January Vacation/Traveling pt. 1

This blog post will focus on the first half of my month long vacation in the capital, Santiago. For those of you who do not know, on the 3^rd of January I headed up North to visit a former exchange student who studied at BBA last year, Juan Ignacio. However, this would not JUST be hanging in his house for 28 days. Geographically Chile is very long, and I am at the VERY end of Chile in Coyhaique. So to put it in perspective just to get the center the country to Santiago is about the equivalent of a Vermont-Florida drive/plane ride. Because of this all my tickets are incredibly expensive every time I have to travel. During this month, I needed to take advantage of the fact that I am here and get to see as many people in the area as possible.

So I got there and the first thing I had to deal with was the fact I left all my money at home and my cellphone fell out of my pocket in the transfer; 0 communication, 100 dollars for 31 days, not going to be enough. I was helped by a large family of 4 kids and 2 adults in the airport to get everything set. They all spoke fluent English, the kids all spoke Spanish as a second language and the adults, Spanish. I was amazed at how well the adults spoke. I mean they had been in America/South Africa for 20 years but I still did not find a single accent or flaw in their English.

Seeing Juan Ignacio was very cool for me—fun fact, I was Juan Ignacio’s tutor with the English language at BBA, will touch on that more later on—because it was the first exchange student I had seen outside of BBA. It has also inspired me to get on my high horse and try to get out more to see exchange students (money is always an issue). The first thing that I noticed when I arrived was the fact that it was SO hot out. It was about 45-50 in Coyhaique when I left and it was a nice 95 upon landing. I was obviously far overdressed and sweating so much. I ran to the bathroom, stripped down and we headed to his house. Santiago is not New York. It does not have a skyline and instead of being on the ocean it is surrounded by mountains. The air and the pollution just gets trapped in the city from the mountains and it leaves the city with a very thick smog and and not very good visibility at distance. The first thing we did was go to the pool, and boy did I need that. It was a nice chance to just sit down and talk to Ignacio for the first time face to face and a very long time. He told me about his life, I told him about mine. We shared similar exchange stories and just enjoyed the end of the day’s sun. The rest of the agenda was to visit his cousins in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso (two adjacent cities about 2 hours north of Santiago, right on the ocean), meet up with some exchange students in Santiago and then spend the last week in Concepción with one of my best exchange friends in his family.

I found out the first night that we  would be headed straight to Viña and Valpo in two days. Which got me really excited to get to the beach! Especially after reading the weather reports about the US, sorry guys! The next day we after lunch the plan was to hike a short little mountain to a church on a hill, which overlooks the city. When we left the house there was visibly more smog in the air and that was when his mom said that there must be a fire somewhere. Another couple things about Santiago that I never experience, forrest fires and earthquakes. Both of which happened quite often. We didn’t think too much of the fire and headed to the mountain anyway. Well unfortunately the smoke just filled the city. The hike was a short hour but it was hot and sweaty and smokey. When I got to the top I actually had pain in my lungs from the smoke that had entered, it was not comfortable. I know the smoke isn’t the same but after feeling that in my lungs it reassured me that I never want to smoke. We got to the top and were very disappointed in the view. I am going to be honest with you, you couldn’t see anything. It was incredible how much smoke was in the city. You couldn’t see more than 3 buildings ahead of you in the city and from afar on a mountain you could not see absolutely anything. However, the hike was not in vain because the church on the hill and the statue of the Virgin Mary is a spectacle. The Virgin Mary is huge and beautiful and the Church is a nature(ish) church where the services are done outside. Which was just too cool for me. That night we packed out bags and got ready to go to the beach.

The trip to the bus was quite an adventure. We got there right on time but unfortunately, we couldn’t not find the bus. Two different people sent us the wrong way, and then when we got to the station the bus had left, but we could see it. We ran after it and caught up as it was heading onto the main roads the conductor was nice enough to allow us on anyway. A short bus ride accompanied by a Robert Patinson movie I had never heard of—easily his best work—and we were there. I also bring my guitar which has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that I have to have it with me all time and we were a good 30 minute walk from the beach. We put our bags at his grandparents work and then we were there. It was a nice 75 degrees which was perfect and we went beach walking. I loved the city already. The beach was beautiful, the buildings were beautiful, there wasn’t a lot of contamination, and the woman were BEAUTIFUL. Honestly, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life; mostly because about half the people on the beach were from Argentina. I ended up taking a little nap on the beach before we took a bus to the sand dunes. Now these things were cool. You could actually rent dune sleds and slide around on the them. They were steep, natural, difficult to climb, and straight up fun. We climbed up there with out stuff and just relaxed and played some guitar. After a couple hours of napping and enjoying the sun Ignacio’s cousin, and 5 classmates who were also in Viña joined us. Honestly, one of the best parts about exchange is just meeting people. I want to have connections anywhere and everywhere, whatever nationality or language you speak, I want to know you. So it just helps this objective when I get to meet people in every city. We spent the next two hours duning, sledding, talking and eventually counting down the sunset with some French people. We were picked up by Ignacio’s aunt and with his cousin we headed back to the house where I met the girl cousin, and father of the family. They were all very nice and it was a good night of talking and getting to know them. I forgot to mention that on the beach I found a group of people selling empanadas out of their car that were literally so unbelievably good. I can’t describe the goodness. I bought 6 over the next three days. 12 dollars well spent.

