I arrived in Puerto Montt after a 12 hour bus ride from Santiago, fairly draining but nothing I couldn´t handle. I had an hour only of waiting time for transfer, so I searched for a restaraunt, but nothing was open on Sunday at 10 in the morning. I ended up buying a bit of groceries at a supermarket, bread and cheese, yogurt, chips, peanuts, and a liter of beer to relax on the tail end of my long journey. I crossed over into the Argentinean border around 230 in the afternoon, arriving in Bariloche around 530 in the evening. The drive there was stunning, through the lake district of Argentina, surrounded by beautiful, soaring mountains and gorgeous vistas.
Bariloche was beautiful, a scenic little ski town nestled at the banks of one of the giant lakes in the region. It was indeed, truly, Lord of the Rings type scenery as my friend had promised me. My hostel, Patanuk Guesthouse, was right on the lake as well, with a fantastic view of all the mountains around across the giant lake. I immediately put myself into travel mode, where I just talk to everyone and as many people as possible. Especially traveling by yourself, this is something you just have to do if you dont want to do everything alone. I met a group of Australian guys, who were actually there working, which I was jealous about. They were going out to dinner though, so I started talking to a woman sitting by herself drinking yerba mate by the window. Eugenia was a 30 year old real estate agent in Buenos Aires, down in Bariloch for holiday, who I shared a couple drinks of piscola with (Argentineans do not drink piscola the same way we did in Chile, it is virtually nonexistent in the country as far as I can tell).
She went to sleep for a while, but I stayed awake for some reason and mingled a little more. Met a couple of reallly cool French people, Stephan and his girlfriend Sandrine, and his friend Sebastian. The hostel was quiet though, at one point me being the only person there. She got up at around 1130, introduced me to her traveling companian Ariel, and the three of us cooked some pasta for dinner. We went out to explore the town that night, but nothing much seemed to be going on. I could have been down for a loud club next to our hostel, but since I was with two 30 year olds, they didnt seem to be interested which was fine with me. We ended up back at the hostel around 3, and I went to sleep exhausted from the poor sleep on the bus the night before.
The next morning I woke up vaguely early, since Stephan and Sandrine had been talking about going to Cerro Catedral, the nearby mountain, to check out some skiing. I wasnt sure whether I wanted to tag along, but ended up going, since I figured I might as well. The bus ride was only 5 pesos or something anyways, like just over 1 USD, compared to the 22 dollar roundtrip bus we took in Chile. Unfortunately the conditions were not that good that day, although it was generally a letdown anyways after Chile.
As someone explained to me, the Andes in Argentina are more of the foothills whereas Chile has the real mountains, as I noted the difference myself. Chile had no trees whatsoever, Bariloche had a large amount of green vegetation on the slopes. Either way, there was a lot of rain and wind on top of the mountain, so only two lifts were open and the mountain was closing early, so I opted not to spend well over a hundred bucks on this. The town at the bottom was nice, a European style conglomerate of ski shops and restaraunts, so I stopped in one that looked promising and ordered a beer and pizza. It was my first introduction to Chilean beer, as I ordered a Quilmes, the local Argentinean beer. The Cristal, which I had, was smooth and light but quite tasty, no complaints on my part. After lunch, I embarked on a short hike up the mountain, to a viewpoint of the lake, before returning to the bus back to town.
I got back into town, checked into the hostel, and decided to walk to the bus station to buy my ticket for Buenos Aires the next evening. The lady at the hostel must have been playing games with me, since she told me no worries, the station is only like 10, maybe 12 blocks away...I ended up walking almost 3 miles there, it was by no means a short walk. However, it was all across the lake, and I got a much better feel for the area on foot, so I ultimately really enjoyed it. My two tickets, from Bariloche to Buenos Aires then from BA to Iguazu, cost 150 dollars total, at the top level class, and traveling thousands of miles, so quite reasonable overall. On the way back, I detoured to a Paleontological museum, basically a collection of trees along the beach of the lake, quite nice.
Dinner was at an Italian restaraunt across the street, I got fried mozzerala with tomato sauce and a spaghetti with four cheese sauce, and a big liter of beer, all for around 25 dollars USD including tip. And this was a fancy restaraunt. Damn Argentina is cheap. I had another easy night, playing cards with the French people and falling asleep fairly early, I was tired from the long day.
