Yet another long weekend, which means more traveling! Thursday is Día de Todos los Santos, and Friday is Día de las Iglesias Evangélicas y Protestantes.
I will be going to Mendoza, Argentina this weekend with a bunch of other international students: two from Germany, two from France, and one from Finland. Can't wait!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Alexander von Humboldt... and his penguins
Thursday evening I went to the second showing of the five-part series of cine alemán (German theater/movies) this semester - "Die Besteigung des Chimborazo" (El ascenso al Chimborazo - I don't think it even has a title in English). It was about Alexander von Humboldt and his journey up the unsummited Chimborazo, in Ecuador (shoutout to Abby - you should totally do this).
I liked the film. It was in German with spanish subtitles, and I found (for the second time) that being able to read the subtitles was actually much easier than movies in Spanish without subtitles (reading has no accent, I suppose). But I still didn't understand everything. Humboldt's expedition never made it to the top, ending in a dramatic scene of everybody with frostbite and severe altitude sickness about to die (... have fun, Ab!). I don't think they did die - well, I know Humboldt didn't - but the movie ended with that small detail left ambiguous.
Learning about Alexander von Humboldt was especially interest since on Saturday I went with three students from the Middlebury in Chile program and our program director + his wife to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. We first went to Punta de Choros, a small fishing village about two hours north of La Serena, where the tour started.
Punta de Choros was a relatively small town, quiet this Saturday morning. There were some fisherman up and about, but I didn't see many people in general, despite the fact that it was almost 11am.
I liked the film. It was in German with spanish subtitles, and I found (for the second time) that being able to read the subtitles was actually much easier than movies in Spanish without subtitles (reading has no accent, I suppose). But I still didn't understand everything. Humboldt's expedition never made it to the top, ending in a dramatic scene of everybody with frostbite and severe altitude sickness about to die (... have fun, Ab!). I don't think they did die - well, I know Humboldt didn't - but the movie ended with that small detail left ambiguous.
Learning about Alexander von Humboldt was especially interest since on Saturday I went with three students from the Middlebury in Chile program and our program director + his wife to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. We first went to Punta de Choros, a small fishing village about two hours north of La Serena, where the tour started.
 |
| Guanacos, seen en route to Punta de Choros |
 |
| Punta de Choros |
We set off on boat and toured the coast of Isla Choros, with our guide pointing out various features of the island as well as the wildlife there. Punta de Choros is known for its biodiversity - especially for its concentration of Humboldt penguins - so it was really nice to have a guide to describe what we were seeing.
You aren't allowed to land on Isla de Choros, but Isla Damas is open to visitors, so we alighted there. In order to preserve its biodiversity, visits are limited to one hour. That allowed just enough time to walk a loop of the island, which was beautiful and absolutely teeming with birds.
As the one-hour limit approached, our tour guide hurried the group back onto the boat. A pod of bottlenose dolphins was approaching, and if we hurried we would be able to follow them. We managed to stay with the dolphins for about 15 minutes, I'd guess. They were playful - some coming right up to the boat and jumping alongside, or swimming under.
After the dolphin pod headed in a different direction, our boat turned back towards the mainland. We had a delicious lunch (I'm in love with all of the jugos naturales offered in Chile) and then drove back to La Serena.
 |
| Humboldt penguins hanging out next to Isla Damas |
 |
| From the shores of Isla Damas |
 |
| Dolphins! off the coast of Isla Damas |
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Totoralillo
Last Saturday I ate a hurried lunch at home before hurrying to el centro. I was on a mission. Will, Maca, Lucas and I were going to the beach, which could only mean one thing: I needed a kite. During las Fiestras Patrias volantines are easy to find, but I had to ask around in a couple of shops before finding one that carried kites.
I then headed to the bus terminal to meet up with the others. We waited for a bus to come that was headed the way we were going and hopped on. The bus ride was about forty-five minutes - 25 minutes to Coquimbo followed by 20 minutes watching the rugged coastline whiz past.