The next day it wasn’t great weather and we went to the movies. I went to Wolf of Wall street and Ignacio and Jose Tomás (his cousin) went to a Chilean movie. The reason we didn’t go to the same one was for two reasons. 1. The Chilean one was purely a satire on Chileans, so I wouldn’t have gotten any of the jokes. 2. Wolf of Wall Street was an 18+ movie which neither of them were so we parted ways for a few hours. I will just say I liked Wolf of Wall street but am still confused on my opinion, which would be better explained in a different blog post. After the movie I was surprised by the rest of Ignacio’s classmates with Ignacio and his cousin. They ended up coming to see the movie as well, this only meant that all of us got to hang out even more! We took a walk on the beach except at this point the sun was setting and it was quite a site. There were actually some people swimming even though the temperature had dropped to a brisk 55-60. As the sun was setting I had a moment of realization. I walked away from the group and stripped down to my boxers—unfortunately I was wearing a very unflattering pair at this moment—and without thinking I ran into the ocean and went swimming. Everyone thought I was crazy but honestly it wasn’t even that cold, I am from Vermont for pete’s sake! It was a very memorable moment as I watched at the sun fall behind the mountains from the Chilean sea. You can see Valpo from Viña and it’s really cool. It’s a city built on little hills. So the buildings are built on a slant and when it’s dark out you can see the mountains light up and it’s really something.

The next day we made an attempt to go to Valpo and take some tours and climb the little hills as well as see a house that housed the most famous Chilean writer ever, Pablo Nerudo. We got there and immediately Ignacio was not feeling well. He decided to sit out a boat tour that his cousin and I went on. This tour took us around the ships that surround the city and the history behind them. I enjoyed the tour even though I did not understand much. I am fairly advanced with Spanish but when it comes to history it’s hard to concentrate so I decided to take it easy and just enjoy the ocean and the ships. When we got back from the tour Ignacio just did not feel well so we went back to Viña for the day. I was a little disappointed but he did not feel well and it would have been torture for him to continue so I understood. That night was one of Taylor’s basketball games and with the new system I watched the live stream and saw as Taylor avenged the state championship game and came out on top with a victory by about 30. Ignacio’s cousin actually watched the whole game with me which was awesome because I could share that experience with someone.

The next day Ignacio was still feeling sick and it was hard for me to just sit in the house. I was not going to ask Ignacio to rally for me and go out because he just couldn’t. But I was in a city I may never return to and I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted (we were leaving the next day). So I decided to just go to the beach alone. I was not very familiar with the area or the public transportation system so I made sure I paid attention to the route on the way there. Ignacio’s aunt dropped me off and then I was off on my adventure. An adventure that contained about 7 drops of sunscreen; I was screwed. I just accepted it and had a very YOLO mentality. It took some good searching but I found a part of the beach that was primarily Argentinean and that meant maté tea. Every single person was drinking maté and I knew I was in the right place. I ended up sleeping almost a total of 4 hours on the beach. I knew I was burned I just didn’t know how bad or where. I was told by Ignacio’s aunt that I was supposed to take a bus back to the house, it was about 3 miles. But like I mentioned before I knew I would screw up the bus and paid close attention to the route to the beach. So I left an hour before the meeting point and headed back on foot. This was way better than a bus. I actually love walking. I will walk just about up to 10 miles if I have the time. It’s a great way to think and just enjoy your surroundings. I ended up getting to the meeting spot at 6:55 (5 minutes early). I ran into the grocery store and bought some food for the family—mostly because I had eaten the rest of it in the house—and met up at the spot again at 7:03. I got in the car and immediately apologized for being late because to me I was late. I was always raised that if you are on time you are late. Well she was thanking me for my punctuality; this is the difference between Chile and the US. The rest of the night was spent with a movie and then sleep. Ignacio woke me up at 12 and told me we were gonna go home early because he still wasn’t 100 percent (we were planning on going home at 9pm). We got on the first bus that was available at 2 and just like that we were gone. Thank you so much to Ignacio’s extended family for hosting us. It was very amazing to know you guys and I had a lot of fun during the week!

I am writing this on the way to my friend’s house in Concepción. This blog post covered January 3-9. I plan on posting something about the time in between then and departing for Concepción in the near future. I apologize for the delays.

END OF PART 1.