The next day was my last in Bariloche, so I set off to hit the town center, to get some food and do a little shopping. I bought a couple t-shirts at one of the first couple shops I found, 15 bucks total for the 2 of them. Lunch was potato gnocchi with a four cheese sauce, following the pasta trend, quite tasty, at a popular local Irish pub. In the afternoon when I came back, I felt like burning, so I spun fire on the beach of the lake, against the beautiful scenery. There was a video taken of me spinning even, quite fun despite the daylight and absence of darkness. I set off shortly afterwards for my bus, 20 hours to Buenos Aires.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Last couple nights of Santiago
Thursday was an interesting lecture on a nonprofit organization that helped fund local businesses in the area, as well as other countries in Latin America and Europe. It was interesting, but I couldnt focus again, with my impending graduation in about 24 hours. That day, I ran a couple more errands and took care of a couple things, but unfortunately missed the highlight of the day, an optional business meeting. It was a shame, it seemed really interesting, it was a guy that went to Harvard, started a couple businesses, worked with Microsoft, moved back to Chile, and is now basically working on the cure for cancer. Again, another really interesting moment that I missed due to personal laziness. Cest lavie...
That evening, we had to go out, of course, and ended up back at Subterraneo, since it was such a good time the first round. I wasnt feeling it though, all the dancing and grinding made me miss my girlfriend this time, and I ended up putting myself into a bad mood and leaving kind of early. I managed to get in touch with my girlfriend that night, and to make things worse we had a slight disagreement, so I went to bed even unhappier.
The next day was my last day of college as an undergraduate! I left class slightly early, just to celebrate, and things seemed to be improving. I talked to my girl, straightened things out, and treated myself to a fantastic meal - walked downtown 15 minutes or so to an Indian restaraunt, it was fantastic, I ordered spicy shrimp red curry, with jasmine rice, aloo paratha (potato bread with spices), and an order of samosas. It was a bit pricy, totalling over 30 dollars for my single meal, but well worth the money and effort. I fell into a bit of a food coma afterwards, but definitely in a good way.
That evening, we were scheduled to meet at 7 at Valentinas house, our tour guide for the month. It was a great, intimate party, much more special then if we had rented out a club or restaraunt, and much more fun. Anny was pleased with the drawing I had spent a long time preparing for her, which made me happy. I brought over a limited edition bottle of Pisco for the evening, at a whopping ten bucks! haha, which dissapeared rapidly along with most of the other drinks. Annys family came, I got a chance to play guitar and piano for her mom, as well as comp on the acoustic for some singalongs with the whole group. I even spun fire for the group in Valentinas backyard, which the group seemed to be impressed by. The Chilean people couldnt stop telling me what an artist I was, between my fire poi, music, and art. Hard life, being complimented so much, they were extremely gracious gente. The night closed with some traditional Chilean folk tunes, as well as Latin classics like Guantanamera, etc...A fun, awesome evening, great way to close the trip. A couple people were thinking about going out later, but by the time we got back to the hotel it was 3 AM and everyone was pretty drunk already.
The next day was my last with the group, which I had mixed feelings about, but I was ready to get off and do my own thing. We packed, I hit the gym one last time, and got ready for their 430 shuttle. Seeing them off, I felt a bit of a weight lifted off my shoulders, as it would no longer take 2 hours to do anything! I was finally free to wander where I wanted and do what I wanted, unrestrained by the context of traveling in a group. I hung around the hotel for a couple more hours, since Danny had gotten a room for the night, we split a pizza and watched some TV, then I said goodbye to him to. I was off for the bus terminal, to catch my 12 hour bus to Puerto Montt. Goodbye Santiago!
That evening, we had to go out, of course, and ended up back at Subterraneo, since it was such a good time the first round. I wasnt feeling it though, all the dancing and grinding made me miss my girlfriend this time, and I ended up putting myself into a bad mood and leaving kind of early. I managed to get in touch with my girlfriend that night, and to make things worse we had a slight disagreement, so I went to bed even unhappier.
The next day was my last day of college as an undergraduate! I left class slightly early, just to celebrate, and things seemed to be improving. I talked to my girl, straightened things out, and treated myself to a fantastic meal - walked downtown 15 minutes or so to an Indian restaraunt, it was fantastic, I ordered spicy shrimp red curry, with jasmine rice, aloo paratha (potato bread with spices), and an order of samosas. It was a bit pricy, totalling over 30 dollars for my single meal, but well worth the money and effort. I fell into a bit of a food coma afterwards, but definitely in a good way.
That evening, we were scheduled to meet at 7 at Valentinas house, our tour guide for the month. It was a great, intimate party, much more special then if we had rented out a club or restaraunt, and much more fun. Anny was pleased with the drawing I had spent a long time preparing for her, which made me happy. I brought over a limited edition bottle of Pisco for the evening, at a whopping ten bucks! haha, which dissapeared rapidly along with most of the other drinks. Annys family came, I got a chance to play guitar and piano for her mom, as well as comp on the acoustic for some singalongs with the whole group. I even spun fire for the group in Valentinas backyard, which the group seemed to be impressed by. The Chilean people couldnt stop telling me what an artist I was, between my fire poi, music, and art. Hard life, being complimented so much, they were extremely gracious gente. The night closed with some traditional Chilean folk tunes, as well as Latin classics like Guantanamera, etc...A fun, awesome evening, great way to close the trip. A couple people were thinking about going out later, but by the time we got back to the hotel it was 3 AM and everyone was pretty drunk already.
