Incredible that I visited this very town that the video is showing footage of. So beautiful. The global fishing industry needs regulation, but regions where it is harvested on a mass scale such as Chile as hit the hardest by the ever-increasing demand and the lack of supply. This effects the pescaderos artesenales, or independent fisherman who depend on this for a living. Obviously the excessive use of hormones and the effects of bacteria are incredibly detrimental to the industry as well, not to mention the Chilean economy as a whole. This all can be tied into environmental impact, but the situation has economic and social impacts too.
Mark Scheffler March 4, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Pinochet gets his own Museum of Memory
Not sure how I feel about this.
Defending the Dictator: History gets a rewrite at the Pinochet Museum
"Do we feel responsible for it? Yes. Do we feel guilt? No."
"For every young man we recover we will have one less communist" Dios mio...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Argentina, Brazil, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year
Well this is now my final entry to this blog. The constant chaos and transition back to life in the U.S. has really kept me preoccupied from writing in this blog. But I have found myself a free block of time to finally finish this thing and we'll see how it goes with my memory. (I took short daily notes)
The last time I wrote in this blog, I was leaving Chile for Buenos Aires (12/21/08) to meet up with my real family, my grandparents on my father's side (my grandfather was born in Ecuador, while my grandmother grew up in La Plata, Argentina), my Dad's sister (my aunt), husband and their two kids who are from near Washington, D.C. I had been away from the United States and my family for so long. Our last time together had been with when I left from Hawaii on vacation directly to Santiago. Now I was meeting up with them as well as other members of my extended family after 6 long months of host-family lifestyle.
I took a LAN flight the same afternoon that my family arrived was due to arrive in Argentina, yet I arrived a bit later than them. After checking in at the front desk for my room keys, I bumped into my mother in one of the hotel elevators. Our hotel was located right in the San Martin Plaza in downtown Buenos Aires, with the statue of liberator San Martin on horseback in the plaza. And every fun spot is almost walkable. After finally connecting the rest of my family, we go to eat out together for dinner to catch up.
December 22nd: My grandparents arrived in the early morning to Buenos Aires, and since I was not thrown off as hard by the time-change/jet lag since Santiago is just an hour earlier than Buenos Aires, I was able to meet my grandmother for breakfast.
The rest of my family woke up a little bit later in the afternoon, and we took a tour of Puerto Madero(above) for lunch and scope out potential restaurants for Christmas eve. I decide to take my siblings back on a walk from Puerto Madero to our hotel by walking past the Casa Rosada(below, and the equivalent of the White House for the Argentine government) and the many other government buildings nearby, and then to the hotel. 
Upon returning to the hotel, we discover that my aunt, uncle, and two cousins had been stuck overnight in Toronto due to a number of technical difficulties and weather conditions. They would eventually arrive in the middle of the night/early morning the next day.
12/23: We together as a family go on a walk down Florida(below).
My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were able to take part as well, but they were just coming off an inconceivable number of hours of traveling. After our walk, we come to realize the championship match between the two best club teams in Argentina was the night of the 23rd and that we should try and get tickets. We end up organizing a van service, guide, and tickets to the club finals of the clausura between Boca Juniors and Tigre.
The game was quite an experience. My dad, uncle, both of my cousins, and all my siblings attended the match and we all left with similar impressions. We have tickets in the Tigre section and were told not to wear yellow or blue since those of the colors of Boca and we didn't want to start any trouble with the Argentine fans.
I was secretly cheering for Boca, but just watching also as a casual observer unlike the rest of the fans in the stadiums with their fireworks, flares, smoke, constant singing before, all during, and after the match. The stadium (that of the club 'Racing') literally shook during peak moments of the match. Just to enter the match, the bustling streets with Choripan stands and Tigre fans (BBQ sausage sandwich) created and anxious environment. We preceded to pass through 3 "checkpoints," where we were patted down. One of the checkpoints didn't allow people everyone to pass all at the same time, so they let people through in waves while a riot police member blasted shotgun shells in the air to keep in the people back. There were not many women who attended the match, but there were some, much more than many years ago where women either simply weren't allowed to go or it just wasn't safe. The match was very exciting, ending in a 1-0 win for Tigre, but because of the aggregate goals rule in Argentine playoff futbol, Boca Juniors were declared champions of the league since they had scored more overall goals. Tigre fans were still passionate even after the match was over, especially since they had beat Boca.
12/24: I go on a walking tour with my brothers and father of the Botanical Gardens (which I have earlier described in this blog here), and the they were just as I had remembered them: tons of cats lounging all over the grounds and are fed by someone working for the gardens, many species of plants from all around the world, and some classic sculptures, ponds, greenhouses, etc.
Afterward we headed to Parque Palermo, which felt very quiet considering it was the afternoon on Christmas eve and everyone was either at home or heading home to be with their families. I was still able to find an open Choripan stand with some awesome Chimichurri sauce. The park was followed up by an odd cafe stop in barrio Recoleta since there were about 3 m80 fireworks that went off in a 45 minute time span. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant called Bice in Puerto Madero. They had prepared a nice multi-course meal and holiday program for all guests eating at the restaurant that night.
Christmas day was spent taking a short airline flight to the region Iguazu in Northern Argentina, on the border with Brasil and a bit of Paraguay. The weather was significantly hotter and more humid, and the views, vegetation, and life in this area are spectacular.
There is a reason that it is being considered as one of 7 most important/amazing/beautiful 'natural' wonders of the world (vote now here). We stayed at a very nice old hotel located inside the park of Iguazu on the Brazilian side with a view of the waterfalls from the front entrance.
I have visited this exact region of Argentina once before, but I was much younger and it was just my parents and one of my younger brothers. I do not remember much from the trip since it was so long ago, but I do remember some vague images of the park, butterflies, and feeding small, friendly jungle mammals.
12/26: I went on a walk through the dense part of the jungle with my brothers and one of my cousins to see what we could find. We followed along a path that had been cleared by some telephone lines but ran straight through the forest. We got scared by what are known as coatis, which turned out to be those small, friendly animals that I vaguely remember from last time.
We also saw many types of giant spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, and all sorts of bugs. There were many sounds that were never identified, but probably just birds or bugs.
Later in the afternoon, everyone but my grandparents went on a boat ride up the Iguazu river to get an up-close look at the falls and get wet. We also got a brief jungle tour during the jeep ride to the boats, as well as a DVD copy of the boat ride.
12/27: My family and cousins take a tour of the Argentine side of Iguazu, which had some great views as well. We unfortunately weren't able to tour the whole park since we entered close to closing time. Still got some good pictures.
