Things I Am Going to Miss, Part 1: My Internship

My time here in Chile is starting to wind to an end, and with that comes the beginning of the goodbyes. I am going to try to do a few blog posts about some of the things I am going to miss most here in Chile, and at the same time provide you all with a view of my more day-to-day experience over the past 4+ months. 

I'm going to start off with my internship. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, I was blessed enough to spend a few hours each week working with APARID, a long acronym for an even longer name that translates to Parents' and Friends' Group for the Rehabilitation and Integration of People with Down Syndrome. 

I spent a few hours every Monday evening with the Reading Workshop for 17 young adults (although "young" is relative- some of the participants are my parent's age). In some ways I was a true intern. For example, I would help them with the reading comprehension questions when they didn't understand; they were always really eager to show me their work and get my approval of it; and once in a while they called me "profe," short for professor. But in many ways we were more companions than anything. We sat side-by-side, we joked around, and we talked about their weekend activities, classes, families, and significant others. For the three who are working in the national Congress, I asked them about their jobs, and with the others I talked about their workshops in which they make and sell baked goods and greeting cards. 

I also was lucky enough to see them perform selected scenes from Jesus Christ: Superstar in the Viña del Mar Talent Show for People with Disabilities. Some sang along with the songs while others lip-synced, and they all danced and acted. They did an amazing job!

 

Receiving the award of participation afterwards

Here's a little bit more about a few of the friends I've made this semester. I would love to tell you about all of them, but I'll restrain myself.

Here in the top picture we've got Maximiliano and Georg, goofin off per usual. They are best buds, along with Felipe, who is in the lower of the two pictures. They are experts in the fist bump and the bro hug: clasp hands, pull together, a few pats on the back, accompanied by the Spanish version of What's up, dude?

This is Giovanna, who is probably the sweetest of the group. Every time she saw me for the first three months she would always say, "Michaela, right? (I nod) Hi! I'm Giovanna!" She especially took to the other volunteer, Pamela, a 60-something woman who is also from the US and who is in Viña with the Mormon church serving as a nurse for all the missionaries. Giovanna always called Pamela "regia" (fancy refined lady) or "joven" (young woman). 

This is Verónica. She is a firecracker! I love her personality, maybe cause she too is a strong determined young woman :)

Here are two of the couples of the group: first are Cristian and Dominique, and below are Constanza y Luis. They are so adorable- ok, sometimes a little too adorable, as they would start making out in class sometimes. I understand, though, because their families are fairly overprotective and they don't have a lot of opportunities to go on dates. They hope to get married and maybe even have kids some day.

I could go on and on, because I love them all, but I'll wrap up this part of the post with a group picture from one of my last days in class:

I also got to go to the Gardening Club on Wednesday afternoons. This group had a really fun dynamic because it was a mixture of kids with down syndrome and their siblings, plus Pamela, who is one of the women who runs APARID and also a mom of several of the kiddos, and Tanchy, the wonderful volunteer who runs the workshop every week. Part of the emphasis was on environmentalism, so our gardening project almost always involved transforming old soda bottles and other "trash" into planting containers for flowers. We also grew some vegetables and herbs in a garden. Basically, I got to play in the dirt for an hour every week with some exuberant little ones, which made me a very happy camper.

Probably my happiest moment in my internship was earning "tía" status. "Tío" and "tía" mean "uncle" and "aunt" but here in Chile are used as a general term for any adult for whom you feel affection.  For example, my host siblings call my mom's boyfriend tío (although I think they also still use "usted" with him, which is the more formal version of "you" as opposed to the less formal "tu"). Basically, señor and señora feel too formal, and the adult's first name feels too casual, so I love that they have a comfortable intermediate term. All this to say- at some point the kids started calling me "tía" and I was so happy I could cry!

So, since I am wrapping up my classes, this past week was my last with APARID. Both Monday and Wednesday the workshops ended early so we could have a small going-away party. They gave me some really sweet cards and going away presents, most of which they made themselves!

Two of the girls even sang a few songs in honor of Tanchy and I, one of which included sign language along with the lyrics. I think it's sufficient to say that I am going to miss them!

On Top of the World

This weekend is a significant mile marker: I have now been in Chile 4 months, and I only have 1 month left. It has gone by really quickly, but at the same time it feels as though I have been here forever. The idea of being back on DU's campus, hanging out with my best friends, skiing with my family, or even being able to interact in public without having to speak Spanish seems strange, like a far removed part of my former life experiences. 

