Pisco is from PERU!

      I heard mixed reviews about Santiago, Chile from other travelers. Oh, it's not built for tourists. It's just another big city. There's nothing to do there. OR It's a great time! Bella Vista is awesome. You have to go to the museums and Pablo Neruda's house! I, in fact, really enjoyed Santiago. I learned LOADS about Chile's history. My favorite thing that I learned from my walking tour guides (one a sociolgist and the other a political science university student) is that Pisco (a national liquor claimed by both Peru and Chile) is truly from Peru! Naturally, I have a special place in my heart for Peru so I was excited to finally hear the truth about Pisco, especially since it was the answer I was hoping for.

     First we took the "off-beat" walking tour with Tours for Tips with our sociologist guide. First thing we learned is that Chile is ridiculously seismically active. I'm from California, so that really means something when I say it. There is a BIG earthquake every decade. In fact, there was a 5-pointer the week before we arrived in Santiago, one while we left Santiago, and the most famous one was the big one that hit just outside Santiago in 2010. The 2010 earth quake (or torremoto) was ranked the 5th largest earthquake recorded on the Richter scale. This walking tour involved learning about the Lachimbo (sp?) side of Santiago. Since the Spanish colonization, Santiago has been a very class-based society. It still is. Lachimbo is a Quechua word for the equivalent of the "undesirables." It is the poorer part of town where the impoverished and the immigrants live. It is separated by the Rio Mapoche from the classier side of the city. Judge Corregidor built the first bridge, Puente Cal y Canto, to connect the two sides of the city, uniting the upper class with the lower class.

Market with the swapped building with Uruguay

      Immediately after crossing over the Rio Mapoche, we checked out a couple markets. The first one has a funny story. The beautiful structure that housed the produce area of this market was actually built for a market in Uruguay. There was an accidental switcheroo. The architect built two market structures that were pretty identical and swapped them. The twin markets still stand today in the wrong locations. The second market is La Vega. A huge produce market with 16,000 clients that shop there everyday, 900 vendors, and 10,000 employees! There is even an aisle for Peruvian vendors. You can differentiate between the Chilean and Peruvian vendors because Chilean food is bland. According to our Chilena guide, garlic and onion is too much. Peruvian food has more peppers and spices. Another win for Peru: my guide said "The best food in Chile is Peruvian. Peruvians make better food and better Pisco." Viva el Peru! Btw, Peruvians constitute the largest community of immigrants in Santiago. Other minority groups include Palestinians (most are 3rd or 4th generation; their great-grandparents immigrated to Chile when the Ottoman Empire fell), and North Koreans.

La Vega market

        Next we took the very impressive metro to the Cementario General de Santiago. It is a huge cemetery with a lot of history and important historical/political figures buried there. I didn't realize how much about history and culture you can learn about a place at a cemetery. This cemetery was very interesting because of the way people were buried. People liked to be buried with their families or fellow workers in mosoleums (sp?). For example, there are mosoleums for the military, the carabineros (police), and even the shoemakers and insurance companies. This represents the society's emphasis on class.

      An interesting tidbit about Chilean culture is the belief in "Animitas." An animita is a revered person that the people annoint as an unofficial saint. Through stories spread my word of mouth (like the game telephone), these animitas become legendary and the people pray to them for help. The most popular animita is Carmencita. Her legend has two very different stories. The most common one is that she was a 9 year old girl who got very sick and died. The other one was that she was a 37-year old prostitute who died of disease. Nonetheless, she is adored and people pray to her for miracles. The people love the animitas and adore their graves with flowers, presents, and plaques.

The grave of Carmencita, the animita

     The most important grave we visited was former President Salvador Allende. Warning: seriously ugly history ahead. If you're politically conservative and very patriotic about Amerrrrica, you may not like what I have to say in the following paragraphs. True, there are two sides to every story. Chile was in a socioeconomic crisis before and after Allende's time. His presidency is probably romanticized because of the horrible way the military coup of 1973 ousted him and followed with Pinochet's 17 year brutal dictatorship. Salvador Allende was a medical doctor and ran for presidency as the head of the socialist party. He was Chile's first socialist, democratically-elected president. Before his term, the very few upper class had all the wealth and power. During his term, he did a lot of land reform and social changes. Naturally, the upper class wasn't too happy about this. Today Allende is celebrated at Chile's most loved president. However, the Chilenos back then and today are politically divided. I think Chile is more extremely bipartisan than the United States.

