Week 6: Thanksgiving, Baxter, & Santiago Fun

Thanksgiving in Santiago was a bit of a feat to pull off, but somehow the boys managed to find the most necessary item - the infamous turkey - and once that was checked off the list, the rest just fell into place.  As we had class from 1-9pm on Thursday, we pushed our Thanksgiving celebration until Friday (and instead went out for sushi and pisco Thursday night after class).  After a long day of cooking paired with lots and lots and lots of wine, we had our Thanksgiving dinner around 9pm - like true Chileans.

 [Matt & Fredrico prepping the turkey]

 [Pretty sure we eat more bread and cheese in this house than any other in Santiago]

 ["Cooks" in the kitchen]

  [Pretty much sums it up]

 [Yum.  The cranberry jelly supplied by Mama O'Neil from the States totally made the meal]

 [Apple crisp!  I really made that!]

 [The whole Thanksgiving crew]

We spent most of Saturday at our favorite ex-pat bar watching college football but took a break mid-afternoon to visit an organization called Domingo Savio (DS), started by a man we met through ND.  Steve Reifenberg is the Executive Director of International Studies at ND and spent two years working at DS, which was, at the time, an orphanage - he continues to be actively involved with the organization and helps raise funds to support DS in the US.  Although we thought we were going to visit the orphanage, we quickly learned that DS is now actually an after-school program for children ages 5-16 and what we were attending was their end of the year celebration, complete with arts and crafts for sale made by the kids and a show (which felt very similar to a talent show but with only dancing).  The entire thing was hilarious and super random - but I think everyone enjoyed it nonetheless. 

 [A bunch of the crafts for sale]

 [Kids all dressed up, ready for their performance]

  [All kinds of dancing, confetti, balloons.. quite the show]

 Saturday evening, the boys surprised me with a treat at 3AM - they brought home a stray dog that they affectionately named Baxter.  We fed him turkey, gave him lots of water, and made a little bed for him on our sun porch.  Unfortunately, we all came to the realization the next morning that a) Baxter probably had fleas and any number of other diseases and b) it would be really tough for us to put him back on the street when we leave in two weeks - so we agreed to let him go (much to my chagrin).  We've actually seen Baxter around town since - he remembers us and has been chasing after us on our runs - the whole thing is super sad.  We have definitely considered him taking with us to the US... 

Sunday was a pretty lazy day (we have some work to get done this week so spent a good chunk of Sunday working on group projects).  On Monday, we decided to (finally) explore Santiago - Suecia 100 day o fun... 

 [Suecia 100 + Henry (he just ran up to us and sat so patiently during the pic) on Cerro Santa Lucia]

 [Bellas Artes - my fave neighborhood in Santi]

 [Plaza de Armas]

 [Mercado Central - the fish market]

[La Vega Mercado - fruit for a whole block - also the sketchiest place I've been in Santi]

Coming down the homestretch - hard to believe we're done with classes a week from Thursday... 

Week 5: Mama O'Neil Visits Santi

Well, I wouldn't say KO's weekend in Santiago went exactly as either of us expected but she can definitely say it was a "vacation" she'll never forget....

She arrived Thursday afternoon and after our class, the boys met us for a sushi dinner at our super swanky hotel in Los Condes (which is a bit nicer than the area in which we live).  Off to a great start... one would think. 

Friday morning I decided to take her up to the top of San Cristobal (a big mountain in the center of the city, mentioned in my first post).  Although there is a funicular to the top, the boys and I run (or try to run in my case) this trail fairly often and even though it's quite steep, thought it would be good exercise (and enjoyable) to hike to the top.  To make a lonnnnnng story quite short, we ran into a pair of knife-bearing hooligans, KO took a serious tumble, and despite getting away with all our things, we spent the majority of Friday in the Chilean ER.  As such, her Santiago vacation ended up being much more... relaxing than we anticipated - filled with some serious pool time, bad TV, and delicious room service.  (I did take a bunch of pictures of her and her injuries but I have a feeling she may not be too happy if I actually post them here... And considering I led her up that damn hill, I figure I should try to get back on her good side again... )

[Clocked a lot of hours out here - thankfully, it was gorgeous!]

Sunday, she was feeling much better (and able to walk around, albeit slowly), so we joined the boys for a soccer game downtown - Universidad de Chile vs. Catolica.  We opted for the non-crazy cheering section this time but definitely want to sit there for the next game as those fans were nuts!

We spent the afternoon on Monday with the boys, wine tasting and touring the Concha y Toro winery - which is the largest producer of wines in Latin America and the third largest (I believe) in the world.  The weather was perfect and the vineyards reminded both of us of Longwood.

So, despite a pretty horrific start to her trip, we did our best to make up for it in the end!  (Although, I have a feeling she may not be returning to Santiago any time soon...)

P.S. Please note how well sunglasses cover bruising - you can't even tell she had a run in with hooligans!

Week 4: Patagonia

Pretty sure this post won't do Patagonia justice so I think I'm just going to post a lot of pictures so you guys get a little taste of what we got this past weekend.  I feel like I've been to a lot of beautiful places in my life however, Patagonia is, hands down, the most breathtakingly beautiful place I've ever seen.

