Valle

This past Saturday morning I went to Valle del Elqui with Will, Nelly, Leyla, Kathy, and the two Chilean girls'  boyfriends. (side note: we were planning on leaving at 9:00, and I got there a bit late at ~9:10. Didn't matter because people function on Chilean time. The people who lived there were still waking up, and the others didn't get there 'til about 10. We ended up leaving at about 10:30.) It's a pretty drive of just over an hour, but I was tired after a late night and slept through a fair amount of it.

We arrived at the cabaña, nestled in a small valley between two big hills and about five minutes by car away from the main town of Vicuña.

It was HOT in Valle del Elqui - probably in the mid eighties, maybe up to the nineties. Since it's farther removed from the coast than La Serena, I suppose it heats up a lot more. I was able to wear my jorts for the first time in months, which felt pretty awesome. There was  a pool as a part of the little complex of cabañas, which I had planned on swimming on Saturday but didn't get around to it.

... I was too busy reading on a lounge chair in the sun.

I exhausted my supply of four books written in English a week or two after arriving in Chile, so I was reading in Spanish this time around. I've been making slow progress on Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). I had a sheet of paper and a pen with me to write down vocabulary words - from Saturday to Sunday I wrote down over 400 just from reading.

We went to Vicuña to pick up some food items we hadn't brought with us - including ice cream. The ice cream there was phenomenal. We got four flavors: canela (cinnamon), coco (coconut), vainilla (you can figure that one out), and mango (passionfruit. kidding. mango, obviously). I had a lovely moment where I mentioned that I didn't like coca ice cream. Which means: "I don't like cocaine ice cream."
... oops! Everyone laughed and then someone corrected me. Could have been worse.

Saturday evening Will and I walked up one of the nearby hills to get some pictures of the sunset, which wasn't as stunning as we had hoped but the view itself that the vantage point afforded was well worth it. Quite spectacular.

You could see the moon! 

I loved the double gradient in this scene - the sky and the mountains.

We went down the hill before it was too dark and enjoyed barbecued food that David was making. It was an early night for me - I ended up getting 10 or 11 hours of sleep, which hadn't happened in a long time!

I woke up feeling well rested. Hopped in the pool, read some more, and overall just relaxed. We had leftovers from the asado for lunch and then packed up and drove home. A lovely weekend!

Día de Acción de Gracias

(a week late! sorry!)

Last Thursday, unlike all of the students in the US, I had class. Three classes, actually. Somewhat of a bummer. But after finishing up at 4, I went over to Will's house and we made a pumpkin squash pie. The local market and the supermarket didn't have any pumpkins, so we made do with a European squash.

Cuttin' Squash

Mashin' squash

Mixin' squash

Pourin' squash
 

We had bought a crust from the grocery store, but it was quite shallow, so we ended up keeping the outer shell to add more space. Some leaked out the bottom... But it worked. We removed it when we took the pie out of the oven and it worked perfectly - the pie held its shape (towering over the tiny crust).

Will prepared the turkey, and his host mom prepared a salad and mashed potatoes. Somehow Will even managed to find (good!) cranberry sauce at the supermarket. It was a tasty meal.

the set-up

We ate the cena a la gringo (... American dinner) with Will's host family - his host tía, Nelly, and the two other Chilean students staying there, Leyla and Kathy - as well as Kathy's boyfriend and a friend of Leyla's.

Eatin' squash

It was a delicious meal and the company was excellent, but I did miss being home with my family.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year because it combines some of the things I love most - family, friends, and good food. This is the first year I can remember that we haven't hosted Thanksgiving at our house in CT. My favorite tradition (though discontinued at this point) was always Thanksgiving hockey. At home, Abby and I would usually make pies the day before Thanksgiving, and hopefully get a game of frisbee in with our friends. Then on Thanksgiving Day I looked forward to when people started arriving - when enough cousins and friends were there, the hockey would commence.

There's something perfect about warming up while playing hockey on a brisk, November day, then going inside to be tempted by the smells wafting out from the kitchen. But inevitably you end up waiting for hours more than expected to try the food...  Even if we say we're going to eat at 4:30, it usually ends up being 6:30 at the earliest before we can taste the delectable creations.

So to all my U.S. readers: I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgivings!

(And now we can all start listening to Christmas carols without feeling guilty. ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬)

La Rabia

This past weekend a stray dog bit me. I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when el callejero crossed the street, followed me a few steps, then bit my thigh. The dog unclamped its jaws, barked a couple times, then trotted back across the street.

I was perplexed, to say the least. I'd never heard of callejeros biting anyone. They sometimes follow people to beg for food, but this behavior was definitely odd - especially considering that it was completely unprovoked. The circumstances were sketchy enough that I couldn't rule rabies out, despite the fact that the bite didn't break my skin. There have been cases, though few, of people contracting rabies just from infected saliva.

I talked to Middlebury program employees, then the program director, then with my parents, who talked with a doctor back home... And said I should get vaccinated. So last night after returning from my internship I sheepishly approached my host mom and said that I had been bitten by a dog... and would she please drive me to the clinic?

The clinic was packed. We waited a long time just to "sign in" and talk to a secretary, who then told us that it would be hours before I could be seen. Instead of waiting through all that, early this morning I went to the university health center to see if they could give me the vaccinations. Also, the there doctor reiterated (as have most people here, including my host mother, the secretary at the clinic, and the secretary at the ULS health center) that it was probably not necessary to get the vaccination because the bite hadn't broken my skin, but conceded it might be best to do the treatment just in case.

The ULS departamento de salud estudiantil (student health center) couldn't administer the shots, but gave me the prescription/doctor's order necessary and directed me to the hospital. In the emergency room I had to wait an hour and a half to get treated there, but eventually did get the first dose.