12/28: My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins fly back from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, but my family had planned to spend a couple days in the southern part of Argentina known as Bariloche. Once again, when I was younger, I traveled to this city as well. It is very similar to the High Sierras, but in the southern hemisphere. The town offers a lot of adventure sports, tours, and a nice downtown. We rented an apartment that overlooked the Nahuel Huapi Lake.
12/29: My dad and I take a walk downtown early in the morning to try and put together some rough plans for the next couples days. We decide it might be a good idea to take a boat ride later that afternoon to Victoria Island (Isla Victoria). We also try and find a good fishing trip deal offered by one of the sport stores downtown. My entire family ends up taking a wild public bus down to the boat where we were to board a boat for a island tour.
Once we get on the boat, we spend about 10 minutes waiting for the final passengers to board and decide that the trip would probably not be worth it considering how the trip was setup and how many people were on the boat as well. So we change our plans and spend the afternoon at the Llao Llao hotel. This place is over the top and incredibly expensive, but it is fun to pretend like you are staying there and soak in the great views it has from the property.
After coming back into downtown Bariloche, my dad finalizes a fishing trip the next morning early and practically all day. We eat dinner downtown and get to bed early for our long day.
12/30: Two pickup trucks, one towing a boat, 3 guides, and my entire family leave town early in the morning for a lake far outside the city limits of Bariloche.
The landscapes were incredible, and we took many beaten trails, roads, and mud ditches to get to this pristine trout lake. We ended up taking two motor boats, coolers full of lunch supplies, and fishing rods out for the afternoon. It was awesome.
12/31: Our final morning in Bariloche consisted of checking out of our apartment and doing some last minute shopping. We head to the airport for a flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up for New Year's with the rest of the family. We all had dinner that night at the same restaurant that we attended for Christmas eve, and this time they had a DJ and singer performing during dinner leading up to the countdown.
1/1/09: After a slow morning of hanging out by the pool at the hotel, I discover that there is a sports bar within walking distance from where we were staying: The Alamo, Shoeless Joe's. It is essentially the equivalent of the bar I worked at in Santiago, but much larger with a different layout. They had cable feed showing college football games and other sports. Had to try and catch SC whoop on Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The family met up for pizza that night, and then I went back to the Alamo bar for the rest of the nightcap. We thought there was a chance that my grandparents were going to leave this day, but they were able to hang out until about 8p.m., and then had to go to the airport for a red-eye.
1/2: My aunt, uncle, cousins, and my direct family all took a train ride the next early afternoon to the city of La Plata, where my father, grandmother, and grandfather all grew up more of less. We were able to explore the neighborhood where the lived.
The house was located across the street from a social club and we were even able to let the owners of the house give us a tour considering we were the relatives of former owners long ago. We later took a train from La Plata back to Buenos Aires, where we did a walking tour of the barrio, or neighborhood La Boca. This is the part of the town where Boca Juniors is from and where the stadium is located. There are a lot of tourist shops, port traditions, tango, and other fun stuff to do there.
After returning back to the hotel, my dad, mother, and brother went to a late night Tango show at a place that had been doing nightly shows since the 80s. We had some tasty wine and enjoyed an entertaining performance.
1/3: This was our final day in South America. We spent the early part of the afternoon shopping on the street La Florida, looking for souvenirs and gifts. Afterward, we walked around the neighborhood of San Telmo, which has a lot of antique shops and traditional gifts. That night we left for the airport to fly home.
It was such a great experience to have my entire family on the Latin American side of my family come visit one of the origins of the family heritage for the holiday season. Christmas and New Years dinners together were both great opportunities for us to get together. There was not a more perfect way for me to end my travels in South America, and I can't wait to come back one day. I just can't get enough of the language, culture, attractions, food, memories that both Chile, Argentina, and many other countries down south.
This concludes my blog on my over 6 month adventure in Chile and many other parts of South America. I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels and hopefully this serves as a good tool for anyone who wants a personal account of how living life in Santiago, Chile on a study abroad for 6 months.
Since I was in Chile for a semester, I should be graduating this quarter. I took 24 units over the course of the summer and what would have been my fall quarter had I been in Santa Cruz. So that gave me a bit of a units boost, and I will be able to fulfill all my requirements as a Global Economics major with an emphasis on Latin America. I will still wait to walk with the rest of my class in the Spring because there is an actual ceremony if I wait and I don't want to have to walk on my own in March. Should be a challenging but exciting final quarter for me and I can't wait to see where this path takes me.
I will try and continue a personal blog from here on out. However, finding time to write and update about my activities requires chunks of free time. Hopefully I can keep it going. I will post the the URL here when it is created.
The last time I wrote in this blog, I was leaving Chile for Buenos Aires (12/21/08) to meet up with my real family, my grandparents on my father's side (my grandfather was born in Ecuador, while my grandmother grew up in La Plata, Argentina), my Dad's sister (my aunt), husband and their two kids who are from near Washington, D.C. I had been away from the United States and my family for so long. Our last time together had been with when I left from Hawaii on vacation directly to Santiago. Now I was meeting up with them as well as other members of my extended family after 6 long months of host-family lifestyle.
I took a LAN flight the same afternoon that my family arrived was due to arrive in Argentina, yet I arrived a bit later than them. After checking in at the front desk for my room keys, I bumped into my mother in one of the hotel elevators. Our hotel was located right in the San Martin Plaza in downtown Buenos Aires, with the statue of liberator San Martin on horseback in the plaza. And every fun spot is almost walkable. After finally connecting the rest of my family, we go to eat out together for dinner to catch up.
December 22nd: My grandparents arrived in the early morning to Buenos Aires, and since I was not thrown off as hard by the time-change/jet lag since Santiago is just an hour earlier than Buenos Aires, I was able to meet my grandmother for breakfast.
The rest of my family woke up a little bit later in the afternoon, and we took a tour of Puerto Madero(above) for lunch and scope out potential restaurants for Christmas eve. I decide to take my siblings back on a walk from Puerto Madero to our hotel by walking past the Casa Rosada(below, and the equivalent of the White House for the Argentine government) and the many other government buildings nearby, and then to the hotel. 
Upon returning to the hotel, we discover that my aunt, uncle, and two cousins had been stuck overnight in Toronto due to a number of technical difficulties and weather conditions. They would eventually arrive in the middle of the night/early morning the next day.
12/23: We together as a family go on a walk down Florida(below).