We took an overnight flight (the cheapest available) into Punta Arenas and were in for a rude awakening - coming from 80 degrees and sunny in Santiago, we woke up to 19 degrees and cloudy at 5:30AM in PA.  We made a quick visit to see some penguins before hoping on a 3 hour bus to Puerto Natales where we crashed for the night before venturing into the park.

[Puerto Natales - primary transit point to Torres del Paine National Park]

[Puerto Natales - view from the bus]

We woke up early Saturday morning and took a 2 hour bus ride into Torres del Paine followed by a quick catamaran ride across Grey Lake before arriving at our camp site.

 [Made it!]

 [Catamaran ride across Grey Lake]

[Camp site - night 1]

We spent the afternoon hiking up to a lookout near Grey Glacier (about 10 miles in total) - with beautiful weather and fantastic views - before returning to camp for dinner and an early nights sleep.

 [Notice the icebergs!]

 [Grey Glacier in the background]

Unfortunately, we awoke to rain and cloudy skies so opted to skip the hike to the French Valley and make our way back across Grey Lake to our second base camp.  Instead of staying at the bottom of the mountain, we carried bags 4 hours up the mountain (what a treat) and set up camp closer to the top to prepare for sunrise the next morning.

[Bags packed, ready to start the hike up]

We woke up at 4:15AM to rain again but decided to hike up to the top of Torres nonetheless.  We were all hoping that the early wake up, hiking in the dark, and freezing cold rain would be worth it when we made it to the top of the mountain for sunrise - unfortunately, we were all sorely disappointed when we found sleet/snow and fog awaiting us at the top... 

Thankfully, the skis started to clear on the way down which made for a much more enjoyable hike back down the mountain.  Although the trip was absolutely incredible, I've decided I either need to get better gear or forgo camping when it's freezing cold.

Week 3: Halloween, De Martino Winery, & Mendoza

The last week was insanely eventful and life doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.  We got home from Valpo/Vina just in time for Halloween - don't fret, they still celebrate it in Chile.  A bunch of us found costumes, had dinner and drinks at our apartment (thank goodness the boys are good cooks!), and then ventured down to the local expat bar, California Cantina, which has become one of our go-tos while we've been here.

After two days of classes, we spent Friday touring the De Martino winery, a family owned vineyard about an hour outside of Santiago in Mapio Valley.  We had a brief overview of the Chilean wine industry and De Martino, toured the vineyards, and then had a HUGE Chilean bbq with copious amounts of wine - it was fantastic!

We left bright and early Saturday morning for Mendoza, Argentina.  The part I was awake for during the 8 hour drive through the Andes was gorgeous.  (The bus was actually really comfortable and reclined further than an airplane - so that combined with our Friday at the vineyard made staying awake was tough.) 

We spent our first night in Mendoza similarly to the first night of all new places we've visited thus far - appetizer and booze bar crawl.  Sunday we spent a lazy day by the pool at the hostel, bbq'd at night (as we're learning almost everything is closed Sundays in South America), and met new friends - it was much much warmer in Argentina than Chile so the pool was definitely appreciated.  Monday we went on 5 hour-ish bike/wine tour with our new friends, Suzanne and Mike - visiting vineyards, drinking wine, munching on snacks, and trying our best to stay on our bikes.  (Unfortunately, my bike's pedal fell off mid-day but thankfully, we found the Argentinian police who were quite friendly - although didn't speak a lick of English - and drove me back to switch to a new bike.) 

After a brief debacle at customs (lesson learned: apples can be smuggled from Chile to Argentina but definitely not back again), we made it back at 5AM this morning, just in time for our 9AM lecture.  We're resting up for 2 days of classes tomorrow before our big Patagonia trip next weekend.  Life is good.

Week 2: Valapraiso & Vina del Mar

Classes officially started this week - although they appear to be much less strenuous than those at ND (phew!).  Most of us are only taking 4 classes - Spanish and Latin American Finance on Wednesday and Ethics/Sustainability and Latin American Economics on Thursday - which, thankfully, leaves ample travel time.

Jessica got into town on Thursday evening and the long weekend was most definitely action packed.  We had planned to go to Mendoza, Argentina and were told that we could just buy bus tickets the morning of the trip but unfortunately, didn't realize that both Monday and Tuesday were public holidays so the tickets were sold out.  Regardless, we made the most of it.  We spent Thursday and Friday nights at discotecas with new Chilean friends (Spanish is slowly getting better.. thank goodness) and then took a bus to the coast of Chile - to Valapraiso and Vina del Mar - for two nights.

 
I must admit that Valpo was not the cute little beach town we expected but rather a large, bustling city filled with lots of garbage, graffiti, and stray dogs (those guys are all over Chile!).  Thankfully, Vina del Mar was exactly what we had in mind although it was a bit colder on the coast so, unfortunately, not exactly beach weather.  We spent both days sampling the fine cuisine and drinks both towns had to offer (think bar & appetizer crawl) - great way to see a town...