Knowing that I only have a month left is sharpening my vision; I am more determined to make every second count! That was definitely my intention when I stretched the 4-day weekend our university schedule gave us (October 31st-November 3rd) into a week-long vacation (October 28th-November 5th) with my good friend Rachel. What's a few missed days of classes here or there, right?

Our first destination was Pucón, a tourist town that reminds me of many of the mountain towns of Colorado. It's located in the lake region in the south of Chile and is considered the northernmost starting point of Chilean Patagonia. Rachel and I essentially spent the entire week outside, which was awesome! We got in Tuesday morning and then took an afternoon bus into Parque Nacional Huerquehue (pronounced wear-kay-way, in case you're curious). We didn't have as much time as we would have liked, but we still got to see a beautiful lake and a stunning waterfall:

We also got to glimpse Volcan Villarrica from a distance (more about this volcano to come):

and some excellent wildlife:

The next day we went white water rafting in Río Trancura:

Thursday ended up being cloudy and rainy, so we had a more relaxed tour of the region in general. We saw los saltos de Mariman:

los Ojos de Caburga:

el Lago Caburga:

and finally, we soaked in a hot springs pool for a few hours. The view wasn't too shabby:

After relaxing plenty, we were completely geared up to take on Volcan Villarrica on Friday. Yes, we actually got to climb to the top of an active volcano! It was easily one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life. We started off trekking bright and early from the parking lot of the ski resort at the base of the mountain:

After about 45 minutes of hiking over rocky and sometimes snowy paths,we reached the glacier covering the majority of the mountain and our guide realized that the conditions were too icy to continue without crampons. We also had to walk with a pickax using it as a type of cane to stabilize ourselves, and if we were to fall, we would have to press the pickax into the snow as we were falling and dig it in until we came to a stop. Thankfully, this did not happen at any point.

Our hiking group was nice and small: Rachel, our friend Holger from our hostel, our guide Pablo, and I. Since there weren't many of us and we were all in good shape, we were actually the first group of the day to summit! This gives me great personal pride, because as Ricky Bobby says, "If you're not first, you're last." However, it also made trekking harder because we were "rompiendo las huellas," or breaking track, the entire way up. The effort was worth it to not get stuck behind the hordes of people following our footprints:

After a little over five hours, we summited! I can try to describe what it is like to be on top of an active volcano, but my words are a paltry substitute for the real experience. I can say that you are quite literally floating on top of the clouds, drinking in the beauty of the lakes and other volcanoes spreading out in a 360 degree landscape, and breathing in the toxic volcano gas curling out of the open crater, which makes your lungs burn. It seems like the perfect moment to play the Imagine Dragons song "On Top of the World" and so you do, albeit on low-quality iPhone speakers. You might have the urge to enjoy a Volcanes del Sur cerveza (Southern Volcanoes beer), in which case you will discover that pickaxes make wonderful bottle openers. You might even have the urge to pee into the volcano crater and try to "put out the fire." 

And then, after some magical moments, it is time to slide down the mountain. Yes, I do mean slide. We sat down, sometimes with a little plastic sled under our rears and sometimes without, and slid down the glacier to the bottom of the volcano. We had our pickaxes in our hand, held perpendicular to our leg, with the pointy part resting an inch above our thighs and the handle out to the side ready to press into the snow in use as a brake. I felt like a little kid on the sledding hill in my back yard... on steroids.

Needless to say, this was one of the most incredible days of my whole life! I just felt so alive, and yet I couldn't believe it was actually happening. 

After we got back to the base, Rachel and I headed back to the hostel. We found out that since we had technically checked out, we would have to pay $6 each to take a shower. Being the college students we are, we decided that was a highly unnecessary cost. Also being the college students that we are, we had decided to take a night bus into our next destination, the island of Chiloé. So, just a few hours after climbing a volcano, we took a 9 pm we took a bus into the next biggest city, Temuco, where we arrived a little after 11 pm. We then waited until 1:45 am for our bus into Chiloé. I have a few comments about this time: It was very cold; the stray dogs wouldn't leave us alone; the bathroom had closed; we were exhausted; and I smelled funny. 

The next morning at 10:30 am we got into the city of Castro, which served as our home base on Chiloé. When we went to our hostel early to see if we could leave our things there until we could check in, we looked like such a pathetic mess that the extra-kind owner not only let us put our stuff in our room, but also gave us free coffee and toast. It tasted like manna from heaven.

One of my favorite parts of our stay in Chiloé was our hostel because it was a palafito, or stilt house, right on an ocean inlet. 

The internal architecture was amazing as well.