The bus dropped us off on the side of the highway and for over half an hour we walked down a windy road past the town of Totoralillo to the beach. The bad news: I discovered that my camera was basically out of batteries. (I took a grand total of 3 pictures on my camera during the trip.) Without further ado, I give you:
I went back down to the beach and Will and I did some crossword puzzles (still addicted) before having a frisbee catch with Lucas.
(The kite is furled in my room, waiting for its next beach expedition.)
I then headed to the bus terminal to meet up with the others. We waited for a bus to come that was headed the way we were going and hopped on. The bus ride was about forty-five minutes - 25 minutes to Coquimbo followed by 20 minutes watching the rugged coastline whiz past.
The bus dropped us off on the side of the highway and for over half an hour we walked down a windy road past the town of Totoralillo to the beach. The bad news: I discovered that my camera was basically out of batteries. (I took a grand total of 3 pictures on my camera during the trip.) Without further ado, I give you:
 |
| Totoralillo! |
It was a perfect day for the beach. Paradoxically, there were amazing cloud banks covering the sky but it always seemed to be sunny. I didn't swim, since the water was quite cold, but Lucas, Maca, and I convinced Will by offering him 1000, 500, and 500 CLP respectively (a total of ~four dollars!). He had to stay in the water for a full minute, fully submerged except for his head. Yikes.
There was a beautiful rocky hill abutting the beach, which tempted me no end. It wasn't very big so I scrambled up and within 10 minutes was enjoying the vista from the cima (top). It was windy and I felt like this (minus all the pink and the leaves) :
I went back down to the beach and Will and I did some crossword puzzles (still addicted) before having a frisbee catch with Lucas.
Soon enough I declared it to be kite time, so this time Will joined me and we clambered up the boulder-strewn hill with the volantín. The wind pattern kept blowing the kite into the side of the hill, which meant that we didn't have much success, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.
(The next four photos are Will's, whose camera was functioning properly. He's a great photographer, as you can tell. Thanks, Will!)
 |
| I wanted to feel more like Pocahontas so I unbraided my hair. Unsure why my expression is so pained. |
After a few successes and many failures with the kite, we headed back down to the beach and packed our things up. The sun was setting, producing a beautiful array of colors in the sky and reflected in the water. Being on the Pacific is absolutely amazing - before coming to Chile I had never really experienced an ocean sunset before. Though it's now a common sight for me, it hasn't lost any of its wonder for me.
 |
| My battery died again just when the sun dipped below the horizon. |
It was about 8:15, and since it was a 45 minute walk back up to the highway we had to hurry to make sure we'd make the last bus that would pass by (at about 9pm). On the walk up, Lucas asked if we'd ever hitch-hiked (hacer el dedo). Will and I hadn't, but he and Maca had; it's a lot safer and more common in Chile.
With that in mind, we all stuck our thumbs out at the next car that passed by that might be able to fit all of us. An middle-aged man and his young son kindly picked us up, and with all four of us squished into the back seat he dropped us off at the highway. We knew we'd probably be waiting a while for the bus to come, so we decided to try hitchhiking again. We were lucky! Within five minutes Lucas was in the front of a pick-up with Maca, Will and I in the back, headed to Coquimbo. From Coquimbo, Will and I took a micro back to La Serena and were back in our homes by 10pm. An excellent day.
(The kite is furled in my room, waiting for its next beach expedition.)
Neglect
I've been horrible about my blog - I'm sorry! I have, however, been adding photos to facebook so that is one way to keep track of some of my Chilean adventures.
More posts coming this week, I promise!
More posts coming this week, I promise!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
viaje este finde
Just a note to my devoted blog readers:
I felt guilty about not posting when I went to Algarrobo in advance because I didn't post for a while... So I'm letting you know that I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Salamanca until Monday night!
Posts will continue after.
I felt guilty about not posting when I went to Algarrobo in advance because I didn't post for a while... So I'm letting you know that I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Salamanca until Monday night!
Posts will continue after.
marcha
Not so surprising: more student protests.
Last week the student federation requested another "hora protegida" in which there are no university classes. Today from 11:30 - 2:30 all classes were cancelled to allow for students to participate in a marcha.
