Peru -- Belly Button of the World

Well I went to Macchu Piccu, so I suppose I ought to tell everyone about it :P

This was my favorite trip so far, half because it marked the end of my time abroad, half because I didn't have to worry about needing money afterwards, and half because Peru is great. Since getting back I've been rushing around a bit to get ready to fly home tomorrow night. Well, rushing in the sense of "playing hearts on the computer and not doing anything." My bags are packed already and I have extra space (again! I should have bought bigger souvenirs!).

Well, Peru. We flew into Chile's northern-most city, Arica, and got a taxi to Peru's southern-most city, Tacna. The ride's about an hour through the Atacama with an easy border crossing in the middle of nowhere. The desert is definitely not boring, the dunes and rocks and huts all break up the landscape. But not really my favorite -- I just miss plants too much.



From Tacna we took buses for about 14 hours to Cuzco, Peru's tourist capital. All of our bus rides were rather enjoyable because of the ridiculous movies we were forced to watch ("Beverly Hills Chihuahua" anyone? and games of Bingo with free return tickets as prizes. Cuzco was the Incan capital (also known as the Belly Button of the World) and has many ruins nearby. The main church was built on the foundation of the Incan emperor's palace and they still use the Incan walls in many buildings. After visiting Macchu Piccu we spent a couple of days in Cuzco just chilling. But at first we just spent the night before catching a train through the Sacred Valley.

The train follows a couple of rivers and we were able to watch the Peruvian countryside as we moved along. The people are clearly poorer than Chilean farmers but still seemed to have productive land. As the train kept going we ended up further in the mountains and the valley was incredibly steep. The landscape turned greener as we entered the western edge of the Amazon. I read that the river we were moving along, the Urubamba, is considered to be the beginning of the Amazon River -- cool!

We got to Aguascalientes which is this little town near Macchu Piccu that exists solely because of tourism. There were tons of stalls selling souvenirs and I got some. Okay, I got quite a bit. But it was so much cool stuff!

Anyway. That night we tried cuy, or guinea pig. It tastes like chicken, but there's maybe four mouthfuls of meat in the entire thing and it sits there looking scary. Not worth the money and it's a good thing we ordered pizza as well or we would have starved. Tell me if you want to see pictures, I'm not putting any of the ugly things up on here.



We got up early in the morning to be in the first 400 up the Macchu Piccu. Why? Well there's a Peruvian law that only 400 people a day can climb Wayna Piccu, the peak right next to Macchu Piccu. You can see it behind me in the picture above. [By the way, Wayna Piccu means Young Man and Macchu Piccu means Old Man] Unfortunately, we were numbers 400-403, so we didn't quite make it. The clouds were covering the peaks of all the mountains and it was just beautiful. The ruins were incredible, too, and we got a tour. I took a lot of pictures, guess I should put those on Facebook.

We ate lunch right outside the ruins and watched Germany-Argentina. Once we decided Germany was winning we headed back up. Although Wayna Piccu was off-limits, there are a number of other hikes around the ruins -- the Sun Gate, the Inca Bridge, or the mountain Macchu Piccu. Our guide had recommended the mountain for us because we are "young and fisic." It's a harder climb, but there are few others and the view is great. She estimated we could do it in an hour and a half. At the base there was a guy in a stand checking people in (in case we don't come back, gulp) and he thought we could do it in 40 minutes. Well, we showed them! It took us two hours, probably because of our frequent and lengthy breaks. Totally worth it, the view was incredible in every direction and there was a cool breeze from the glaciers.



Since we were on the peak of that mountain everything has been a step getting closer to home. We spent a few days in Cuzco, then another in Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. It's also known as the White City because of the bright volcanic rock used in many of its buildings. Heading back into Chile we spent a day in Arica enjoying the ocean and the food (best restaurant in Chile!). Despite being the driest city in the world, Arica is also a surfing hotspot. The flight back to Santiago was even great because I could see the coastline, the ocean and the sunset.



Tonight we're having a going away party/barbecue. I'll be home in less than two days!

The World Cup

A post about the World Cup is definitely overdue. I just keep forgetting to write one, sorry! So Chile just won against Switzerland. This, with their win last week against Honduras puts them in first place in their group! With a bit of luck and good playing Chile could move on to the elimination round, yay!

The fans are all pretty pumped about Chile being in the World Cup and all, and the wins just keep the fire going. Last week I had to head to campus early in order to watch the game before class. On my way to the metro the roads were packed and all of the cars were honking their horns in a fun, cheering kind of way. There were painted men wearing wigs rushing to pick up food for the game. Everyone on the metro was wearing some sort of red in support of La Roja. By the way, the nickname for the fans is "Marea Roja" or red tide. Oddly, this is the same name as an disease in fish in the south of the country which makes them inedible. Well, I suppose calling yourselves the same name as a disastrous natural occurence isn't that bad.