The next day was my last with the group, which I had mixed feelings about, but I was ready to get off and do my own thing. We packed, I hit the gym one last time, and got ready for their 430 shuttle. Seeing them off, I felt a bit of a weight lifted off my shoulders, as it would no longer take 2 hours to do anything! I was finally free to wander where I wanted and do what I wanted, unrestrained by the context of traveling in a group. I hung around the hotel for a couple more hours, since Danny had gotten a room for the night, we split a pizza and watched some TV, then I said goodbye to him to. I was off for the bus terminal, to catch my 12 hour bus to Puerto Montt. Goodbye Santiago!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Last week in Santiago!
From after Monday, time seemed to pass too quickly for my liking. I realized my days in Santiago were numbered, and there were still lots of things that I wanted to do. Also, that Tuesday, we were scheduled to go to Valparaiso, but there were two options and the one I was interested in, business, ended up being cancelled. Therefore I stayed home for the day, with the incentive of a possible rescheduling in Santiago, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the other group who went to Valparaiso ended up spending most of their day painting murals on walls!!! I was quite upset, this is something that I LOVE to do, anywhere, especially if I was given paint and a space! Teach me for being lazy and not adventurous, I missed out on what sounded like one of the most awesome times the group could have had.
Tuesday evening, we ended up only going around the corner to Flannerys, and was nothing too exciting although we got to chill in the upstairs lounge, a fun room. Wednesday was a very interesting lecture on Chiles global insertion, in social policies and the economic sense. It discussed how Chile has had to adapt and create new rules in the era post dictatorship, in following with global standards. It was very engaging, one of the most notes I had taken all month, and about which I intend to write on of my papers on.
Wednesday evening I had been invited to the house of Selene and Sandra, for a traditional Mexican style dinner. I was excited, as the prospect of burritos had been promised, as well as soy suggested, which I was curious to try and expecting it to be close to tofu. Indeed it was reminscent of tofu, but she prepared it differently, in small meatlike chunks that tasted delicious! Selene fried up a bit of mushrooms and green pepper to go with the soy, as well as a pot of cheesy rice and fried tortillas with cheese. Indeed, it was a fantastic meal, one of my favorites the entire month, and well appreciated especially with the Mexican hot sauce my gracious host provided. We had a music party afterwards, with me demonstrating how to use Soulseek, a file sharing program, and showing her a bunch of artists that I listen to. I also snagged a fair deal of Selenes music, a very interesting assortment of dub and electronica that I have been quite enjoying. After a couple cervezas (only on my part, the girls didnt drink), we walked out to the park, to find a dark spot to spin fire. Selene actually lived right next to Baquedano and the Museo where I first spun fire in Chile, ironic indeed.
Fire was spun in the park, fun as always. Afterwards, Sandra went home as she had to get up at 6, but me and Selene walked around the corner to check out a local funk group. The Funky Frescos, at the Opera Bar?, turned out to be pretty tight, they had a laid back hip hop style with a dj and bass player plus 3 MCs, they definitely had good crowd control and presence. I was really enjoying the show, when it ended after we had only been there 20 minutes or so. We ended up sticking around a little bit afterwards even, making friends with a group of local Chileans who were friendly as usual. The night was called at around 130, after a couple piscolas and cervezas, as I walked Selene home and took a cab back to Las Condes. Again, another awesome night.
Tuesday evening, we ended up only going around the corner to Flannerys, and was nothing too exciting although we got to chill in the upstairs lounge, a fun room. Wednesday was a very interesting lecture on Chiles global insertion, in social policies and the economic sense. It discussed how Chile has had to adapt and create new rules in the era post dictatorship, in following with global standards. It was very engaging, one of the most notes I had taken all month, and about which I intend to write on of my papers on.