I also enjoyed being in the natural beauty of the island! Saturday afternoon we went to Parque Nacional Chiloé:

As you might be able to guess, Chiloé has some pretty amazing seafood. Saturday night I ate curanto, which is one of the traditional dishes. Basically, you take a big plate and throw in a potato, a chicken breast, a sausage, and two types of fish, and then you throw a heap of mussels on top, and there you have it!

Sunday morning we went to the artisan´s market in Dalcahue (Doll-kah-way). Chiloé has quite a few sheep, so imagine walking into a giant tent and only being able to see fluffy wool on all sides, and you'll get the picture. We took a ferry out to the smaller island of Achao for a delicious lunch of salmon covered in a thick layer of cheese and various types of shellfish. In the afternoon we went to see the wooden church in Castro. Chiloé also has amazing wooden churches in every city and small community; it´s common for tourists to spend an entire day just going around and seeing churches, but we decided to just see one since we were short on time.

Finally, as we were walking back to our hostel around 7:30 pm, we were kicking around the idea of renting a kayak. Since it was later on a Sunday we weren't sure that we'd be able to find a shop, but we walked by one that was just taking in their kayaks. The man running the shop agreed to let us take one out for an hour, so we got to paddle around the inlet behind our hostel! We were not at all dressed for it (i.e. wearing jeans and tennis shoes), but when the opportunity knocks you have to take advantage of it. We came back soaked, but it was worth it!

To end this post, I would like to share some of the funny impressions people from other countries have about Colorado, since it was a topic that came up frequently in the hostels we stayed in. Here are the 3 things that never fail to impress them:

1. How High We Are, Part 1: People who have traveled to mountains in Europe or other parts of Latin America are always astounded that my home is at 7000 feet elevation, that we go skiing at 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and that we climb 14ers. Our eastern plains are as high as mountains in many other parts of the world, which tend to start much closer to sea level.

2. How High We Are, Part 2: Some of them already knew that Colorado had legalized marijuana, but those who don't are always surprised and ask lots of questions (yes, it really is legal; yes, stores can sell it like alcohol, but only in cities that have allowed marijuana sales; no, marijuana is not legal on a federal level, but the national government seems to be looking the other way; etc.) I love telling people that my neighbors in Palmer Lake protested the town government's decision to ban marijuana sales in our town, and that they actually organized to put the issue to a vote on the ballot this year because we need tax money so badly.

3. South Park is a real place. All of the places on the show, including Casa Bonita, with gorilla suits and cliff divers and all, are also real. I have been to both of these places.

Homework? Ain't nobody got time for that

You know what's really awesome about Chile? That even though I have a ton of homework right now, I can still have adventures. Holla to the 620 pages of reading, 2 presentations, group project, and essay, all in Spanish, that I have to do in less than two weeks. With more down time this would be manageable, but I have an exchange program excursion tomorrow, Vito's National Rugby Championship game in Santiago on Sunday, and a week-long vacation to Lake Region in the South starting next Monday (blog posts to come on these adventures!). How will the homework get done? Your guess is better than I mine. But it will.

As you can probably tell it has been a bit of a hectic month, which is why it's been a while since my last post.  Let's work backwards through October, shall we? This week was the week of birthdays in my house- my host sister Camila turned 20 on Sunday and my host mom turned 38 (again) on Tuesday. We celebrated my host mom's birthday with an early breakfast, about which I had no complaints because there is no better way to start a day than with cake and cookies. Camila celebrated with a masivo, or big party, last Saturday on my host family's countryside land parcel about 40 minutes away. She is pretty popular, so there were quite a few people there, as well as a bonfire and dance music. It was really fun! I also got to watch Vito's semi-final rugby game last Saturday, which was great because it wasn't even close- they destroyed the other team. Let me just say that my host brother is the coolest. I tried to wish him good luck on his way out the door, but he just said, "No! Luck is for the weak! Victory is for the strong!"

The week before included an asado, or BBQ, on my family's land parcel that lasted all afternoon and was wonderfully relaxing. I must be a Colorado girl because my soul just feels at peace when I'm back in the open horse pastures near the mountains.

I also watched some fútbol games, in one of which Chile officially qualified for the World Cup. Let's just say that even if you hadn't watched the game, you would know we had won by the large quantity of people driving around, honking their horns, yelling, and flying the Chilean flag out their car windows.