Speaking of natural disasters, I've seen some shots from South Africa of Chilean flags with the motto "Chile is stronger than an 8.8". Oh yeah!

Friday is the last game, it's against Spain, and I hope the weather is nice. If it is, I'm going to the Alameda to watch outside with thousands of fans.

Chi-Chi-Chi! Le-Le-Le! Viva Chile!

More day to day stuff...

Last weekend almost everyone went to Buenos Aires or the Atacama desert, so I've been gettting the experience secondhand. A few of my friends and I have started seriously planning our Macchu Piccu trip, and it's going to be awesome! We looked into doing the Inca Trail, a three to four day hike that ends watching the sun rise from Macchu Piccu. Unfortunately it's now mandatory to hire a guide, cook, and porters to do the trail. So that's out.

On Sunday I got to go hiking near Santiago with another Notre Dame student and his host family. We climbed Cerro Manquehue, a small mountain (about 1600 meters above sea level) to the north of Santiago. It's the tallest cerro in the Santiago Valley and has a great view of... pretty much everything. At least it would if it weren't for the smog. Since it didn't rain this weekend the pollution has been building up and Santiago is under a smog alert right now. But the view from the top was still amazing, you can see just how sprawled out and huge Santiago is.

Language note: cerro is Spanish for "hill" and Manquehue is the Mapuche word for "place of the condors".

Time Spent Not Traveling

Since going to La Serena a couple of weeks ago I've been staying in Santiago for the weekends. School has been a bit busy with presentations, papers and tests, but now it really feels like we're in the last leg of classes.

Outside of school I've had a lot of funny lately. Some of us had a girl's night making spaghetti and brownie mix while watching movies. I also ate dinner at the restaurant Agua Para Chocolate when a family visiting their daughter here took a bunch of us out to eat. It's a really lovely restaurant with amazing food. There was also a costume birthday party, I went as Professor Quirrell from Harry Potter (hey, I didn't pack thinking "what would make a good costume?").

Then yesterday we had a university sponsored trip to the town of Pomaire, known for it's pottery. We got to see the "back room" aspects of the pottery and even got to make some pots on a pottery wheel and clay piggy banks! I bought four bowls, a sugar dish, two salsa bowls, five good luck pigs and two vases for less than $9. It's that cheap! Almost every house and restaurant in Chile uses clayware from Pomaire, so it'll make a good keepsake.


Pomaire, the hills are so green!



Oh, and I bought a crochet needle and some thread. Some of the other students studying here knit or crochet, and I thought it looked like a really good activity to take with me when I go traveling. So far my scarf looks acceptable and relatively straight...

I am trying to figure out my travel plans for the rest of the semester. It would be amazing to go to Macchu Piccu, but I'm not sure if I could do anything else. Otherwise I was thinking about visiting the Atacama Desert with my friends and making some smaller trips to other parts of Chile by myself (such as Chiloe and the Lake Country?). Another option would be fly to Lima, Peru, and hang out there for a week with some people I know. Any thoughts?

Desert Rain

Last Thursday I headed north with some friends. We headed to La Serena, Chile's second oldest city after Valparaiso. Although the city itself wasn't supposed to be a big tourist draw, it is close to several quite interesting sites such as a penguin reserve, Chile's major pisco valley and quite a few of the world's largest telescopes. Our plan to visit these attractions went down the drain when the weather decided that last weekend would be the perfect time for La Serena to receive it's monthly inch of rain. The tour of the penguins islands was a off for fear of boats capsizing (although whenever the sun shone the tour agencies told us it would be fine, these people must not check weather forecasts), and we obviously couldn't view the far reaches of the universe through the clouds. So here's what we did do...

We began Friday very positively, enjoying La Serena's colonial-style buildings over a deliciously yummy breakfast. Flavored hot chocolate anyone? After visiting the vineyards of Pisco Elqui, we returned to the hostel for the best part of the day: preparing an amazing spaghetti with garlic break for ourselves. It was awesome and included flaming bread.



Initially we hoped to go see penguins on Saturday, but when that didn't turn out well we explored La Serena. Their Japanese Gardin is supposed to be very relaxing and beautiful, but was... closed. Like everything else, right? However, we did stumble upon a free zoo with ostrichs and condors and giant tortoises and chickens, as well as a very random herd of billy goats, sheep and llamas that were just walking around a bunch of jungle gyms. Not fenced in, just walking around. And in the evening we went to a circus! To end the day we spent a few hours chilling in a restaurant. We ordered a variety of chocolatey treats--hot chocolate, ice cream and a milkshake-- and mixed them all up to make our own "mixed" beverages.