Wednesday evening I had been invited to the house of Selene and Sandra, for a traditional Mexican style dinner. I was excited, as the prospect of burritos had been promised, as well as soy suggested, which I was curious to try and expecting it to be close to tofu. Indeed it was reminscent of tofu, but she prepared it differently, in small meatlike chunks that tasted delicious! Selene fried up a bit of mushrooms and green pepper to go with the soy, as well as a pot of cheesy rice and fried tortillas with cheese. Indeed, it was a fantastic meal, one of my favorites the entire month, and well appreciated especially with the Mexican hot sauce my gracious host provided. We had a music party afterwards, with me demonstrating how to use Soulseek, a file sharing program, and showing her a bunch of artists that I listen to. I also snagged a fair deal of Selenes music, a very interesting assortment of dub and electronica that I have been quite enjoying. After a couple cervezas (only on my part, the girls didnt drink), we walked out to the park, to find a dark spot to spin fire. Selene actually lived right next to Baquedano and the Museo where I first spun fire in Chile, ironic indeed.
Fire was spun in the park, fun as always. Afterwards, Sandra went home as she had to get up at 6, but me and Selene walked around the corner to check out a local funk group. The Funky Frescos, at the Opera Bar?, turned out to be pretty tight, they had a laid back hip hop style with a dj and bass player plus 3 MCs, they definitely had good crowd control and presence. I was really enjoying the show, when it ended after we had only been there 20 minutes or so. We ended up sticking around a little bit afterwards even, making friends with a group of local Chileans who were friendly as usual. The night was called at around 130, after a couple piscolas and cervezas, as I walked Selene home and took a cab back to Las Condes. Again, another awesome night.
Monday night sick jams
Monday or Tuesday, I forget exactly, we had a very interesting lecture on the sociopolitical order and class sytem of Santigao, which I really enjoyed as someone interested in urban planning and social order. The guest lecturer, Sabatini, I believe, showed a very interesting series of slides with pictures of ghettos around various Latin American cities, highlighting differences and approaches. One particular interesting slide showed a rich Argentinean suburban home, complete with pool and all, contrasted against a wall behind which literally hundreds of tiny shacks shared their borders with. The most interesting part of this picture was a tiny ladder he highlighted, which could have signified various things but perhaps indicated a lack of fear on the side of the rich household at least.
There was a visit to a neighborhood in Santiago that Monday afternoon, but I begged off of it because I had made plans to jam with Gonzo again at his house. I bought some more white gas, ran a couple more small errands, and took a nap, only to wake up to a traffic nightmare at 7 oclock. I had told him I would be there at 7, but I ended up being around 50 minutes late, with the difficulty I had obtaining a free cab and dealing with traffic. My friend Selene from La Serena was there, as invited to observe the jams and take photos. The jam was even better this time, a mind blowing mix of styles and genres. We went from jazz to funk to blues to swing to latin jazz to drum and bass, of which I have never really jammed on. We were playing with a really talented high school drummer kid, one of Gonzos friends, and one of the few people I have ever seen with the endurance and timing to maintain drum and bass breaks. I was playing bass at the time, keeping up a consistent and moving, pulsing bass line to drive the psychedelic keyboard swirls that Gonzo was accenting the music with on top of two sets of hand drums being played and guitar. It was impossibly fun, one of the best jam sessions of my life possibly, and certainly one of the best times I had in Chile. We toned down a lil afterwards, throwing in a little slow rock jams and some piano solo jazz from Gonzo, before absconding for dinner. By this time it was 1130, so his parents had already eaten long ago. We had excellent cheese tortollini with a creamy white tomato sauce with a little mushrooms, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Afterwards, I gave a demonstation of fire poi for Gonzo and his one friend that had remained so late, which seemed to amuse and entertain them. Selene again assisted in taking a bunch of good photos, which I have to sort through and publish. Gonzo was even kind enough to drive me home, as it was after midnight, and I walked Selene back to the bus then passed out, quite content from such a satisfying evening.
There was a visit to a neighborhood in Santiago that Monday afternoon, but I begged off of it because I had made plans to jam with Gonzo again at his house. I bought some more white gas, ran a couple more small errands, and took a nap, only to wake up to a traffic nightmare at 7 oclock. I had told him I would be there at 7, but I ended up being around 50 minutes late, with the difficulty I had obtaining a free cab and dealing with traffic. My friend Selene from La Serena was there, as invited to observe the jams and take photos. The jam was even better this time, a mind blowing mix of styles and genres. We went from jazz to funk to blues to swing to latin jazz to drum and bass, of which I have never really jammed on. We were playing with a really talented high school drummer kid, one of Gonzos friends, and one of the few people I have ever seen with the endurance and timing to maintain drum and bass breaks. I was playing bass at the time, keeping up a consistent and moving, pulsing bass line to drive the psychedelic keyboard swirls that Gonzo was accenting the music with on top of two sets of hand drums being played and guitar. It was impossibly fun, one of the best jam sessions of my life possibly, and certainly one of the best times I had in Chile. We toned down a lil afterwards, throwing in a little slow rock jams and some piano solo jazz from Gonzo, before absconding for dinner. By this time it was 1130, so his parents had already eaten long ago. We had excellent cheese tortollini with a creamy white tomato sauce with a little mushrooms, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Afterwards, I gave a demonstation of fire poi for Gonzo and his one friend that had remained so late, which seemed to amuse and entertain them. Selene again assisted in taking a bunch of good photos, which I have to sort through and publish. Gonzo was even kind enough to drive me home, as it was after midnight, and I walked Selene back to the bus then passed out, quite content from such a satisfying evening.
