Not sure if anyone still reads this thing, but here I go!!
Yesterday and today were my last two big things to accomplish with school so hooray! I am nearly done. I have one more quiz on the 30th, but between now and then i'm cruising!!
On the 30th I'll head north to san pedro de atacama for a few days and then into Bolivia to see the world's largest salt flat (salar de uyuni) among other things and then make my way back to Santiago for my flight. I will officially be in the USA on July 16th!
I am excited to see the fam and friends and the fact that everything in my life is falling into place for my future is also REALLY amazing, but i don't want to part ways with latin america just yet. Santiago, see you later and I probably will never come back, but Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Patagonia... I can't wait to get back!!!
Right now I am focusing on getting a Fulbright teaching assistantship scholarship to Turkey (random i know).. It will be tough work, but i'm going to tryyyyy!!!
Things I will miss about Santiago, Chile:
-The feria I go to every Saturday (outdoor cheap food market)
-My pretty green bicycle (haven't ridden it in a while)
- My guatero ( a plastic water bottle thing that I recently bought to heat up my bed)
- YMCA
-Checking daily to see how bad the dollar is doing in comparison to the chilean peso (rejoicing as of late that it is actually going up!)
- Not doing much schoolwork but still succeeding
- The mountains (on the few days i have seen them)
-Bon Bon little chocolate truffle things!
- people randomly watering their lawns in the middle of the night or constantly sweeping the sidewalks/drive ways - These people like things clean/tidy!
-Crazy slang and crazy spanish in general
I WILL NOT MISS THE SMOG NOR THE PIDGEONS!!! Among other things...
Chau Santiago! I didn't hate you, but I would prefer to live in a different place. After living within you, I know what I don't want in a city!
martes, 17 de junio de 2008
lunes, 14 de abril de 2008
a visit from maureen, patagonia, my lovely roomate jennifer, and a whirlwind of emotions
Well the week after Buenos Aires, one of my best friends from studying in Ecuador came and visited Jen and I in Santiago. Maureen is one of those crazy people that just makes you laugh and laugh so she was really good to have around. Jen and I really enjoy making fancy foods for dinner so we made some fresh spring rolls one night and a different time we made really yummy stir fry. We explored Santiago and went out most nights, it was a good time. On the friday before she left we went to Valparaiso, which is only about an 1 1/2 hours from Santiago. We sort of just wandered around aimlessly and landed at one of Pablo Neruda's houses (i have now been to all three in Chile!) which was pretty cool like all of his other houses.. have i mentioned that i am in love with mr. neruda? he wasn't attractive by any means but he had really good taste and was an amazing poet! i can understand why he was such a ladies man! We also went on one of the famous ascensores (elevators) in valparaiso, it was made in 1893 or something and i wasn't extremely confident in how it was working, but we made it up and down and got a good view of the city plus of the port which literally looked like LEGO mania. it was cool.
On Saturday, I left for Patagonia, Chile which is almost to the very southernmost point of the continent. I flew into Punto Arenas and while on the shuttle bus from the airport to the city to meet my two friends Sam and Gabe I realized I didn't have my passport anymore. I realized that it must have come out on the plane or something. The guys and I had to catch a bus to puerto natales a different city in a few hours so I tried my best to contact the airport and airline to see if they had my passport, but in the end i couldn't get through to anyone and just decided I would deal with it when I got back. A week later when i returned to civilization, good old Punto Arenas airport had my passport stored and waiting for me! :)
So Gabe, Sam, and I got to Puerto Natales pretty late and stayed in a hostel, ready to leave at 7 in the morning to go to the national park torres del paine. That night we walked around town, laid by the port and looked at the AMAZING stars! We could see the milky way and everything!