Salvador Allende's grave

       On September 11, 1973 (9/11 is not a good date for many countries, apparently. This was the same day the USSR fell, too. Coincidence?), the Junto Militar, led by General Pinochet, commenced the military coup. I can't remember the names of the other generals, but they appointed themselves as chief of the air force, navy, and police. The coup started when the navy (armada) took over Valparaiso. Then, the coup took over Santiago beginning at 6am and ending at 6pm (the first night of the forced military curfew). The Junto Militar started by taking La Moneda (the equivalent of the Capital Building) hostage and threatening President Allende to leave. Allende had his chance to flee the country into exile, but that was not his style. He stayed in La Moneda until its violent end. The coup shut down all radio towers, except for one, Radio Magallenes. Through Radio Magallenes, President Allende gave his final speech to his beloved Chilenos, "los trabajadores" (the workers), through flying shrapnel and bullets during the coup's attack on La Moneda. It was a beautiful speech (I listened to it at the Museo de Memoria y Derechos Humanos: the Memory and Human Rights Museum). Allende's last speech inspired the Chilenos enough to carry them through the dictatorship and finally overthrow Pinochet 17 years later in 1988. Shortly after his speech, Allende supposedly shot himself. The Junto Militar bombed La Moneda and took all of his aides under detention and torture. At the time, Allende didn't want to rally the people to La Moneda to fight against the coup when they were up against bombs. The deaths would be in vain. So he sacrificed his life, hoping he could stop any more bombings and deaths. Originally, Allende's body was buried in Valparaiso. After Pinochet's reign, the people brought his remains to Cementario General so he could be properly buried in Santiago with his people. A beautiful memorial stands where he is buried with a plaque with an inscription of his last words to his people.

Cervezas for the dead

      It was impressive to see how well kept the graves were. Not just of the country's heroes, but of normal people. Chilenos believe in animism (hence, "animitas'). To honor their dead loved ones, they not only bring them flowers, but also earthly things they might want, such as cigarettes, food, cervezas, birthday party decorations and invitations on their birthday. At the end of this tour, we walked across the street from the cemetery entrance to a local bar called, "Quita Pena" (leave/drink your sorrows). We got to try the famous Chileno drink, called "Torremoto" or earthquake, because when you drink it, it makes your world shake lol.

     The next day we took a tour of Pablo Neruda's house, La Chascona. Pablo Neruda is a famous writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, among many other distinguished awards for his poetry. His house was located in the same neighborhood our hostel was, Bella Vista, the artsy/bohemian barrio. Neruda built La Chascona for his third and last wife, Mathilde Urrutia. He had three houses: La Sebastien in Valparaiso, one on Isla Negra, and La Chascona in Santiago. His first wife was from Holland and 20 years his senior. Sadly, he was widowed by her. His second wife was an Argentinian woman. After their separation, Pablo and Mathilde fell in love after knowing each other for many years as friends. Because divorce only became legal in Chile in 2004, Pablo & Mathilde had to hide their relationship for a long time. Eventually, they found a loophole: because Pablo and his Argentinian wife weren't married in Chile, it was not a legitimate marriage under Chileno law. Together, Pablo and Mathilde built La Chascona, hidden against a hill in barrio Bella Vista in Santiago where they could live together in secret. The couple had many close friends who were prominent figures and artists who helped keep their secret. Eventually they were married.

One of the bars in La Chascona

     Neruda was a marinero (in the navy) and was fascinated by the sea. However, he was never actually deployed out to sea. He did travel the world frequently by ship. His obsession with all things naval is why he built his houses with a naval theme and were decorated with furniture and works of art from the countries he had visited. He was an internationally acclaimed poet and a prominent socialist. Pablo Neruda died of "natural causes" on September 23, 1973 (less than a week after the military coup. Coincidence?)

    After touring La Chascona, we went on the other Tours for Tips walking tour of the basic touristic areas in central Santiago. A significant fact I learned about Chileno politics is that the dominating Catholic order in Chile is the Opus Dei. Heard of the name before? You may have if you've read the Da Vinci Code. Scary. The Opus Dei are very rich and powerful amongst all the other Catholic orders. I think they are also very prominent in Spain. This order has a lot of power in the Chileno government, which is why divorce has only been passed recently in 2004 and obviously abortion is illegal without any medical exceptions.

    One of the most important sites we visited was Londres (London) street. During Pinochet's dictatorship, 94 young people were detained, tortured, and killed here. Just at this one site. I hate to think about small that number is compared to the total number of people killed in this political genocide. These people are known as "Los Disparacidos" (the "disappeared" because they did disappear). In memory of them, there are bricks among the cobblestones of the street with their names, political affiliation, and age. Most of them are my age or younger. Such brave youth. Among the bricks and cobblestones are pieces of floor tile from the inside floor of the building because the floor inside was the last thing they saw before being publicly executed.