My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were able to take part as well, but they were just coming off an inconceivable number of hours of traveling. After our walk, we come to realize the championship match between the two best club teams in Argentina was the night of the 23rd and that we should try and get tickets. We end up organizing a van service, guide, and tickets to the club finals of the clausura between Boca Juniors and Tigre.
The game was quite an experience. My dad, uncle, both of my cousins, and all my siblings attended the match and we all left with similar impressions. We have tickets in the Tigre section and were told not to wear yellow or blue since those of the colors of Boca and we didn't want to start any trouble with the Argentine fans.
I was secretly cheering for Boca, but just watching also as a casual observer unlike the rest of the fans in the stadiums with their fireworks, flares, smoke, constant singing before, all during, and after the match. The stadium (that of the club 'Racing') literally shook during peak moments of the match. Just to enter the match, the bustling streets with Choripan stands and Tigre fans (BBQ sausage sandwich) created and anxious environment. We preceded to pass through 3 "checkpoints," where we were patted down. One of the checkpoints didn't allow people everyone to pass all at the same time, so they let people through in waves while a riot police member blasted shotgun shells in the air to keep in the people back. There were not many women who attended the match, but there were some, much more than many years ago where women either simply weren't allowed to go or it just wasn't safe. The match was very exciting, ending in a 1-0 win for Tigre, but because of the aggregate goals rule in Argentine playoff futbol, Boca Juniors were declared champions of the league since they had scored more overall goals. Tigre fans were still passionate even after the match was over, especially since they had beat Boca.
12/24: I go on a walking tour with my brothers and father of the Botanical Gardens (which I have earlier described in this blog here), and the they were just as I had remembered them: tons of cats lounging all over the grounds and are fed by someone working for the gardens, many species of plants from all around the world, and some classic sculptures, ponds, greenhouses, etc.
Afterward we headed to Parque Palermo, which felt very quiet considering it was the afternoon on Christmas eve and everyone was either at home or heading home to be with their families. I was still able to find an open Choripan stand with some awesome Chimichurri sauce. The park was followed up by an odd cafe stop in barrio Recoleta since there were about 3 m80 fireworks that went off in a 45 minute time span. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant called Bice in Puerto Madero. They had prepared a nice multi-course meal and holiday program for all guests eating at the restaurant that night.
Christmas day was spent taking a short airline flight to the region Iguazu in Northern Argentina, on the border with Brasil and a bit of Paraguay. The weather was significantly hotter and more humid, and the views, vegetation, and life in this area are spectacular.
There is a reason that it is being considered as one of 7 most important/amazing/beautiful 'natural' wonders of the world (vote now here). We stayed at a very nice old hotel located inside the park of Iguazu on the Brazilian side with a view of the waterfalls from the front entrance.
I have visited this exact region of Argentina once before, but I was much younger and it was just my parents and one of my younger brothers. I do not remember much from the trip since it was so long ago, but I do remember some vague images of the park, butterflies, and feeding small, friendly jungle mammals.
12/26: I went on a walk through the dense part of the jungle with my brothers and one of my cousins to see what we could find. We followed along a path that had been cleared by some telephone lines but ran straight through the forest. We got scared by what are known as coatis, which turned out to be those small, friendly animals that I vaguely remember from last time.
We also saw many types of giant spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, and all sorts of bugs. There were many sounds that were never identified, but probably just birds or bugs.
Later in the afternoon, everyone but my grandparents went on a boat ride up the Iguazu river to get an up-close look at the falls and get wet. We also got a brief jungle tour during the jeep ride to the boats, as well as a DVD copy of the boat ride.
12/27: My family and cousins take a tour of the Argentine side of Iguazu, which had some great views as well. We unfortunately weren't able to tour the whole park since we entered close to closing time. Still got some good pictures.
12/28: My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins fly back from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, but my family had planned to spend a couple days in the southern part of Argentina known as Bariloche. Once again, when I was younger, I traveled to this city as well. It is very similar to the High Sierras, but in the southern hemisphere. The town offers a lot of adventure sports, tours, and a nice downtown. We rented an apartment that overlooked the Nahuel Huapi Lake.
12/29: My dad and I take a walk downtown early in the morning to try and put together some rough plans for the next couples days. We decide it might be a good idea to take a boat ride later that afternoon to Victoria Island (Isla Victoria). We also try and find a good fishing trip deal offered by one of the sport stores downtown. My entire family ends up taking a wild public bus down to the boat where we were to board a boat for a island tour.
Once we get on the boat, we spend about 10 minutes waiting for the final passengers to board and decide that the trip would probably not be worth it considering how the trip was setup and how many people were on the boat as well. So we change our plans and spend the afternoon at the Llao Llao hotel. This place is over the top and incredibly expensive, but it is fun to pretend like you are staying there and soak in the great views it has from the property.
After coming back into downtown Bariloche, my dad finalizes a fishing trip the next morning early and practically all day. We eat dinner downtown and get to bed early for our long day.
12/30: Two pickup trucks, one towing a boat, 3 guides, and my entire family leave town early in the morning for a lake far outside the city limits of Bariloche.
The landscapes were incredible, and we took many beaten trails, roads, and mud ditches to get to this pristine trout lake. We ended up taking two motor boats, coolers full of lunch supplies, and fishing rods out for the afternoon. It was awesome.
12/31: Our final morning in Bariloche consisted of checking out of our apartment and doing some last minute shopping. We head to the airport for a flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up for New Year's with the rest of the family. We all had dinner that night at the same restaurant that we attended for Christmas eve, and this time they had a DJ and singer performing during dinner leading up to the countdown.
1/1/09: After a slow morning of hanging out by the pool at the hotel, I discover that there is a sports bar within walking distance from where we were staying: The Alamo, Shoeless Joe's. It is essentially the equivalent of the bar I worked at in Santiago, but much larger with a different layout. They had cable feed showing college football games and other sports. Had to try and catch SC whoop on Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The family met up for pizza that night, and then I went back to the Alamo bar for the rest of the nightcap. We thought there was a chance that my grandparents were going to leave this day, but they were able to hang out until about 8p.m., and then had to go to the airport for a red-eye.
1/2: My aunt, uncle, cousins, and my direct family all took a train ride the next early afternoon to the city of La Plata, where my father, grandmother, and grandfather all grew up more of less. We were able to explore the neighborhood where the lived.
The house was located across the street from a social club and we were even able to let the owners of the house give us a tour considering we were the relatives of former owners long ago. We later took a train from La Plata back to Buenos Aires, where we did a walking tour of the barrio, or neighborhood La Boca. This is the part of the town where Boca Juniors is from and where the stadium is located. There are a lot of tourist shops, port traditions, tango, and other fun stuff to do there.