Aconcagua Valley and bogus Thermal Springs
Saturday, we got on the bus at 945 to the nearby Aconcagua Valley, at the base of Mt. Aconcagua, near the Argentinean border and I believe the 7th highest mountain in the world. So anyways, yeah, scenery was prettty epic. Our first stop was a local winery, at the heart of the valley, where we took a tour of the grape fields, cask storage facilities, and of course concluding with the inevitable tasting. I purchased a Gran Reserve bottle of Carmenere, a unique type of wine that is only produced in Chile and France, as a special gift. After the winery, we took the bus a short distance to the ranch, which I had been pretty excited about.
Turns out, riding horses in the desert is indeed quite awesome. It obviously took a while to saddle up 25 people especially given that most of them had not ridden horses much if ever, but eventually we all were set up. A couple of the girls in our group were given surly horses, Andreas being the meanest at scoring two kicks on the legs of two of the girls in our group. However, in general, these horses could not have been easier to control and more amiable, they were far more tame then the horses I rode in Costa Rica on my farm in 2007. I mastered my horse fairly quickly, figuring out how to turn, stop, and increase speed with ease. Once we were all acclimated, the four or five cowboys assigned to us led us along the way.
We took off on the street for a while at first, with the caballeros guiding us to the side when cars came along. I cant remember the last time I smiled so much, I was having so much fun. We eventually came to a mountain, and somehow managed to ride it all the way up along switchback trails. I even managed to take a couple pictures while riding the horse, scared for my camera of course. After the initial several hours though, an intense hunger kicked in along with dehydration from too much drinking the night before, not enough sleep, and not eating sufficiently the day before. To make things worse, we didnt end up eating until close to 430, which is a late time for lunch in anyones book I would say.
The vegetarian option was a salad, too, of which I consumed several potatos only (the rice was cold and had mayonaise, it was pretty disgusting). Lack of food and dehydration put me into a fairly bad state, in a shivery type of cold feeling even bundled up. After getting back to Santiago, I felt better though after eating a nice dinner at Pizza Hut. I didnt plan on going out that night, but I realized it was my last Saturday night in Santiago. It reminded me of the awful corny line in The Mask, where Jim Carry goes P - A - R - T - Y? Cuz I gotta!
Haha ouch...
Anyways, it turned out to be a really fun night. We hit a local club called Subterraneo, recommended to Becky as one of the best nights possible in town. It was dead at midnight, but we stuck around especially with 2 for 1 drinks and free entrance. Sure enough, the dance floor filled up around 1 and by 2 the place was bumping. As a group of more then 20, we definitely occupied our own, specific space on the dance floor, and made cutting loose easier knowing you were around 25 friends. I ended up dancing all night, drinking Caiperinhas (a Brazilian version of tequila on the rocks) and then Piscola when they stopped making the former. The lights came on around 530 AM, and I didnt even get to sleep right away, still pumped from the club.
The next morning I didnt want to, but got up at 10 AM for a Thermal Hot Springs visit. They turned out to fairly not entertaining, as they were barely warmer then a regular pool, outside, and although the sun was out it was still winter in Chile. After a bit of freezing, and trying some indoor saunas (equally as lukewarm), we gave up, waited til lunch, and called it a day afterwards. I had a quite interesting kind of layered lasagna type cake, with eggs, cheese, mushrooms and various other tasty ingredients. The day was paid for entirely by the school, so I couldnt complain that much. Got home, got some well needed sleep in preperation for the next day.
Turns out, riding horses in the desert is indeed quite awesome. It obviously took a while to saddle up 25 people especially given that most of them had not ridden horses much if ever, but eventually we all were set up. A couple of the girls in our group were given surly horses, Andreas being the meanest at scoring two kicks on the legs of two of the girls in our group. However, in general, these horses could not have been easier to control and more amiable, they were far more tame then the horses I rode in Costa Rica on my farm in 2007. I mastered my horse fairly quickly, figuring out how to turn, stop, and increase speed with ease. Once we were all acclimated, the four or five cowboys assigned to us led us along the way.