Bricks on Londres Street with the names of those publicly executed at the site

    On our last day, we visited the Museo de la Memoria y Direchos Humanos (Memory and Human Rights Museum). It was one of the best and definitely the most intense museum I have ever been to. It was build by former President Michelle Bachelet so that Chile will never forget its history and so that it will not be repeated. The museum is huge and very modern, and it's free to the public. You only need to pay for the audiophone. The museum also displayed the human rights violations in countries worldwide. Because the museum was so big, we only got through half of it! It was very detailed and informative. It displayed original media documents and radio/television new footage, and real video testimonies of survivors and victims and photos. I listened to the original radio recording of Salvador Allende's final speech and watched the original television footage of the Junto Militar and General Pinochet's speech shortly after the coup. We watched video testimonies from survivors of detention and torture by DINA (the dictatorship's central intelligence agency whose sole objective was to irradicate socialists). About 40,000 Chilenos "disappeared" during Pinochet's dictatorship. It was political genocide.
  

Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos

     Despite how terrible the dictatorship was, the country was still divided, close to 50/50, in its political views. Despite the 6pm curfew and public executions and detentions, the pro-capitalists (the upper class) supported Pinochet. Families are still divided today. In 1980 the Junto Militar changed the constitution. In order to legitimize it, they held elections. Curiously enough, the electronic voting registry was not used... People had to vote Si or No. Si to support Pinochet's government. No to overthrow Pinochet. The Si vote won by 64% to 46%, although with suspicion. In 1988, there was another election: same thing Si or No. This is when the NO propaganda took full force. The first Chileno film ever to be nominated for an Oscar (earlier this year!) is about this propaganda. It is appropriately called, NO. Spoiler alert: the NO vote won this time, finally overthrowing Pinochet.

    It is astounding to me how 40,000 people were detained, tortured, and or murdered during Pinochet's dictatorship. The majority of whom were my age. Yet they kept fighting on fearlessly. Even high school and elementary students demonstrated. The Chilena women even had their Women's Rights movement during this chaotic time and demonstrated against the dictatorship. Now their are hundreds of memorial sites up and down Chile, honoring Los Disparacidos. These sites are built over former detention centers, socialist headquarters, and mass graves. The most infamous mass grave site was Plot 29 in Cemetario General. The anonymous grave cross is on display at the museum. The Organization for Truth and Justice is still working on identifying the remains at Plot 29. At the museum you can even look up people who had disappeared on their touch screen computers.

   The most powerful thing about this museum is seeing the reactions of the adult Chilenos visiting the displays or looking up names of their loved ones. They had lived during this time. It was so recent! That blows my mind. Although Chile is a well-developed country with a strong economy, thanks to the open capitalism of the dictatorship, the country had to pay a terrible price to get to where it is today. Was it worth it?

   My first guide, told us that Chile is a business entrepreneur's Disneyland. There are no government regulations and no workers' unions. Employees are easily exploited. 1% of the population has all the wealth while the 99% stay where they're at socioeconomically and can't move. Education absurdly expensive. Public education is a joke. Economically, the country does not invest for the long term. The Chileno economy will eventually collapse and will have nothing to fall back on. Hence, lots of social movements are on the rise now.
  
   Now I'm going to talk about the United States' role in Chile's ugly history, not to mention in South America's history in general. Operation Condor, enacted from 1975-1978 and restarted in 1981, under Presidents Ford and Reagan, was a CIA operation to support, fund, and supply military dictatorships in Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay in assassinating socialist leaders and eliminating the communist party. For example, the military coup led by Pinochet here in Chile. The Cold War was a crazy time. I cannot comprehend the lack of ethics in this operation. U.S. ideals such as Freedom and Democracy is such bullshit when you think about it in the scope of this operation. What the U.S. wanted to and still wants to spread is Capitalism, so that it can reap the rewards of profit. Freedom and Democracy is just a beard. The Chilenos were free when they democratically elected Allende, a socialist. Freedom means being free to be socialist of you want to be. They were oppressed by the capitalist dictatorship of Pinochet. Capitalist dictatorship does not equal Democracy. I wasn't alive back then. I don't know what it was like during the Cold War with the McCarthyism and Red Scare, I realize this. I remember learning about it in history and thinking it was stupid, like people being scared of the boogie man. But this kind of political puppeteering by the U.S. makes me sick. The U.S. government funded a political genocide and is still funding war through the School of the Americas... just look that up I can't handle typing anymore.

    Thank you, Santiago, for giving me my South America history fill. I truly hope we learn from this ugly history.