After returning back to the hotel, my dad, mother, and brother went to a late night Tango show at a place that had been doing nightly shows since the 80s. We had some tasty wine and enjoyed an entertaining performance.
1/3: This was our final day in South America. We spent the early part of the afternoon shopping on the street La Florida, looking for souvenirs and gifts. Afterward, we walked around the neighborhood of San Telmo, which has a lot of antique shops and traditional gifts. That night we left for the airport to fly home.
It was such a great experience to have my entire family on the Latin American side of my family come visit one of the origins of the family heritage for the holiday season. Christmas and New Years dinners together were both great opportunities for us to get together. There was not a more perfect way for me to end my travels in South America, and I can't wait to come back one day. I just can't get enough of the language, culture, attractions, food, memories that both Chile, Argentina, and many other countries down south.
This concludes my blog on my over 6 month adventure in Chile and many other parts of South America. I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels and hopefully this serves as a good tool for anyone who wants a personal account of how living life in Santiago, Chile on a study abroad for 6 months.
Since I was in Chile for a semester, I should be graduating this quarter. I took 24 units over the course of the summer and what would have been my fall quarter had I been in Santa Cruz. So that gave me a bit of a units boost, and I will be able to fulfill all my requirements as a Global Economics major with an emphasis on Latin America. I will still wait to walk with the rest of my class in the Spring because there is an actual ceremony if I wait and I don't want to have to walk on my own in March. Should be a challenging but exciting final quarter for me and I can't wait to see where this path takes me.
I will try and continue a personal blog from here on out. However, finding time to write and update about my activities requires chunks of free time. Hopefully I can keep it going. I will post the the URL here when it is created.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Patagonia and Despedida
I know I know, it's been now multiple weeks since my last entry, but with good reason. I was down south at the Strait of Magellan and its surrounding areas for the last two weeks, followed by my two final days and Chile, and then a hop over to Buenos Aires to meet my family. I have had such a great, relaxing time recently and things have just been getting better now that my family and I have reunited.
So my journey began way back on Saturday December 6th. That day I had had to say goodbye to my host mother Lucrecia since she was traveling to Switzerland to visit her daughter and new born grandson for 3 months. That was very sad to have to say goodbye so early, but I have her email address of course as well as her Skype account so we can easily keep in touch. Anyways, my program buddy Finn and I had bought our tickets the month or so before to Punta Arenas, which is the largest city in the southern tip of Chile that you can fly to essentially and access the surrounding areas. Before we got on the plane, Finn's host family had organized an asado (giant tasty BBQ) to fill us up nicely before heading into the wilderness. We left from the lunch directly to airport, where I had to say my goodbyes to another program buddy, Dan, since he was going to be out of town (Santiago) when I got back because his family was coming down to visit and tour Chile for the holidays. I will see him back in the states for sure since he is from San Francisco.
That afternoon, we got on a 3 hour plane ride to Punta Arenas, where we stayed the night in a hostel with the plan of touring the town and picking up supplies over the course of two days before taking a bus to the city of Puerto Natales, the 'base-camp' town to the National Park of Torres del Paine. Strangely, we were able to pick-up our food for camping, last minute supplies, and tour the entire city in less than one day, so we decided to change our bus tickets to that afternoon rather than stay another night in Punta Arenas and leave the next morning. In terms of exploring the town, we visited a museum on the history of the region that was conveniently located across the street from where we were staying, walked through town and visited the central Plaza with a giant statue of Ferdinand Magellan, and visited the Strait of Magellan.
After a 3 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, we took refuge in one of the three hostels all under the same name of "Erratic Rock." This hostel is a well run ship, with a great system and awesome owners. They are two friends from Oregon who decided to move to Puetro Natales and open their own hostel after visiting the national park, and now they are part of a co'op under the same name which has 3 hostels in Puerto Natales and one in Punta Arenas, all with the same system and feel. One in particular in Puerto Natales is a multi-function hostel, rental equipment provider, and information source for any questions about the park and the surrounding area. Each day at 3 p.m. they have an info-session for all backpackers. So we stopped by the hostel to talk to the owners about our plan to do the "W" trail in the park and how to arrange for bus to take us to the park. The next morning we left at 7 a.m.
Each leg of our journey is marked in a different color, with START and END labeled.
The bus ride to the National Park of Torres del Paine is about 2 and half hours with multiple stops depending on where you want to be dropped off. Normally foreigners have to pay $30 to enter the park, but since my buddy and I had Chilean identity cards, we only had to pay 8 dollars. Too bad the $22 dollars we saved went directly to buying tickets to ride a boat across Lake Pehoe(yellow line). The boat dropped us off at the base of the left side of the "W" trail and upon arrival we embarked on our hike up to "Glacier Grey." (light blue line)
The entire trail is 70 km, so our hikes from campsite to campsite were anywhere between 12-22 km. The initial hikes up to Glacier Gray was rough since we had all of our food, meaning backpacks were their heaviest, and our hiking legs we not yet up to speed. We decided to walk about an hour past the "Refugio Grey," which is a pay-campsite with a view of the glacier from a distance, to go to a free CONAF campsite (Chilean National Forestry Association), "Las Guardas" which had a view overlooking the glacier from above.
After a night at "Las Guardas," we packed up our gear and headed to the middle section of the "W," to a campsite called "Italiano" (green line). Along the way we managed to run into a couple of friends from our Education Aboard Program since the trails are essentially fixed meaning your bound to run into people. At times, it becomes a big of a nuisance because there are so many people visiting the park (200,000 a year) with the park only open less than 6 months, so we saw a lot of people: many Germans, Brits, Americans, Israelis, French, and few Chileans. Once we arrived at camp Italiano, we setup our tent in the crowded campsite, only afterward discovering that there was a much better location right next to the river that flows by and with no views of other campers. So we moved our gear to this prime location and realized there was no rush to leave the next day, so we hung around for 3 days. You can drink water straight out of the rivers since it's all glacier melt, some of the best water in the world. It was definitely the best campsite we stayed at (below).
The next day we took a day hike up to a lookout of "Los Cuernos" mountains about 2 hours up "Valle Frances," which represents the middle part of the "W" (pink line) After lunch at the lookout with many of campers, we decided to follow a not-so-often-walked trail up to higher elevation for a better view of the valley and to get away from the other campers. We walked through snow which was fun and the view was spectacular.
