The start of teaching.

I know it has been a while since my last post. Lindsay and I have been very busy. We have begun to settle into a routine here. Our host family is very nice. They are an older couple with 3 kids studying in Santiago. The husband (Jaime) teaches music and the wife (Rossana) teaches elementary school. They know a lot about chilean folk music and even gave a short demonstration of folk music and dance to my parents when they were visiting.

School is hard. The kids know almost no English and see no reason to try and learn. It has been a difficult adjustment. After four days of orientation/training and a 2 weeks of observation I was thrown into the classroom and started teaching. Needless to say my first few days were not good but I have been steadily improving. I am hoping to get ahead enough on my planning and stuff so that Lindsay and I can go do things on the weekends.

Mendoza - Santiago - Antofagasta

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have been very busy. We made it to Mendoza on the 3rd of March after a 18 hour bus ride. Mendoza was in the middle of their big wine/harvest festival. We got to see a big parade on Saturday night that included floats from all over Argentina. The floats were tossing various fruits such as bananas, grapes, lemons apples and even a few Melons out into the crowd (kind of dangerous). Some floats also handed out meat and wine but these were pretty rare. We met a few friends from our program in Mendoza as well and we went and did some horseback riding together. The ride was in a desert near Mendoza and even looked a little like our desert in California complete with creosote. Overall Argentina had great Italian food and some of the best steaks I have ever had in my life.

We made it back to Santiago on the 6th of March and met all of our friends from our program. We also got to meet all the new recruits who came in just for the teaching portion of the program. We had orientation until Thursday of that week (March 10th). On Wednesday we found out that we were leaving for Antofagasta the following night so we had a bit of a panicked packing period. The bus ride was another 18 hour bus ride and not nearly as comfortable as the one we had in Argentina. When we arrived in Antofagasta on Friday we met our host family and the regional director for our program.

Antofagasta is the 2nd biggest city in Chile with a population of about 300,000 (Compared to Santiago's approximately 6-7 million.) It is right on the beach and serves as a big mining port for the whole area including Bolivia. Our host family is very nice. They are both teachers. The father teaches music and I think the mother now does some sort of administrative work. They have kids that are about our age that are currently in Santiago attending a University. We met our teachers Monday the 14th of March and today was our first day of observation. I am working in a Technical school where highschool age kids learn various trades involving mining or various other technical jobs. It is going to be a challenge because the classes have between 45-50 students each so it will be interesting.

I hope everyone is doing well.

La Paz, Tarija and Salta

Well we are now in Salta, Argentina. La Paz was fun, with lots of museums to look at. We went to a musical instrument museum, a mineralogical museum, an ethnographic museum, a textile museum, and a couple of other smaller cultural museums. My favorite was the ethnographic museum which had a large display of pottery and some videos on how the pottery was done as well as a large display of Carnival masks. All in all La Paz was very pleasant. We were in La Paz from the 16th - 20th. We flew out Feb. 20th to Tarija. In Tarija we stayed with some friends of our host family. They met us at the Airport. They were really nice and Tarija was pleasent but Lindsay and Candice spent most of their time being sick for whatever reason leaving me to wander about by myself most of the time. We took a tour of a couple of wineries which was fun. We also got to try some wines from the vineyard where our family that we were staying worked. On the 25th of February we took a car to the the Bolivia - Argentina Border and then another from their to Salta. The guy we rode with charged us too much but we made it fine. We had great scenery the whole drive and had to stop a lot because of mudslides from the heavy rain. Salta is really pretty, it has a lot of wildlife, especially birds such as toucans, parrots and birds of prey, in the nearby national parks. However, due to the heavy rains the national parks are inaccessible right now so we are forced to stick to the city. However the city in itself is very beautiful with great churches and colonial architecture. Tomorrow we leave for Mendoza which will be about an 18 hour bus ride. We will spend a couple of days in Mendoza and then head across the border to Santiago on the 5th or the 6th.

Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno, Lake Titicaca and Bolivia

Well, we have just arrived in La Paz Bolivia. We have had an exciting week and have been extremely busy. Cuzco was an amazing little town. On the 10th we explored the city and walked around. We saw some amazing churches and a couple of museums as well as the ruins of Sacsaywaman which were a lot of fun and very interesting. The next day we took a tour bus to Ollantaytambo where the train departs to Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu pueblo). On the way to Ollantaytambo we stopped at several old Incan sights including Pisaq and Ollantaytambo. The scenery was fantastic with huge majestic mountains with green cloud forests. The train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes was at night so we did not get to see anything out the window on the way their. We spent the night at Aguas Calientes and got up early (around 4:30) to take the bus to Machu Picchu. We got to Machu Picchu at about 6:30 and proceeded to try and climb Machu Picchu Mountain in the hopes of getting a good view of the Machu Picchu site from above. It was extremely difficult we were at about 3400 meters at the Machu Picchu site and we climbed straight up a rock stair case for an hour and a half. We did not make it to the top but we got some great views of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley and got to hike through some of the coolest terrain I have ever been in. The mountain was covered in a dense cloud forest and we got to hike through it and see mountains covered in mist and interesting vegetation. Machu Picchu itself was fascinating. I did not find the stone were to be as impressive as the Mayan ruins I have been to but the layout and planning was amazing. The Incas built Machu Picchu way above the valley below where they got the stones. They managed to get all the stones up the mountain. They also planned for erosion using terraces and they also had a system of mini aqueducts to direct the water. Even more amazing was the fact that they managed an empire that stretched from Colombia all the way down to norther Chile and Argentina. That day we went back to Cuzco, arriving at 11:30 at night.

