Santiago → Lima

I leave early tomorrow for Lima and will have a free day before meeting the new group on Monday. This will be an 8 day tour called Inca Discovery that begins in Lima and ends in Cuzco. I’m looking forward to the hike to Machu Picchu. The biggest challenge I think will be the elevation. The description from the trip dossier:

• The 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is physically challenging but worthwhile, and the excursion is within the ability of most reasonably fit. It is a 40-km (25 mile) hike, with 3 high passes to be crossed, one of which reaches an elevation of 4200m (13776 ft). The trail is often steep, and it may rain even during the dry season. The temperatures at night may fall below zero, so it is important to come prepared.

The physical exercise will be good, especially since I’ve been enjoying some of my favorite not-so-healthy Chilean foods on my last day here. For lunch today I had chorrillana, which is a plate of french fries covered in chopped beef, sauteed onions and a fried egg. Claudia came by the language school yesterday and brought me a box of alfajores, a gift from Carmen, the director at St. Paul’s. An alfajor is two cookies with dulce de leche in the middle and dipped in chocolate. Claudia makes them and I’ve had one too many during my stay here…so I’ll be more than ready to hike the Inca Trail.

One Chilean food item that I didn’t quite appreciate was the “completo”. It´s a hotdog with avocado and tomato covered with an obscene amount of mayonnaise and ketchup. With all the junk on it, the hotdog is nowhere to be seen. I thought it was kind of gross and there was a row of stands selling them just outside my hotel. The first time I saw one I wondered how somebody could even get it in their mouth to eat…but they manage somehow. Anyway, in the two weeks I´ve been in Santiago I couldn’t bring myself to try one even though people who I met here rave about them.

Last Day at School

Yesterday was my last day at St. Paul´s School and one of the students snapped some photos and emailed them to me. I have to say that I really enjoyed my time at the school. The other teachers and I had lunch with the teenagers and being outside of their English class, they were much more comfortable conversing with me in Spanish. They were fascinated by my trip and had so many interesting questions. I was very impressed at how mature and respectful these kids are. The little ones wanted me to stay on as their English teacher permanently.

Today I had my first conversation session with an adult student at the language school. Jorge is a photographer and just got back from Machu Picchu in Peru where I´ll be going next week. We have another class tomorrow so he´s going to bring in some of his photographs to show me. He´s a beginning English student but did very well conversing with me about travel and photography for several hours.

Last night and this evening I went to see some sights here in Santiago that I wanted to see before leaving. The Museum of Pre-Columbian Art had an excellent collection and The Museum of Visual Arts had a very good exhibit on Expressionist Photography in post-WWII Germany. I went to the large city cemetery which like Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires is like a city of mausoleums that goes on endlessly. Pretty interesting to walk around. There was a moving memorial in the cemetery to the thousands who were executed or went missing in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship from 1973 -1990.

As you´ve requested Dean, I took a photograph this morning of the Costanera Center construction site. Turns out it is only 4 blocks from the language school. When it´s completed the Costanera Center will be the tallest building in Latin America. By the way, I was almost asphyxiated this morning by a record number of people on the subway car.

Valparaiso and Viña del Mar

Yesterday I talked to Carlos, the program coordinator at the language school, about possibly working with adults later this week at Bridge-Linguatec. I´ve enjoyed working at St. Paul Montessori School but I thought that since the original project working with the street kids didn´t happen that it would be a good idea to get experience teaching adult/business students as well. I finally found out why the original project was scrapped – the charity organization hosting the project was involved in some sort of corruption/sex abuse scandal so Bridge-Linguatec totally disassociated. Carlos agreed it would be a good idea to work with adults on Thursday and Friday and said that he would provide that as an option for future volunteers as well. I´ll probably be doing one on one conversational work with more advanced English students. So tomorrow will be my last day at St. Paul´s. Since Claudia took today off, I decided to take the day off as well to go to Valparaiso — another 4 day work week (can´t seem to break the habit).

