Among other things, February Travels, part III: La Serena, the Elqui Valley, & Valparaiso

Hi everyone, and happy Spring Break to those of you who have just survived midterms! I hope this message finds you somewhere relaxing… and warm. Also, welcome home, Mommy!!

I’ve been doing a lot of relaxing myself lately—both during our last week of travels and since arriving home. I’ll tell you all about La Serena and Valparaiso in a moment. So far, though, it’s been a quiet week here in Santiago. We got home on Monday evening, so I spent Tuesday doing some sleeping, eating, blog-writing, and conversing with my host family. I also went for a run at noon, which is basically unheard of during summer, but it was a particularly cool day.

My host mom, sister, and cousin all asked about the past week and were particularly interested to know if I’d tried anything with papaya because La Serena has tons of papaya and it shows up in EVERYTHING. It seemed to please them that I’d tried a bite of some papaya ice cream. I like talking to them about my travels, and it’s nice that they’re interested in hearing about things. I also appreciate that they don’t bombard me with questions because that would probably make me anxious. They ask a few questions, add in their two cents, and then I’m free to share or not to share. It’s good Spanish practice for me to tell them about my travels, but I always feel a little strange informing them about their country because they haven’t visited a lot of the places I’ve visited.

On Wednesday, our whole group met at UAH and registered for classes, which was a bit disorganized and stressful. First of all, I’d spent the last month with just a few people from the program and suddenly I was surrounded by everyone from our January class. Of course, everybody was discussing their February travels and asking questions and hugging each other. It was nice to hear about what people did, but it was a bit over-stimulating!

Then, there was the stress of dealing with UAH’s online registration system. We don’t have access to any course descriptions, so we basically had to choose classes based on the names of the courses and nothing more. We also don’t know where the classes will be, which is not all that surprising to me. Anyway, I’m planning to take a Poverty and Development class (part of our program), which has a service component I’m excited about. Also, I’ll finish my Spanish minor here by taking the Poetry and Society class taught by one of our January instructors (Marcelo) and another literature course as well. So as not to have too much time on my hands—because I just don’t know what to do with it—I also want to possibly take another course for fun and definitely enroll in a pilates class, play a club sport, and/or find some sort of organization to do something with. I’m not sure what my options are yet for most of those things, but I do know that I want to take advantage of the opportunities at the University and stay fairly busy (without overdoing it). I came to Chile for some breathing space, and I’ll definitely have that even if I commit to one or two things outside of my classes, plus it could be a great way to meet some Chileans.

Because we were a bit overwhelmed by the fact that we had been reunited with the 20-some other people in our program and had also dealt with a really obnoxious registration system for the past three hours, Caitlin, Liz, and I decided we needed to unwind for a bit. We decided to seek out an afternoon cocktail, so we found a Happy Hour and had some Tequila Sunrises and Mint Mojitos in the middle of the afternoon. We all thought it was pretty funny that we needed to “take the edge off” when our only work that day had consisted of signing up for classes, but this is what the Vacation Mindset has done to us—now we don’t know how to do more than one major thing on any given day!

I had to get home that night to help prepare for a special visit. Alexia, who lived with my host family for a year (last semester and the one before), was visiting Santiago and had planned to drop by that evening to reunite with her family. It was a big deal because she had obviously gotten really close to everybody here, so my whole host family was really excited for her visit. I’d heard a lot about her, so I was excited to meet her and talk about the program a bit, too. I was nervous that I’d feel left out or that everyone would be talking too fast for me to understand, but things actually went really well and the night was a lot of fun.