Why? you ask.
Well, this is why:
At 11:15 I left Análisis Numérico class and headed to the cafeteria/dining hall of Campus Isabel Bongard - just below the hill of Campus Andres Bello. This campus borders one of the main roads of La Serena, which is where the march passed by around 1:45pm. There were carabineros (policemen) stationed along the road, which meant that some were right outside the fence of the university.
((I suppose that bears mentioning - each campus is fenced in and they are locked at night, which is different from the US.))
As the mass of people passed by, I was surprised at how calm and silent it seemed. The peace was quickly shattered when 5-10 students with masks on or hoods up ran across the Isabel Bongard campus and started throwing stones and insults at the carabineros. On the upper level of the cafeteria on campus, necks craned to watch the action, and other students joined in on the shouting. A campus security guard who had been stationed near the fence slowly ambled off to the center of campus, away from the encapuchados (masked students). I took that to mean he was giving tacit approval to the cause that the students were protesting.
For a couple minutes the carabineros tolerated it, but they soon began targeting the stone-throwers with a fire hose. Most got out of range by running towards the center of campus before the policemen could hit them, but a few ended up hiding behind trees until they could run to safety. Crowds formed along the fringe of the range of the fire hose, and milled around even after the encapuchados scampered away to blend back in with the rest of the students and the carabineros stopped the jet of water.
About 15 minutes after this, I had to go to my 2:30 class in Campus Andres Bello, so I went to leave campus Isabel Bongard... only to find that the gate was locked. It wasn't clear what the reason for this was - presumably to minimize confrontation between policemen and students (on campus) during the march. More pessimistically, it could be to prevent students from easily reentering campus if the march got violent. Without an easy means to escape, the marchers would be trapped in the streets at the mercy of the carabineros. Unfortunately, based on what I've seen and heard in Chile regarding education protests, I find that likely.
There was a small crowd of students waiting for someone to unlock the door, but to no avail. All was quiet, the march had dispersed, and the hora protegida was finished, so we expected it to be open by this point. After a few minutes of waiting, someone came to unlock it but brought the wrong keys for the padlock. He told students to go around to the other entrance, which was open. Most students opted to walk around, but I was already running late to class so I opted to join the few students who decided to climb and jump down from the 7 or 8 foot fence.
Last week the student federation requested another "hora protegida" in which there are no university classes. Today from 11:30 - 2:30 all classes were cancelled to allow for students to participate in a marcha.
Why? you ask.
Well, this is why:
 |
| Education should be a right. [sidewalk at the bottom of Campus Andres Bello.] |
At 11:15 I left Análisis Numérico class and headed to the cafeteria/dining hall of Campus Isabel Bongard - just below the hill of Campus Andres Bello. This campus borders one of the main roads of La Serena, which is where the march passed by around 1:45pm. There were carabineros (policemen) stationed along the road, which meant that some were right outside the fence of the university.
((I suppose that bears mentioning - each campus is fenced in and they are locked at night, which is different from the US.))
As the mass of people passed by, I was surprised at how calm and silent it seemed. The peace was quickly shattered when 5-10 students with masks on or hoods up ran across the Isabel Bongard campus and started throwing stones and insults at the carabineros. On the upper level of the cafeteria on campus, necks craned to watch the action, and other students joined in on the shouting. A campus security guard who had been stationed near the fence slowly ambled off to the center of campus, away from the encapuchados (masked students). I took that to mean he was giving tacit approval to the cause that the students were protesting.
For a couple minutes the carabineros tolerated it, but they soon began targeting the stone-throwers with a fire hose. Most got out of range by running towards the center of campus before the policemen could hit them, but a few ended up hiding behind trees until they could run to safety. Crowds formed along the fringe of the range of the fire hose, and milled around even after the encapuchados scampered away to blend back in with the rest of the students and the carabineros stopped the jet of water.
