Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Los Andes, Chile

So, I have kind of failed on updating my blog.  Luckily, though, I have set out a long period of time for tonight so I can update all of you on my past week!  And I will be putting up more pictures, by request of my mom.

Last Tuesday I went to La Moneda, which is the white house of Chile... it was super interesting to see it, because there has been so much intense political turmoil in Chile for the past 40 years.  The only thing I wasn't so happy about was that it POURED that day, and I failed to check the weather report that morning... so I walked around La Moneda with my flats (that, by the way, have holes), soaked pants, and hoodless jacket... without an umbrella, of course.  It was still interesting to see, but the tour ended in about 15 minutes and we weren't allowed to explore afterward, which is perfectly viable.  

Anyway, La Moneda:

Then on Wednesday, I went to the "China Town" of Santiago, which wasn't really China town... there was a large mix of Middle Eastern stores and Korean markets, and a lady who sold "egg rolls", which were filled with cheese and vegetables... more like empanada rolls, but they were good nonetheless.

On Thursday, I went to "Concha Y Toro", a winery on the outskirts of Santiago.  It was really nice that day, which was definitely a nice change.  We could see the mountains behind the vineyards, which was beautiful!  We got a tour of the winery and tried 2 different types of wine... there were definitely many people who bought many bottles of the wine, but I wasn't impressed.  Chilean wines have 5-6% more alcohol content than US wines, so it was too bitter and smoky.  Call me a wimp, I don't care, but I didn't like it.  The winery itself, though, was beautiful! :


Let's see... this past weekend, I went to Los Andes, which is a town of about 55,000 people about an hour north of Santiago.  I have decided that my favorite part of my trip so far has been my trips outside of Santiago, because I finally feel like I am in a different country!  I like Santiago because I like living in a city, but in Santiago I feel like I'm still in the United States.  A lot of people don't speak English, but my Spanish is good enough to get by that, and people are just... people.  They push you on the metro, they shop in the same store that is on every corner, and they jaywalk.  Chileans are super friendly, but when you get in the city there's a bit of a different mentality... People still go out of their way to give you directions (so much different from the US! Some guy pulled out a GPS and walked me to school the other day), but they're all on their own agenda.  When I was in Los Andes, the people were so friendly and accommodating!

I went to Los Andes for a group project.  We had to travel to a city outside of Santiago and then give a presentation about the place's history and such.  We got to Los Andes on Saturday morning (there were 5 of us).  We stopped by the visitor's center there, and the worker there recommended we go to this hotel that was above a restaurant about 3 blocks away.  We obliged, and when we got there, we were greeted by Patricio, the owner of the restaurant.  During our time in Los Andes we got to know Patricio and his family pretty well, and he even offered to have us come stay in October to work at a wedding at his restaurant.

When we left the restaurant, we planned to go to the winery along the road that Patricio recommended we go to.  When we walked outside of the restaurant, there was this guy in a horse-drawn cart... my friend flagged him down, and he gave us a ride in his cart to the winery, which was about 30 minutes away (by horse!  Definitely not right down the road!).  His name was Don Elias, and he invited us to go ride horses at his house the next day.  The ride, although a little bumpy, was absolutely beautiful, but when we finally got to the vineyard, the winery was closed!  So, we took pictures in the vineyards and in front of the snowy mountains... it was definitely a good trade off :)

Don Elias giving us a ride to the vineyard:


Horses, carriage, and my group:

Nancy, Yessi, and I in the vineyard:

Since we were about an hour from town, we took a micro back to "downtown" Los Andes, where we looked at the Plaza de Armas and other touristy things:

We also went to the sanctuary... In Los Andes, many people worship Santa Teresa, a nun from the early 20th century who only lived to be 20 years old.  When she was only 19, she got a premonition that she would only live a little while longer, and that she should dedicate her life to God.  She died 11 months later, and in those 11 months she embarked on an intense journey to dedicate her life to God.  She only stayed in the sanctuary, and had no mirrors or makeup or anything.  Now, nuns in that sanctuary never leave... ever.  They grow their own fruit and vegetables, and then have other groceries delivered.  They also have no mirrors or anything, as this expresses vanity.   

