Week 6!

Hi everyone, I have lots to report! I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to post, and Il try to post more often than every 5 weeks from now on. 

Time is going by so quickly here, I cannot believe I have been here for almost 6 weeks!  I only have classes 3 days a week, so it does not even feel like I am going to school right now.  I spend most of my time drinking coffee and exploring Valdivia.  I am trying to make Chilean friends and practice my Spanish, but right now I feel like I speak as much English as I do Spanish.  Our Chilean friends have been showing us the nightlife, and I have been drinking a lot of pisco sours.   Valdivia has a large German influence, so there are a lot of German people, German architecture, and there is a German brewery which we visited called Cerveceria Kunstmann.

I also took another trip to the beautiful beaches near Valdivia to do some hiking, and this time I went to a beautiful area called Curiñaco.  There are giant forests bordering the coast that make for beautiful scenery and hiking.  In one area there was an entire area full of trees more than 250 years old, and I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings.  The only down point of the hike was that I got bit by a leech!

The girls in my program and I took a boat tour of the rivers surrounding Valdivia The conductor was adorable and looked like a cartoon character, but unfortunately I could not understand anything he was saying.  The boat took us to a tiny rural town where we had “onces”, the Chilean equivalent of dinner, which usually consists of bread and butter or empanadas.  The town also had a bunch of tiny restaurants that made homemade apple cider and homemade liqueur.  The raspberry liqueur was amazing! 

Also, I am participating in American Corner and Un Techo Para Chile.  In American Corner, we speak English with Chilean students, and it is actually one of my favorite things I do here.  Celine, another girl in my program, and I run the group and come up with games and activities to help them with their conversation skills.  They love to talk about American movies, music, tv shows, etc, and it is a great way to meet Chileans.  In Un Techo Para Chile, we go to Los Campos (ghettoes), which I talked about in my previous post, and try to teach kids English.  Most of the kids only know basics, like numbers and colors, and it is usually very chaotic.  Last time, all of the kids had to get flu shots on the day we were there, so they were hysterically crying and their mothers had to drag out of the room.  Although there is a huge language barrier, the kids are fascinated by the “gringas” and I love getting to meet Chilean kids

This past weekend was the best weekend I have had so far in Chile.  I traveled to Valparaíso, which is a 12 hour bus ride from Valdivia.  The city is known as the San Francisco of South America, and I absolutely loved it.  Although the streets are covered in dog poop and the entire city smells horrible, it is one of most beautiful cities I have ever visited.  It is hard to describe the city without seeing it first hand, but it is covered in hills, so all of the houses are staggered throughout the hills.  Most of the houses are painted bright colors, and the walls of every street are covered in murals and street art.  We spent a lot of time walking around, climbing the never-ending stairs throughout the city, riding “ascensores”, which are similar to gondolas and take you up the steeper hills, and eating tons of fresh fish and French fries.  We also visited on of Pablo Neruda’s houses, La Sebastiana, and spent a day at a beautiful beach about 30 min away from Valparaíso called Viña del Mar. 

Next weekend we are going to a small town called Pucón to experience some of the Mapuche (a prominent indigenous group in Chile) culture, and I am working on planning trips to Argentina and Peru! And I promise to update more often from now on!

Cerveceria Kunstman

At the fancy cafes they give you little cookies with your expresso 

Curiñaco

Group photo- all 6 of us plus our 2 Chilean mentors.  We are the smallest group the program has ever had 

Chile's national flower- Copihue

Curiñaco

Curiñaco

Some of the 250+ year old trees 

Lord of the Rings! 

My leech bite 

Cows on the beach 

Our tour boat 

An old church we visited in the little town our tour boat took us to 

Tour guide 

Baby piglets! 

The restaurant where we had "onces'

Homemade cider 

Raspberry liqueur 

The beautiful view of the river from the area where I like to go running 

The campus covered in tear gas-  there are student protests going on right now, and in response the police sprayed tear gas on the entire campus

Student protests for free university education

Outside our hostel in Valparaíso

Valparaíso architecture 

Valparaíso

From inside an ascensor

ascensor tracks- so steep! 

street art 

an example of the hills of Valpo covered in houses- pictures do  not do the city justice 

Famos above ground graveyard - Los Descendientes  

Pablo Neruda shaped bench at his house 

La Sebastiana- Pablo's House- It has 5 stories, and each story has a beautiful view of the city and the ocean 

Pablo Neruda statue 

Seafood restaurant near the port 

Typical Chilean dish- Merluza a lo pobre- fish, fried eggs, fried onions, french fries.  I felt like I got hit by a bus after I ate this, but it was surprisingly delicious 

Monument where famous war heros from Chile's fight for independence are buried 

Salvador Allende mural 

Street performer in Viña del Mar

Viña del Mar

Viña del Mar

We found Starbucks for the first time in Chile!  

Valpo at night 

my giant ice cream sundae 

We tried to eat at this restaurant but they were not serving food- but it was beautifully lit at night 

The inside of our hostel- yes, that is a functioning trapeze swing 

Outside of our hostel- Hostel Verde Limón 

Valpo port- it is the most important port in chile 

Its difficult to see, but if you look closely you can see the snow Andes mountains in the background of the Valpo skyline 

A "Micro"- the buses we use to get around in Valdivia and in Valpo