Citations: everything I have learned and created my opinions on were based on my walking tour guides' knowledge and the Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos

Travel tips in Santiago:
Hostal Bella 269- 9,000 pesos per night for dorm plus 10% discount with Get South
La Chascona - 4,000 pesos for a 45 minute tour of Pablo Neruda's house
Tours for Tips- free walking tour. Meets at Museo Bellas Artes. 10am for the off-beat tour. 3pm for the normal tour
La Emporio Rosa ice cream parlor- ranked 20th best ice cream in the WORLD
Puente Allemena- really good sandwiches, even visited by Anthony Bourdain
Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos - free to enter. 1,000 pesos for the audiophone

Art and Wine. You fancy, huh?

      After the enchanting Atacama Desert, we took a 2 hour then a 15 hour bus drive to the vibrant port city of Valparaiso. It is probably my favorite city in Chile. Valparaiso is a UNESCO world heritage site, so it has many original historical buildings. Since it has been a big port city in South America, it is also very culturally diverse. No doubt, the reason why it is the arts and cultural center of Chile. Valparaiso is comprised of 45 hills (cerros). Each cerro is a neighborhood with its own close-knit community, subculture, ¨hill pride,¨and even stereotypes. The people love their hill and take good care of it together. The city is so colorful because the people paint their houses and the buildings bright colors, and with beautiful murals, or street art. Also, I was attracted immediately to Valparaiso because of its bohemian and Green vibe... just like my home-away-from-home, Portland Oregon! (How coincidental, another port town). The citizens of Valparaiso are adamant about protecting their city and keeping local businesses alive, as well as being sustainable. There are so many artists and the walls of the town are covered in street art murals. Truly impressive artwork, not graffiti tags. You can feel the energy in this city from the bustling people, the street music and art, the colors, the ocean, the history, and the melting pot of culture.

Cloudy day in Valparaiso

     We did a walking tour of the city through Tours for Tips to get to know it and its history better. So how did Valparaiso become the diverse and successful city it is today? Like I said already, it is a port city. The port is the city´s life force. However, Valparaiso did not boom until the California Gold Rush from 1848-1914. Ya, I didn´t think Valparaiso and California were related either. During the gold rush, Europeans travelled by ship to California by sailing around the southern tip of the South American continent in order to reach the west coast of the United States. Valparaiso´s port was a natural stopping point for these ships. Many English, German, French and Italian migrants saw the wealthy merchants in the port city and realized they could strike it rich here without sailing all the way up to the Golden State. Many Europeans settled in Valparaiso, bringing with them their ideas and cultures. This is why Valparaiso had the first of many things in South America, such as a mercantile building, a football team, and a fire station. Most visibly through the bright colors and murals of the city´s buildings, this diversity of cultures brought together different styles of art. Chilenos started sending their children to Valparaiso to study art and architecture instead of to Europe. That´s why it is Chile´s arts and cultural center. Unfortunately, with the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, ships stopped sailing down to Valparaiso, cutting the port city off the shipping routes. Obviously this was disastrous for the city economically. But it got back on its feet and it has recently resurged in its success during the last few decades.

    Besides being full of different artistic inspiration from the melting pot of cultures, why is Valparaiso so colorful? Fun historical fact: to protect their homes, locals covered the outer walls of their houses with sheets of corrugated metal left behind by ships. Obviously corrugated  metal itself is really ugly, so people painted their houses with bright colors from the paint cans left behind for painting ships (ships were painted really bright colors to be easily identified). From painting their outer walls, it is not a far jump to painting murals on their houses as well. Plus, the benefit of having murals on your house is that it prevented graffiti tagging because the taggers would respect the murals as works of art. People then started hiring artists to paint murals on their houses, resulting in the most amazing street art I have ever seen. It was an Instagram wonderland.

    

   Another iconic thing about Valparaiso are its funiculars (ascensores), which are like slanted elevators to transport people up and down its hills. They are antiques and I have never seen anything quite like them. Sadly, only a few are still functioning. The city is currently working on repairing the others and adding police stations at each to make them safer.

Funicular

     Down by the port is a giant statue and memorial of General Arturo Prat. Arturo Prat is Chile´s national hero. He led Chile in the War of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia, fighting for the land that is now northern Chile (land-locking Bolivia, might I add). Chile was actually the underdog in this war with very few men in their armed forces. In his heroic end, Prat was fighting against Peru on a wooden naval ship. Then he saw Peru´s metal naval ship and thought, Oh shit. So what did he do? He jumped ship, swinging onto Peru´s ship, like a B.A.M.F., with the intent of killing the Peruvian captain himself. Unfortunately, that only happens in movies, and Prat was immediately shot and killed. Nonetheless, the Chilenos were inspired by Prat´s courage and love for Chile. Prat´s death rose military morale exponentially, raising the number of men in their armed forces. Chile won the war, also winning the rich natural resources of the north (nitrites, copper, salt, and other minerals). This is why Chile is far more wealthy and developed than Peru and Bolivia. I love walking tours. Tours for Tips also has a tour in Santiago that I am really looking forward to.

