Santiago, ChileLocation: Valparaiso, Chile
Date: November 12, 2009
After my last entry, I was able to recover many of the photos that were still on my camera card, which is great news! I am still having major issues with my pictures and my USBs, so I need to figure out how to move forward with this. A giant thank you to Alan for helping me out today. Funny how I never had trouble with computers in 3rd world countries- its the modern technology that kills me.
Date: November 12, 2009
After my last entry, I was able to recover many of the photos that were still on my camera card, which is great news! I am still having major issues with my pictures and my USBs, so I need to figure out how to move forward with this. A giant thank you to Alan for helping me out today. Funny how I never had trouble with computers in 3rd world countries- its the modern technology that kills me.
11/16: Now updating this post with a few pictures from Valparaiso:
Puppies in Chile are AMAZING. They are so sweet and loving, and unlike the ones in Peru and Bolivia, they don´t try to eat you. They find little ¨rincons¨and just bury themselves into doorways, nooks, and even boxes. This is a picture of a sleepy guy I encountered.
I just got back from a quick trip to Valparaiso, a coastal ¨town¨2 hours west of Chile. Although I was expecting a tiny, charming town, what I got was much different. The ¨town¨is really a city with over 200, 000 inhabitants. The city is one of the strangest I have ever been to because of its layout. Basically, the top layer of the city contains all sorts of rainbow colored buildings that are stacked atop of each other. If you want to go down to the next layer, you can find your way down through the maze of streets. There are many such layers piled on top of each other, and finally there is a bottom layer, which is the roaring city, extremely different from the tranquility of the candy colored homes. To get to the bottom, you have to take an ¨ascension¨which is just a mini trainlike elevator. You pay about 50 cents to ride these fun little machines, and they take your from one world to the next. They are scattered across the town, and the transition from when you step into the elevator to when you step out is tremendous.
I also got the chance to daytrip to Viña del Mar, another costal town just 15 minutes away. I expected this town to be a little smaller since many Chileans go here to vacation, but, as my friend Gaby told me, it was much more ¨top,¨ which I assume means ritzy. After taking a few hours on the beach, I walked back to the train station and stumbled-or slammed into- a HUGE modern mall, complete with Ruby Tuesdays and Espirit (yes, Maggie, I´ll get you that red sweatshirt with ESPIRIT written across the front like you always wanted...). The mall blew my mind and overwhelmed me quite a bit- though Santiago is a completely modern city, I guess I got it into my mind that not everywhere in Chile was so modern...but I was wrong. Though much of my trip to coast was shocking, I had a great time.
Yesterday, I got to visit a primary school in Valparaiso. I had been disappointed that sometimes my plans to visit schools had fallen through in Peru and Bolivia- many people who at first said I could come visit and help out had not followed through with the plans, or were unwilling to let me come into the school if not for long term. I tried a new approach in Chile, and just knocked on the door of the school, told them I was a teacher in the US and would love to have a look around. The woman graciously nodded her head and asked me to please proceed....crazy, huh? I got to spend the day in an elementary school in Valparaiso and chat with the students and teachers. It was such a difference to be there versus schools in Peru and Bolivia. The children were different somehow, and instead of demanding money or running around ignoring me, they wanted to hold my hand and learn about me and have me teach them. It was fascinating and a much more familiar environment than I had been in before.
Yesterday, I got to visit a primary school in Valparaiso. I had been disappointed that sometimes my plans to visit schools had fallen through in Peru and Bolivia- many people who at first said I could come visit and help out had not followed through with the plans, or were unwilling to let me come into the school if not for long term. I tried a new approach in Chile, and just knocked on the door of the school, told them I was a teacher in the US and would love to have a look around. The woman graciously nodded her head and asked me to please proceed....crazy, huh? I got to spend the day in an elementary school in Valparaiso and chat with the students and teachers. It was such a difference to be there versus schools in Peru and Bolivia. The children were different somehow, and instead of demanding money or running around ignoring me, they wanted to hold my hand and learn about me and have me teach them. It was fascinating and a much more familiar environment than I had been in before.
These are the students at the ¨Educacion Basico¨in Valparaiso. Good students.
And, as always, there are the good, and then the Naughty!!!! These are some schoolgirls I met in Santiago. They were having a wild time, splashing water, playing in the fountain, and just being all around bad girls :)
Gaby, I dedicate this page to you, for all your help over the last few days. Gracias por todo.
Leaving Santiago, en route to Argentina...Note: Po is something that Chileans say in the middle of speaking, kind of like ok, or ummm..., but it´s more like an actual word. I found it highly entertaining.