After checking out the church, we went out for dinner and then went back to the hotel.  We ended up staying in that night and talking to Carmelita, Patricio's sister-in-law, about Chilean life for a couple of hours before going to sleep.  Carmelita was super friendly and she offered several times to have us come stay with her so she could make us Pino Empanadas (famous in Chile) and we could sleep in her house as guests.

The next day, we got up and talked to Patricio, and then went out again to get more information about Los Andes.  We went to the second sanctuary for Santa Teresa, which was a much bigger and more formal church in the hills of Los Andes.  Then, we took a bus to Cerro Virgen, where we literally CLIMBED up a hill to get to a statue of Virgin Mary at the top.  We could have taken the trail, but a local told us that it would take us about an hour just to get up... we didn't have an hour, so we literally went right up the mountain, and got there about 20 minutes later haha.

You can't really tell, but this is the Virgin Mary on top of the hill, when we were about halfway up:

...and this is the view from the top!  Too bad it was so hazy, it was absolutely beautiful up there:

After we climbed down the hill, we called Don Elias from the previous day and went and rode horses with him.  Don't worry, we didn't go to his house or anything, I'm not that stupid... we met him in a large, communal area where there were people playing soccer, and he brought two horses with him for us to ride.  It was so much fun, but at the same time, it was a completely different side of Chile that I hadn't seen before... people were living in shacks and there was garbage everywhere.  It was especially interesting because the two protagonists that we met this weekend, Patricio and Elias, had the same intentions: to raise their families well and to get the most out of their life in Los Andes, but their situations were polar opposites.  While Patricio had enough money to send all 4 of his kids on exchange to the US, 2 restaurants, and a master's degree in philosophy, Elias was struggling to keep his head above water in the poorest neighborhood in Los Andes.  He was 1 of 11 kids, and picked fruit everyday for a living, only to haul it in the cart that we had rode in the day before.  It was super interesting, but sad at the same time... here are some pictures of our horseback riding experience:

Some Chilean girls we met there (I think they were nieces of Elias):

The river that ran right by the houses:

...yup, there were pigs eating all of that garbage... they were fat, and fierce:

After interviewing some of the people in the area, we went back to the hotel and watched the World Cup.  We then saw the solar eclipse with Patricio and his family, which was super fun. Eventually, we left, and made our way back to Santiago.  It was SO nice to be out of the city and smog for the weekend!  On our way back, we encountered a parade dedicated to Santa Teresa, since it is her birthday... today!  Happy birthday, Santa Teresa!  She would've been 110.  Just kidding.

Wooo... Los Andes!  So beautiful.  Hopefully I will be able to make it back before I leave! :)








2 comments:

  1. Megan, I LOVE your blog and your stories! Amazing experience you had in Los Andes - a horse drawn carriage!?? with those gorgeous mountains as a backdrop. These are memories and vistas you'll never forget. Your stories remind me of my time living in Spain - I'm living vicariously through you :) I too really enjoyed traveling around Spain during my time there, it gives you a great sense for all the different types of places and people you find in a one country - you are in for a great rich experience of the Chilean culture. Keep adventuring and be safe and smart girl.

    I was in Santiago, Valpariaso and Pucon last
    year - you might enjoy some of my photos here.
    http://picasaweb.google.com/jenniferhlavac/SantiagoAndValparaiso?feat=directlink#

    http://picasaweb.google.com/jenniferhlavac/PuconChile#

    If you love the outdoors and hiking like me and most of your fam, you'll probably really enjoy Pucon - its gorgeous, very small and charming, its got natural hot springs outside the town and the highlight of the town is a huge volcano it took us 5 hours to hike (with really friendly cool guides). I HIGHLY recommend it!

    KIT and keep writing! Write me back anytime, would love to hear from you!

    xo jen
    jenniferhlavac@yahoo.com

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  2. hey jen! thanks for the links! i may actually be going to pucon this weekend, actually, for the hot springs and hiking! it's definitely somewhere that's on my list to go before i leave... also, i absolutely loved valparaiso... such a nice change from santiago! if you have any other suggestions, let me know, as i'd love to hear them! hope everything's going well :)

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