His BAMFness, Arturo Prat

    We left Valparaiso longing for just one more day. But we´re on a tight schedule and there is wine to be drunk in Mendoza, Argentina. It was a 9 hour bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza. Although we arrived at the border at 3am, it was another really easy border crossing. The bus employee took all of us passengers, like a class field trip, to the border counters. Counter 1: Chile exit stamp. Step to the right to Counter 2: Argentina entrance stamp. Easy, but mainly because we paid our reciprocity fee of US $160 online on the Argentina travel visa website beforehand. Our printed receipt with barcode acts as a multi-entrance visa. I really wish the U.S. didn´t charge all these South American countries visa fees. It would save me literally hundreds of dollars right now.

    We arrived in Mendoza, the Napa Valley of Argentina, and it was in full autumn bloom. The beautiful, tree-lined streets and parks were illuminated with the golden colors of Fall. I forgot how much I love this season. I haven´t really seen it in a few years. Back home in California we had good autumns. In Portland, autumn leaves only last for a day or two until the rains start to pour. Plus, the trees were mostly evergreens, not deciduous. Texas...hah! No fall or winter really.
  

Mallory pedaling in front of me

    We took the public bus to Maipu, just 15 min outside of the city, where the vineyards and olive farms are. Argentinos are such nice people. We did not have a public transportation rechargable card or coins to pay our fare (we didn´t know the busses don´t take small bills), so the bus driver asked if any passengers had extra credit on their cards to pay for our fares in exchange for our 5 peso bill. This little old lady kindly walked to the front and tagged us in. But really, they are so polite. I have been getting good practice understanding and speaking in the formal tense. Surprisingly enough, I could actually understand their Spanish! I expected Argentino Spanish to be the most difficult to understand. Nope. Chilenos win that award. In Maipu, we rented bicycles and they gave us a map and showed us the best route to take.

Entre Olivos tasting

    It was a beautiful Fall day. I was in bliss riding a bicycle along vineyards and olive farms in the golden colors of the autumn-turned trees with blue skies above and the snowy Andes peaks in the landscape. First we stopped at an olive farm called, Entre Olivos. The tour guide gave us a run down of how olive oil is made. The quality of the olive oil is dependent on the type of olives used. He had us try samples of their olive oil and olive spreads, as well as their other products, such as different fruit marmaladas and liquors. Nothing like a couple shots to prep us for wine tasting. Our second stop was at bodega (winery) de Mevi. So classy. Mevi is only 7 years old and built in a very modern style with efficient architecture. The vineyards and the grounds in general were beautiful. For our wine tasting we got to sit out in the sunny patio, overlooking the vineyards with the Andes in the distance, including the highest mountain in the Americas, Aconcagua. I chose 3 wines from 5 options from the Variedad list: a Chardonnay, Torontes, and a Malbec (my favorite). Mallory had 3 reds from the Reserva list: a Syrah, and two types of Malbecs. We shared to try every one. Our last stop was the bodega de Familia de Tomasso. Unfortunately, they closed an hour earlier than we thought so we didn´t get to do a tour or wine tasting. It is one of the oldest, family-run bodegas in Maipu. It had a rustic feel to it. We did get to stay and order a brownie with ice cream. The ice cream, by the way, was amazing. It was vanilla with fresh berries that were very similar to marionberries (my favorite) from Oregon. It was a good way to end the day. Some bicycling, some olives, some wine, and some chocolate.

Bodega de Mevi. View from the patio.

Bodega de Mevi: barrels of wine

Mevi vineyards

Bodega de Familia Tomasso

     I´ve recently been researching travel blogs to help decide what things to see and do, places to stay, recommendations, etc for while I´m traveling. Unfortunately I have not found too many that were practically useful. From here on out I am going to end my posts with some practical travel tips.