Valparaiso is about an hour and a half from Santiago by bus. I arrived around 11am and from the bus station walked right into a several block long produce market which included a couple of large warehouses with hundreds of vendors. Valparaiso is a port city and the city spreads around the port and up into the mountains. I was immediately struck by how colorful the city was. Buildings are painted bright colors and there are colorful murals and/or graffiti on most buildings. The commercial area of the city is along the port and there are these ascensores (funicular lifts) through the city that bring you up to the residential areas. The cost is anywhere from 100-250 pesos (less than $1US) to take one up and they were more than a little rickety. They were built about 100 years ago and all I kept thinking each time I got on one was that I hoped they lasted at least one more day.

The residential streets were all highly photogenic and every turn down a little street, alley, or stairway descending the mountain held another surprise. I couldn´t take enough photos. After a few hours I decided to stop for lunch. In Chile most restaurants have a “promoción” where you get a soup, salad, a choice from a few entrees and a drink (sometimes even dessert) for an incredibly low price. I found a place near the waterfront that looked like it was frequented by local business people. I had a chicken consomme, a tomato salad, a vegetarian crepe, rice and a coffee for 2200 pesos (less than $5). Then I continued my trek around the city. One of the ascensores by the customs building brought me to a great overlook of the city where people were just relaxing under the trees, and enjoying the nice day and view. A perfect place to rest after lunch.

There is a subway/metro that links the twin coastal cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. A short train ride brought me to the center of Viña del Mar which reminded me much of Santiago until I took a walk to the shore. A typical beach resort. I was equipped with flip-flops and sandals so changed and took a little nap on the beach. It felt like the end of the season – Autumn is just beginning here and there were few people on the beach even though the sun felt hot to me. Viña del Mar reminded me a bit of Punta del Este in Uruguay where I was in November right before the summer season began. Except now on the west coast, I was looking out at the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic.

On the bus home I finished Krakauers “Into Thin Air” which Jeremy from the Patagonia trip gave to me. I thought it would be a good read since I´ll be going to Everest Base Camp on this trip. After reading it I can assure that climbing Mt. Everest is not on my list of things to do. Coincidentally, I read Krakauer´s “Into the Wild” in the fall and it inspired me as I was planning this trip.

Easter Weekend

In Santiago´s Centro, you always hear music. Whether its one of the many street performers (singers, karaoke, bands), or the muzak that is broadcast on the city´s pedestrian malls or chanting from a religious march, there always seems to be music. Staying on the Plaza de Armas, I can hear from my room everything that goes on in the square. This morning I woke up to the Easter service being held at the cathedral. This afternoon there was some kind of a political protest.

I spent the weekend relaxing in the city. Hernan, one of the teachers at the school who lives in the Centro was nice enough to show me around yesterday. I had been to Bella Vista during the week and it´s a somewhat trendy neighborhood with restaurants and clubs that really takes off in the evenings. My favorite neighborhood which I discovered yesterday was Barrio Brasil. Avenida Brasil is lined with outdoor restaurants and cafes where we stopped for a coffee and an empanada. There is a large park which reminded me of Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Lots of people outside enjoying the sunny day. Since I´ve been here I haven´t seen a cloud. It gets very hot in the afternoons but it cools off in the evenings and mornings can be chilly. The neighborhood is filled with historic buildings and houses which are starting to be bought up and renovated. Barrio Brasil is only about a 15 minute walk from the city center, but it almost feels like its outside of the city altogether. Unlike other parts of Santiago, it´s quiet, peaceful and it was a pleasant place to be on a Saturday afternoon. I´m sure I´ll be taking a walk back there during the week.

Tomorrow I go back to work at the school. Claudia invited me to her house for dinner one evening after school this week. I´d like to get to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art this week. I tried to go today but it was closed because of Easter.

Santiago de Chile

I´m enjoying working at the school. Apparently the program I was to be part of that the language school was sponsoring ended suddenly (unknown reason) so I was placed in a regular Chilean school. I work with children of all ages (from 2 through 16). It´s a Montessori school where several grades are grouped together and there is not so much structure. Each grade group has an English class and I´m working with the English teachers. My mentor, Claudia, is great — she´s Chilean but lived in San Francisco for 10 years. I enjoy working with the older kids more…the younger kids are still learning to speak their own language and the extent of their English training is singing songs in English. Good thing I remember Hickory Dickory Dock and Pop Goes the Weasel. Tomorrow I should be doing classes on my own. Although not what I expected as a volunteer project, it is definitely something different and new and I´ve been enjoying it.