So the next day we arrived and started our hike at about noon. We decided to do the circuit which is supposed to take at least 7 days, but we were going to do it in 6 days. We needed to 10 kms to get to the goal campsite. The map said it was supposed to take 10 hours. We all carried our big packs but were prepared, i already had my hiking boots all broken in and had done the inca trail before.. Anyways, i hiked really fast to keep up with the guys and my feet were hurting but i didn't want to stop because i wanted to get to the campsite before dark. When i finally got to the campsite, i was really afraid to take off my shoes. i knew that my toes were going to be black and my heel was hurting pretty bad. my sock was bloody and i had a huge blister that ripped of my heel about an inch in diameter. Both of my toenails were absolutely black with blisters beginning to form underneath of them. BUT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!! I was in pain, but i continued to hike the most beautiful place i have ever seen. there were tough parts, but for the most part it was easy going just a lot of walking. 4-9 hours a day. The best day was the third day, which was supposed to be the hardest because we had to climb up and down a mountain so it said. i didn't think it was so bad and when i got to the top of the mountain IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING VIEW EVER!! Grey's glacier in all it's glory, and it was a perfectly clear day. i don't know how to explain it and the pictures don't do it justice, but it was just the most beautiful thing ever. As i climbed down the mountain, the views of the glacier just kept getting better and better and different angles and it was just so cool. Later as we were getting to the end of the glacier we had to cross this crazy avalanche thing. i sort of thought i was going to die.. there was no bridge because the avalanche had destroyed it and we had to crawl across this ice slide with our packs and then up a rocky sandy hill to get back on the trail. If you were to slide down this avalanche you would slide right into the glacier. it was probably one of the most dangerous things i have ever done. The next day my feet were really hurting and when we stopped at this lodge called pehoe where my friend gabe was waiting for me. I took off my boot and started crying. my toe was absolutely disgusting and deformed and i didn't know what to do. poor gabe didn't know what to do with me so just offered me chocolate! haha. There was some doctor nurse man there and he fixed up both of my feet for me and gave me some really nice pain killers! Thanks Dr. Rodrigo! Anyways, the last two days I didn't really complete the whole hike, which is upsetting but i don't regret it. i don't think my feet could handle anymore. so i kind of split up from sam and gabe and hung out with some friendly israelis instead! It was a good time and i made my way back to puerto natales a day early where i hung out with some people i met from valparaiso!
Unfortunately, i got 2 emails with really bad news; my friend's mom had a brain aneurysm and is in a coma and one of my first friends from the university was killed in her house in Madison, so i just became really sad and all i could think about was my friends and the people that were affected. I couldn't concentrate on studying for the two exams i had that Tuesday and in the end i ended up failing one. I just had no motivation to do anything except mope around or lay in my bed. It was pretty bad. But now I feel way better. I am still sad about these things and praying for the best for my friends, but I am going to continue trying to enjoy my experience here instead of dwelling on the negative things going on in the world. In a way it's cool because I still have all these thoughts flying all around my head and i have these moments where i feel all philosophical and i am finally writing in my journal again which i hadn't been doing this whole semester.
So once my feet are healed I am going to start doing yoga i think and meditating ASAP. I am going to go to some museums soon and just walk around. The weather is slowly getting colder and I don't want it to get to the day where it is cold and rainy and i will just be sitting here looking out my window like, merrrr... why didn't i take advantage of that weather before!
I signed up for my classes for fall semester and they weren't really offering everything i wanted so that was irritating, but it won't affect my graduation plans. I am taking;
french 101- giving another language a try
biology of the mind
Topics in psychology- social systems and law (may change if they open other classes)
Writing Travels
History of Germany- i think i'll have to drop it because once i sign up for my research i will be over the amount of credits allowed in one semester
research in my prejudice and stereotyping lab.
So it should be a good semester.
For those of you who didn't recieve my patagonia pictures, send me an email, because they are awesome!!
On Saturday, I left for Patagonia, Chile which is almost to the very southernmost point of the continent. I flew into Punto Arenas and while on the shuttle bus from the airport to the city to meet my two friends Sam and Gabe I realized I didn't have my passport anymore. I realized that it must have come out on the plane or something. The guys and I had to catch a bus to puerto natales a different city in a few hours so I tried my best to contact the airport and airline to see if they had my passport, but in the end i couldn't get through to anyone and just decided I would deal with it when I got back. A week later when i returned to civilization, good old Punto Arenas airport had my passport stored and waiting for me! :)
So Gabe, Sam, and I got to Puerto Natales pretty late and stayed in a hostel, ready to leave at 7 in the morning to go to the national park torres del paine. That night we walked around town, laid by the port and looked at the AMAZING stars! We could see the milky way and everything!