Valparaiso:
Hostal: Casa de Limon Verde. 7,000 Chileno pesos per  night in the dorm room. Plus 10% discount if you have a Get South book.
Tours for Tips walking tour 3pm every day at Plaza Sotomayor
J. Cruz M. Restaurant for the origina chorrillana dish

Mendoza:
Monkey Hostel: 70 Argentino pesos per night in the dorm room. Plus 10% discount with Get South
Maipu Bikes: 40 Argentino pesos for a day rental. Until 7 pm.
Entre Olivo: 25 pesos for the tour and tasting
Mevi: 38 pesos for the Variedad tasting (3 copas de vino) and 35 pesos for the Reserva tasting (3 copas de vino)
Familia de Tomasso: 25 pesos for tour and wine tasting

When in Argentina, BRING U.S. DOLLARS. I cannot emphasize this enough. The money exchange houses give you double the market rate. I´m not talking about sketchy exchange places. I mean proper, official exchange houses with security guards. The market rate is about 5.28 pesos per 1 US dollar. The ¨blue dollar¨rate is about 9.2 pesos per 1 US dollar, which is what they give you. Better blue dollar rate for $100 bills, too. Why? Argentinians keep their value in money in U.S. dollars because it´s more stable than the Argentinian peso, which fluctuates with inflation so much. Argentina wants your dollars. You can´t pull out U.S. dollars in Argentina, though. Many travellers I have met who travelled to Buenos Aires hopped the border to Uruguay to pull out US dollars, then changed them in Argentina. We had some US dollars left over from Peru. This makes Argentina WAY less expensive than I expected. Chile is the most expensive country I´ve been in so far.

Hey! I´m not average height anymore!

        After all the unexpected hurdles trying to leave Peru, the universe seemed to start being on our side as we crossed the border into Chile. So many things could have gone wrong as we crossed the border that night in a collectivo (shared taxi) with 3 other Chilenos. Thankfully, we were in really good hands and everything went smoothly. From Arequipa we bussed south to the border town of Tacna. We got our delicious fruit taken away at a checkpoint midway (the town once had a devastating fruit fly infestation and now is taking strict precautions). So much for planning ahead and trying to avoid munching on crackers and cookies all day on the bus. Once in Tacna, we asked a taxi driver where the international bus terminal was. He gave us a funny look and pointed across the street. Duh. This is when our luck turned. We walked to the employee at the Control at the terminal internacional and asked her about crossing the border into Chile. It was about 6 pm at this point. She informed us that the border closed at 10 pm and Americans do not have to pay to enter Chile. YAY! Then she called a security guard on her walky talky to escort us and find us a collectivo to get us across the border. The security guard was so nice and did everything for us. He literally escorted us. The only freak-out moment we had was when the collectivo driver took our passports (along with the other passengers´ ID cards) to make border-crossing documents. We got our passports back and could breathe again. At the border our driver escorted us through every step. Exit Peru. Enter Chile. Done. Then he drove us into the Chilean border town of Arica. We arrived at their bus terminal and did not know where to go. It was about 8pm. We got into a local taxi and the driver asked us where we wanted to go. We said, we don´t know. Do you know of any safe hostels near the center?

        He took us to a wonderful hostel. A little more expensive than we wanted, but it was safe. The hostel was run by a very nice family. It was so nice to feel like we finally arrived safe and sound in Chile. We walked to el centro that night to find some food. That´s when the culture shock hit us. El centro was an outdoor shopping strip, like they have in the states. It reminded me of Santa Monica, California, especially because Arica is also a beach town. I didn´t expect Chile to be so developed compared to Peru. It blew my mind. We walked back towards our hostel, and although it was a straightforward walk, we managed to get turned around. Luckily, the owners of the hostel happened to be standing outside smoking their cigarettes, apparently on the lookout for us, and one of them shouted out Mallory´s name and ran half a block to steer us back on the right direction. How embarrassing, haha. The Chilenos made a very good first impression on us. They´re so nice! They´re a lot harder to understand, but they are so nice.

Iquique

         Next stop: Iquique. Our real first stop. We spent 2 days taking a break from bus traveling. The beach was 1 block away from our hostel. Shortly after arriving, we had dinner at a small restaurant & the waiter surprised us with complimentary dessert, an amazing chocolate cheesecake, on the house! It´s official: the universe is on our side after all. In the morning I ran at sea level for the first time in 6 months along the beach. My lungs felt amazing. I felt like I could run forever... on sand even! Iquique is a really nice beach town. Still culture-shocked by the high-rise condo buildings, paved streets, professional taxis & buses, and drivers actually following lanes and giving way to pedestrians. Looming over the town and the beachfront is a giant sand dune, called Cerro Dragon. Iquique is known for body boarding, surfing, paragliding, and sandboarding off of Cerro Dragon. I have never seen the desert and the ocean so close together. There were palm trees and cacti growing side by side along the beach. The historical center of the town was really quaint with a boardwalk lined with colonial, saloon-style buildings leading to Plaza Prat, the main square. We got tan and sunburned.

Plaza Prat

Exercise park along the beach

We work out!