Alexia and her Chilean boyfriend, Miguel, arrived at about 8:30pm to join me, María José, Carolina, and her boyfriend, Marcelo for dinner. We had completos because, during her time in Chile, Alexia really enjoyed them. In case I haven’t told you about completos yet, I will do so now. Basically, they are glorified hot dogs, served everywhere, and loved by all Chileans. It’s your standard hot dog with ketchup and mustard except that Chileans add all sorts of other things—avocado, tomatoes, mayonnaise, salsa, and pretty much anything else around. It’s always weird to me when we have these completo meals because I pretty much stopped eating hot dogs a long time ago and would never call that a quality “meal.” But, strangely enough, I am beginning to enjoy the other toppings, especially the avocado. Chileans put mayonnaise on a lot of things, which I’m not really a fan of, so I usually skip that topping, and I can’t help thinking that these completos would be even better if the hot dog were a brat… don’t you agree, Katharine?

Mealtime here is a drawn-out affair, so we ate and drank for a good two hours, enjoying completos, potato chips, and pisco sours—what a healthy meal! Pisco, as I have mentioned, is pretty much the national drink of Chile, though it’s not my favorite beverage. It’s a brandy distilled from grapes which is then mixed with other things—sugar, I think, and sometimes egg. At bars, the cheapest drinks are those with pisco, especially the piscola (pisco + Coca Cola), so I’ve had one or two, but the problem is that there’s always wayyyyy too much pisco, and that’s gross. I enjoyed them this night though because I could mix them myself and go easy on the liquor, making it much less toxic-tasting. After a few hours, Miguel started playing some songs on the guitar for awhile, which was really fun even though I didn’t know any of the words. Because people had to work the next day, the event ended early, around midnight, but I was tired and ready for bed anyway. It had been really enjoyable talking about all sorts of things with them (everything from movies to the United States’ intervention in foreign affairs!), and I got a few tips from Alexia about the program and UAH, too.

On Thursday, I met up with Caitlin and Liz and we went to Cerro San Cristobol (that huge hill in Santiago, if you recall). Our mission was to find one of the two pools on the hill, and after an hour of walking up the hill, we found Piscina Antilan, which is pretty much at the top. It was a little expensive, but it was a really beautiful pool, there was almost no one there, and the view was spectacular! It was an incredibly relaxing day, and we had some really nice conversations, too. We were all really relaxed and happy (and tired from the sun) when we called it a day at about 6pm. I almost fell asleep at the dinner table that night because I was so drained (from doing nothing), so I went to bed early.

The lethargy continued into Friday. I slept in and made myself a breakfast of toast and jam, yogurt and banana, and tea (as I’ve been doing every morning this week since everyone is at work when I wake up). A bit later, Caitlin and Liz came over to watch one of María José’s movies with me. It was relaxing to just hang out, have some snacks, and watch the movie, but we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which is INCREDIBLY heavy, so at the end of it we were all pretty sad and shocked. We couldn’t think of anything to do after such an emotional film except, of course, eat some ice cream.

We left my house and walked downtown a bit to Bravisimo, the ice cream Mecca that I constantly wish had a branch in Wisconsin. It was pretty excellent. We then walked around with our ice cream and found a gathering of a bunch of organizations related to women’s rights, so we stopped by. Apparently, International Women’s Day is tomorrow (March 8^th) and there is a march happening because these groups are calling for fair salaries and maternity leave and other such things. It was a cool stop, though overwhelming. I thought about joining in the march just for fun but my host cousin seemed disturbed by that proposition, so I guess I’ll just spend the morning at Mass and skip the march.

The plan for Friday night was to go out with Alexia, and I had invited Caitlin and Liz to join, which would have been really fun. Unfortunately, my host sister came home in tears and Gladys informed me that there would be no going out that evening, so I had to tell the girls that the plans were off. Carolina was really sad, and I couldn’t get the gist of exactly why, but I think it had something to do with Alexia canceling plans and something else about Marcelo, and all of these things added to the stress of her long work days lately just sort of made for a sucky evening. She usually seems so tough and together, so it was different to see her getting emotional, but I totally understand the feeling of a bunch of little things adding up and then that last straw just causing a breakdown. I felt like I wanted to comfort her more than I was able to do so, but that’s not the first time my language handicap has put me at a disadvantage emotionally!