The rest of the time at Camp Italiano, Finn and I just hung out, read, and explored the nearby parts. Now 1t day 6 into our trip, we hiked out to the right side of the "W" to see the famous Torres del Paine that the park is named after (dark blue line). They are three rock towers that have glaciers melting just below them, forming dozens of waterfalls that in turn form a aquamarine lake that feeds into a river down the valley. It was essentially observing the entire water cycle in one view.
We had camped less than 45 minutes below the Torres at another free campsite(Campamiento Torres), spent 2 nights there, and on the third day left down the right side of the "W" to leave the park (orange line). The "W" takes most people only 3-4 days to complete, but we decided to take our time since we had enough to food to stay longer and we wanted to enjoy our time in the park. The experience was incredible, breathtaking, probably some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We would have stayed longer had we brought more food, but there was just not enough space. So we left to park back to Puerto Natales.
We headed back to Erratic Rock to talk with the Oregon owners about another place nearby that we could camp since we had about 4 days until our flight back to Santiago from Punta Arenas. They recommended a Lake called Laguna Sofia, which is essentially a lake with the land surrounding it divided in half since it is owned by Cow ranchers. However, we were told it would not be a problem camping on private property and we would not see anybody while we were there, which seemed very appealing. So we got on the same bus that took us to the National Park, but told the driver to drop us off at an entrance to a private road about a half hour into the drive, where we would walk 7 km to the base of the lake, and then about another 5 km to the other side of the lake to camp.
During our walk, a 80's Mercedes drives up behind us and offers us a ride to the Lake. It turns out to be one of the two owners of the land, an Italian immigrant, who had no problem with us camping there and was very friendly. After being dropped off at the base of the lake, we walked to the other side and found a small bay with a bit of grass perfect for camping. We would stay there for two nights and leave on the third day.
The water of the lake was not too cold, so I decided to go for a swim.
On the walk back, we did not have any run-ins with any cars, so we had to walk to the entire trail back to the highway, where they we hitch-hiked with a truck driver back to Puerto Natales. We spent the afternoon to take a shower and have lunch in Puerto Natales, and then took an early evening bus to Punta Arenas. Once we got to Punta Arenas, we took refuge in the Erratic Rock for two days and planned to visit one of the Penguin Colonies and pickup souvenirs before leaving back to Santiago.
Seno Otway (Otway Sound), is a Penguin Colony of supposedly 8,000 Magellan Penguins, but it seemed like there were a bit less than that. Antarctic researchers who were on our small tour hypothesized that the tourist aspect of the colony might have scared away part of the population, but it was not clear since penguins always come back to the same place every year to breed before returning to the ocean once again. There were still plenty of penguins to see.
We also saw a couple Ñandús, which are the Chilean version of an ostrich. Weird creatures. They are endangered since they have been hunted for their feathers and their tasty meat.
We spent the night there, and had a flight the next morning around noon on the 19th. The entire 13 day experience in Patagonia, Chile was most certainly the most scenic trip I have ever taken. It is a unique part of the world with difficult weather (luckily there was hardly any rain during our entire trip), stunning views of nature and wildlife. Visiting the Strait of Magellan is probably to closest I'll get to Antarctica, and I hope one day I can come back and check out the Argentinian side of Patagonia as well.
It would be two quick days in Santiago to pack, pickup gifts, say goodbye to my friends, teachers, co-workers, and host dad, before I got on a plane for Buenos Aires. 6 months flew bye so fast, and if it were not for the fact that I have the graduate after this coming, I could have easily extended my stay another six months. I could also easily come back down to Latin America to work one day, but we'll have to wait and see. It was so tough saying goodbye to my host parents, they because part of my family and I became part of their's. We will keep in touch digitally, but I hope to one day see them again, either in the United States, Chile, or Europe where their daughters live.
So that ends my trip to Chile. I couldn't have expected a better experience, with all that learned in terms of the Spanish language(even though Chilean Spanish is full of so much slang and their owns words it is sometimes hard to talk with other Spanish speakers, but at the very least it is very easy for me to listen and understand others because Chilean talk to fast), all the history of Chile and Latin America that have given me a fuller perspective of the region and my own family history, the experience of being so culturally immersed in a new country while going to school working a job. There are so many similarities Chile has with California, but obviously very different in many ways as well. It is going to be a bit crazy coming back and adjusting to life in the United States, especially since I only have 3 months left of school before I hit to the real world. Pretty crazy. One thing I know for certain, I will definitely be coming back one day.
PS: I will continue this blog until I leave South America on the 4th of January. After that, I think I will create a new blog on my life going forward. It will have a new address and I will post a link here when I create site. But until then, I will have one or two most entries here on this blog. Cheers.
"El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta."
English: “A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.”
-Pablo Neruda
Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le...Viva Chile.
So my journey began way back on Saturday December 6th. That day I had had to say goodbye to my host mother Lucrecia since she was traveling to Switzerland to visit her daughter and new born grandson for 3 months. That was very sad to have to say goodbye so early, but I have her email address of course as well as her Skype account so we can easily keep in touch. Anyways, my program buddy Finn and I had bought our tickets the month or so before to Punta Arenas, which is the largest city in the southern tip of Chile that you can fly to essentially and access the surrounding areas. Before we got on the plane, Finn's host family had organized an asado (giant tasty BBQ) to fill us up nicely before heading into the wilderness. We left from the lunch directly to airport, where I had to say my goodbyes to another program buddy, Dan, since he was going to be out of town (Santiago) when I got back because his family was coming down to visit and tour Chile for the holidays. I will see him back in the states for sure since he is from San Francisco.
That afternoon, we got on a 3 hour plane ride to Punta Arenas, where we stayed the night in a hostel with the plan of touring the town and picking up supplies over the course of two days before taking a bus to the city of Puerto Natales, the 'base-camp' town to the National Park of Torres del Paine. Strangely, we were able to pick-up our food for camping, last minute supplies, and tour the entire city in less than one day, so we decided to change our bus tickets to that afternoon rather than stay another night in Punta Arenas and leave the next morning. In terms of exploring the town, we visited a museum on the history of the region that was conveniently located across the street from where we were staying, walked through town and visited the central Plaza with a giant statue of Ferdinand Magellan, and visited the Strait of Magellan.
After a 3 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, we took refuge in one of the three hostels all under the same name of "Erratic Rock." This hostel is a well run ship, with a great system and awesome owners. They are two friends from Oregon who decided to move to Puetro Natales and open their own hostel after visiting the national park, and now they are part of a co'op under the same name which has 3 hostels in Puerto Natales and one in Punta Arenas, all with the same system and feel. One in particular in Puerto Natales is a multi-function hostel, rental equipment provider, and information source for any questions about the park and the surrounding area. Each day at 3 p.m. they have an info-session for all backpackers. So we stopped by the hostel to talk to the owners about our plan to do the "W" trail in the park and how to arrange for bus to take us to the park. The next morning we left at 7 a.m.
