Coquimbo

Today was my first solo trip to Coquimbo. I went last week on Friday with Jeff, Pame, and Maca. Jeff and Pame are Middlebury Program staff, and this week they were traveling to each of the (5?) cities where students are studying to check in on everybody - making sure that their host families and houses are going well so far, meeting with internship companies/organizations to maintain the Middlebury relationship and facilitate students' work there, etc.

Last Friday afternoon, after going to the Policía de Investigaciones and the Registro Civil to start the process of getting my Chilean ID, the four of us went to Coquimbo, the city ~20 minutes away, to meet with the folks over at Científicos de la Basura. We took a colectivo (collective taxi) there, had a pretty quick meeting, and then I took the micro back. [Easier said than done.]

Each Tuesday, from now on, I'll be traveling to Coquimbo for my práctica (internship/work) at Científicos de la Basura. The office is on the campus of Universidad Católica del Norte, which is quite beautiful. My primary task, from what I can tell, is to search for companies (ideally with ties to the US, so that I can approach American companies, too) who might donate money to offset the costs of the convention that the organization is hosting in November. So, for a few hours I researched businesses and reviewed information about the convention, and soon it was time for lunch.

I went with Vivian, an employee at Científicos, to the equivalent of a dining hall on campus (a casino). We were going to a school at 2:00 to help a class of seventh-graders create a play that they will perform at the convention in November (using only recycled materials for props!). Since it's a half hour walk from the dining hall to the school, we figured we should leave at 1:30. However, after making photocopies of a small book and eating, we were running late... That is what we call tiempo chileno*. In the US you often arrive to things "fashionably late," which means about 10 minutes late (or if it's a party, an hour late/whatever you want to do). Here, people are routinely 30-60 minutes late for normal activities. Whereas I would have hurried to finish lunch quickly and walk quickly, Vivian didn't mind at all when she noticed we were running behind schedule. On our way to the school we took a wrong turn and ended up going on a roundabout route (which really turned about my sense of direction), but even still we didn't hurry. We were probably about 20 minutes late by the time we arrived, (the teacher was 20 minutes later than we were, however).

After the short play-making session (Vivian and I didn't do much; the theater teacher was running the show), Vivian was headed to a Mapudungun workshop. Mapudungun is the language of the Mapuche, an indigenous group. I was going to head back to La Serena, which meant I had to take a micro (line #2 ).

I knew where I hoped this t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶ bus would take me, but I didn't know for sure. Vivian showed me to a supermarket where she thought the 2 stopped, and headed on her way. I asked someone also waiting outside the supermarket if the 2 went this way and they thought for a moment, then said it did. I waited for five to ten minutes, during which three 1s passed by and at least two 3s. A bit perplexed, I asked a new person waiting at the supermarket if the 2 stopped there. The woman shook her head gravely and said it only stopped "up there," pointing back up in the direction of the Científicos office. I looked disappointed, and then she had a minor revelation. "No, no! Actually, it stops two blocks down, I think." She repeated what she said, mimed, and pointed to make sure I understood - I thanked her and walked over.

Two blocks over, I asked someone to confirm that the 2 did, indeed, stop there, but they didn't know. I asked another person and they said yes. Phew! So, I waited again. After waiting a good five minutes, plenty of other micros had passed by (including a 2 that went whizzing by with no sign of stopping). The woman looked at me apologetically and said, "Maybe the 2 doesn't stop here... But you know what? I know where it does stop. Walk two blocks that way, and it definitely stops there." However, she was pointing in the direction I had come from. I thanked her and headed off. Instead of waiting at the supermarket again, though, I wandered in the direction that I thought led towards the Universidad Católica del Norte campus. Thankfully, I wasn't fully turned around, so I made it to known territory and went to a street corner where I knew the micro stopped. Sure enough, in under 5 minutes I was on the 2 headed to La Serena.


I promise I'll take pictures soon. I'm horrible at remembering to bring my camera. That sounds too negative... I'm great at forgetting my camera!

*Of course, tiempo chileno is not really specific to Chile. I've found this loose treatment of time to be the case in other countries that I've traveled to as well. I much prefer it to the strictly regimented schedules of the US - perhaps I'll write more about this later.