Cuzco, Peru

Last June I convinced my bff to cash in some more miles and head back to South America for the 2nd time to join me in Peru. If you knew M, you'd know that it doesn't take much convincing or arm twisting to participate in any kind of travel adventure. I think it was our first trip together in the summer of '08 to San Francisco that proved that we were compatible travel buddies, and her husband was even lucky enough to follow us around while we each tried to "out-itinerize" the other with tours of Alcatraz, wine tasting, baseball, biking the bridge, and reading street maps to try to get back and forth from our hotel using streets that weren't steep enough to require an oxygen tank.

Sorority pose at Alcatraz

Lots of wine tasting of course

Brewers vs. Giants on a chilly summer night

Biking the bridge on a 45 degree cloudy morning

Prepping for a whirlwind adventure in Peru was a little different, especially when your point of arrival is at approximately 11,000 ft. above sea level and you need to drink tea made from cocaine leaves to combat the altitude sickness. (oxygen tank mentioned above would've come in handy there too)

They say it's important to plan a couple of days in Cuzco to acclimate before heading to Machu Picchu just in case anyone in your group gets altitude sickness since obviously it's not ideal to end up puking and in bed the day that you have your entrance permits to see it. Cuzco is charming and we both put on our nerdy Spanish teacher hats and decided to explore the local sights like Pisac Market, NOT drink alcohol (which is hard for the 2 of us to do when we're together), rest up and NOT eat cuy picante (a guinea pig type of delicacy that they eat there). For two adults who exercise and are in pretty good physical health, it's really not an exaggeration that you get winded walking up and down stairs. Altitude sickness really is just dehydration, so it's also important to chug water like nobody's business, and that means lots of trips to the market to buy bottles and bottles of water. After having spent a year in Chile with clean water, it was definitely an adjustment to remember not to put my toothbrush under the sink.

Plenty of tiny markets selling souvenir crap like this stuff that I first fell in love with in China "adidas/alpacas", really???

We spent lots of time around the Plaza eating, drinking Coca light and people watching

A shot from one of the second floor balconies where we could sit and observe

Pisac Market

I miss getting my produce like this 

So many varieties of potatoes

and corn...

Burying and cooking Pachamanca, a dish that's cooked underground using hot stones, potatoes, meat, etc.

I was obsessed with taking pictures like while I lived in South America, I must have known deep down that I'd end up in AZ...

Pichilemu

Last weekend I took advantage of my Friday and Saturday off for Easter weekend, or Semana Santa, and headed with my friend Abby to Pichilemu, a coastal surf town about 3 hours away from Santiago by bus. We had a few minor snags before we left, including an overbooked hostel and a rainy forecast, but I knew when the bus pulled in and we saw the clouds clearing off and the gigantic waves that we had made the right decision.

I'm not usually a last minute person, but we waited a little too long to try to make reservations, so by the time I actually started actively looking for a place to stay,  many of the places were already booked. I should have seen the red flags when one of the places that I had contacted indicated that they were booked already but the next day was showing availability on the Hostelworld website. To make a long story short, emails were sent, apologies were issued, and luckily we were able to book a really nice place to stay out near Punta de Lobos. The tricky part was trying to get my 10% deposit back from Hostelworld, and although the owner took responsibility for not having updated the site properly, her final word to me via email was, "I guess if you really want the 5,000 pesos you can track me down when you get to Pichilemu." Really??? I won't name any names, but I will say that the place we did end up staying, the Natural Surf Lodge, is a really nice place with great views, complete with sounds of the nearby crashing waves. I was also lucky that after a few emails back and forth I was able to get my credit card refunded without having to go track down crazytown herself at her overbooked hostel.

Cactus at the ocean? Who knew?