Each leg of our journey is marked in a different color, with START and END labeled.
The bus ride to the National Park of Torres del Paine is about 2 and half hours with multiple stops depending on where you want to be dropped off. Normally foreigners have to pay $30 to enter the park, but since my buddy and I had Chilean identity cards, we only had to pay 8 dollars. Too bad the $22 dollars we saved went directly to buying tickets to ride a boat across Lake Pehoe(yellow line). The boat dropped us off at the base of the left side of the "W" trail and upon arrival we embarked on our hike up to "Glacier Grey." (light blue line)
The entire trail is 70 km, so our hikes from campsite to campsite were anywhere between 12-22 km. The initial hikes up to Glacier Gray was rough since we had all of our food, meaning backpacks were their heaviest, and our hiking legs we not yet up to speed. We decided to walk about an hour past the "Refugio Grey," which is a pay-campsite with a view of the glacier from a distance, to go to a free CONAF campsite (Chilean National Forestry Association), "Las Guardas" which had a view overlooking the glacier from above.
After a night at "Las Guardas," we packed up our gear and headed to the middle section of the "W," to a campsite called "Italiano" (green line). Along the way we managed to run into a couple of friends from our Education Aboard Program since the trails are essentially fixed meaning your bound to run into people. At times, it becomes a big of a nuisance because there are so many people visiting the park (200,000 a year) with the park only open less than 6 months, so we saw a lot of people: many Germans, Brits, Americans, Israelis, French, and few Chileans. Once we arrived at camp Italiano, we setup our tent in the crowded campsite, only afterward discovering that there was a much better location right next to the river that flows by and with no views of other campers. So we moved our gear to this prime location and realized there was no rush to leave the next day, so we hung around for 3 days. You can drink water straight out of the rivers since it's all glacier melt, some of the best water in the world. It was definitely the best campsite we stayed at (below).
The next day we took a day hike up to a lookout of "Los Cuernos" mountains about 2 hours up "Valle Frances," which represents the middle part of the "W" (pink line) After lunch at the lookout with many of campers, we decided to follow a not-so-often-walked trail up to higher elevation for a better view of the valley and to get away from the other campers. We walked through snow which was fun and the view was spectacular.
The rest of the time at Camp Italiano, Finn and I just hung out, read, and explored the nearby parts. Now 1t day 6 into our trip, we hiked out to the right side of the "W" to see the famous Torres del Paine that the park is named after (dark blue line). They are three rock towers that have glaciers melting just below them, forming dozens of waterfalls that in turn form a aquamarine lake that feeds into a river down the valley. It was essentially observing the entire water cycle in one view.
We had camped less than 45 minutes below the Torres at another free campsite(Campamiento Torres), spent 2 nights there, and on the third day left down the right side of the "W" to leave the park (orange line). The "W" takes most people only 3-4 days to complete, but we decided to take our time since we had enough to food to stay longer and we wanted to enjoy our time in the park. The experience was incredible, breathtaking, probably some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We would have stayed longer had we brought more food, but there was just not enough space. So we left to park back to Puerto Natales.
We headed back to Erratic Rock to talk with the Oregon owners about another place nearby that we could camp since we had about 4 days until our flight back to Santiago from Punta Arenas. They recommended a Lake called Laguna Sofia, which is essentially a lake with the land surrounding it divided in half since it is owned by Cow ranchers. However, we were told it would not be a problem camping on private property and we would not see anybody while we were there, which seemed very appealing. So we got on the same bus that took us to the National Park, but told the driver to drop us off at an entrance to a private road about a half hour into the drive, where we would walk 7 km to the base of the lake, and then about another 5 km to the other side of the lake to camp.
During our walk, a 80's Mercedes drives up behind us and offers us a ride to the Lake. It turns out to be one of the two owners of the land, an Italian immigrant, who had no problem with us camping there and was very friendly. After being dropped off at the base of the lake, we walked to the other side and found a small bay with a bit of grass perfect for camping. We would stay there for two nights and leave on the third day.
The water of the lake was not too cold, so I decided to go for a swim.
On the walk back, we did not have any run-ins with any cars, so we had to walk to the entire trail back to the highway, where they we hitch-hiked with a truck driver back to Puerto Natales. We spent the afternoon to take a shower and have lunch in Puerto Natales, and then took an early evening bus to Punta Arenas. Once we got to Punta Arenas, we took refuge in the Erratic Rock for two days and planned to visit one of the Penguin Colonies and pickup souvenirs before leaving back to Santiago.
Seno Otway (Otway Sound), is a Penguin Colony of supposedly 8,000 Magellan Penguins, but it seemed like there were a bit less than that. Antarctic researchers who were on our small tour hypothesized that the tourist aspect of the colony might have scared away part of the population, but it was not clear since penguins always come back to the same place every year to breed before returning to the ocean once again. There were still plenty of penguins to see.
We also saw a couple Ñandús, which are the Chilean version of an ostrich. Weird creatures. They are endangered since they have been hunted for their feathers and their tasty meat.
We spent the night there, and had a flight the next morning around noon on the 19th. The entire 13 day experience in Patagonia, Chile was most certainly the most scenic trip I have ever taken. It is a unique part of the world with difficult weather (luckily there was hardly any rain during our entire trip), stunning views of nature and wildlife. Visiting the Strait of Magellan is probably to closest I'll get to Antarctica, and I hope one day I can come back and check out the Argentinian side of Patagonia as well.
It would be two quick days in Santiago to pack, pickup gifts, say goodbye to my friends, teachers, co-workers, and host dad, before I got on a plane for Buenos Aires. 6 months flew bye so fast, and if it were not for the fact that I have the graduate after this coming, I could have easily extended my stay another six months. I could also easily come back down to Latin America to work one day, but we'll have to wait and see. It was so tough saying goodbye to my host parents, they because part of my family and I became part of their's. We will keep in touch digitally, but I hope to one day see them again, either in the United States, Chile, or Europe where their daughters live.
So that ends my trip to Chile. I couldn't have expected a better experience, with all that learned in terms of the Spanish language(even though Chilean Spanish is full of so much slang and their owns words it is sometimes hard to talk with other Spanish speakers, but at the very least it is very easy for me to listen and understand others because Chilean talk to fast), all the history of Chile and Latin America that have given me a fuller perspective of the region and my own family history, the experience of being so culturally immersed in a new country while going to school working a job. There are so many similarities Chile has with California, but obviously very different in many ways as well. It is going to be a bit crazy coming back and adjusting to life in the United States, especially since I only have 3 months left of school before I hit to the real world. Pretty crazy. One thing I know for certain, I will definitely be coming back one day.
