Updates!: the last 3 weeks.....

Chapter 1: LaSerena and Vicuna (Labor Day Weekend)


In the middle of a snow storm in Jerz last February someone said to me "you are going to have a second winter this year, going to Chile." My honest reaction: "you dumbass, its gonna be summer for me in a few days---- suckaaaa"... but now, the middle of May, he is correct. I surely am entering my second winter- why did I not realize this until now? The first signs of fall approaching I headed north for a long weekend, for the first time traveling with a mere 4 people total, compared with the usual minimum of 6 or 7. LaSerena is a town about 7 hours north of Santiago in the Elqui Valley. We rented a car one day (an exciting endeavor in itself!)
and drove to two national parks that you can't get to without a car. It was quite entertaining to turn off the Pan-American Highway (apparently bottom of Chile up through America) to a curvy/steep dirt road (hence the sign in the picture), weaving through these narrow excuses for roads around mountains and random houses. We also took a day trip to Vicuna which has Chile's famous star observatory, used by the US because its one of the clearest places on Earth. It was really cool to learn about the different perspective of the stars being in the Southern Hemisphere- for example I now see Orion's belt upside down- and I got to see the Moon and Saturn through a telescope which was really fascinating. LaSerena also has the only Easter Island Moi in Chile (other than Easter Island, which is officially part of Chile but its a long $700 plane ride off the coast). It was really cool to see and I climbed up it and gave it a big fat one on its cheek.


Chapter 2: Capon de Maipu and Isle Negra

I came home on Friday to find out some of the Spanish roommates were momentarily leaving to go rent a car for the weekend to go to Capon de Maipu.
Me: "Where?"
Mario: "Capon de Maipu"
Me: "What are you going to do there"
Mario: "Ummm lots of stuff"
Me: "Where are you going to stay"
Mario: "We'll find a cabana to stay in. Are you coming?"
Me: "Ummmm, ok????"
After a good 4 hours of miscommunication, minor freakouts and people being lost, 12 people were gathered in our driveway in 2 rented cars and 1 motorcycle headed towards western Chile in the dark. The car ride was the funnest part, as we kept looking out the window to the darkness, being able to see these big dark cliff- looking rock structures everywhere and saying "I BET it looks pretty," since we couldn't actually see anyyyything. After getting lost, loosing the two on the bike and not being able to find a place to stay, we arrived at our cabana- aka a cute wood cabin- at around midnight. With our own cabana with a grill and pool (too cold to go in!) we had a good night and the next day I was the first to wake up and I went exploring alone, which was one of the most peaceful and authentic experiences I've had thus far in Chile. For the first time I felt like I definetely wasn't in America, and I seemed to be more in a storybook village. It was cool to wake up and step out of the cabana and feel like I had been transformed to this beautiful little village deep in a rock valley. Walking along the road by myself, people actually seemed Chilean, and I took about a thousand black and white photos. Half the group stayed for the rest of the weekend, but I was in the car headed back to Santiago on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn't until late Saturday night that we found a manual-experienced driver and made a plan for Isle Negra for the next morning--- the beach where Pablo Neruda's main house is (as in nicest of the 3 houses within a 2 hr radius). Having no real map, or directions, or knowing about driving in South America, 5 of us headed toward the coast, figuring that the house museum of one of Chile's most famous poets and political figures- a real Chilean icon- would have to have signs on the highway. But, um, yay, guess again, this is Chile and logical things like signs for a major tourist spot just don't happen. But after asking just about all of Chile for directions, we did make it. At one point I even had to jump out of the car and ask a few people down the road if we were going in the right direction and after our success had been confirmed and I said my last "gracias" and was running across the street one boy yelled to me "thank you" and everyone giggled. It was a sweet moment. The house was pretty unbelievable- a bedroom of windows looking at the view of the ocean and I learned what a peculiar guy Neruda must have been, with odd collections of things from around the world cluttered all over his house, the house being built to resemble a ship.