El Teniente

Yesterday we got up at the butt crack of dawn for our mandatory field trip to El Teniente, the biggest mine in the world. I went across the street to Marcella's mom and grandma's hotel (they're in town for the week) to pack myself a stolen lunch from their breakfast buffet, and we all set off in the dark to meet our group at Campus Oriente. It took about 2 hours to get to the entrance to the mining area at the base of the Andes, where we traded our shoes for some giant, hideous rainboots, then got into another bus, where the rest of our mining outfits were waiting on our seats. After another hour of driving, we made it to the mine entrance and got to put on our adorable new ensembles, complete with helmets and headlamps, gas masks and an emergency oxygen tank:

Snazzy, right? Our guide drove us pretty far into the mine and told us about the copper mining process and some interesting facts about El Teniente in particular...It's the largest underground mine in the world that was actually established by an American company in the early 1900s and is now owned by the government of Chile. It has something like 8 levels and over 1,500 km of tunnels. We walked through one of the tunnels to a giant elevator that could have comfortably housed a small family of rhinos, and our guide let us ride all the way to the lowest level at the bottom of the mountain...and then right back up.

After that we went into a cave with giant crystals. SO PRETTY! LOOK!

 

  

I spy with my little eye...the Virgin Mary?! Look at her hiding in there! Next stop was the grinding room, where rocks and dirt slide down from both sides into a giant grinder at the bottom:

 

After the mine, we drove outside and up to the town, which is called Sewell and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. No one lives there anymore, but the town is still used every day for mine business. We ate in the miners' cafeteria, took a tour of the town (our guide grew up there!) and went to Sewell's museum. Long day but so fun!

Moving, Escuela and Shakira

Helloooooo! Okay so I haven't written since my Patagonia post, but I've been SO BUSY with moving out, then starting school. I moved out of my host family's house and into my new apartment the day after getting back from Patagonia, and it was a lot sadder than I thought it would be. I thought I couldn't wait to live on my own, but my host mom, Virginia, my host sister, Pamela, and her two kids really did become my family and seeing Virginia's face when I left just KILLED MEEE :( but I'm definitely planning on visiting as often as I can.

I love my new apartment though! I live in a pretty commercial area in Comuna Providencia, but it's super convenient and just upstairs from the metro. My room is big, and I share a balcony with my friend Marcella! There's also a French girl living here, and a Chilean guy and his mom, who is turning out to be kindaaa a kook. Examples of her questionable comments:

"You have to close the door to the bathroom! The cat gets jealous if you leave it open!" What?
"You're sick because you don't wear shoes." (It can't be because I just started school - surrounded by a ton of people and stresseddd, or because of the horrible air quality or the fact that she smokes in the house. Definitely because I was barefoot at the moment.)
(After knocking on my door in the morning) "Did you hear what happened? There was an earthquake in Japan and now there will be a tsunami in Chile." (Long, somber stare.) DUN DUN DUNNN!!!

It's been nice cooking for myself though, and eating when I'm actually hungry. And being close to transportation. And not having to worry about a baby stealing my things when I'm not home and brushing his teeth with my toothbrush.

New room:

And I started classes!!! I've never felt more lost in my life but it was kinda...thrilling? There are a ton of exchange students at my school and I've met a lot of them. It's comforting to know there are a bunch of other people in my same situation who are just as confused as I am. As far as my classes, I've ended up picking them pretty much based on how well I can understand the professor's Spanish. Definitely left one class after 15 mins after I didn't understand a word...as of now my classes are: Political Corruption in Latin America, Armed Conflict and Humanitarian Work, and either a Chilean Culture Seminar or Literature and Culture.

Random comments about school:
There is an hour 1/2 gap during the day that is set aside for mass at the church in the middle of campus, and every classroom has a picture of Jesus at the front. Never thought I would ever go to Catholic school, but check me out!!!
An unusually large proportion of the student population is GORGEOUS, especially the girls. I was feeling pretty good about myself in Chile until school started and all the attractive people started showing up. A little sad now.
Most of the professors I've met speak Spanish, English and French and accept written homework in any of those languages.

Anddd I saw Shakira a few nights ago! SO FUNNN!!!

GIANT CHUNK FALLING OFF PERITO MORENO!!!

PATAGONIA - The End of the World

1st stop - Punta Arenas. Furthest south I've ever been! Our taxi dropped us off at our hostel around midnight, and we met Mel's friend Isaac who had been studying in Patagonia for 6 weeks. The next morning, we walked around town and saw the coast, went to a lookout spot, bought some matching penguin beanies, ate churrascos (beef sandwiches) and went to a museum in an old mansion...not exactly sure what the museum was all about. There were a bunch of fancy rooms, displays about the history of Patagonia, and a bunch of Mapuche jewelry. Overall, the museum wasn't too exciting and I got tired of reading everything in Spanish pretty quickly, but we did get to wear some giant slippers over our shoes. FAVORITE PART!

2nd stop - Puerto Natales. There wasn't much to see in town but it's where everyone stays before heading out to Torres del Paine, Patagonia's national park. Our hostel was great and mapped out a plan for us in the park, rented us our camping equipment and made us omelets in the morning!

3rd stop - Torres del Paine. SO MANY GUANACOS!!! They're a type of llama and on the drive into the park, they were everywhere! I feel like I was a little more excited about them than everyone else but how often do you see llamas just wandering around? There were also a bunch of Ñandus, which are giant birds like ostriches, flamingos in some of the lakes, and eagles. We took a ferry to Refugio Paine Grande, left our packs, and hiked to the Glacier Grey lookout point. I had never seen a glacier before and it was sooooo huge and amazing.

 

 After looking at the glacier, we hiked back to the refugio, ate some lunch (bread, sliced chorizo and pebre), grabbed our packs and headed out toward the next campsite, Italiano. The trail was gorgeousss and we got to drink right out of the rivers and cross a rope bridge to get to camp. This was our first hike with packs...EVER, but it was a lot easier than I expected and I just couldn't stop thinking about how amazing it was that I was backpacking Patagonia. So crazy.

 The next morning, we started trekking with our packs down what we thought was the trail to the last refugio at the base of the peaks. We had been hiking for about an hour when the following conversation happened:
Aaron: Hey, doesn't this kinda look like a valley?
Melanie: No.
Aaron: But there are mountains on both sides of us, I'm pretty sure this is a valley.
Melanie: Aaron, there are mountains everywhere!
Everyone: Oh nooooo...

We were definitely in the French Valley, going a full 90 degrees in the wrong direction. After kicking ourselves in the face for not double-checking the sign at the trailhead, we decided to set down our packs and keep going up the French Valley, then cut out our planned hike up to the peaks the next morning to watch the sunrise. We were sooo disappointed, but the Valley ended up being incredible, we saw some avalanches, which sounded like the loudest thunder you've ever heard, and it was cloudy and raining all the next day anyway, so we wouldn't have seen any sunrise. Somehow everything worked out perfectly!!! Finishing our hike on the third morning was hard in the rain, and we were all cold, soaked and exhausted but I loved every minute of it. Torres del Paine was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and I want to go back and hike the entire W trail, or maybe the O someday!

 4th stop - Calafate. The same day we finished hiking Torres and left the park, we took a bus back to Puerto Natales, switched out our wet clothes at the hostel and got right back on a bus to go to Calafate in Argentina. Early the next morning, we got on bus number 34567875678 to Parque Nacional de los Glaciares to see Perito Moreno. It's one of only 3 glaciers in Patagonia that's actually growing, and it is HUGE. It flows into Lago Argentino, the biggest lake in Argentine Patagonia. We took a boat out to the base of the glacier and it was crazy to feel the waves when chunks fell off into the water, and see all the icebergs floating by. After the boat, the bus took us to a lookout point above the glacier and dropped us off for a few hours. There wasn't much to do except stand there and watch little chunks of ice fall off the glacier into the water, until a giant piece of the glacier fell into the water and made a huge wave. By far one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Pictures are all from Garrett's camera...mine got stolen out of my checked bag at the airport, along with Aaron's. So sad but at least we have these! That's all for now, after Calafate we spent another half-day in town and came home. Unforgettable trip!