I take the Santiago Metro to school every morning and it is amazingly clean and efficient. The only problem is the volume of passengers. There are people whose job is to shove people into the subway car so that the doors can close. Even then I’ve been waiting an average of 3-4 trains to go by before I can even get pushed on. Then you are being crushed from the front, back and both sides until you get to your stop. I´ve never seen anything like it in my life.

I´m staying in Plaza de las Armas which is in the very center of Santiago (el centro). The centro is an historic area (I think the city was founded in the 1540´s) with lots of old buildings, cafes and shops. Stores of a certain type seem to be grouped on different blocks. One street could be all hardware stores, another street all yarn and material stores, etc. Very nice to walk around in the evenings. The school is outside of the centro and it almost feels suburban.

After school I´ve been exploring Santiago. I took the funicular up the mountain that overlooks the city yesterday where there is a gigantic Virgin Mary sculpture that overlooks Santiago. Then you can take various cable cars across the mountain through the Santiago Metropolitan Park which has a zoo, restaurants, gardens, etc.

Friday is a holiday, so even with the volunteer job I only do a 4 day workweek. I´d like to go to Valparaiso or Viña del Mar on the coast this weekend but I was told that it could be insanity at the bus and train stations because of Easter. So I´ll have to think about it.

Buenos Aires — Santiago

Last night our group went out to a tango show in Buenos Aires. I couldn´t have one more steak dinner after so many on the trip so I had the pumpkin ravioli. The steaks in Argentina are delicious but you can get tired of them quickly. A guy sitting next to us had a camera crew with him. He was filming for an American travel show…sitting next to him, I´m sure I was in camera range so look for me on a travel show covering Buenos Aires. Tom, our group leader made a slide show of our time together which we watched at the hotel. He gave us all DVD´s. I´ll see if I can post it. We stayed out pretty late and said our final goodbyes. Most people flying home or to their next destination today or tomorrow.

This was on our final hike in Tierra del Fuego National Park:

I´ll miss this group. We´ll stay in touch by email. A few of us were doing round the world trips so we may actually cross paths again in the coming year.

Today I flew to Santiago de Chile. There was a guy at the airport holding up a card with my name it and I was taken to my accomodation for the Teach English volunteer project. Pretty basic accomodations…but a good location in the city center. Tomorrow morning I start at the school.

Penguins/Ushuaia

Yesterday we went to see the Magellanic penguins just outside of Puerto Natales. We were able to get very close and I was able to get some great photos which I´ll post on Flickr as soon as I get to a PC with USB. We´re right at the season where they begin to migrate north, so we were lucky to catch a good number of them.

Today we took a 12 hour bus ride crossing back into Argentina to Ushuaia, which is the southernmost city on earth and the final destination on this tour. We´ll be here until Friday. Ushuaia is surprisingly large considering its remoteness, filled with lots of stores and restaurants. It´s the gateway for trips to Antarctica (745 miles away) , the Falkland Islands, and other adventure tours in Tierra del Fuego. We had a great lamb dinner tonight at a local restaurant.

Tomorrow we take a cruise on the Beagle Channel and have options for excursions for our remaining time here (kayaking, horseback riding, hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park).

Torres del Paine National Park

We spent three days hiking and camping in the park. Very strenuous hiking. We averaged about 15 miles per day with much uphill/downhill. The days are long since it´s still summer and we´re far south…the sun sets about 10:30PM. We stayed at two different campsites in expectedly uncomfortable tents. One night we had a rainstorm and the next night a windstorm. We did however have cooks who made us some authentic Chilean meals in the evening after a long day on the trails.

The scenery is outstanding and lives up to what I expected from Patagonia. We had a great trail guide and saw waterfalls, glaciers and a few avalanches of snow from the mountains. The area is so pristine that we got our water while trekking by filling our water bottles directly from the streams running through the park. The weather changes rapidly and we went from hot to cold to wet to dry during the course of each of the days. I rented some raingear before the trip fortunately so I was prepared.

Tonight we returned for a final night in Puerto Natales. Tomorrow is more or less a rest day. A 3 hour bus ride to Punta Arenas in the morning. In the afternoon we´re going to see a penguin colony.