The Best Food in Chile

According to one guidebook I came across, the best food in Chile is in... Mendoza, Argentina? Well, I guess Argentina is known for their beef. Add in Mendoza's wine and chocolate, and it doesn't sound half-bad. It's not hard to say that the food in Mendoza was not only slightly cheaper than in Chile, but also that it tasted delicious.

Let me begin by saying that Mendoza seemed to be what the told us Chile would be: very late night-life where the party doesn't start until 12 or later, and lots of meat. Oh, but they also speak clear Spanish and don't have Santiago's unfortunate smog problem.

There was some last-minute panic regarding the bus (I ended up leaving on a different bus from everyone else I was traveling with - not my fault!). And a nightime journey across the snowy Andes, though I slept through most of it, once the eighties music videos stopped playing. I woke up long enough to get through customs, which was the simplest process of entering a country I have ever experienced. Before falling asleep again I tried to see out my window. Being night and all, it was a bit dark, but I could see the black sky and mountains covered with stars and snows. It was beautiful.

I got into Mendoza before the others, since I traveled in a mini-bus. Once they got in we ate a wonderful breakfast of croissants. The cappuccino I ordered was much better than the kind I have had here in Chile, and a couple of the other girls got Submarinos, literally "submarines," which was basically a chocolate bar in warm milk. We walked across town to a hostel, then spent the rest of the day wandering and enjoying Mendoza's lovely parks. Thinking I would be able to go Sunday morning before leaving, I chose a nap over visiting the large park to the north of the city. Unfortunately, I never did go on Sunday. I only took eight pictures (8!) the entire trip, and here are two of them: Josie enjoying our lunchtime parrilla, "grill," and the park with all of the painted tiles.






In the evening we went to a tenedor libre, literally "free fork," basically a buffet, called Las Tinajas. I just looked up that name and it means "The Large Pitcher." Not quite The Leaky Cauldron, but I'm willing to bet the food was much much better. As part of the all you can eat, watch it get made smorgasbord of yummy there were more seafood dishes than I've seen in Chile (I ate mini octopus legs! and paella!) chocolate drizzled dulce de leche wontons, flan, crepes, any kind of grilled meat that is served in Mendoza, pasta, thousand layer cake, and so on. In addition to the food there was live entertainment, i.e. reallllly loud speakers for a guy singing karaoke by himself on a balcony. With artificial smoke. And at several points females from the audience singing along. We left right around/before midnight, and there were still families, grannies, and priests coming in to begin their dinner.

Saturday we headed out for the bicicle wine tour. I'll separate the trip into stops.
First stop: Grand estate, with olive orchard in back, llamas, and scrumptious desert wine.
Second stop: Italian family winery, converted into museum, awesome tour, and samples of olive oil with bread! I bought two bottles of wine here.
Third: Bad wine, cheap lunch.
Fourth: Wine "Museum" also running winery. Huge casks. Really huge.
Five: No wine. Homemade chocolate, olive based dips, and various liquors. I tried the absinthe. No I did not hallucinate; yes, it burned. Ran out of money here.

We didn't do much else that day, although two of the girls went to the nearby bars and (I heard) got banana split! Wow, I missed out on so much in Mendoza. First the park, then the banana splits... and we never even went paragliding!

Coming back to Santiago went well. On our way out of town we barely squeezed in enough time to get McFlurries--flavor Cadbury tres sueños. Since we left in the afternoon we got to see the countryside. Fall is beautiful. For some reason I wasn't actually expecting the leaves to change color and fall here, but they do.

So now that I wrote that, I'm going to leave again (in about ten minutes!). I'm heading north this time, to the town of La Serena. If everything works out, I'll be able to tell you about penguins, pisco and stars when I get back!

A bit about service

I should really be writing an essay for Spanish right now (a review of the movie "El Chacotero Sentimental") but decided to do this instead. Why does it need to get done tonight? Because I'm leaving for Argentina in a couple of hours! But more about that when I get back.

Today I hung around after my classes and met up with Estela Rojo, one of our two ND coordinators here. She's started helping out at a Casa de Acogida - literally, Welcome House.

The way Chilean foster care works is that if a judge rules that a child is in a bad environment, they get taken out of their home and put into a communal house, or Casa de Acogida. These can be government run, or privately run. The Congregation of the Holy Cross, the religious order associated with Notre Dame, runs five of these casas in Chile. Three of them are in Santiago.

Anyway, back to my story. Estela started teaching a class to a group of young kids and found out that one of the teenage girls wanted help with her English. She basically doesn't know any and it's a requirement for university. So today I went with Estela to visit, then hung out with the girl (whose name I can't remember, gah!). She's fun and I helped her study for an upcoming test on Countries, Nationalities and Languages.

Gotta go get ready, chao!