We took off on the street for a while at first, with the caballeros guiding us to the side when cars came along. I cant remember the last time I smiled so much, I was having so much fun. We eventually came to a mountain, and somehow managed to ride it all the way up along switchback trails. I even managed to take a couple pictures while riding the horse, scared for my camera of course. After the initial several hours though, an intense hunger kicked in along with dehydration from too much drinking the night before, not enough sleep, and not eating sufficiently the day before. To make things worse, we didnt end up eating until close to 430, which is a late time for lunch in anyones book I would say.
The vegetarian option was a salad, too, of which I consumed several potatos only (the rice was cold and had mayonaise, it was pretty disgusting). Lack of food and dehydration put me into a fairly bad state, in a shivery type of cold feeling even bundled up. After getting back to Santiago, I felt better though after eating a nice dinner at Pizza Hut. I didnt plan on going out that night, but I realized it was my last Saturday night in Santiago. It reminded me of the awful corny line in The Mask, where Jim Carry goes P - A - R - T - Y? Cuz I gotta!
Haha ouch...
Anyways, it turned out to be a really fun night. We hit a local club called Subterraneo, recommended to Becky as one of the best nights possible in town. It was dead at midnight, but we stuck around especially with 2 for 1 drinks and free entrance. Sure enough, the dance floor filled up around 1 and by 2 the place was bumping. As a group of more then 20, we definitely occupied our own, specific space on the dance floor, and made cutting loose easier knowing you were around 25 friends. I ended up dancing all night, drinking Caiperinhas (a Brazilian version of tequila on the rocks) and then Piscola when they stopped making the former. The lights came on around 530 AM, and I didnt even get to sleep right away, still pumped from the club.
The next morning I didnt want to, but got up at 10 AM for a Thermal Hot Springs visit. They turned out to fairly not entertaining, as they were barely warmer then a regular pool, outside, and although the sun was out it was still winter in Chile. After a bit of freezing, and trying some indoor saunas (equally as lukewarm), we gave up, waited til lunch, and called it a day afterwards. I had a quite interesting kind of layered lasagna type cake, with eggs, cheese, mushrooms and various other tasty ingredients. The day was paid for entirely by the school, so I couldnt complain that much. Got home, got some well needed sleep in preperation for the next day.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Valle Nevado and Friday night fun.
Valle Nevado was torture to begin with. I woke up at 630 AM, with only 3 hours of sleep or so, still drunk from the night before. I wasnt even the worst though, Danny came with us on the subway only to turn around when we got off, he felt too sick. Pancho, the professor´s son, was in the same boat as me, as waiting in line was agony. I blissfully drifted off to sleep, only to be awoken by one of the group members vomiting next to me, a couple too many windy curves up the mountain. We gained an extraordinary amount of elevation, I believe the peak was at either 9,000 or 11,000 feet. The views were absolutely stunning, unreal vistas of untamed, wild snow and no trees whatsoever interrupting the snow due to the altitude. It was a surreal, unimaginable view, unlike anything I have ever seen before.
The price was expensive, with gear totalling 50 dollars for rental, and another 20 odd dollars for the shuttle, before even getting a lift ticket. Luckily, there was a special promotion for Entel phone users, of which Pancho had one, so we got half price lift tickets, for 32 bucks a piece instead of 64. A couple of the girls in the group managed to make friends with some Chileans in line, but I felt bad, a couple people had to just pay the full price, making the cost well over 130 dollars US total. Anyways, we all got our tickets and headed for the mountain.
I stayed on a beginner´s slope, green to be exact, for the entire day, which was very rewarding to me. I have been snowboarding at least half a dozen times, but I am consistently afraid to gain speed, and controlling my stops is a difficult thing as well. However, with persistence and caution, I slowly gained a better sense of control, focusing on areas that I felt needed improvement, such as my toe edge, and stopping better. I ended up taking 6 or 7 runs total down the mountain, which for me was a very satisfying, accomplished feeling. Lunch was expensive at the resort, but had a couple empenadas and a five dollar Red Bull to keep me going.
Swine reared its ugly head again, as a girl that I had been sitting 4 feet away from at lunch came down with symptoms as we were eating. Poor girl had paid the full amount to come, and only ended up skiing for less then a couple hours.
At the end of the day, we were treated to another magnificent, stunning view of the mountains as we wound down the hairpin turns, exhausted yet completely exhuberant. I was a little sore, in both legs and arms from falling on them, but surprisingly not as much as I had expected. Still though, sleep was nearly instant upon returning to the apartment.
Friday I woke up feeling sick and congested, to the point where I didn´t make it to class. I was too sore and had caught at least a slight cold up in the mountains, or perhaps only altitude sickness. Regardless, I would not have been able to give the lecture my full attention, and extended sleep was in order. In the afternoon, after sleeping and medicine, I felt a little better and decided to follow through with my plans for the day, being a jam session and fire spinning.
