La Serena, Chile

This weekend I went to a town called La Serena and it is about five hours north of Valpo. This turned out to be a series of unfortunate events, but I ended up having a blast and making new friends. The trip started and ended with a five-six hour bus ride at 11:30 at night.

We got into La Serena too early, so we ended up sitting outside our hostel for about 45 minutes waiting for them to open, but the hostel ended up being so beautiful and they made us homemade breakfast.
Look how beautiful it was:

The whole point of the trip for many of us was to see a penguin. We tried all three days that we were there but could not take a boat to the island because the weather was too bad, too windy. On the last day we even made it as far to drive the 2 hours to the port and wait two hours hoping that the weather would change but it would not so we had to head back. After seeing the types of boats we would have had to take (see below) I understand why they would not have wanted us to go out in the water in bad conditions. It seemed like a waste of 6 hours, but we met some friendly travelers in our van and the beach was still pretty. 

Seeing no penguins was sad but we had a lot of fun in the city and in the valle de elqui! The city is really small and beautiful. We spent and afternoon wandering and exploring. We went to the local army base, the craft market, the church, and ate lots of fresh seafood. The fish was super delicious and probably bad for me!

Local Church in La Serena

Melissa and I on top of a castle in front of a monument

In the center park with my new friend

We also went to a local museum where there was a figure from Easter Island, that got me excited for my trip with my mom and godmother Pam this July! See below! The museum had a ton of artifacts that have been found from all over Chile!

The next day we went into the Valle, where we got to go to a restaurant where the food was cooked by the sun and the weather was beautiful, probably in the 80's! The food was wonderful, and some of my friends tried the special of the house, the goat. But not me, I got some slow cooked beef! Sooooo good!

Some of the solar cookers

My main course :)

Then we went further into the valley to try to take a pisco tour, but we got to the town just a little too late. However, I had fun walking around and exploring the beautiful town and having some amazing hand-made juice! :)

Beautiful church in the center of town

That evening we made ourselves a delicious dinner and made our way to the observatory. That was my favorite part of the trip because it was so gorgeous! I got to learn and see all the stars of the southern hemisphere and see new stars that we cannot see in the US. I also got to look through a telescope and see Saturn! So amazing, it was so clear and beautiful. I wish I could have spent the night under the stars.

The next day after our failed attempt to see the penguins we went to the Japanese gardens and had an amazing time took at all the flowers and feeding the ducks and swans.

To end the night we all found our way to the mall to watch the movie "oblivion." Here all the movies are in english with spanish subtitles, so it is really easy to watch :) and the popcorn is sweet and more like kettle corn!

I finally got home at 6 am this morning after my long bus ride, only to find out my one and only class for today is cancelled! I am going to go out with a friend tonight and tryout for the soccer team here! Wish me luck :)

Only 12 weeks left, where has the time gone :( I absolutely love Chile, just not the winter that is coming.

Chorillanas, Caleta Portales, Concon & the flu

On friday I went with some friends and explored Valpo. We were planning on taking a boat cruise of the city because it was such a beautiful day, but the port ended up being closed because of the protest that occurred the day before. Protesting is a pretty big thing to do here in Chile, because it is one of the main ways that people can make their voices heard. On thursday their was a protest about building a mall in Valpo, putting a substation under the main plaza, and one about the closing of a port that occurred in the north of Chile that left many without jobs. The city is trying to build an upscale mall in Valparaiso that would be located near the port and would be next to the ocean. People believe that this will ruin the culture and dynamic of what is Valparaiso. All of the small local businesses will slowly fade away. Also, they were protesting putting in a substation because they think that it will ruin the plaza and its architecture. Plazas are essential to chilean lifestyle and culture and they don't want that to be taken from them.

Moving on....

Instead of taking that boat cruise, we went to a restaurant and tried chorillanas, which is basically a pile of grease, but ever so delicious. It is fries with egg and onions and steak on top, some restaurants even put cheese on top. We went to the place where it was first created!

Don't they look amazing!

Then we ended the day by walking up and going to an amazing ice cream place in Cerro Alegre! The ice cream is one of the best things here!

The next day I went with a group of girls from my culture class to Caleta Portales, which is an open air fish market. You are able to see all of the boats lined up with people in front of them selling the fish they just caught for the day. We were there for a project that we had to do on the port and its market. One of the girls and I talked with a man who had worked there for 37 years, and learned all about the history of the port and the life of what it means to be a fisherman. We also got to be up close and personal with sea lions that were there playing on the beach and begging for food.

After I went with some other friends to a local beach town that has huge sand dunes and the best empanadas on the coast. The sand dunes are the size of mountains and I saw many kids flying down them on pieces of cardboard. All I know is that my calves hurt once I finally got to the top. But from the top you could see for miles and the whole coast of Valparaíso and Viña. Along the way we became friends with a local stray dog that was extremely sweet! After we played in the sand we found this amazing lookout that had all sorts of rocks to climb and look at the ocean. So beautiful and fun! From there we went to this cute little beach section that was full of different restaurants to get our empanadas. I got a tomato and cheese one, Maggie a vegitarian one, and Melissa got a shrimp and a crab one for us to try. So delicious! They take your order and then hand-make and fry them for you :) Empanada + a orange fanta makes my life complete!

The rest of the weekend did not go as well because unfortunately I got the flu :( But I went in an saw a doctor and got some medicine to treat my symptoms, but i still have a little sore throat.

Tomorrow I am going to La Serena, Chile for the weekend with some friends. It is in the North, cannot wait to tell you all about my next adventures!

Patagonia

The biggest experience that I have had is going to Patagonia in Southern Chile for eight days with a great group of friends.

We first went to Punta Arenas which is one of the furthest south cities in all of Chile. It is also extremely beautiful and relaxing. We relaxed there for two days before heading into the park. We got to see the beautiful park and downtown area, as well as the cemetery.









I thought I would start out with just pictures of everything that I experienced and saw.
Punta Arenas

Best hot chocolate in the world! 

Southern most part of Chile

Paintings on the walls 

Cemetery

Torres Del Paine Park

After two days in Punta Arenas we went into the national park for five days of camping. The first day in the park went well, except that we hiked for an hour in the wrong direction on the way to our first camp site. However, we met a great french couple and became good friends. The second day we had a seven hour hike day, and ended with what we call "hell" night because it was very windy and rainy, so much that the water soaked through all of our camping gear, clothing, and sleeping bags. None of us were able to sleep that night. After night two, we ended us separating into two different groups. My group headed back to the refugio (like a hostel) for then night, to try to get warm again and get in a hot shower. The next day we saw glacier grey, which was definitely my favorite part. Hiking to the glacier was pretty much straight up hill, but extremely worth it. I was just glad that I did not have my huge hiking bag with me. I saw my first ever iceberg! The next day we took a 30 minute boat ride, which was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. You can drink all the water in the park right out of the source. They are the most purest blues I have ever seen. It is amazing to see nature like this. The last day was spent at the front of the park in torres del paine, and saw our first evidence of animals: horses, foxes, and llamas. The last day we spent traveling back to Puerto Natales and our hostel.

The views are incredible. 

First Day 

French Valley 

Glacier Grey

I would definitely recommend going here, one of the most beautiful places in the world.

After the trip I watched a documentary called "180 degrees south" that follows a man's journey down south to Patagonia. I would highly recommend it.

"The best journeys turn up questions that you didn’t even know you had in the beginning"

"If you love a place you have a duty to protect it, but to love it you must know it first"