I want to see someone surfing this wave

In my opinion, too cold for this

Poor guy, I wonder if he's gotten used to the sand between his toes

Yes, we took a carriage ride

Jam packed and waited forever, but totally worth it

Crossing Over, part II

After Mendoza, I returned to Santiago for a few days and still had a little time remaining before classes started so I decided to dip into my travel savings fund to take one last trip, to Buenos Aires. I mention this tiny detail to any readers who might be considering teaching English here just to remind them that although the summer is great for travel opportunities, (and also high season fares) it's also a long time to be without any kind of steady pay. Save during the good months, come with some money that you saved at home, or plan to stock up on private students to stash away some cash for travels, otherwise you could find yourself unemployed, hot, and bored in Santiago for a month or longer if you don't plan ahead.
If you remember a few posts back, I crossed over into Argentina by bus. Santiago to Buenos Aires is usually a reasonable plane fare and I opted for that since the 20+ hour bus ride just wasn't for me. I thought the sights on the bus over the Andes were spectacular, but these shots I got out of the plane window were even better.

Stay tuned for pictures of Buenos Aires and my day trip over to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay.

Crossing Over

I don't think too many people would disagree with me if I said that one of the reasons people chose to live abroad is to maximize travel opportunities. Before I came to Chile I was REALLY optimistic about all that I would be able to see over the course of just one short year, and now that I'm over the halfway mark I know that I was a little too optimistic. In my recent travels I've met backpackers who've been traveling for almost 5 months and still haven't seen it all. Money is obviously a huge factor and South America is a big place. Of course it makes sense when you put it all into perspective, but before you move to a new country it's natural to think about what you'll be able to do and see, not about how far away Ecuador really is from Chile.
I didn't realize how overwhelming it was until I recently sat down at the computer with the LAN Chile page open, combing the website for last minute deals and trying to maximize my remaining summer vacation until classes begin shortly. (cue the violins, right?)
Indecision led me to take an easy bus trip from Santiago, over the Andes Mountains and into Mendoza, Argentina. Many people make this journey to renew their 90 day tourist visas, and others like me do it to see a new city in another country and of course to drink more wine. Mendoza has a great wine culture as well, so more wineries were definitely on the list of things to do. Armed with a seat at the front of the bus and my anti-nausea pills, I left at about 8:30am and took the day bus to take advantage of all of the pretty scenery. It's definitely not as breathtaking in the summer without the snow on the Andes, but there is some added peace of mind in knowing that you won't get stuck up there. It's not a bad ride at all, 3 hours until the border crossing and then from there only another 3 hours to go.

Not a bad place to stop for customs

Thank you for visiting Chile!

These views make the long bus ride worthwhile

More on my visit to the Canyon de Atuel and wine drinking in the next post!

3 Months

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 3 months already. Back when I was trying to piece together my time in Chile, I had to choose between leaving for only a semester or for a full year. Now that it's already mid-November, I can't imagine planning to leave at the end of December. Some of my fellow counterparts from Teaching Chile are in the midst of making their travel plans for the summer months, as many of them are on a university-like schedule, where they finish the third week of December and then they use the summer months here to travel around South America.

I plan to take the month of February as unpaid vacation and I've just begun to piece together some travel plans for February. The summer months are really slow when you do institute work, so I plan to work during January and entertain my guests that will begin to arrive here in Santiago at the end of December.
Meg and Javier (two of my bff's) December 22-January 1st.
My mom and Jim (January 8th to 15th)
My aunt and uncle (January 14th to February 3rd) They will spend a couple of days here in Santiago and then will set off to see the rest of Chile, and I'll meet them in the south at the end of the month!

Speaking of Teaching Chile, every semester they host a mid-semester reunion, so here are some photos that I took from the rooftop. I don't live in a high-rise apartment, so it's nice to have these views once in awhile and take some new photos. However, the best part of this event might have been all of the delicious food and Chilean beer and wine.

homemade grilled arepas, corn patty which is a traditional food in both Colombia and Venezuela. Delicious and gluten-free and the sauces were excellent!

Now for those city views...