So the next day we arrived and started our hike at about noon. We decided to do the circuit which is supposed to take at least 7 days, but we were going to do it in 6 days. We needed to 10 kms to get to the goal campsite. The map said it was supposed to take 10 hours. We all carried our big packs but were prepared, i already had my hiking boots all broken in and had done the inca trail before.. Anyways, i hiked really fast to keep up with the guys and my feet were hurting but i didn't want to stop because i wanted to get to the campsite before dark. When i finally got to the campsite, i was really afraid to take off my shoes. i knew that my toes were going to be black and my heel was hurting pretty bad. my sock was bloody and i had a huge blister that ripped of my heel about an inch in diameter. Both of my toenails were absolutely black with blisters beginning to form underneath of them. BUT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!! I was in pain, but i continued to hike the most beautiful place i have ever seen. there were tough parts, but for the most part it was easy going just a lot of walking. 4-9 hours a day. The best day was the third day, which was supposed to be the hardest because we had to climb up and down a mountain so it said. i didn't think it was so bad and when i got to the top of the mountain IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING VIEW EVER!! Grey's glacier in all it's glory, and it was a perfectly clear day. i don't know how to explain it and the pictures don't do it justice, but it was just the most beautiful thing ever. As i climbed down the mountain, the views of the glacier just kept getting better and better and different angles and it was just so cool. Later as we were getting to the end of the glacier we had to cross this crazy avalanche thing. i sort of thought i was going to die.. there was no bridge because the avalanche had destroyed it and we had to crawl across this ice slide with our packs and then up a rocky sandy hill to get back on the trail. If you were to slide down this avalanche you would slide right into the glacier. it was probably one of the most dangerous things i have ever done. The next day my feet were really hurting and when we stopped at this lodge called pehoe where my friend gabe was waiting for me. I took off my boot and started crying. my toe was absolutely disgusting and deformed and i didn't know what to do. poor gabe didn't know what to do with me so just offered me chocolate! haha. There was some doctor nurse man there and he fixed up both of my feet for me and gave me some really nice pain killers! Thanks Dr. Rodrigo! Anyways, the last two days I didn't really complete the whole hike, which is upsetting but i don't regret it. i don't think my feet could handle anymore. so i kind of split up from sam and gabe and hung out with some friendly israelis instead! It was a good time and i made my way back to puerto natales a day early where i hung out with some people i met from valparaiso!
Unfortunately, i got 2 emails with really bad news; my friend's mom had a brain aneurysm and is in a coma and one of my first friends from the university was killed in her house in Madison, so i just became really sad and all i could think about was my friends and the people that were affected. I couldn't concentrate on studying for the two exams i had that Tuesday and in the end i ended up failing one. I just had no motivation to do anything except mope around or lay in my bed. It was pretty bad. But now I feel way better. I am still sad about these things and praying for the best for my friends, but I am going to continue trying to enjoy my experience here instead of dwelling on the negative things going on in the world. In a way it's cool because I still have all these thoughts flying all around my head and i have these moments where i feel all philosophical and i am finally writing in my journal again which i hadn't been doing this whole semester.
So once my feet are healed I am going to start doing yoga i think and meditating ASAP. I am going to go to some museums soon and just walk around. The weather is slowly getting colder and I don't want it to get to the day where it is cold and rainy and i will just be sitting here looking out my window like, merrrr... why didn't i take advantage of that weather before!
I signed up for my classes for fall semester and they weren't really offering everything i wanted so that was irritating, but it won't affect my graduation plans. I am taking;
french 101- giving another language a try
biology of the mind
Topics in psychology- social systems and law (may change if they open other classes)
Writing Travels
History of Germany- i think i'll have to drop it because once i sign up for my research i will be over the amount of credits allowed in one semester
research in my prejudice and stereotyping lab.
So it should be a good semester.
For those of you who didn't recieve my patagonia pictures, send me an email, because they are awesome!!
domingo, 23 de marzo de 2008
and you thought that mullets and fanny packs had gone out of style...
YOU WERE WRONG! Welcome to Chile, the land of the mullet and fanny pack. I always thought i hated mullets, I really thought they were ugly. But after living in Santiago for month, I realize that mullets are what make guys attractive. Everyone my age has them, rat tails too! I'd say 80% of the schools guy population has one or the other, just to give you an idea. Fanny packs are also all the rage. all the girls have them and guys too. I'm really considering buying one, but i know i will only be made fun of when i return to the US with it.
I also have become a mate addict. Mate is a tea, but special kind of tea. you have a little gourd cup and fill it with mate loose tea. Then you fill it with water and have a special straw to drink it so none of the leaves get in. It is really good and caffeinated and a really tradicional social activity in Argentina and Chile. A friend from Buenos Aires just gave me my very own mate!!