      Time to explore the Atacama desert! We traveled on to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world, located in northern Chile, bordering Bolivia and Peru. Our first day we rented bicycles and rode 18 km to Laguna Cejar, which consists of 3 salt pools. The Atacama landscape looked like a pastel portrait of a mountain range with volcanoes in the background, and the sandy/salty desert flatland in the foreground, against a clear blue sky. So many shades of purple, blue, and pink! At Laguna Cejar, we got to swim in one of the pools. The salt to water concentration is so high that you are forced to float! It was the weirdest, but coolest sensation to be buoyant against my will. Floating around in that salty water was really fun. When we got out, the water evaporated and left our skin and hair super salty. We rode back to town during the sunset and watched the spectacular landscape change colors from light pastel colors to deeper shades. It was the most colorful sunset I have ever seen.The next day we rented bicycles again and rode out to la Valle de la Luna. We explored a salt-covered cavern and a sandy canyon, and biked to the giant geological rock formation, called el Amphitheatro. The area used to be a thriving salt mining community until the 1970s. Only a couple of the miners are still alive to tell their tale. The economy of San Pedro switched to tourism after the salt mining industry ceased because the country switched to mining sal de mar (sea salt) instead of sal de gema (rock salt) which was mined here.

Laguna Cejar salt pool 1

Floating in Laguna Cejar salt pool 2. Look, mom! No hands!

So buoyant I can walk on water! ;-P

Picturesque landscape. Volcanoes in the background.

Valle de la Luna: el Amphitheatro

        The Atacama desert has 360 days of clear skies per year. That makes it an ideal place for stargazing and astronomy. That night we went on an astronomy tour with SPACE Agency. We drove 15 minutes out of town to their observatory. It was a perfect, clear and moonless night. I could see the cloudy wisp of the Milky Way across the sky. We looked at the stars, constellations, Saturn, star clusters and nebulas through the observatory´s 9 telescopes. The telescopes were not that big. I mean, they did not take up an entire building. Especially compared to the ALMA Project being built here. ALMA = Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array telescope. It is the second largest science project in the world. It is an international partnership to build the biggest telescope ever, consisting of a circle of 66 telescopes with a diameter of 16 km!

San Pedro

La caverna in Valle de la Luna: salt everywhere!

Bicycling in Valle de la Luna

        Although we have only been in Chile for a week, San Pedro de Atacama is my favorite so far. It is so enchanting. I could stay a week to see all the sights it has to offer, such as the geysers, thermal baths, and other geological formations further out of town. Alas, we don´t have the luxury of time. We are trying to get to the Patagonia before it gets too cold. Winter is coming ;-)

P.S. Peru has the shortest average height in the world. Now that I´m in Chile, I am not average height anymore.

Always expect the unexpected

One thing I´ve learned this past week and a half is to always expect the unexpected. Literally none of my travel plans have gone as planned. At least I´ve found some silver linings. Firstly, after my last day volunteering I was supposed to go on a trek to Choquequirao (Machu Picchu´s sister city). Two hours after my trek briefing, the tour agency called me to cancel because the trek group was sick and instead they are leaving the next day (Sunday). Saturday morning, I went to their office and changed my trek date to the following weekend, and they promised me that there would be a trek group... No big deal, I would just switch my plans around a bit. I went to Urubamba to stay with Mallory for a couple days. We did a nice little hike up to Las Chullpas: ruins of an Incan granary. Then I went back to Cusco to catch an 8:00am bus to Ica. Getting to Ica was another hiccup in my travels. I got to the bus terminal nice and early. However, I couldn´t see my bus. The terminal employees told me not to worry it would arrive. Then 8:00 am rolled by and finally one of the employees told me to go to the counter where I bought my bus ticket. The employee there told me that the bus I was supposed to be on was with another bus company and it had just left. But not to worry, there was another bus leaving at 1pm, I wouldn´t be losing much time. I was furious. No one had told me to look for a different bus when I bought the ticket, and they had printed me out their own company´s bus ticket instead of the one I was supposed to be on. At least I had 5 hours to wait at the bus station to blow off some steam.

Huacachina oasis

What´s in Ica? Pisco and wine vineyards, and more importantly, Huacachina. Huacachina is a tiny oasis surrounded by mountainous sand dunes as far as the eye can see. It was so nice to finally arrive and spend time relaxing by a pool and in warm weather, in contrast to Cusco´s chilly mountain climate. After stressing out about my trek cancellation, saying goodbye to my kids at UTLI, moving out of San Pedro house, and the bus incident, Huacachina was just perfect. Except that I forgot my bathing suit and to charge my camera battery, haha! Good thing I had friends there to help me out. The best part of Huacachina was the dune buggy and sandboarding tour. Our tour was at 4pm with a dune buggy driver that looked like a Peruvian Sean Connery. We were strapped into the buggy like kids in carseats and took a ride up and down and around the huge dunes. Then we stopped at the top of a few dunes to sandboard down them. I tried standing at first, you know like snowboarding, thinking, ya I can do this. Nope. It was much harder than I thought. Opposite of snowboarding, you were supposed to put your weight on your back leg. That´s what I used to do when I first learned to snowboard, but apparently after getting the hang of it, I couldn´t switch back to my old bad habits. I resorted to sliding down on my belly headfirst like a penguin, which was way faster and much more fun, not to mention easier on my leg muscles. The tour ended with steeper drops down the dunes in the buggy and watching the sunset.