Gonzalo, my neighbor in Boston who is from Santiago, gave me directions to his house that afternoon. I took a cab over for just over 10 bucks, not bad considering I would have had to take 3 buses, and was cheap compared to anywhere in the states (It was a fairly long distance ride.) I arrived at Gonzo's house at around 6 oclock, a VERY nice house in a suburban neighborhood outside of Santiago. His family was obviously a member of the upper class here, interesting to visit one of the homes after learning so much of the sociopolitical divides and class system present in Chile. We went downstairs, to the jam room, and jammed on bass vs. piano then guitar vs. bass until more of his friends showed up. If it wasn´t obvious, the kid is a VERY talented musician by the way, so it was an absolute joy to play with him. We went through a large variety of styles and genres ranging from blues to funk to jazz to rock, before a couple of his friends arrived an hour or two later. It was Martin, whose house I had already been to, and a friend of his, Justin, who spoke flawless English and studied at Wash. Univ. in Seattle.
From there the jam really picked up. We ended up trading instruments multiple times, since I could play all the ones present (guitar, bass, piano, drums). It was one of the best times I had in Santiago, just hanging out, drinking and smoking and playing music with talented musicians. My band in Boston cannot improvise in the same manner as these kids, particularly Gonzo, a jazz trained musician who has been playing since age 4. I ultimately had to run though, since I had plans to meet my two Mexican friends from La Serena at 10. But a solid 4 hours at least had been spent jamming, and I was even invited to come back, and have dinner with his family that Monday.
I met up with Selene and Sandra, who I had talked with on the bus to the stars in La Serena, and walked back to my apartment to grab fire toys. I had a drink, as we talked about plans for the night. They were keen to check out the jazz club I had been at, but we decided after fire spinning and taking a bus, we would get there quite late and would not be worth it. We walked down to a deserted park nearby, where I set up my equipment. Prior to spinning, the wierdest photo was taken, by Selene - it was of me and Sandra, but there is a white cloud shaped like a ghost next to us!! I dont believe in ghosts or anything, but this picture has to be seen to be believed, it was very surreal. In addition, the park was kind of sketchy and abandonded, which I only considered after looking at this photo. Anyways, after the fuego, we just went to Flannery´s, the pub around the corner from my apartment, had a beer and some food, and called it a night. I walked the girls to a bus, and went to sleep excited for horseback riding in the Aconcagua Valley the next day. No one could say I have not been maximizing my time here!
The price was expensive, with gear totalling 50 dollars for rental, and another 20 odd dollars for the shuttle, before even getting a lift ticket. Luckily, there was a special promotion for Entel phone users, of which Pancho had one, so we got half price lift tickets, for 32 bucks a piece instead of 64. A couple of the girls in the group managed to make friends with some Chileans in line, but I felt bad, a couple people had to just pay the full price, making the cost well over 130 dollars US total. Anyways, we all got our tickets and headed for the mountain.
I stayed on a beginner´s slope, green to be exact, for the entire day, which was very rewarding to me. I have been snowboarding at least half a dozen times, but I am consistently afraid to gain speed, and controlling my stops is a difficult thing as well. However, with persistence and caution, I slowly gained a better sense of control, focusing on areas that I felt needed improvement, such as my toe edge, and stopping better. I ended up taking 6 or 7 runs total down the mountain, which for me was a very satisfying, accomplished feeling. Lunch was expensive at the resort, but had a couple empenadas and a five dollar Red Bull to keep me going.
Swine reared its ugly head again, as a girl that I had been sitting 4 feet away from at lunch came down with symptoms as we were eating. Poor girl had paid the full amount to come, and only ended up skiing for less then a couple hours.
At the end of the day, we were treated to another magnificent, stunning view of the mountains as we wound down the hairpin turns, exhausted yet completely exhuberant. I was a little sore, in both legs and arms from falling on them, but surprisingly not as much as I had expected. Still though, sleep was nearly instant upon returning to the apartment.
Friday I woke up feeling sick and congested, to the point where I didn´t make it to class. I was too sore and had caught at least a slight cold up in the mountains, or perhaps only altitude sickness. Regardless, I would not have been able to give the lecture my full attention, and extended sleep was in order. In the afternoon, after sleeping and medicine, I felt a little better and decided to follow through with my plans for the day, being a jam session and fire spinning.