Terremotos and Cincuenta Cent

Okay so it's been awhile since my last post but I've been unbelievably busy since Spanish class ended. Melanie and I were supposed to meet our Chilean friends right after class on the last day, but since Americans seem to be the only people with any sense of time, we figured we had a few hours to kill. So of course the only logical solution was to take the metro over to La Piojera, which is a restaurant in Santiago known for creating the one and only TERREMOTO. The terremoto (which means earthquake en espanish) got its name from its tendency to make whoever drinks it feel like the earth is moving underneath them. It's basically fermented white wine with a giant scoop of pineapple ice-cream floating on top. Delicious and deadly. Up until that day, the terremoto was just a legend; we had heard stories but we had to find out for ourselves. And luckily Garrett and Daniel agreed to come along because we found out afterwards that La Piojera is known for having a slightly questionable crowd, even during the day (tourists and most Chileans stay away from the area at night). A few bits of wisdom gained during that little outing: terremotos are just as strong as people say, it's better to hear that a place is dangerous after you return home safely from it, and always pack emergency toilet paper...Chileans aren't big on replacing the roll. Ever, anywhere.

La Piojera (photos are from the internet since my camera got STOLEN):

 

Terremotos. Refills are called aftershocks:

After La Piojera, Mel and I met our friends in El Centro and headed out to Reñaca in Viña del Mar for the weekend. Viña is a coast town a little over an hour away from Santiago where all the Santiaguinos spend their summer vacations. Our friend Freddy (short for Alfredo hahaha) has a super nice apartment over there, and Mel and I got our own room with a flat screen TV and balcony access...score. Saturday was our only full day there. Started out with a little tennis in the morning until we lost all the balls, then went to this giant party in the middle of nowhere called PulParty (until I saw the tickets and walked through the entrance, I actually thought I was going to a pool party and was very confused why I had to pay to go. But there were DJs all day and beach volleyball, and there actually was a giant pool, and some cows watching from a nearby hill. It ended up being really fun, and we got a lot of Spanglish practice in with our Chilean amigos. Such as:

Mauricio Pechanga (aka Pechanga): Conoces a Cincuenta Cent?
Me: No, who's that?
Pechanga: Siii, conoces! Cincuenta Cent!
Me: No......................OMG 50 CENT!!! HAHAHAHAHA

Melanie: Do you guys like reggae?
Freddy: Si, como Bob Marley!
Melanie: Yeah, have you heard of Pepper? They kinda have a reggae feel.
Freddy: Yeahhh, Pepper Marley!
Melanie: No...

So we got back from Viña on Sunday night, our flight to Patagonia was set for Monday afternoon, and I still didn't have the right clothes to go backpacking. I went to a place called Mallsport (side note - whenever a word has an "s" with a consonant after it, Chileans WILL NOT understand you if you say it like it's written...you have to add an invisible "e" to the front as if that somehow makes a huge difference, e.g. "Voy a Mallsport." "Qué?" "Voy a Mallesport?" "Ahhh si!" Also pertains to "Sprite" and "Skype") to get my stuff, which is a mall of only sporting goods stores. A little overwhelming but really cool. They have a giant rock wall inside and they sell literally anything you could ever need for any sport, from tennis balls to boats, which have their own tiny man-made dock outside next to one of those stationary wave things you can surf on. Bought some clothes, rushed home, packed like a mad-woman and went off to the airport with Mel, Aaron and Garrett anddd this might be a bad time to stop but it's late and it's my first day of school tomorrow, AHHH!!!

Reñaca:

TO BE CONTINUED...