Unexpected Trip to Northern Chile

Easter weekend I went on a last minute trip up North to La Serana, Vicuna, and El Valle de Elqui (The Elqui Valley) with Amy and Hillary. We booked our tickets last minute, and since it was a holiday weekend, the only buses we could get on were one that was in the middle of the day (heading out of Chile) and the other one was super early in the morning (heading back to Chile). However, in the end it didn’t really mess with our weekend. We still ended up having an awesome time! We arrived in La Serana around 8:00ish at night, and when we got to our hostel there was no reservation. We were a little worried because of the holiday weekend (with everyone traveling), but thankfully we were able to find another hostel to stay at. The new hostel ended up being really great! It was family owned, and had a really pretty courtyard.

That night we walked around the town looking for a restaurant to eat dinner at. Unfortunately, almost every place was closed because it was Good Friday (apparently an even bigger holiday than Easter itself), but we were able to find a place to eat. After dinner we went back to the hostel and planned the rest of our weekend. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast and walked around the town for a little bit before we caught a bus to Valle de Elqui. La Serana is a cute town, I wouldn’t mind going back there and exploring it some more.

In Elqui we took a tour of the pisco factory (which was pretty small).

Pisco is made the same way that wine is made, except the grapes are boiled rather than cooled, and that makes it into a brandy-like liquor.

There was a woman on our tour who brought her dog with her…only in Chile.

The tour was ok, but the best part was the dinner we ate afterwards! We got a complimentary piscosour, which was the best picosour I have had so far in Chile (and the only one I have actually liked). And for dinner we all split a salad that had a yogurt dressing (I was really nervous about the dressing because I’ve never had that before, but it was actually really yummy!), really tasty, fried empanadas, and baby goat meat. I have never had goat meat before, and this meat was sooooooo delicious!

After dinner we took a bus to Vicuna to check into our hostel. This hostel was AMAZING! Not only was it pretty nice, but the couple that ran it, in particular the woman, Lucia, treated us like we were her grandchildren. She was this awesome old woman who helped us out in so many ways! That night we had booked a tour of the observatory, and the only time they had available was at 2:30 in the morning. We were a little bummed about how late it was (because we are grandmas and like to go to bed early), but we were just excited that we were able to get in a tour. We had told Lucia that our tour was at 2:30, and she was just like, “That is way too late! I’ll be right back.” About 5 minutes later she came prancing/dancing into our room and told us she got us into an earlier tour at 10:30. We were so amazed and asked how she was able to do that, and she replied with, “I have friends everywhere.” Ha she was so funny. We were sooo thankful that we got an earlier tour! On our way out she gave each of us shawls to wear so we wouldn’t get too cold (how cute of her!). Vicuna apparently has the clearest/best view of the stars through telescopes in the world, so that’s why we went to the observatory. Unfortunately for us, it was the night after a full moon, so we weren’t able to see as many of the stars that you usually can see because the moon was so bright. We were still able to see some really neat things though! Here's what the telescope looked like (first telescope I have ever looked through).

We saw a group of stars that is called the jewelry box. It’s called this because it’s a cluster of stars that are different colors (red, blue, and bright ha). The different colors all indicate a rough age of the star (dying, new, middle aged). So I thought that that was really interesting to see. We also got to see Saturn! That was really cool! And the highlight of the night was getting this picture with my camera through the telescope:

How cool is that?!?! I LOVE the moon, so I’m really excited that I got a picture of it, so in the end it was totally worth going while the moon was full. The next morning we woke up to the best hostel breakfast I have ever had. There was a basket of fresh bread, with a plate of freshly sliced fruit (melon, kiwi, and huge grapes), and another plate with sliced cheese, delicious ham, and avocado. It sounds like a really simply breakfast, but usually at hostels they just have bread with jam and manjar (dulce de leche aka caramel) to spread on it. So this was just a nice little treat! Yet again, Lucia came through for us! After breakfast she called one of her friends and set up horseback riding for us. The drive up to where we were going to ride horses was beautiful.

We went horseback riding for about two hours, and it was soooo much fun (and really cheap…only $10)! The horses galloped while we were riding them! I’ve only just leisurely walked while on a horse, so this was my first time galloping. It was a little scary at first, but really great! This was my third time riding a horse, and it felt so natural! I was really comfortable with the horse and could control it pretty easily, so that was nice. I really want a horse now! Too bad I’m really allergic (I for sure paid for it after we finished riding – I was sneezing up a storm, my eyes were puffy and red and would not stop watering). Pero vale la pena por cierto (but it was worth it for sure!). I learned that phrase from Amy that weekend. Its literal translation is ‘it’s worth the pain,’ but is used just like how we use ‘it’s worth it.’ I’ll have to look into riding trips back home. Hopefully they won’t be too expensive, but if they are, maybe it will be something I will do only every now and then.

Me and my sweet cowboy hat!

