Hey all,
It looks like the last time I wrote was before we went to the Obama-McCain debate, so I’ll just start with that. We went to watch the debate at our university’s other campus in Santiago. It turned out to be kind of a big deal because they had local news station cameras and photographers on site. It looked like we were the only “gringos” in the audience of about eighty people or so, but everything was still in English. Some people in our group even got interviewed by one of the news channels and some got their picture taken and were on the front page of a Santiago area newspaper. I was just glad that I didn’t get interviewed! The only disappointing thing was that there was no cocktail party beforehand like I was told there would be!
The Sunday after the debate (the 28th) we went on a group excursion to La Isla Negra where we saw another one of the eccentric houses of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet. This one was located on a beach with a really nice view (photo to the right).
Between excursions and during the week I spent a lot of time reading because
we have had an overwhelming amount to read lately for one of my classes.
This past Thursday afternoon, after my last class, I went with a group to La Serena, a beach city about six and a half hours north of Vina. (The photo to the right is from the Valle del Elqui just outside of La Serena)
It is one of the oldest cities in Chile and it is very touristy. Since it isn’t tourist season however, it was pretty laid-back and not a lot of people were there. On the way up we rode in a double-decker bus on the top floor in the front, so we had a pretty sweet view while driving. We got there at about 8ish and walked around for a while trying to find our hostel, and then got dinner at a restaurant. Friday we wandered around town during the day. Then some others from our big group joined us in the evening (some have class on Fridays so they came up later).
Friday night I went with three others to an astronomical observatory. We rode on a bus for about an hour to get away from the city. Up in the hilly terrain out in the boonies conditions are ideal for astronomical observation because over 300 nights of the year are clear and light pollution is minimal. One of the U.S.’s main research observatories is located there. There are also several other observatories for tourists. We went to one of those. We got to see the moon through two telescopes and we could see the planet Jupiter and three of its moons. We also saw some nebulas and constellations, some of which can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. I really like astronomy so I thought that was pretty neat!
Saturday morning we got up and went on a trip that we arranged through our hostel to Valle del Elqui, which is kind of where we went the night before to look at stars except it was daytime so we could actually see. The landscape in this area is spectacular. We saw a big, man-made dam on the Elqui river. We also took a tour of a Pisco factory. Pisco is a very typical Chilean drink that’s made kind of like how wine is made. Valle del Elqui is considered the Pisco capital of Chile because the majority of Chile’s Pisco is produced in this region. I bought a bottle there to bring back to Minnesota in case anyone wants to try some! We also saw the birthplace and tomb of the well-known Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral. We ate lunch at this place that heats its food from the sun. Pictures of the "sun ovens" are in my La Serena album below. We didn’t get back to La Serena until about 7 so it was kind of a long day. We just went and got dinner and then headed back to the hostel and hung out.
Sunday morning, two compañeros and myself went on another excursion to La Isla de Lamas, an island out in the ocean somewhere. We drove for a couple of hours in a van until we were in the middle of nowhere and then we got in this small boat and drove out to an island. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been in a boat out on the ocean before and I got kind of nervous when I saw huge waves coming at us while we we’re in this boat that was about the size of a long fishing boat. While driving around the island we saw penguins and sea lions, it was pretty sweet! Then we went to another island and walked around for a while before heading back to shore for a late lunch. We got back to the hostel at around 6 and then went and walked around for a while and then got some dinner.
Our bus back to Vina left from La Serena at 11:30pm. We had sleeper seats on the first floor this time so I attempted to sleep, although it wasn’t very consistent. We got back to Vina at about 6:00am and I had class at 9:30 this morning, so I was fighting to stay awake in my classes.
That’s all the news for now, I’ll post next time I have something worthy of posting. You can check out some sweet photos from La Serena by clicking on this link: La Serena
The other photos, including new ones I've added from La Isla Negra, are accessible via this link: other photos
No comments:
Post a Comment