Speaking of Buenos Aires, I recently spent a few days there, which were really fun, but not enough time!! I want to go back!! Jen and I went in bus, there and back, (24 hours each way). The bus ride really wasn't that bad and the food was pretty good. You all are going to go nuts but i tried meat and i am thinking about changing my veg ways. I just ate a tiny piece of a piece of sliced ham. The reason i am thinking of changing is because there are so many foods i really like and sometimes they happen to have meat in them. this can be really frustrating, because the only reason i don't eat it is because it is 'poisoned' by meat juice or something. but i realize, if it isn't a steak or something, i don't really care.. So we'll see. i will keep you updated on the meat or no meat topic.
So after being in Buenos Aires for only a little time, i already liked it better than Santiago. The air is clean, the buildings are all very antique and beautiful, and everything is cheap! The city also has a really intense history that is really sad but it is really great how the people unite and recognize it instead of ignoring it like other places in the world.
We went to la Recoleta, the cemetary where Eva Peron or Evita was buried. The graves there are beautiful, really ornate statues and shrines. We also walked around the many plazas they have where lots of kids were playing soccer, lots of trees... then we went to a museum bellas artes where we just stopped to see the photo exhibit. We then made our way back to our hostel where we called a friend of a friend named Huesos, which means bones.. haha.
We met Huesos and his friends in some alley while they were doing graffiti. Don't worry, they asked for permission. The graffiti was AMAZING. i can't believe it. it really is another form of great art even though it isn't completely typical. They did a robot, letters and a dragon on this wall and they all looked so real and like they were jumping out at you. we sat there for like 2 hours watching them. Afterwards we went to a party but we were pretty dead after traveling for so long so we went home pretty early.. at 2 am or so. It was really great to hang out with people from Ecuador though! i miss it so much!
The next day we woke up and went walking to plaza de congreso, with a beautiful building similar arquitecture to a capital building in the states. lots of statues, a little market nearby. We stopped by a movie theater with argentinian films. That night we went with a friend we met at the beginning of our staty in santiago to a movie called "madres" a documentary about the mothers of the famous plaza de mayo. It was really sad but good. If you don't know about the dirty war in argentina you should read about it. Over 30,000 argentinians dissapeared and have never turned up and it was the fault of the Argentinian military government. We visited the plaza de mayo as well and 'la casa rosada' where presidents of the past and evita have made speeches to the argentinian people. Afterwards we called our friend Hector and he took us to a neighborhood called la Boca by the port. It was really colorful and beautiful! Definitely really turisty, but nice! We watched some tango, although the dancers weren't as good as the ones i had seen in quito. I danced with some cute old grandpa to some live music.
Yesterday, our last day in Buenos Aires we went for a walk around the theater district where we shopped a bit for books. For lunch i met up with my argentinian abuelitos Carmelo and Elena who i met in the peruvian amazon. They are so sweet and we talked for a long time! they showed me the rio de plata, the widest river in the world.
So now i am back in santiago. not yet in school mode...
Hasta luego!
I also have become a mate addict. Mate is a tea, but special kind of tea. you have a little gourd cup and fill it with mate loose tea. Then you fill it with water and have a special straw to drink it so none of the leaves get in. It is really good and caffeinated and a really tradicional social activity in Argentina and Chile. A friend from Buenos Aires just gave me my very own mate!!
Speaking of Buenos Aires, I recently spent a few days there, which were really fun, but not enough time!! I want to go back!! Jen and I went in bus, there and back, (24 hours each way). The bus ride really wasn't that bad and the food was pretty good. You all are going to go nuts but i tried meat and i am thinking about changing my veg ways. I just ate a tiny piece of a piece of sliced ham. The reason i am thinking of changing is because there are so many foods i really like and sometimes they happen to have meat in them. this can be really frustrating, because the only reason i don't eat it is because it is 'poisoned' by meat juice or something. but i realize, if it isn't a steak or something, i don't really care.. So we'll see. i will keep you updated on the meat or no meat topic.
So after being in Buenos Aires for only a little time, i already liked it better than Santiago. The air is clean, the buildings are all very antique and beautiful, and everything is cheap! The city also has a really intense history that is really sad but it is really great how the people unite and recognize it instead of ignoring it like other places in the world.
We went to la Recoleta, the cemetary where Eva Peron or Evita was buried. The graves there are beautiful, really ornate statues and shrines. We also walked around the many plazas they have where lots of kids were playing soccer, lots of trees... then we went to a museum bellas artes where we just stopped to see the photo exhibit. We then made our way back to our hostel where we called a friend of a friend named Huesos, which means bones.. haha.