About 15 minutes after this, I had to go to my 2:30 class in Campus Andres Bello, so I went to leave campus Isabel Bongard... only to find that the gate was locked. It wasn't clear what the reason for this was - presumably to minimize confrontation between policemen and students (on campus) during the march. More pessimistically, it could be to prevent students from easily reentering campus if the march got violent. Without an easy means to escape, the marchers would be trapped in the streets at the mercy of the carabineros. Unfortunately, based on what I've seen and heard in Chile regarding education protests, I find that likely.
There was a small crowd of students waiting for someone to unlock the door, but to no avail. All was quiet, the march had dispersed, and the hora protegida was finished, so we expected it to be open by this point. After a few minutes of waiting, someone came to unlock it but brought the wrong keys for the padlock. He told students to go around to the other entrance, which was open. Most students opted to walk around, but I was already running late to class so I opted to join the few students who decided to climb and jump down from the 7 or 8 foot fence.
agujas y medicina china
My semester-long project for Educación Ambiental is to design and construct a purificador de agua - a water purifying system - to be used as a class project in local high schools. First, though, we had to make sure that our design actually worked before we implement it in a high school. Camila, a friend from class and in my group, invited me over to her house in Valle del Elqui (about 30 minutes away) last Saturday to work on the project.
More of the incredible Chilean kindness: Cami invited me to go to Pisco Elqui (a part of Valle del Elqui further away) with her and her friends before I leave Chile, her parents invited me to stay at the house anytime (and offered to invite Cami's friends over to have a bonfire) and to go horseback riding in a more remote location in the Valle.
Cami's mom, Brunilda, studied and practices Chinese medicine and acupuncture. She saw that I had dilated pupils (a constant issue. people usually think I'm high) and bad complexion and immediately diagnosed me with an overactive liver. Clearly. Then, she offered to give me acupuncture. I have a lot of trouble saying "no," so I didn't mention the fact that I'm scared of agujas (needles)... and thus the idea of acupuncture really freaks me out. I also assumed that it was an offer for another time, and hoped maybe she'd forget about it. So, I said that would be fine with me.
After a delicious lunch, Cami and I worked on building our water purifier, which to our relief worked pretty well. To my surprise, Cami's mom then brought me to her office for an acupuncture session. I stuck my tongue out for inspection and took my pulse on both wrists at various finger pressures. We went over my medical history, and then the actual process began. She cleaned the spots where she would put the needles, then put them in.
She probably discovered my fear of needles when I cringed each time she inserted a needle into my skin. The first four, which were in my feet, did hurt a bit. Only two of the other hurt as well, but it was mostly just an irrational reaction. By the end, there were two needles in my feet, one by each ankle, two in each knee, one in each wrist, and three on my head (!!!). Throughout this process, she was talking to me, and came to the conclusion that I think too much, which probably gives me stress and the resultant hormonal unbalance negatively affects my liver.
Brunilda put calming music on and turned the lights off and then I was on my own to relax/sleep for 30 minutes or so. By the time she came back in the room, I was incredibly relaxed (though I hadn't slept). Could have been the acupuncture, or it could have been lying down with meditative music...
Brunilda proceeded to slowly remove the needles one by one. I discovered that having a needle being taken out from just above the midpoint between your eyes feels even weirder than putting one in. She then took out a cream that she gently started to apply to my stomach (well, above my liver, really). The cream's base is ceniza (ashes), presumably thousands of years old, from a volcano in Chillán (located in Southern Chile). The volcán is known for its healing properties throughout the alternative medicinal world. It dried as she began applying the same lotion to my face. After a few minutes she removed both with cold water. She felt around where my liver is to see if it had cooled down, and was very satisfied with its lowered temperature.
I switched to lying face down and received a superb neck and back massage for 5 minutes or so. After that, it was over! Brunilda gave me tips on foods and drinks to eat (bananas, for example) and to avoid (distilled alcoholic beverages), as well as some advice about other aspects of my life that might put my liver into hyperdrive - thinking too much and getting too much sunlight are two that I remember.
I am generally pretty skeptical about alternative medicine, which I of course refrained from mentioning. However, I can't deny that I left feeling incredibly refreshed and relaxed. I do also have great faith in the placebo effect, which may have played a part. I think it would take a few sessions of acupuncture at least to have any true effect, so I'm withholding final judgement until some later point in my life.