My hospital room:

Attention!!! Don't throw up in the sink - use the trash can.

Though it's very unlikely that I did get rabies from the dog, my theory was better safe than sorry.
Or, Más vale prevenir que curar.
(which literally translates to: better to prevent than need to cure. The best English equivalent is "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.")

The spanish dicho (saying) is an interesting analogy. It doesn't quite suggest the same thing as "better safe than sorry" because it implies that you CAN get cured even if you don't take preventative measures. Whereas with rabies, if you decide to confirm you have rabies by waiting until symptoms appear... well, you're out of luck. If symptoms appear, it's fatal and there's nothing you can do about it. So preventative is really the only way to go. Más vale prevenir que morir!

Más dichos:
In Spanish there's a saying: "El perro que ladra no muerda," the English equivalent being: "A barking dog seldom bites." I thought that made this situation kind of funny, since the dog both bit and barked. (I suppose in English the expression says 'seldom' instead of 'never' for a reason...)

Anyway, this Saturday I'll be going for my next dosage, and then again a week from now, two weeks from now, and four weeks from now.

DELE

In a couple hours I'm going to Santiago for the weekend, since tomorrow I take the DELE - a Spanish exam for extranjeros (foreigners). If all goes well, it can go on my resume and will basically assert that I'm fluent in Spanish (yeaaah right). Yikes.

However, I will make a real post on Sunday! Last night Rachel, a friend from Bowdoin who is studying in Valparaíso, came to La Serena, and we had an excellent night. So, tales to come!

Across the Andes: Argentina

What happens when two Germans, two Frenchmen, a Finn, and an American take a bus to Argentina?


(it sounds like an interesting joke. Let me know if you come up with a good punchline.)

My journey started off badly. I got lost going to the apartment of my travel companions to eat dinner together before our trip started, and ended up wandering around dark, unlit streets at 9:30pm, clearly looking like a lost gringa. I was not thrilled about that situation. However, I eventually made it to the apartment and enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert with great company.

We walked to the bus terminal and I slept through most of the first bus. We arrived in Santiago when it was still dark, then an hour and a half later got on the second bus to take us to Mendoza. I slept for about an hour or two on this one, but when I woke up and looked out the window I couldn't shut my eyes again. We were driving through the Andes - an awesome sight, in the meaning that it inspires awe*. Not the trite "awesome" that I usually use.

We passed into Argentina!

 We were lucky to spend 3 hours in aduanas (customs)! Yippee... But we were allowed to wander around outside of the bus for about half an hour of that, which was lovely.

Once we were on our way again, more beautiful vistas greeted us:

When we got into Mendoza, we walked to the hostel to drop our bags off, then headed to the local tourist office to get some ideas for plans for the next few days.

Friday morning we got up early to catch a bus to Potrerillos, about an hour and a half outside of the city, to do some hiking. Unfortunately, we had been given a screwy bus schedule and we ended up having a couple hours free before the next bus. We bought some lunch food to take with us and went to see the lovely Plaza de España, pictured below.

Louis... how French! 

We then headed to the bus terminal and ended up arriving at Potrerillos at 11:30am. We asked around where were good places to hike without a tour guide, and didn't receive very helpful answers. However, we ended up taking one man's advice and picking a rocky hill/mountain and forging our own path. It was a bit treacherous (especially on the way down!) but the view was phenomenal.

What a great lunch spot!

On the left you can see a red river - I'm assuming that the color comes from clay in the ground. It flows into the impossibly blue lake in the center of the picture - but the two don't mix, creating an interesting visual effect. We stopped for lunch a bit below the top of the ridge line of the mountain we were on - "lunch" meant loaves of french bread paired with cheese, accompanied by bananas and apples.

Miraculously, we descended the rock-strewn slope without twisting any ankles or sustaining any injuries. We headed to the blue lake after, in hopes of cooling ourselves off, but it wasn't swimmable, unfortunately. 

The next day, we spent the morning exploring the city. I went with Jan, one of the Germans, to the large park on the western side of Mendoza, then climbed the hill that affords a marvelous view of the city and its surroundings.

I love the makeshift crown.

View of Mendoza from Cerro de la Gloria

Monument to the Ejército de los Andes

Panorama from Cerro de la Gloria

After exploring some of the plazas and parks in Mendoza, we all went on a tour of the bodegas (wineries) of Maipu. Maipu, in the Mendoza Province, is well-known for its abundant wineries and excellent wine. First, though, we went on a tour of an olive-oil factory. That was both interesting and delicious, as it culminated in a taste test of various types of olive oil paired with bread.

Tours of two of Mendoza's many bodegas ensued, both ending with wine tastings.

Wow. Huge.

 When we returned to the city after our tour, we went out to eat for the first time in Mendoza rather than cooking in the hostel. We ate outside, since even at 9:45pm the weather remained in the 70s. This meant that we were serenaded by street musicians hoping for tips throughout dinner, which was a blessing and a curse depending on the performer. We slept soundly after another full day.

Unfortunately, I had to get up early to leave on Sunday due to a test Monday morning, but the others stayed in Mendoza until Sunday night. Though getting up at 5:45 didn't really agree with me, I was glad to be traveling during the daytime to be able to enjoy the wonderful paisajes on the return trip.

I wish I could have stayed in Mendoza for longer! I would have loved to get to know the city more, since there was so much to do. But as it is, I had an amazing trip that was well worth the many travel hours it entailed.

*Awesome. Awe-some. Some-awe. I don't understand why the word is not "awefull" - full of awe. But instead, we have awful... which is on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.

One of the many reasons I'm glad I'm a native English speaker. It must be brutally difficult to learn English.