We met Huesos and his friends in some alley while they were doing graffiti. Don't worry, they asked for permission. The graffiti was AMAZING. i can't believe it. it really is another form of great art even though it isn't completely typical. They did a robot, letters and a dragon on this wall and they all looked so real and like they were jumping out at you. we sat there for like 2 hours watching them. Afterwards we went to a party but we were pretty dead after traveling for so long so we went home pretty early.. at 2 am or so. It was really great to hang out with people from Ecuador though! i miss it so much!
The next day we woke up and went walking to plaza de congreso, with a beautiful building similar arquitecture to a capital building in the states. lots of statues, a little market nearby. We stopped by a movie theater with argentinian films. That night we went with a friend we met at the beginning of our staty in santiago to a movie called "madres" a documentary about the mothers of the famous plaza de mayo. It was really sad but good. If you don't know about the dirty war in argentina you should read about it. Over 30,000 argentinians dissapeared and have never turned up and it was the fault of the Argentinian military government. We visited the plaza de mayo as well and 'la casa rosada' where presidents of the past and evita have made speeches to the argentinian people. Afterwards we called our friend Hector and he took us to a neighborhood called la Boca by the port. It was really colorful and beautiful! Definitely really turisty, but nice! We watched some tango, although the dancers weren't as good as the ones i had seen in quito. I danced with some cute old grandpa to some live music.
Yesterday, our last day in Buenos Aires we went for a walk around the theater district where we shopped a bit for books. For lunch i met up with my argentinian abuelitos Carmelo and Elena who i met in the peruvian amazon. They are so sweet and we talked for a long time! they showed me the rio de plata, the widest river in the world.
So now i am back in santiago. not yet in school mode...
Hasta luego!
sábado, 23 de febrero de 2008
BICYCLE!!!
oooh, what a wonderful day! Today my roomate cristian and i went to a wonderful market full of random stuff in santiago. he loves collecting antique things and i just like random things and i need clothes and stuff so i went with him. It was this huge market along about 8 blocks, but probably more than that. And everything was really cheap! I bought two really cute sweaters for the winter, one was about 4 dollars and the other was 25 cents! i also got a wallet and A BICYCLE!! I am in love! It is a lime green and it is really retro and it was only about 50 dollars! Love it! I will post a picture of it soon. It costs so much to ride the metro and buses here so a bike will be great! They also had amazing fruits and veggies too so i bought a ton of tomatoes, lettuce, nectarines (10 for less than $1), oranges, strawberries, green pepper, onion- yum, i'm getting hungry! My shoulders hurt now though because i had to carry all of the stuff back home! oh well...
Last night I went to an asado which is a barbeque with some friends i met at my hostel. It was really fun and i met some new friends from mexico who are studying here. I think we are all going to hang out again tonight.
I have started my intensive spanish class and so far it is okay. My professor is really awesome and i really like learning chilean spanish words "modismos" but i do not like doing homework when i feel like i am on vacation! bwhaha, i suppose i have to suck it up and just do it..
Last night I went to an asado which is a barbeque with some friends i met at my hostel. It was really fun and i met some new friends from mexico who are studying here. I think we are all going to hang out again tonight.
I have started my intensive spanish class and so far it is okay. My professor is really awesome and i really like learning chilean spanish words "modismos" but i do not like doing homework when i feel like i am on vacation! bwhaha, i suppose i have to suck it up and just do it..
viernes, 15 de febrero de 2008
finally settled... sort of
hey all! it is my birthday today and although it doesnt really make sene,i have some down time to write!
So Brazil was AMAZING. Beautiful landscape and great people. First Jen and I went to Floreonopolis and island ihla santa catarina in the south of brazil. we camped there because brazil is quite expensive and it is the cheapest option. our first stay was in the north of the island steps away from a beautiful beach. it was pretty hillarious because we were at this big campsite and we had this puny 2 person tent, when everyone else, mainly argentinians were ¨camping¨ with rvs or giant tents with tvs, radios, microwaves, air matresses, among other electronics and luxuries. Lots of thong bikinis on every beach and very diverse people. i love it! anyone can pull of wearing anything on the beach, it is great!
we also visited the south east of the island where these was a lake and sand dunes. we spent about 5 days there.
we then headed to a small town called parati for a day before carnaval which is in between sao paolo and rio. it is really cute with cobblestone streets.