Based on this one session, though, I would recommend it!
More of the incredible Chilean kindness: Cami invited me to go to Pisco Elqui (a part of Valle del Elqui further away) with her and her friends before I leave Chile, her parents invited me to stay at the house anytime (and offered to invite Cami's friends over to have a bonfire) and to go horseback riding in a more remote location in the Valle.
Cami's mom, Brunilda, studied and practices Chinese medicine and acupuncture. She saw that I had dilated pupils (a constant issue. people usually think I'm high) and bad complexion and immediately diagnosed me with an overactive liver. Clearly. Then, she offered to give me acupuncture. I have a lot of trouble saying "no," so I didn't mention the fact that I'm scared of agujas (needles)... and thus the idea of acupuncture really freaks me out. I also assumed that it was an offer for another time, and hoped maybe she'd forget about it. So, I said that would be fine with me.
After a delicious lunch, Cami and I worked on building our water purifier, which to our relief worked pretty well. To my surprise, Cami's mom then brought me to her office for an acupuncture session. I stuck my tongue out for inspection and took my pulse on both wrists at various finger pressures. We went over my medical history, and then the actual process began. She cleaned the spots where she would put the needles, then put them in.
She probably discovered my fear of needles when I cringed each time she inserted a needle into my skin. The first four, which were in my feet, did hurt a bit. Only two of the other hurt as well, but it was mostly just an irrational reaction. By the end, there were two needles in my feet, one by each ankle, two in each knee, one in each wrist, and three on my head (!!!). Throughout this process, she was talking to me, and came to the conclusion that I think too much, which probably gives me stress and the resultant hormonal unbalance negatively affects my liver.
Brunilda put calming music on and turned the lights off and then I was on my own to relax/sleep for 30 minutes or so. By the time she came back in the room, I was incredibly relaxed (though I hadn't slept). Could have been the acupuncture, or it could have been lying down with meditative music...
Brunilda proceeded to slowly remove the needles one by one. I discovered that having a needle being taken out from just above the midpoint between your eyes feels even weirder than putting one in. She then took out a cream that she gently started to apply to my stomach (well, above my liver, really). The cream's base is ceniza (ashes), presumably thousands of years old, from a volcano in Chillán (located in Southern Chile). The volcán is known for its healing properties throughout the alternative medicinal world. It dried as she began applying the same lotion to my face. After a few minutes she removed both with cold water. She felt around where my liver is to see if it had cooled down, and was very satisfied with its lowered temperature.
I switched to lying face down and received a superb neck and back massage for 5 minutes or so. After that, it was over! Brunilda gave me tips on foods and drinks to eat (bananas, for example) and to avoid (distilled alcoholic beverages), as well as some advice about other aspects of my life that might put my liver into hyperdrive - thinking too much and getting too much sunlight are two that I remember.
I am generally pretty skeptical about alternative medicine, which I of course refrained from mentioning. However, I can't deny that I left feeling incredibly refreshed and relaxed. I do also have great faith in the placebo effect, which may have played a part. I think it would take a few sessions of acupuncture at least to have any true effect, so I'm withholding final judgement until some later point in my life.
Based on this one session, though, I would recommend it!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Temblores
For some reason I was still up at 2:20am last night, which usually would bum me out given that I had to wake up before 7am today. However, being awake meant that I felt my first temblor (tremor - small earthquake) in Chile. At 2:22am the house shook slightly for a few seconds, which admittedly felt like a fair amount longer. It took me a second to realize what was happening, then all the dogs started barking. There was no damage at all, since it was about a magnitude 4, thankfully.
Here's the link to some technical information about the tremor!
I think the best part is that I fell asleep right after that, dogs and all. I suppose I just hadn't wanted to miss out on this Chilean rite of passage.
Edit!
Of course, less than half an hour after I post this, there's another temblor. This one was 5.2 magnitude according to this report, but still just some house-shaking.
Here's more info on magnitudes of earthquakes! Trusty wikipedia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)