The horse I rode. This weekend was sooo much fun! We did A LOT of really fun things. I can’t wait for the next adventure! Until Next Time, Liz

Weekend Trip to Mendoza

I went to Mendoza a few weekends ago with two of my roommates, Ben and Eric, and Tom. It was a lovely weekend. I really really love the city of Mendoza. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be, but it still has the feel of a small town.

The drive to Mendoza, through the Andes Mountains, was absolutely beautiful! I took a TON of pictures

We also drove up a ridiculous road that ended up having 29 turns/curves.

Towards the end of the journey, we passed a beautiful lake.

The hostel we stayed at was pretty great. Because there were four of us, we ended up being able to have our room to ourselves, with our own patio too. We planned out our weekend that night and ate an asado at the hostel. I don’t know what it is about asados in hostels, but they are always the best! This asado was the first one for Ben, Eric, and Tom. We had grilled veggies, chicken, steak, and chorizos (my favorite!).

After dinner we all went back to the room, drank some wine on the patio, and stayed up for a bit and talked. One of us went to bed earlier than the rest (me of course).

On Saturday we walked around the city for a bit in the morning. There was a really pretty park near our hostel that had beautiful tiling and a fountain.

All the roads were lined with trees that hovered over the streets. Even though we don’t have these trees back home, it still reminded me of Atlanta. So pretty!

That afternoon we went on a wine tour. We saw two wineries and a factory where they make olive oil. The first winery was a family owned winery, so it was pretty small. It was very quaint though, and I enjoyed the wines.

This winery had the biggest barrels that I have ever seen.

The second winery we visited was a lot bigger than the first one. I also enjoyed the wine tasting there.

The olive oil factory was a quick trip, but I really enjoyed it. The name of the company combined the first three letters of raisins in Spanish and English.

After seeing how they make their olive oil, we got to try different kinds. This was my favorite part! The olive oil was sooo yummy! My favorite was the olive oil that had basil in it. How genius is that?!? It never occurred to me that there could be different flavors of olive oil. I had always assumed it was just either regular olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. But adding basil or garlic makes a big difference. So that was just neat to try all the different kinds of olive oil that the company makes.

That night we just relaxed. We went out to dinner, and then I made everyone try the vanilla, dulce de leche swirl ice cream cone from McDonalds. Everyone loved it! I have really been missing that since I have left Argentina, so it was a nice treat to have it again.

Our bus back to Chile left around 2:00 on Sunday, so we just explored the city some more before we headed back to Santiago.

Only spending the weekend in Mendoza was definitely not enough time. I hope I'll be able to go back one day and be able to experience more of Mendoza. I didn’t realize how much I had missed Argentina since I had left in January. It had sort of felt like I was going back home when we arrived in Mendoza (even though I had never been to that part of Argentina before). It was so great being back! I missed the delicious food and the beautiful accent. I will always have a special place in my heart for Argentina, and will definitely have to go back to explore other parts of it.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Festival de Arte

Twice a year VE puts on a talent show (of sorts) for all of the institutions. Everyone submits a bunch of artwork and the kids have a chance to perform. They can dance, sing, or play an instrument. The artwork and the performances are all judged and some of the kids get prizes. It was such a fun night, and I’m so happy that I got to experience it!

Here is most of the artwork my girls did:

All the performances they did were great! My girls ended up performing the Miley Cyrus dance I taught them a few months ago, which made me so happy and excited to see them! They ended up asking me to join in the dance with them, so that was fun. It was funny though because when I taught them the dance they just mirrored my moves, so everything was backwards. When I danced with them, I looked a little lost because the moves were switched around, but that’s ok. I ruined the dance a little bit, ha, but it was so fun!

Other performances some of the girls did were two of them sang a duet to a Spanish song, two girls sang solo to two different Spanish songs, and then two girls did a duet to Naturally by Salina Gomez (an English song). I have never felt so proud of anyone else like I did with these girls. It was a new feeling for me. I felt like a proud mama bear. It was interesting for me to see how I reacted to everything; it gave me a small glance into the future on the type of mom I’m going to be. I will definitely be the mom taking a TON of pictures of EVERYTHING and recording EVERY performance. And I’m pretty sure I will most definitely embarrass my kids…all the time.

After all the girls did their performances, a group of us volunteers danced to a Spanish song. Oh man…that was soo much fun too, but was a little crazy. I was only able to make it to one of the practices. I was hoping to be able to stand in the back, but it seemed like almost everyone wanted to be in the back so I ended up being front and center ha (first mistake ha). Also, I seemed to have missed the memo to wear a dark shirt because everyone was wearing a dark t-shirt, but I wore a white long sleeve t-shirt (second mistake). So I stuck out like a sore thumb ha, and whenever I made a mistake it was a big, obvious one haha. Right before we started dancing, all my girls started a chant saying my name; it was sooo cute.