On a happier note, I did get to Skype with Miss Molly Henry for about two hours the other night, and that was SO wonderful. I always appreciate it when my friends and family take time out of their busy schedules to send me an email or Skype me, and Molly has been particularly great at keeping in touch. I know it’s not easy—Catí, when you were in Spain, I was TERRIBLE at correspondence! But it really is great to hear from people, and missing everyone so much just reminds me that I’ve got some great people in my life, so it was really special to talk to her for awhile.

Also, we made up for the failed attempt at going out with Alexia by getting together and doing so last night. I spent the day at home, watching Australia with María José and just hanging out, and then, that afternoon, we did a little shopping and got some yummy Italian sodas in a cute neighborhood nearby. I had never spent a long period of time with just María José, and it was a lot of fun and a very relaxing day. When we returned from our little jaunt, we got ready to go out and then had pizza with Carolina, Marcelo, Alexia and Miguel. We went out to a restaurant-bar-club at about 12:30a.m. (standard for Chileans) and danced the night away until almost 6 in the morning, which I still think is pretty ludicrous, though it seems more natural every time it happens. I was tired for awhile at first, but I started dancing and got my second wind and it was a blast, even if they did play too much 80’s music from the U.S. It was the first time I’d gone out with Carolina or María José, and it was exciting to spend time with them in that setting.

This morning, I couldn’t really sleep in because I wanted to go to Mass at 12. María José accompanied me and we actually got to Santa Ana on time this week, so that was good. The priest that said Mass spoke really well, so I understood everything, which was very exciting. I’m also getting better at the various responses and prayers during Mass, and I’m working on learning the Our Father and the Creed in Spanish so I can more actively participate. After Mass, I had lunch (empanadas!!) with Gladys and María José and then left to FINALLY meet up with Jill! Because she’s only been in Santiago for a week or so (following a pre-program for a few weeks in the countryside), she hasn’t explored much outside of her neighborhood. So, we walked around the lovely Cerro Santa Lucía and the fair there, and of course I had to introduce her to Bravisimo ice cream! The best part of the day, though, was just being able to see her and talk to her. A familiar face here will be such a blessing, and since Jill is one of my dearest friends from home, it’s even better. I ended this great day with dinner in Providencia with Liz, where we shared a yummy Capreese pizza and some good conversation. All in all, a fantastic Sunday.

Tomorrow, I have Orientation at UAH, which ought to be interesting. More on that later.

Now, as for last week, it was wonderful. Our goal was to go somewhere relaxing and do pretty much nothing, and we chose La Serena, about seven hours north of Santiago, because it’s located in the heart of the Elqui Valley, an area we hadn’t yet explored, and because there are beaches. Caitlin and I got together on Saturday to talk about plans, which basically consisted of booking a hostel for the first night and getting our bus tickets. Meanwhile, Liz was spending the last day with her mom, who returned home that day. (Side note: after this meeting, I went to Mass and was asked to read the 2^nd Reading. I told the priest I might not be the best person for the job, but he insisted it would be fine, and it was, though I was a bit nervous!)

So, after a quick turn-around in Santiago, we hopped on yet another bus and arrived in La Serena on the 22^nd. I’d had a nice conversation with Gladys the night before, during which we’d figured out that we both like The Alchemist, and she actually pulled out a Spanish copy of the book for me to borrow, so I was newly equipped with reading material for the journey, which passed pretty uneventfully. When we arrived in La Serena, we went to our hostel and dropped off our things before going exploring a little bit and calling it a night.

The next day, Caitlin and I went for a run in the morning, and the afternoon was spent on the town, taking in the sights. We strolled around the central Plaza de Armas and the big market, La Recova. We moved to a different hostel, where we’d stay for the remainder of our time in La Serena, and we made lunch there. We decided to see a movie that night at the mall, so we ate dinner there and then went to He’s Just Not That Into You, which I thought was pretty dumb.