PS: I will continue this blog until I leave South America on the 4th of January. After that, I think I will create a new blog on my life going forward. It will have a new address and I will post a link here when I create site. But until then, I will have one or two most entries here on this blog. Cheers.
"El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta."
English: “A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.”
-Pablo Neruda
Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le...Viva Chile.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Mendoza
So it looks like this will be my second to last blog entry from Santiago Chile. I have only one more week left, two tests, before I travel down south to Punta Arenas between the 6th-19th of December, then just barely two days in Santiago and then off to Buenos Aires.
Last Thursday I had my final exam for Social History of Latin America, which went surprisingly well. I also turned in a final essay for my contemporary history of Chile class. All that is left is my two Economics tests this week and I am free. After class, I went to pickup some gifts for my host parents since it was my host-father's birthday and my host-mother is leaving for Switzerland for 3 months the day after I go to Punta Arenas. Along the way I realized that I had misplaced my ATM card (probably left it in a ATM machine earlier in the week, forgetting to respond 'NO' at the end of my transaction if I wanted to make another transaction or have the machine spit out the card). That was a slight damper for my Thanksgiving, but the disappointment didn't last long since I was leaving for Mendoza that afternoon to visit family friends who live there for the weekend.
Thanksgiving lunch was very nice. My family and I shared the the things we were thankful for and discussed the final days of my stay in Chile. Very emotional, but a great holiday considering that no country outside of the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, obviously, and the day exceeded my expectations.
After lunch, I headed off the the airport. While waiting in line to check in, I noticed a familiar person in line, but wasn't sure of his identity until a airport worker came up to him asking for an autograph for his kids. Then my thoughts were confirmed that it was the Argentinian futbol player, Lucas Barrios (first photo below), striker for the Chilean club futbol team Colo-Colo. He was traveling to Buenos Aires for the weekend with a fellow player, Daud Gazela(second photo below), and after he finished checking in, I went up and asked them both for autographs. Not having any paper available, I had them sign my passport on the day that I arrived to Chile. It felt a bit strange since Colo-Colo is the rival club to my team, University of Chile, but Lucas Barrios can probably be considered the best player in the Chilean league and has recently been offered multimillion dollar contracts by various
European club teams. Not sure if he will leave.
After chatting with the futbol players, I checked into my flight, only to realize that my Visa had expired a week before. After 15 minutes of complete panic thinking that I was not going to be able to leave, I realized that all I needed to do was show them my Chilean identification card and I was on my way. The flight was less than 45 minutes long.
I arrived in Mendoza and met up with Carlos Rodriguez, who went to engineering school with my grandfather in the city of La Plata in Argentina. We sat down for a cup of coffee in the airport to introduce ourselves, share our stories, and then left for his house where I met his wife Teresa. Carlos was once the Minister of Economy as well as the Minister of the 'Hacienda,' for Argentina during the presidency of Carlos Menem, while Teresa was a doctor for many years with a specialization in blood and related diseases, and later was a social worker for the youth. They are such wonderful people, intelligent, very hospitable, and showed me a great time in Mendoza. That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in which they knew the owners and had eaten there before with my grandparents years earlier.
My entire weekend was completely programmed. Carlos set me up with excursions to various parts of Mendoza and it's exterior. He had initially planned to join me on the trips, but he suffered an accident on a construction site a week before I arrived, breaking a couple ribs and lacerating his hand. Nevertheless, we had a great time.
The first excursion was to nearby vineyards and bodegas, as well as a olive oil producing farm. Mendoza is primarily known for its wine since about 90% of the wine produced in Argentina comes out of Mendoza. The temperature, climate, and available land for cultivation make it a perfect environment. I returned to the house for dinner and went to bed early since the following morning my excursion left at 7:30 a.m. Below La Bodega Baurdon, one that we visited.
Excursion #2 took a group of people to the northern part of Mendoza along the International highway that connects Chile with Argentina. Our stops consisted of the original bridge that San Martin used crossing the cordillera to Chile to aide in the Chilean independence with Bernanrdo O'Higgins(Puente Picheuta),
the town of Penitentes which is were I went skiing earlier in the year with my buddy Finn but this time there was no snow,
the Bridge of the Inca which is a natural bridge formed from water erosion of a nearby river with leftover sediment from retreated glaciers, and iron found in spring water. A Spa Hotel was created in 1925 for famous individuals that provided each room with a natural bath from the river, which apparently contained many cleansing and anti-stress elements. Following an avalanche in 1965, the entire community was destroyed except for a small chapel.
The last stop we made was the entrance to the Park of the Aconcagua mountain. We couldn't enter the park because you need to buy a permit, but the view was spectacular. After traveling all the way to the border, our excursion turned around and headed back to Mendoza.
Excursion #3: San Rafael. This city is about 3 hour south of Mendoza, and is considered the 3rd most important city in Argentina after Buenos Aires and Mendoza. It is famous for it's Canyon, Atuel, which is the Argentinian version of the Grand Canyon essentially. There is a river that flows in between, as well as a road that allows you to drive all the way up to Lake Nihuil. The river has a series of hydroelectric dams that are used to supply a significant amount of energy to Argentina's citizens. The excursion took the entire day, from 7 in the morning until about 10 in the evening.
On my final day in Mendoza, I traveled with Teresa to take a tour of downtown Mendoza and visit the Fundational Museum, which unfortunately was closed due to construction. It's plaza is gorgeous, and beneath there is a series of tunnels that explore the archeological discoveries from the time of the foundation of the city.
We returned to have lunch at the house, and then afterward Carlos and I took a tour of the Park of San Martin, absolutely amazing.
The park is much larger than Central Park in New York, or even Palermo Park in Buenos Aires. There is an artificial lake, dozens of giants lawns, restaurants, a Rotary club, sporting facilities, an amphitheater that holds an annual festival that 100,000 people attend as well as some concerts, one of the World Cup stadiums that was used in 1978 (the year which Argentina won. Carlos helped in the construction of the stadium from 1975-1978), and el Cerro de La Gloria which has an amazing statue dedicated to South American liberator San Martin and his Andean army.
