So last week was rather uneventful, mostly just settling into the routine. Monday night we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant for a girl in the program's birthday, and I met one of Karen's best friends. Tuesday we went to "Day of the Translator" at the Univ de Conce, which wasn't that fun, but then we went out to a bar afterwards-- me, Evan, Evan's "hermano," Juan, and two of his friends. They are all really cool, and we talked a lot about US politics, Chilean politics, racism, American culture exported overseas, impressions of Chile and the US, etc. Unfortunately most of this was in English, but the subject was so interesting that I didn't feel too, too bad. Wednesday night I went out with Karen and two of her girlfriends, which was a lot of fun, and we spoke in Spanish the whole time (and they complimented me!), so overall great. Thursday night a small group of us gringos found a really nice cafe near the university which has hot chocolate (where they give you a chocolate bar and steaming hot milk and you melt it yourself), coffee, and delicious snacks and desserts. Later Thursday night, we left for Chiloe!
So 12 of us from the program went to Chiloe this past weekend. Chiloe is an island (the second-largest in South America, the largest is Tierra del Fuego) in northern Patagonia (but nine hours south of here). It is known for its incredible beauty and strong Mapuche (indigenous) culture. So, we left Thursday night and spent the whole night on the bus, arriving in the morning in Chiloe. Chilean buses are very nice (unlike most American buses), as they are the main means of transportation for the middle class. It reminded me much more of Amtrak than say Greyhound. Part of the busride was actually on a ferry, and this part was in the morning, so we got to go out and look around. The hostel owner picked us up at the bus terminal in his van and drove us to the hostel, which was very nice and close to the city (Castro).
In the afternoon we went to Achao (a smaller island but considered part of Chiloe) to see the oldest church on the island. These churches are famous because they are very old and made completely out of wood. To be honest, the town was farther than we had thought the hostel owner said and the church not as interesting as promised, so everyone was somewhat grumpy (after an all-night busride, an hour and a half more wasn't so welcome). We went to a restaurant there, which had decent food but terrible service and was overpriced (we joked they had brought us the separate gringo menu!). But while there we did see the most gorgeous rainbow! My slides are finally up, so you can check it out for yourself. You'll notice that some things were so amazing that I took quite a few pictures! I think it's that the pictures didn't quite measure up to the real thing, so I kept taking more. Oh so after the rainbow things got better, we went back to the hostel, bought some food and drink, and played mafia for a couple hours.
The next day was what made us feel the long busride had been completely worth it. We paid the hostel owner a bit to drive us and be our guide in the National Park. We went hiking through the forest, but the best was the beach! I can't quite describe it, but there is something different about the lighting here (Southern hemisphere, more towards the poles-- maybe like Alaska somewhat?). I think the pictures will describe it better than my words, but the pictures certainly don't capture it either. The entire scene was magical-- the ocean, the countryside, the mountains, the lighting. And to top it off it's springtime here, so we saw calves and ponies too! They were up close and so, so cute! You can see again that I took quite a few pictures of them. Also, two people in our group had a bet with a hostel owner up north in Valparaiso that they couldn't go swimming in Chiloe, so they did! How brave!
After the national park, we had a delicious, cheap lunch (always go with a local!) and shopped in the artisanal shops. At night we went to a party in the country. It was basically a lot of local country people, including some indigenous, playing folk music. It was very interesting, but very cold (sort of inside this wood shelter). We got back late, slept little, and woke up early Sunday for the long, long busride back to Conce. Overall, it was very much worth it! Please enjoy the pictures, now that I finally have them up (this trip definitely motivated me to do that).
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