Carnaval in Rio de Janiero was all that is was hyped up to be. it was so expensive but definitely ´vale la pena´ which means worth it!! there was so much to do all the time. everyone in our hostel was really cool. the sambadromo parade was amazing. it is a huge parade, one might say the highlight of carnaval! we went one of the best nights, though we didnt have the best seats, where 6 samba schools competed. it lasts from 9 pm until 6 am. i dont even know how to explain how awesome it is. each school has at least 15,000 people and groups of about 500 people. each group is dressed in different costumes and in general each school has a theme. For example, one of my favorites had a jungle theme. The costumes are so elaborate and have go to be CRAZY heavy! There are also a lot of floats that are sooo detailed and some of them even make noise! the jungle one had a tiger that moved really realistically and growled with nearly naked women samba dancing all over it. it was soooo cool. if you can, watch a quick video of it on you tube. some of the floats were really bazaar too. one of them had to giant arms coming out of the float holding a bloody baby upside down with its umbilical cord still attached that was crying. hahaha, so nuts. there was also a really amazing float that was a ski ramp and people were skiiing and snowboarding down the moving float!! how cool!!
there were also these things called blocos every day where everyday people dress up and go to a party some where in rio and have their own little parade and party. there are thousands of people and live music, and lots of costumes and lots of food. A LOT of heterosexual guys dressed up as woman and this is normal!! its great!
my hostel was very close to the beach copacobana and ipanema is only about ten minutes away. they really are beautiful!
unfortunately the weather wasnt very nice for the majority of carnaval, lots of rain, but it was still fun. our last day the weather cleared up a bit and we went to see the statue of christ the redeemer, which was very impresssive. it was packed! i think he was pretty amazing, but not necessarily deserving of being a new 7th wonder of the world!
from rio we went to ihla grande, the most beautiful island i have ever been too. completely green, lots of hills, no cars, and over 100 beaches. we hiked a lot, laid on the beach a lot, camped, and ate our body weight in acai. acai is this most amazing food thing. it is like a tropical berry smoothie in a bowl, with granola, banana and honey on top! yum yum yum. just thinking about it i want more.
Well, brazil was amazing and it was sad to leave, but i have. i am now in santiago and have been here since feb 13.
jen and i decided we didnt have enough money to stay in a hostel our last night in brazil so we slept in the airport, haha. it was fine! and saved us about $16 each!
so, so far i really like santiago. my bags were lost until last night which was really upsetting because i had no clean clothes and i thought it was lost which meant i would have to buy all new things and would lose 5 months worth of my things, but yay! they found it and now i have it.
i found an apartment yesterday in a very nice neighborhood. i am going to have two chilean roomates and one german roomate. i really like it here so far!!! the metro system is really nice too although a bit expensive. i think i am going to buy a used bike and use that!
my cell phone number is 56 74273220 if any of you all want to call me!
i am so excited to finally have a home, i move in tomorrow!
So Brazil was AMAZING. Beautiful landscape and great people. First Jen and I went to Floreonopolis and island ihla santa catarina in the south of brazil. we camped there because brazil is quite expensive and it is the cheapest option. our first stay was in the north of the island steps away from a beautiful beach. it was pretty hillarious because we were at this big campsite and we had this puny 2 person tent, when everyone else, mainly argentinians were ¨camping¨ with rvs or giant tents with tvs, radios, microwaves, air matresses, among other electronics and luxuries. Lots of thong bikinis on every beach and very diverse people. i love it! anyone can pull of wearing anything on the beach, it is great!
we also visited the south east of the island where these was a lake and sand dunes. we spent about 5 days there.
we then headed to a small town called parati for a day before carnaval which is in between sao paolo and rio. it is really cute with cobblestone streets.
Carnaval in Rio de Janiero was all that is was hyped up to be. it was so expensive but definitely ´vale la pena´ which means worth it!! there was so much to do all the time. everyone in our hostel was really cool. the sambadromo parade was amazing. it is a huge parade, one might say the highlight of carnaval! we went one of the best nights, though we didnt have the best seats, where 6 samba schools competed. it lasts from 9 pm until 6 am. i dont even know how to explain how awesome it is. each school has at least 15,000 people and groups of about 500 people. each group is dressed in different costumes and in general each school has a theme. For example, one of my favorites had a jungle theme. The costumes are so elaborate and have go to be CRAZY heavy! There are also a lot of floats that are sooo detailed and some of them even make noise! the jungle one had a tiger that moved really realistically and growled with nearly naked women samba dancing all over it. it was soooo cool. if you can, watch a quick video of it on you tube. some of the floats were really bazaar too. one of them had to giant arms coming out of the float holding a bloody baby upside down with its umbilical cord still attached that was crying. hahaha, so nuts. there was also a really amazing float that was a ski ramp and people were skiiing and snowboarding down the moving float!! how cool!!