The next day (13th) we got up at 5:30am to catch a bus to Puno (Lake Titicaca). This bus also stopped at several sites on the way to Puno. It was very enjoyable and we got to see many more Incan ruins as well as a really gorgeous church. We also stopped at the crest of a mountain that was 4,355meters above sea level! We got to Puno at about 5:00 pm and rested. The next day we slept in and went to arrange a visa so we could enter Bolivia. Getting a Bolivian visa was quite an ordeal. First we went to the Bolivian Consulate in Puno and the guy working there told us what we needed. First we needed to fill out a form, next we had to get a photo taken for said form, we then had to also have reservations in Bolivia as well as proof we were going to leave Bolivia. We also had to have a yellow fever vaccine. On top of this we had to a pay an entry fee of $135 American. Amazingly we managed to get this all done in one day with the only difficulty being the yellow fever vaccine. It took us forever to find where in the hospital they gave the shots and when we did we got lucky because they only had 3 vaccines left. The following day we caught a boat to the Uros, the floating islands. These islands are man-made from reeds that grow abundantly in Lake Titicaca. We got to ride in a reed boat and eat fresh fish (the soup we ate had whole fish in them or in my case just a fish head).

Today (16th of Feb.) we caught a bus to La Paz, we had no trouble crossing the border and getting our visas. They did not even check half of the stuff that we had prepared. Once in Bolivia we had to cross part of Lake Titicaca (near Copacabana). This involved all of us getting off the bus and getting on to a rickety motor boat while the bus got on to and equally rickety looking barge. We were thus ferried across a 100meter span of water all the while wondering if we were going to make to the other side or if the bus would even make it. However, all went well. Now I am in a hostel in La Paz. La Paz is magnificent, it is a huge city crammed into a small valley with houses and buildings crawling up the mountains surrounding it. We will be in La Paz until the 20th when we will fly to Tarija, Bolivia near the Argentina border. Their we will stay with some friends of our host family.

I hope everything is going well with everybody. I know these posts seem kinda of hectic but, well, in reality it has been extremely hectic but really fun and exciting.

Arica and Arequipa

Our flight from Santiago to Arica went well. Arica is a medium sized port city on the border between Chile and Peru. We got in on  Feb. 5th and spent a half day wandering around Arica. Arica has a nice downtown area and there was a festival going on that celebrated local indigenous culture and there were a lot of people in the streets dressed up in indigenous clothes dancing. The central square had a fantastic church the was designed by Eiffel the same person who designed the Eiffel tower. We also went to the top of a hill that overlooked the city and was the site of a major battle between Chile and Peru during the war of the Pacific. The next day, Feb. 6th we went to the museum. The museum was pretty small but had a lot of mummies and a lot of history about the local indigenous groups. Afterward we went to the beach and hung out for a bit. It was a relaxing day. The hostel we stayed at in Arica was a lot of fun. The owners name was Roberto and he gave us all free beers when we showed up. He was really laid back and their were only about 5 other people at the hostel so we all hung out in the evening and played ping-pong.


On Feb. 7th we took a colectivo (Shared Taxi) to the Peruvian border. Managed to get across to Tacna, the first town on the Peruvian side of the border, at about 12:15 and caught a bus to Arequipa at about 1. The bus ride was about 7 and half ours and we got to Arequipa close to 8:00 at night. We bought a bus ticket to Cuzco for the next night and checked into our hostel and had a good nights sleep. The next day we explored Arequipa and it rained the entire day. It was a big change from the heat that we were used to experiencing. There several small museums that we visited and a couple of very ornate and elaborate churches. We also bought our tickets for the train to Aguas Calientes.

Today is the 9th of Feb. and we arrived in Cuzco this morning at around 6:30 after a long overnight bus ride. The bus was fairly comfortable but I still only got about 5 hours of sleep. We are going to take it easy today and try to hit Cuzco hard tomorrow and see the sites.

I will try to keep you guys updated as often as possible but internet may be hard to find.

Brian-

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have been very busy taking Spanish classes and exploring Santiago. I am slowly working on getting photos up on this site hopefully I will be able to post some more soon. The current photos are of our Summer Camp in Copiapo. Since we posted last Lindsay and I have gone to an interactive museum in Santiago with our host family. That was fun, it reminded me of the OMSI in Oregon. Last week we had a tour of a really old cementary that was built in the early 1800's. We also went to a small town close to Santiago named Pomeaire. The town's commerce centered around pottery. Almost everybody in the town is involved in making different pottery. There were a ton of small pottery stores with really cheap pottery. Lindsay and I also got to try and make some pottery both with and with out a pottery wheel. This last weekend we got to go to another little town outside Santiago called San Jose de Maipu. We stayed in a hostel up in the mountains and went hiking and swimming in a little river. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun.

We finish Spanish classes this week (Friday) and on Saturday we fly out to Arica, on the border of Chile and Peru, with a friend from English Opens Doors named Candice. We then are going to Arequipa (Peru) and then on to Cuzco (Peru). In Cuzco we are going to spend a couple of days looking at the city and Incan ruins around the city and then heading to Machu Picchu. After Machu Picchu we are going to Puna (Peru) which is close to Lake Titicaca. We will spend a few days there and then head to La Paz (Bolivia). We will then make our way down to Mendoza in Argentina stopping a couple of places yet to be determined on the way down. Finally back in Santiago on March 5th. It should be an interesting trip. We are going to take buses and trains through Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

I will update again in a week if I have access to the internet.

Hope everybody is doing well.