After the performances we all went outside to eat a snack while the judges deliberated about the prizes. I was hanging out with the older girls while they were listening to music. They were trying to teach me some new sexy dance moves. So naturally, I took their sexy dance moves and turned them into goofy, ridiculously dumb, white girl moves. Even though they were making fun of me, I know they enjoyed it ha. I hardly get to see the older girls because when they come home they go straight to their rooms to hang out (what 16 year olds normally do). So I really enjoyed hanging out with them, it also gave them a chance to get to know me better.

After snack time the judges gave out the prizes. My girls won a prize for the Miley Cyrus dance (despite me being in it ha)!!!!! Everyone loved it! It was to an English song, the lyrics and dance moves were age appropriate, and the girls did such a great job! I was so proud of them and they were very excited to win. Three of my girls won prizes for some of their artwork and another girl won a prize for a poem she wrote. It was so great to be able to experience Festival with my girls. I wish there could be more for me to attend; I really enjoyed seeing my girls be so proud of themselves.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Jason Came to Visit!

Jason came a visited! It was so great to see him. We have been doing really well with the distance, but it’s hard being away from him for so long, so I really loved spending time with him that week.

The first day we relaxed for a good bit (he had been traveling for about a day and a half). Later on we explored the city some.

The next day we went and looked at a few markets and walked around the city some more. Later in the evening we hiked up San Cristobal. Man was that hike rough! You walk up steep hills the entire time. I like to think that I am in decent shape, but after trying to conquer that hill, I feel like a complete failure in the fitness world ha. It was a lovely hike though with beautiful views of the city. We got to the top right as the sun was setting. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

On Friday we took an hour and a half bus to Valparaiso (Valpo for short). Valpo is a city port here in Chile. It is pretty much like any other city except that the city meets up with a series of hills (where most of the housing is found).

Once we managed to find the correct hill to go up, we found so many beautiful murals all over the walls. We just walked around the town all day and took a million photos.

Friday night we went out for drinks with Ben and Eric to this bar/restaurant a few blocks away from our apartment. We didn’t stay out too late because we had a big day ahead of us the following day.

On Saturday we had our first Liga de Desportes for work. This is a sports program that VE puts on once a month, and the kids have the opportunity to play different types of sports for a few hours. There was soccer, basketball, ping-pong, tennis, dancing, football, rugby, and a few board games. Jason and I both went. I was so excited for him to meet my girls. The girls all loved him and he fell in love with the girls! One of the girls latched on to Jason and never left his side almost the whole day. It was so cute!

Since most things are closed on Sundays, we just walked around A LOT, and did some more exploring. We walked in the park right next to my apartment and I took Jason down to the city center. On our way back to the apartment we stopped at the grocery store and bought food to make fajitas for dinner. The rest of the day we just relaxed.

On Monday we went to a beach, that is about 3 hours away, called Zapallar. This was one of the favorite things we did the whole week. The beach was incredible! This beach is more of a high-end beach resort; it’s where the rich people vacation (so there aren’t really any hostels or hotels for people to stay in). Because it’s not really summer anymore (even though it still feels like it - weather wise), the beach was pretty much deserted. We felt like we were on our own private island. The beach it self was actually pretty small:

But it had rocks that lined the shoreline with a walking path along the coast. We walked on both sides, and everywhere we looked was a beautiful view.

Here are two really pretty flower shots!

We also experimented with the self-timer on both of our cameras. We hadn’t taken one picture together yet, so we took a ton while at the beach.

After getting back from the beach, for our last night together we went out for dinner and drinks. We drank white Russians, ate a lot of cheese empanadas, and shared an egg dish that had potatoes, onions, and peppers in it. It was a delicious meal! We talked more about what Jason thought of my girls, and he had mentioned that he doesn’t understand how I can do the work I’m doing. More specifically, he doesn’t know how I’m going to be able to leave these girls when my time here is up. He fell in love with them after being with them for just a few hours and he wished he could have spent more time with them. However with me, I spend 6 hours a day with them every week and when it’s time for me to leave I will have been with them for 6 months. He was just bringing up the fact that it is going to be so difficult leaving these girls. He could not be more right, I got a little emotional during dinner just thinking about what it’s going to be like when I go home. I love these girls and I’m only going to be getting closer to them these next three months. It’s going to be so difficult and terribly sad when I have to go home, I really hope that I will be able to keep in touch with these girls and see them again in the future. Jason talked about coming back down here together at least once a year for a week or so to be able to see the girls again. I really hope we will be able to do that, we’ll see!

On Tuesday, we just relaxed and enjoyed our last day together. We walked around a little bit more, but for the most part we just hung out in the apartment. It was so sad to see Jason go. His time here was way too short, but it was definitely so great to see him. I’m so happy that he got to be exposed to a small part of my life down here. It really meant a lot to me that he got to meet my girls and that he loved them.

I have the most amazing family for making it possible for Jason to come down here and visit me! Thank you so much Dad, Mom, Alex, Brian, Bryant, and Elizabeth. I love all of ya’ll soo much! BEST BRITHDAY PRESENT EVER!

Until Next Time,
Liz