there were also these things called blocos every day where everyday people dress up and go to a party some where in rio and have their own little parade and party. there are thousands of people and live music, and lots of costumes and lots of food. A LOT of heterosexual guys dressed up as woman and this is normal!! its great!
my hostel was very close to the beach copacobana and ipanema is only about ten minutes away. they really are beautiful!
unfortunately the weather wasnt very nice for the majority of carnaval, lots of rain, but it was still fun. our last day the weather cleared up a bit and we went to see the statue of christ the redeemer, which was very impresssive. it was packed! i think he was pretty amazing, but not necessarily deserving of being a new 7th wonder of the world!
from rio we went to ihla grande, the most beautiful island i have ever been too. completely green, lots of hills, no cars, and over 100 beaches. we hiked a lot, laid on the beach a lot, camped, and ate our body weight in acai. acai is this most amazing food thing. it is like a tropical berry smoothie in a bowl, with granola, banana and honey on top! yum yum yum. just thinking about it i want more.
Well, brazil was amazing and it was sad to leave, but i have. i am now in santiago and have been here since feb 13.
jen and i decided we didnt have enough money to stay in a hostel our last night in brazil so we slept in the airport, haha. it was fine! and saved us about $16 each!
so, so far i really like santiago. my bags were lost until last night which was really upsetting because i had no clean clothes and i thought it was lost which meant i would have to buy all new things and would lose 5 months worth of my things, but yay! they found it and now i have it.
i found an apartment yesterday in a very nice neighborhood. i am going to have two chilean roomates and one german roomate. i really like it here so far!!! the metro system is really nice too although a bit expensive. i think i am going to buy a used bike and use that!
my cell phone number is 56 74273220 if any of you all want to call me!
i am so excited to finally have a home, i move in tomorrow!
viernes, 25 de enero de 2008
Too much time has passed... sorry!
Hey all! I~m very sorry i haven´t written in so long. Well I´m in Brazil for the 3rd day. before this i was in peru for three weeks with my family. Before that I was home for 10 days, and before that i was in galapagos. all of which i have not updated you all. So, i will give you a brief summary and if you want any more information please please email me at juliekobs@gmail.com. I~m also going to start putting photos up on snapfish, so i~ll email the link to whoever is on my email list.. email me if you didn~t recieve the link!
So, to begin. I was in galapagos for ten days with my class ecology and conservation of the galapagos. Even though it was a class it was really fun! I loved my group and one of the two professors we went with! Although two of the days were spent inside with lecturers they were still pretty interesting. it was great to finally see all the things we had learned about too. The islands really just made all of us happy. We spent most of the time on Santa Cruz, some on Isabella, and day trips to Seymour Norte and Bartolome. We saw loads of sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, penguins!!, white tip sharks, iguanas, and turtles. Tortuga bay, a beach on santa cruz was the most beautiful beach ever!!
All in all, I had a great time in galapagos. when ecuador was all over and i went home on dec. 23, i was really sad because i love my host family so much and the country and made a lot of good friends there. Someday i will go back though, I still have a lot to see there!!
-peru-
It was great to travel with the fam around peru, especially with my sister, since i haven~t seen her for so long! First we stayed in Pisac which is very close to cuzco for two days and saw some pretty cool ruins there. Then we headed to cuzco where we stayed a night and my sister allie and i went to do the inca trail to machu picchu for 4 days. IT WAS AMAZING!!! It was really hard at some points, but so worth it. It was so beautiful where we were walking, it~s no wonder it~s sacred!! There were beautful trees and plants surrounding us, waterfalls all over and rivers right next to the trail, mountains with glaciers and fog, and we were walking exactly where the incas had hundreds of years ago on the same steps. it was great!!! We all agreed that the experience was actually better on the trail then machu picchu. Not that machu picchu was bad by any means, but the inca trail was one of the best things i have ever done in my life.
Machu picchu was very beautiful. We climbed the little mountain wayna picchu after we toured around the ruins a bit. They had a sun dial made by the incas there, but apparently about a year ago, the sundial was broken by a beer company trying to make a commercial there! how absurd! Anyways, it was great, but unfortunately i didn~t get any good pictures of machu picchu as a whole because of the fog. just pieces close up!