Gonzalo, my neighbor in Boston who is from Santiago, gave me directions to his house that afternoon. I took a cab over for just over 10 bucks, not bad considering I would have had to take 3 buses, and was cheap compared to anywhere in the states (It was a fairly long distance ride.) I arrived at Gonzo's house at around 6 oclock, a VERY nice house in a suburban neighborhood outside of Santiago. His family was obviously a member of the upper class here, interesting to visit one of the homes after learning so much of the sociopolitical divides and class system present in Chile. We went downstairs, to the jam room, and jammed on bass vs. piano then guitar vs. bass until more of his friends showed up. If it wasn´t obvious, the kid is a VERY talented musician by the way, so it was an absolute joy to play with him. We went through a large variety of styles and genres ranging from blues to funk to jazz to rock, before a couple of his friends arrived an hour or two later. It was Martin, whose house I had already been to, and a friend of his, Justin, who spoke flawless English and studied at Wash. Univ. in Seattle.
From there the jam really picked up. We ended up trading instruments multiple times, since I could play all the ones present (guitar, bass, piano, drums). It was one of the best times I had in Santiago, just hanging out, drinking and smoking and playing music with talented musicians. My band in Boston cannot improvise in the same manner as these kids, particularly Gonzo, a jazz trained musician who has been playing since age 4. I ultimately had to run though, since I had plans to meet my two Mexican friends from La Serena at 10. But a solid 4 hours at least had been spent jamming, and I was even invited to come back, and have dinner with his family that Monday.
I met up with Selene and Sandra, who I had talked with on the bus to the stars in La Serena, and walked back to my apartment to grab fire toys. I had a drink, as we talked about plans for the night. They were keen to check out the jazz club I had been at, but we decided after fire spinning and taking a bus, we would get there quite late and would not be worth it. We walked down to a deserted park nearby, where I set up my equipment. Prior to spinning, the wierdest photo was taken, by Selene - it was of me and Sandra, but there is a white cloud shaped like a ghost next to us!! I dont believe in ghosts or anything, but this picture has to be seen to be believed, it was very surreal. In addition, the park was kind of sketchy and abandonded, which I only considered after looking at this photo. Anyways, after the fuego, we just went to Flannery´s, the pub around the corner from my apartment, had a beer and some food, and called it a night. I walked the girls to a bus, and went to sleep excited for horseback riding in the Aconcagua Valley the next day. No one could say I have not been maximizing my time here!
Third week
Monday we took the bus back to Santiago, it wasn´t as long as the trip there, with fewer stops. We got in late, to some fairly alarming news. Over the weekend while we had been gone, a couple of the girls that stayed ended up with swine flu. Even more alarming, we were told that the incubation period is 10 days, so they could have been spreading it/contagious even before we left. Needless to say I was fairly concerned, especially given my travel plans for the next week.
The lectures that week were interesting and varied as usual, with reports on social justice, and women´s rights being a few of the more engaging topics. I had a little bit of trouble paying attention at times, however, given the impending date of my graduation in a little over a week. These classes were the last two that I would undertake in my career as an undergraduate college student at Northeastern, and my anticipation was high, after 20 odd years of schooling.
Wednesday we took a day trip to Pomaire, an open air market some 40 minutes outside of Santiago. The usual cheap, fun tourist gear was acquired, with a good number of nice gifts purchased for friends and family. On the way back, Valentina our tour guide mentioned a really fun sounding show at the Salsoteca in Bellavista, a concert of her ex-boyfriend´s reggae rock band. A couple of us had plans to go snowboarding the next day, Thursday, but I decided to go out anyways. It was an awesome show, really fun crowd and atmosphere, the band reminded me a lot of a latin version of RX Bandits, with a rock-steady, reggae feel accented with a solid horns section and female backup vocals. Down side was that we all had a little too much to drink, and I didnt end up making it back home til after 3. Oh Chile...
The lectures that week were interesting and varied as usual, with reports on social justice, and women´s rights being a few of the more engaging topics. I had a little bit of trouble paying attention at times, however, given the impending date of my graduation in a little over a week. These classes were the last two that I would undertake in my career as an undergraduate college student at Northeastern, and my anticipation was high, after 20 odd years of schooling.
Wednesday we took a day trip to Pomaire, an open air market some 40 minutes outside of Santiago. The usual cheap, fun tourist gear was acquired, with a good number of nice gifts purchased for friends and family. On the way back, Valentina our tour guide mentioned a really fun sounding show at the Salsoteca in Bellavista, a concert of her ex-boyfriend´s reggae rock band. A couple of us had plans to go snowboarding the next day, Thursday, but I decided to go out anyways. It was an awesome show, really fun crowd and atmosphere, the band reminded me a lot of a latin version of RX Bandits, with a rock-steady, reggae feel accented with a solid horns section and female backup vocals. Down side was that we all had a little too much to drink, and I didnt end up making it back home til after 3. Oh Chile...
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