Wednesday, June 30, 2010

San Cristobal

We started off the day (on Monday, the day we had off) eating lunch at a restaurant while watching the Chile-Brazil game. We all got a beer and ate what a Chilean would usually eat while watching a soccer game.
Cheers Kim!

Vamos Chile!

My lunch: Pollo a lo Pobre.

At half-time, once we realized Chile was going to lose, we walked to San Cristobal. San Cristobal is one of two hills in the city of Santiago. This is the bigger one, the other is smaller, but it is more in the heart of the city. At the top of this "cerro" (hill, in English), is a statue of the Virgin Mary. It took us 3.5 hours to climb to the top and back, but it was worth it. Most of these pics are of the Andes, but there are a few pics of the city and cerro too. Enjoy!

Santiago from "city level"

Climbing up the cerro.

Another pic of the hill.

Santiago and the Andes from a little higher.

Andes and Santiago smog.

Getting closer to the top!



And higher, and higher, and higher...

The sun was starting to set as we walked up.

Beeeautiful!!!

We finally made it!

Me and La Virgen

They had a small cross and sanctuary up there.



Santiago (from the top) at night.



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Poverty Circle Tour of Santiago


On Sunday morning, we took a bus tour of Santiago. It was basically to show us the different economic social classes of Santiago and how it can be seen throughout the city. I feel like this is the case for most cities, so it was kind of boring. However, I did take some pretty awesome shots (especially of the Andes!!!).

The lower class area.

The middle class area (which reminds me of a plaza in Mexico).

A park in the higher class area.

La Cordillera (the mountain range). These pics were taken in the middle class and high class areas (respectively), as that is where they could be best be seen.


Monday, June 28, 2010

La Casa de Pablo Neruda

This is not part of his house, it is the gift shop building, but I believe this is one of his poems. It is about wine (title translation: Ode to Wine).


Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean Poet, had three houses in Chile. One in Santiago, one in (I forget where, somewhere in the south I think), and one in Isla Negra (it's not actually in island, just a town an hour away from Valparaiso). When he was on his deathbed, he was in his house in Isla Negra. He was also buried at this house. For good reason, this place was breath taking. The view from his room was a view of the ocean. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, so these are all pics outside of his house.

The entrance to his house (and our tour guide).

His house is long and thin (like Chile). This is a picture of the southern most part of his house.

His and his 3rd wife's grave (which over look the ocean).

The rest are pics of the gorgeous view (at varying times of day, evening and sunset):



Valparaiso (aka: Valpo)

Valparaiso

As I said, Valparaiso is a Port City. It is at sea level, but the surrounding houses are on all built on the hills that border the city. We basically only went there to see a city outside of Santiago, so this post will mostly be pictures.

Vendors by the port selling crafts and tours to tourists.


A view from Valpo from atop a hill


Another gorgeous view of all of the houses by the Pacific Ocean.

We ate at a restaurant that served gourmet Chilean food. The restaurant was called Cafe Vinillo. We had a three course meal that started with one of my favorite seafood dishes in the world: ceviche. It tasted exactly like my moms, if not better (who knew that was possible???) The entrée was a type of Chilean fish (I forgot what type but it's fish from Easter Island) very simply prepared accompanied by risotto with shrimp and a reduced Chilean wine sauce. I was full after eating a bowl and a half of ceviche, but I managed to finish this dish too because it was DELICIOUS. For dessert, we had a baked apple with homemade ice cream and raspberry sauce. The entire meal may have been one of the best I've ever eaten.

The cafe.


Inside the cafe.

Ceviche (the appetizer, yummm!)

The entrée (fish with risotto).

Dessert (baked apple with ice cream)

After lunch (almuerzo, the biggest meal of the day), we walked around to see more of the city. Valparaiso is known for it's artistic graffiti, so I took some pics of that.

Another view pic of the houses of Valparaiso.


My friend Annsa taking a picture of the graffiti.


A painting of Salvador Allende, the Chilean leader that was overthrown by Pinochet (the Chilean dictator of 12 years).


Graffiti on two TV's outside a home. (Translation: Turn off the TV, Live your life.)


Just a pic of the Chilean flag hanging in Valpo.

It's been a busy weekend

I did a lot this weekend. On Saturday, we went to a port city called Valparaiso. Saturday evening, we took a tour of one of Pablo Neruda's houses (a famous Chilean poet), which was amazing. On Sunday, we took a tour called the Poverty Circle tour, where we went from the richest areas of Santiago to the poorest ones. Monday was a saints day (Pablo or Pedro's, I can't remember), so we got the day off. Many pictures were taken so I'll put them up in different sections (Valpo, Neruda's home, the tour, and my climb up San Cristobal (a hill in the middle of Santiago where a statue of La Virgen watches over the city).

Friday, June 25, 2010

Chile V Espana





So, as I may have mentioned before, basically all of Chile shuts down when there is a Chile is playing in the World Cup that day. Everyone leaves work or school early to watch the game. We had to be in IES by 10am (which was really hard after only getting 5 hours of sleep) for a Downtown Santiago tour we were going to go on that morning. A few people I was out with the night before showed up a bit late. Our tour was beautiful. We got to see "La Moneda" which is basically where all of the political stuff happens (except for one branch, which happens in Valparaiso, where I'm going tomorrow). The building and plazas were beautiful, but the best part was watching all of downtown Santiago get ready for the big game. There were flags hanging everywhere,

big screens being set up with crowds starting to gather,


even dogs were excited!
Our teacher explained that Chileans are usually very conservative people, but this is such a big deal, they all break out of their shells and unite as a country to support their futbol team.
After our tour, we went back to IES, learned some cheers,
had a quick lunch, a quick culture lesson, and then we were free to watch the game. We were advised not to go to big plazas because it is rowdy, crowded, and generally unsafe, but it seemed like that was the only way to actually experience the game the way Chileans do, so we didn't take the advice and headed back to the plazas we were at before.
We hopped on the Metro and by the time we got there, the game had started, everywhere was PACKED, and Chile was already losing.



We were sad but decided we'd stay there to see how it played out (a lot of people left at halftime, when we were down 2-0). Luckily we did because right after half time, we scored a goal!!!




It was great. I bought a hat and painted my face (but I don't have pictures of that, check out my Facebook for pics sometime soonish. I basically looked like KC and Alcina (below) with the red-white, and blue hat the guy is wearing in the background). It was definitely worth it not to follow their advice. We ended up losing 2-1 but we moved on to the next round, so there is still a lot of partying going on in the streets (more than my first day here!).


Check out my Facebook for more pics of the tour and the soccer fiesta!

[Edit] I decided to take a picture of myself before I showered: