yesterday, I went to a lackluster Colo Colo vs. Cobresal game.  It was basically a Colo Colo vs. who cares? game.  Colo Colo is the biggest club soccer team within Chile.  Other big teams are Universidad de Chile and Universidad de La Catolica.  If the game was Colo Colo vs. U de Chile or U Catolica, it would have been exciting, but as it was a tiny team called Cobresal with literally 10 fans in the stadium (Colo Colo's colors are black and white.  Cobresal's color is orange.  There were only 10 people wearing orange), no one was really in any fan fraught danger.  A Cobresal player got redcarded, and Colo Colo won by a goal.  The one notable thing about the game was the fan base.  One section of the stadium sang and stood and jumped and waved tirelessly for the entire 90 minutes of the game.  It was incredible.  My favorite chant (the only one I could make out) was Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le, Colo Colo es Chile!  which is a play on the Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le, Viva Chile! chant.

Irony

I wear a watch in Chile even though I never show up on time and neither do the Chileans.

Random Chile thoughts

So, I have become a very lazy and sad blogger.
Then yesterday, I realized...I only have 1 month left in South America!
Thus, even though my English skills are greatly reduced now, I need to be more vigilant and document, so here are a few lines.


Things I love in Chile
-missing the metro train crammed to the brim with people at 8 am and to subsequently step onto the completely empty one following it a second later
-that blind people and people in wheelchairs are helped on and off of public transportation
-that in the micro, I can catch a girl filling a droplet with milk out of a Coke Zero bottle and opening her lunchbox to feed the kitten inside


Things I question if it is actually wrong or if it is just an American cultural construct
-people saying "gay" and "maricon"
-a presentation group of Chilean nursing students whose faces were covered in dark makeup to introduce Haiti
-the micro driving away as I knock on the door that just closed as I was kissing people goodbye