After the movie, we had a mission. We’d heard about a drink called a terremoto, which means “earthquake.” It supposedly consists of wine, ice cream, and fruit, and we thought this sounded like the world’s best idea, so we went searching for it. We found a place called La Biblioteca which serves terremotos, but we’d forgotten to bring our IDs, so we had to walk all the way back to our hostel to get them. We returned with a vengeance, eager to try this amazing concoction, but we were quite disappointed. First of all, the drink didn’t have real fruit—it had grenadine. And secondly, it contained white wine and we thought red would have been better. Finally, the combination itself, despite consisting of some pretty great elements (wine and ice cream for example) was pretty fatal. We left feeling pretty ill, and the next day we began our tour of the Elqui Valley feeling quite gross.

But alas, we woke up early the next morning and were picked up by the tour company with which we’d arranged an adventure in the Elqui Valley. Overall, it was a good tour, but we didn’t like our tour guide and we weren’t too fond of the self-absorbed French family who was also along for the ride. Regardless, we started out by riding through the beautiful Elqui Valley. It was beautiful: green everywhere, vineyards on both sides of us (I’d never seen a vineyard before!), sparkling lakes, cacti, rivers, and all sorts of pretty flowers and trees. It was a hot, sunny day, and the valley was so full of life and so lush and lovely.

Our first stop was a pisco plant, where we learned all about the process of distilling grapes to make pisco. We also tried a few types of pisco, which pretty much burned a hole in our throats and was probably the last thing we needed after our terremoto nightmare. On the plus side, though, we purchased some pretty yummy grapes at the plant for an amazingly low price, and those sustained us.

We also stopped in a bunch of little roadside villages, one of which is called Pisco Elqui and has a pretty hippie vibe. We bought some delicious jams and manjar there. Have I told you about manjar? It’s like a caramel spread here, which is a sweet topping for crackers or cookies and is used in cakes as well as ice cream, so basically, it’s our favorite thing ever. I bought a jar of manjar with almonds for Gladys, and she was really excited about it.

We walked around the town a bit there and, in another (Montegrande), we visited the schoolhouse museum of Chile’s first Nobel Prize for Literature winner, the late poet Gabriela Mistral. I really like Mistral’s work and what she stood for; for example, when she died, she left all of the earnings from her works to the children of Montegrande. I thought the museum should have been a lot bigger, but it was neat that it used to be her schoolhouse, even if it only took ten minutes to walk through.

We left Montegrande and headed to another town, called Vicuña. There, we ate an incredibly relaxing lunch. We all had a salad and then main dishes and dessert (which is fruit—if only I could live by that principle). I had pastel de choclo for lunch, a traditional Chilean dish which is basically a crushed up corn pie. Others had porotos granados, which is a white bean soup and is also really delicious. My host mom frequently makes both of these dishes for me, as she really enjoys exposing me to different Chilean foods.

After lunch, we had time to relax at this place, which was much more than a restaurant. For example, there’s a pool, a swingset, hammocks, and lots of pretty trees and flowers. I dipped my feet in the pool and talked to another lady from our tour for awhile before taking a quick nap in the hammock. I didn’t want to leave, but after an hour or so, it was time to continue with our tour.

We got to walk around the central plaza in Vicuña for awhile then, where there was a market with many things to see and buy, though I resisted. After, we got back in the van to return to La Serena, stopping only at a huge dam, which was exciting mostly because there were cute little goats, lots of cacti, and a new fruit juice to try (from cactus), which would have been pretty bitter without the crazy amount of sugar they added to it. It was such a sunny, warm day, and even though we’d all felt kind of sick to our stomachs that morning, we felt much better after our yummy lunch. We just needed a nap!

When we got back to La Serena, we took naps and made our dinner and then were picked up again, in the evening, for part two of our tour of the Valley. This time, we went to Mamalluca Observatory, one of the many observatories in the La Serena area. The skies in the Elqui Valley are some of the clearest in the world, and this part of Chile has seen a recent increase in interest from astronomy observatories. We were tired and cold at first, and the ride to the Observatory seemed to take awhile, but we were greeted by one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen.