 Dune buggy

 Sea of sand dunes and Ica

Partner-stunting...haha

Oh, how bus traveling becomes me. I had to be back in Cusco Saturday night to go on my trek Sunday morning. I assumed that there would be morning buses from Ica to Cusco. Nope. When I went to buy my bus ticket on Friday morning, I learned that buses only leave for Cusco at night. So I had to leave that night. 2 less nights in Huacachina than planned. Ay caramba! So much bus time! (16 hours between Ica and Cusco)

I arrived in Cusco Saturday afternoon and shortly after, the tour agency sent my trek guide to meet me to discuss the trek. This can´t be good. I think they sent him so that I wouldn´t go back to their office upset and yelling in front of their clients. When he arrived, he told me that there was no trek group for Sunday. Of course. I got back from Huacachina early for nothing. However, we had a couple options: to go on the trek with him Sunday morning as a private trek, with no mules or food, so I would have to bring more $ to buy food at the campsites; or to wait to go until Monday morning if a trek group gets confirmed later that evening. I had no more time or patience to keep waiting for a trek group so I said yes, risking going on a trek by myself with a guide I didn´t know. He called me that evening to inform me that the group was not going on Monday, so we were leaving together Sunday morning on a private trek.

5:30 am Sunday morning, my guide and I got to the bus station to travel for 3 hours to the town of Chacora where there Choquequirao trek begins. Another unexpected event! There was a group of 2 on the same bus as us! My guide knew their guide and worked it out so that I could just join their trek group, but of course pay $ to make up the difference (the couple had paid more than I had). Now food and mules were included, AND I wasn´t by myself! I thought to myself, yay I´m not going to get kidnapped!

The Andes

The Choquequirao trek was 4 days and 3 nights and covered 72 km. My guide, who also leads the Inca trail, Inca Jungle trek, and Salkantay trek, said that Choquequirao was the most difficult of them all. Oh boy. He wasn´t joking. Hiking the first day to Chikiska campsite was a good warm up. Day 2, however was the hardest hike of my life. We hiked downhill for 1.5 hours, crossed the river via ¨cable car¨, and then hiked uphill for 5 hours up a giant mountain. Thank God for switchbacks, but it was still so steep! For some reason, there were way more mosquitos on that side of the river, and despite my repellent, those bugs were ruthless on me. Especially on my face because I didn´t think of wearing repellent on my face since I had never (surprisingly) been bitten there before. We arrived at the top of that mountain to Marampata campsite. We took a lunch break for a couple hours, then we continued on into the Choquequirao park. The park is huge. We had to hike for almost 2 more hours into the park to get to the ruins. There aren´t that many ruins in Choquequirao because the park hasn´t been completely excavated, and unfortunately, there is no current interest in doing so.

Marampata campsite

Like Machu Picchu, Choquequirao was ¨discovered¨by American explorer, Hiram Bingham in 1911. Bingham wasn´t really interested in it, and then he ¨found¨ Machu Picchu.

 Ruins at Choquequirao

 Terraces where the Inca grew their best crops for offerings to their Gods

 A field atop the mountain for I don't know what, but it would make a great futbol pitch

Llama terraces

I arrived exhausted and covered in mosquito bites, but safe in Cusco. I took the longest, and much needed, shower ever (I hadn´t showered in 4 days). Mallory and I had already bought our night bus tickets to Copacabana and were supposed to start our South American adventures in Bolivia. However, another unexpected turn of events happened: we received warning from Shelby that Bolivia is having a nationwide transportation strike and we might get stuck there indefinitely if we go. I must be bad luck. Change of plans, then! Reverse our travel loop route and start in Chile and Argentina instead! Hopefully we´ll make our way up to Bolivia before continuing up north.

Silver lining of these series of unexpected events:
- Choquequirao trek being postponed = no nasty bug bites covering my entire body while I was in swim suit weather in Huacachina, and meeting the lovely couple in my trek group
- Not getting stuck in Bolivia for X amount of time
- Now we get to go to the Patagonia first a little earlier than planned, so it won´t be as cold in the winter
- Meeting up with fellow volunteer, Freya in Chile!