After completing a driving tour of the entire park, it was time for me to catch my flight. I bid farewell to Teresa and Carlos for their warmth and hospitality. They made my short stay in Mendoza amazing. I was so happy to meet and spend time with them. I even met one of their daughters and her family, who were incredibly nice and whose kids loved to ask me questions about the life in the United States and my stay down here in Latin America. They also at times could not understand me because they said I spoke like a Chilean. What a compliment...I guess.
Only a week remains for me in Santiago essentially, and I can't wait to visit Patagonia. My next entry should be around the 19th/20th of December after I get back from the south. Ciao.
Last Thursday I had my final exam for Social History of Latin America, which went surprisingly well. I also turned in a final essay for my contemporary history of Chile class. All that is left is my two Economics tests this week and I am free. After class, I went to pickup some gifts for my host parents since it was my host-father's birthday and my host-mother is leaving for Switzerland for 3 months the day after I go to Punta Arenas. Along the way I realized that I had misplaced my ATM card (probably left it in a ATM machine earlier in the week, forgetting to respond 'NO' at the end of my transaction if I wanted to make another transaction or have the machine spit out the card). That was a slight damper for my Thanksgiving, but the disappointment didn't last long since I was leaving for Mendoza that afternoon to visit family friends who live there for the weekend.
Thanksgiving lunch was very nice. My family and I shared the the things we were thankful for and discussed the final days of my stay in Chile. Very emotional, but a great holiday considering that no country outside of the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, obviously, and the day exceeded my expectations.
After lunch, I headed off the the airport. While waiting in line to check in, I noticed a familiar person in line, but wasn't sure of his identity until a airport worker came up to him asking for an autograph for his kids. Then my thoughts were confirmed that it was the Argentinian futbol player, Lucas Barrios (first photo below), striker for the Chilean club futbol team Colo-Colo. He was traveling to Buenos Aires for the weekend with a fellow player, Daud Gazela(second photo below), and after he finished checking in, I went up and asked them both for autographs. Not having any paper available, I had them sign my passport on the day that I arrived to Chile. It felt a bit strange since Colo-Colo is the rival club to my team, University of Chile, but Lucas Barrios can probably be considered the best player in the Chilean league and has recently been offered multimillion dollar contracts by various
European club teams. Not sure if he will leave.
After chatting with the futbol players, I checked into my flight, only to realize that my Visa had expired a week before. After 15 minutes of complete panic thinking that I was not going to be able to leave, I realized that all I needed to do was show them my Chilean identification card and I was on my way. The flight was less than 45 minutes long.
I arrived in Mendoza and met up with Carlos Rodriguez, who went to engineering school with my grandfather in the city of La Plata in Argentina. We sat down for a cup of coffee in the airport to introduce ourselves, share our stories, and then left for his house where I met his wife Teresa. Carlos was once the Minister of Economy as well as the Minister of the 'Hacienda,' for Argentina during the presidency of Carlos Menem, while Teresa was a doctor for many years with a specialization in blood and related diseases, and later was a social worker for the youth. They are such wonderful people, intelligent, very hospitable, and showed me a great time in Mendoza. That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in which they knew the owners and had eaten there before with my grandparents years earlier.
My entire weekend was completely programmed. Carlos set me up with excursions to various parts of Mendoza and it's exterior. He had initially planned to join me on the trips, but he suffered an accident on a construction site a week before I arrived, breaking a couple ribs and lacerating his hand. Nevertheless, we had a great time.
The first excursion was to nearby vineyards and bodegas, as well as a olive oil producing farm. Mendoza is primarily known for its wine since about 90% of the wine produced in Argentina comes out of Mendoza. The temperature, climate, and available land for cultivation make it a perfect environment. I returned to the house for dinner and went to bed early since the following morning my excursion left at 7:30 a.m. Below La Bodega Baurdon, one that we visited.
Excursion #2 took a group of people to the northern part of Mendoza along the International highway that connects Chile with Argentina. Our stops consisted of the original bridge that San Martin used crossing the cordillera to Chile to aide in the Chilean independence with Bernanrdo O'Higgins(Puente Picheuta),
the town of Penitentes which is were I went skiing earlier in the year with my buddy Finn but this time there was no snow,
the Bridge of the Inca which is a natural bridge formed from water erosion of a nearby river with leftover sediment from retreated glaciers, and iron found in spring water. A Spa Hotel was created in 1925 for famous individuals that provided each room with a natural bath from the river, which apparently contained many cleansing and anti-stress elements. Following an avalanche in 1965, the entire community was destroyed except for a small chapel.
The last stop we made was the entrance to the Park of the Aconcagua mountain. We couldn't enter the park because you need to buy a permit, but the view was spectacular. After traveling all the way to the border, our excursion turned around and headed back to Mendoza.
Excursion #3: San Rafael. This city is about 3 hour south of Mendoza, and is considered the 3rd most important city in Argentina after Buenos Aires and Mendoza. It is famous for it's Canyon, Atuel, which is the Argentinian version of the Grand Canyon essentially. There is a river that flows in between, as well as a road that allows you to drive all the way up to Lake Nihuil. The river has a series of hydroelectric dams that are used to supply a significant amount of energy to Argentina's citizens. The excursion took the entire day, from 7 in the morning until about 10 in the evening.
On my final day in Mendoza, I traveled with Teresa to take a tour of downtown Mendoza and visit the Fundational Museum, which unfortunately was closed due to construction. It's plaza is gorgeous, and beneath there is a series of tunnels that explore the archeological discoveries from the time of the foundation of the city.
We returned to have lunch at the house, and then afterward Carlos and I took a tour of the Park of San Martin, absolutely amazing.
The park is much larger than Central Park in New York, or even Palermo Park in Buenos Aires. There is an artificial lake, dozens of giants lawns, restaurants, a Rotary club, sporting facilities, an amphitheater that holds an annual festival that 100,000 people attend as well as some concerts, one of the World Cup stadiums that was used in 1978 (the year which Argentina won. Carlos helped in the construction of the stadium from 1975-1978), and el Cerro de La Gloria which has an amazing statue dedicated to South American liberator San Martin and his Andean army.
After completing a driving tour of the entire park, it was time for me to catch my flight. I bid farewell to Teresa and Carlos for their warmth and hospitality. They made my short stay in Mendoza amazing. I was so happy to meet and spend time with them. I even met one of their daughters and her family, who were incredibly nice and whose kids loved to ask me questions about the life in the United States and my stay down here in Latin America. They also at times could not understand me because they said I spoke like a Chilean. What a compliment...I guess.
Only a week remains for me in Santiago essentially, and I can't wait to visit Patagonia. My next entry should be around the 19th/20th of December after I get back from the south. Ciao.
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