How do I describe the amount of stars in the sky here? It was a sight I’d never seen, and although we all know that, on a nightly basis, we only see a fraction of the stars in the sky, it’s amazing how many there are up there! And it’s amazing when you can see more than we usually see because suddenly it’s like the universe just expanded tenfold. You can actually see the Milky Way, which puts things in perspective because there’s way more than just our galaxy out there. We were surrounded by a huge canvas, painted black, almost every inch speckled with brilliant stars that really, truly twinkled, and when you look up into a sky like that, you feel like, suddenly, you’re not standing upright on the ground anymore. We wanted to put sleeping bags down and stay there all night, looking up at the gorgeous sky.

Instead, we got to look through a massive telescope at different stars and galaxies and, my favorite, Saturn! We saw the planet, its rings, and its biggest moon, Titan. It’s pretty crazy that I am actually saying I saw Saturn, but I did! And, what’s more, I have a picture of it because our guide at the Observatory knew how to take a picture with my camera through the telescope!

We were exhausted after returning home from the Observatory (quite late), and we slept in the next morning. It was Ash Wednesday, and I wanted to go to Mass, so I planned to go to the Cathedral in the square. Liz and Caitlin came with me, which was really cool, and I was happy I’d been able to attend. After that, we went to the beach and just relaxed. It was a difficult day for us because we really wanted some ice cream and wine but because Ash Wednesday calls for fasting and I’d warned them that I’d be swearing off the treats that day, they’d decided to join in, and we all suffered together. That night, we saw Valkyrie, which was much heavier than the movie we’d seen the other night, and we decided that, because it hadn’t been quite warm enough for us at the beach (only about 70 degrees, I’d guess), we’d like to go to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar for the weekend.

The following day, Caitlin and I woke up to go running and decided to take a different route than we’d run the first time. We ended up getting ourselves a bit trapped after running along the beach for awhile and realizing that the cross-street we were hoping for was nowhere to be found. Strangely enough, a lady walking her dog decided to practice her English on us and was overly-excited to give us a lift about ten minutes down the road so that we didn’t have to run all the way back. Although I kind of wanted to run myself out of the mess I’d run myself into, it was a kind gesture and seemed like an OK idea since we really didn’t know where we were going anymore. This lady was sweet, but our car ride with her and her slobbery dog was kind of surreal. She told us all sorts of things about her life and then dropped us off where we asked her to and drove off. Where had she even come from? It was such a strange incident… and so very Chile.

We wanted to make up for the lack of food consumed the day before, so we had a delicious breakfast with scrambled eggs—VERY exciting! Then we spent the day at the beach again (this time with wine and ice cream), and Liz and I splashed around in the waves, which was tons of fun because it always makes me feel so alive when I play in the ocean. The three of us chatted and giggled a lot, and it was a warm, sunny day, so we did not want to leave the beach when it was time. But, we wanted to return to the market one more time, just to make sure we’d seen everything. After walking around La Recova for awhile and getting our bus tickets and everything together, we made a yummy stir fry, I called home to wish my mom a good trip to the Dominican Republic (so good to talk to my parents for a bit!!), and we all showered and went to bed. We had enjoyed our time in the calm, quaint La Serena, but we were ready for the charm and warmth of Valparaiso and Viña and were eager for a change of scenery the next day.

The next morning, before our bus left, we took part in an aerobics class at a nearby gym. By a totally strange twist of good luck, a guy named Mario had been doing some construction work at our hostel and had invited us to attend this free class at his son’s gym, located only about two minutes away from the hostel. Eager to actually do some exercising, we went to the class without knowing exactly what to expect. In true Chilean fashion, the instructor arrived about twenty minutes late, but it was alright because that allowed us some time to use some of the facility’s other machines, which was great. The class itself turned out to be a mix of aerobics and Latin dance, and the three of us had no chance of blending in or looking intelligent when the teacher started shaking it like Shakira, shouting out moves to salsa and meringue and cumbia dances. We sucked, but it was good to get our bodies moving and the instructor was so nice to us. It was also exciting to practice our dance moves, even if we left more confused than when we’d arrived. I must say, Aunt Vicki, that your belly-dancing would probably help you here. My hips were sore the next day!