And now we have arrived to the beginning of October and my trip to Norte Chico, or the Mid-North region of Chile. Chile is a massively long country- if you were to drive it from top to bottom, it would be as far as driving from New York to Los Angeles- so I like to conceptualize it in 5 basic regions: the Great North, the Mid-North, the Central region (where I live), the South, and the Far South. Before I leave Chile I will actually get to travel to all 5 of these regions, which is really cool! Of all the regions, Norte Chico/the Mid-North is the most under-appreciated and least touristy, so I am glad I got the opportunity to see a part of the country that not many people get to see.

We spent our first day in Combárbala, home to Combarbalita, a beautiful type of stone unique to the area. Of course we went to see some artisan stone carvers do their thang.

We also visited a goat herder's ranch. The ranchers in this arid region still continue the centuries-old tradition of herding all their animals to the base of the Andes mountains every summer when the streams dry up. I had a pretty profound connection with this baby goat, although it would appear that it tried to attack my finger at first:

While on the ranch we saw petroglyphs that have been around for a few thousand years:

I said this one below was a man dancing. Turns out it's a woman giving birth. Oops.

This one is really interesting because it demonstrates the astrological awareness of the indigenous peoples of the region. Our guide is holding a picture demonstrating what the mountain behind him looks like at full moon, and if you look carefully, there is a perfect illustration of this on the left edge of the rock.

Speaking of astrology, the skies in Norte Chico are the clearest in the whole world. The atmosphere has extremely low humidity and there is practically no light pollution in many areas, so there is nothing blocking the view. We went to an observatory, and it was such an incredible experience. Walking outside and seeing the sky literally brought tears to my eyes. There were so many stars, and they were so brilliant. Obviously the constellations are different in the Southern Hemisphere, so you can actually see an arm of the Milky Way! I loved getting to look through the telescope too. My favorite thing to observe was "una estrella chispada," or a star so far away that its light gets distorted in its journey and it ends up looking like a sparkler, scintillating and shooting off glittering particles.

Watching the stars was one of my favorite parts, and the other was the next day when we did a bike tour through Valle del Elqui, a scenic valley filled with wine and pisco vineyards.

We stopped off at the Guayacan cervecería, or craft brewery. It was definitely one of those "you know you're in college when..." moments because the boys in our groups rode their bikes back with one or no hands so that they could hold the 12-packs of beer they had just bought.

For day three we hopped over to the town of Andacollo. It is recognized as one of the most contaminated areas of Chile because of the sketchy practices of the copper mine right outside the town limits, which we went to go see.

We then saw a presentation from an environmental coalition started by the concerned citizens of the town. Many of them are miners themselves, so they understand the economic importance of mining in Chile. Rather than protesting mining completely, they sit down with the mine management and the government and talk though issues until they can come up with solutions that allow mining to continue while protecting the environment and people's health. It was an amazing example of community organizing- my inner Leadership student was so proud and inspired.

We also observed a perquinero's workshop. Perquineros are the traditional miners who mine for precious metals such as gold completely by hand. I can't even begin to describe how hard they work for the little amount of yield they get (both referring to the quantity of metal extracted and their personal income).

Finally, we saw a religious festival for the Virgin of Andacollo. Back in the 1500s a statue of the Virgin Mary somehow got buried in the hills of the region, and a few natives unearthed it right in the middle of the Conquest of Latin America. It became a symbol of the Catholic quest in Chile. The original statue was destroyed in a fire, but a replica still serves as a sacred object for people from all over the region. They come to ask her for favors, or mandas, and bring valuable objects to increase their persuasiveness. They might also show their devotion by traveling the distance to the chapel walking on their knees. They will return the next year with more gifts to thank the Virgin for answering their prayers.

To be honest this entire process is a little uncomfortable for me, as it runs very contrary to the grace- and relationship-based Christian faith I hold. I can say their fervor certainly made an impression on me, as did the Cathedral of Andacollo, the second-largest cathedral devoted to the Virgin in all of Latin America.

That night, we watched the procession as the Virgin was transported from the museum in which she resides for most of the year to her cathedral. The procession was led by Chino dancers, who mix traditional indigenous instruments, dances, and costumes with their Catholic faith. The music was a little bit less than pleasant at points (lots of shrill flutes), but the dances were pretty legit.

And then came the Virgin herself, blazing in glory:

Finally, we returned to La Serena, the coastal city where we were staying. We spent a late night on the beach, playing card games and listening to the guys have a jam sesh with their guitars. In the morning we had just enough time to see a Japanese garden before we headed back to Viña del Mar.

So, there is a condensed version of my October! I will try to be a little more punctual in writing my blog posts, not because I think you as a reader care per se, but more for the sake of my own recollection. Peace out homies!