As it turned out, this class was our only movement for the day, so it was a really good thing we attended. The bus ride to Valparaiso was terrible. It smelled bad, it took forever because we kept getting stuck in traffic, and there was a stupid movie blaring, although the sound was only coming out of the speaker directly above our seat. It was obnoxious, and when the movie ended, the terrible music videos began, so for the last forty minutes or so, we had to hear and watch awful attempts at singing, which was pure torture.

When we finally arrived, we got in a cab and went directly to our hostel, and then things changed.

In short, we fell in love with Valparaiso. For me, the weekend there was one of the best so far in Chile, and it just reaffirmed what I knew from the moment I felt the fresh air that time our whole class visited Valpo for the day in January: I love it there. We stayed in a precious little hostel with a sweet lady, went to quaint and colorful cafés and shops, saw a movie (Slumdog Millionaires! So good!), and basically just strolled around the hills of Valparaiso, taking in the charm around every corner. That’s just what you do here! There’s tons of artsy graffiti all over town, and music seemed to come from out of nowhere just to accompany us on our pleasant afternoon strolls. We never really knew what time it was, and we had some really wonderful conversations and lots of sunny weather, which was exactly what we wanted our last weekend of travel month to be like.

Aside from our aimless and relaxing meandering, we visited a few markets, rode the city’s oldest ascensor (basically an elevator on a train track going straight up a hill—there are fifteen in total), cooked some delicious meals together at our hostel (which we decided will be our home for our weekend visits), and had the world’s best hot chocolate with Bailey’s at a place called Color Café. One night, we tried to go to a production of Romeo and Juliet, which included some hardcore speed-walking for forty minutes to a different hill, only to find out that, in true Chilean style, it had been canceled due to an injury Romeo had suffered. Apparently there was no under-study? So, we went out to a bar instead, which was fun but nowhere near as fun as our own Vino Nights, which, don’t you worry, also occurred.

We also spent one day on the beach in the neighboring town of Viña del Mar, which was really beautiful and relaxing. In fact, we had a whole conversation about the waves there as we sprawled out on the warm white sand. The beach wasn’t safe for swimming, but Lizzie and I enjoyed standing on the beach and waiting for the tide to roll in and tickle our toes with its chilliness.

Watching the waves roll in was like reading poetry. These massive, sparkling, picture-perfect forms seemed to swell and rise up out of nowhere. This reminded me of a sleeping giant who had appeared to be a part of the landscape while lying down but, upon rising, revealed his true immensity. Standing tall, these waves then crept in toward the beach, approaching in a massive front like a marching army. Then, at the perfect moment, individual units emerged, as each section, as if on cue, flipped over in a gorgeous display of force and fragility, flashing turquoise as they folded over and peeled off (my favorite part). The thunderous crash was always a little delayed, and by the time we heard the clap, the remnants of the bestial wave’s spectacular performance were already gurgling in toward the beach, the foam trickling slowly toward our feet, hissing all the way. This was Lizzie’s favorite part because the bubbles came at our feet like runners in a marathon, looking wearied but glorious. Do you see what I mean? It’s hard not to get carried away with the metaphors… but it really was quite stunning. Like the stars in La Serena, it’s one of those things I could stare at forever and not get bored.

It took all of our discipline to get on the bus to return to Santiago because we’d had such a lovely time our fourth week. Knowing that Valparaiso is close enough to make for great weekend escape destination is the only thing that helped us leave its loveliness behind. I’m anxiously awaiting our return, but I’m also excited about things going on here and it didn’t take long for us to get back into our Santiago mindsets after all.

It’s time for me to get some sleep. I’ve got to be at UAH at 8:30a.m. tomorrow, which is pretty early for me these days. I have no clue what to expect and am a bit nervous, but I’m also excited about the beginning of this new part of my Chilean adventure.

Until soon,

Amanda