From Cuzco we went to Puno, the port to lake titicaca by train. The train ride was really fancy, but long. the views were pretty nice though. We did a 2 day tour of the lake and visited these really impressive floating islands were people still lived. the islands were made out of a reed plant and everytime you took a step on the island it was like stepping on a bog or trampoline and some water would gush out on to your feet. I really liked it. We visited two major islands, Amantani and Taquille. We hiked a bit and on Amantani we stayed with a family which was very nice! The islands were beautiful and the lake was beautiful, and all and all i really enjoyed it!
From Lake titicaca my fam and i flew to the rainforest! Iquitos, Peru. It seemed like a city i would like to stay in for a little longer, but we only got one night there. then we went into the rainforest the next morning for 5 days. We stayed in relatively rustic lodges and saw some pretty cool animals. It was great to actually be in the amazon river. the jungle itself was really amazing too. there were almost no wild animals that we saw, just some birds and sloths from far away. One day we went to monkey island, sort of an animal sanctuary i suppose, where there were tons of monkeys that jumped on us and held our hands and it was really great!! My favorite part of the whole trip though was on our last day, when we went to a village of a native tribe and they had a baby sloth there and i held it!! If you didn~t already know, sloths are my favorite animal in the world, so holding a three toed baby sloth was absolutely a dream come true. it was so cute and soft and i wanted to take it home!!!! I think i~m in love.
After the rainforest we flew back to lima where i left my family in the airport because they flew back to the US that night :(
I spent the next two days in Miraflores, a suburb of lima, in a really great hostel that was $4 a night. i loved it! I met some guys and we walked around all day the first day - the ocean views are beautiful! and we went to a museum of the inquisition in central lima where we saw various torture devices that they used to use... a little morbid, but cool.
On the 23rd of Jan, I flew in to Sao paolo brazil with jen, my travel buddy. We enjoyed walking around the city for the day and then that night we got on a bus to floreonopolis in the south of brazil (11 hour bus ride). Now i´ve been on the island of santa catalina (where floreanopolis is) for two days and it~s wonderful. we are at a campsite right by the beach and it is gorgeous! So far i have felt completely safe in brazil and I love it!!!
REMEMBER, Email me if you want to know more, i could talk about this stuff forever, its just that i am bad at writing mass email things.
hopefully i can keep up with this blog better!
So, to begin. I was in galapagos for ten days with my class ecology and conservation of the galapagos. Even though it was a class it was really fun! I loved my group and one of the two professors we went with! Although two of the days were spent inside with lecturers they were still pretty interesting. it was great to finally see all the things we had learned about too. The islands really just made all of us happy. We spent most of the time on Santa Cruz, some on Isabella, and day trips to Seymour Norte and Bartolome. We saw loads of sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, penguins!!, white tip sharks, iguanas, and turtles. Tortuga bay, a beach on santa cruz was the most beautiful beach ever!!
All in all, I had a great time in galapagos. when ecuador was all over and i went home on dec. 23, i was really sad because i love my host family so much and the country and made a lot of good friends there. Someday i will go back though, I still have a lot to see there!!
-peru-
It was great to travel with the fam around peru, especially with my sister, since i haven~t seen her for so long! First we stayed in Pisac which is very close to cuzco for two days and saw some pretty cool ruins there. Then we headed to cuzco where we stayed a night and my sister allie and i went to do the inca trail to machu picchu for 4 days. IT WAS AMAZING!!! It was really hard at some points, but so worth it. It was so beautiful where we were walking, it~s no wonder it~s sacred!! There were beautful trees and plants surrounding us, waterfalls all over and rivers right next to the trail, mountains with glaciers and fog, and we were walking exactly where the incas had hundreds of years ago on the same steps. it was great!!! We all agreed that the experience was actually better on the trail then machu picchu. Not that machu picchu was bad by any means, but the inca trail was one of the best things i have ever done in my life.
Machu picchu was very beautiful. We climbed the little mountain wayna picchu after we toured around the ruins a bit. They had a sun dial made by the incas there, but apparently about a year ago, the sundial was broken by a beer company trying to make a commercial there! how absurd! Anyways, it was great, but unfortunately i didn~t get any good pictures of machu picchu as a whole because of the fog. just pieces close up!
From Cuzco we went to Puno, the port to lake titicaca by train. The train ride was really fancy, but long. the views were pretty nice though. We did a 2 day tour of the lake and visited these really impressive floating islands were people still lived. the islands were made out of a reed plant and everytime you took a step on the island it was like stepping on a bog or trampoline and some water would gush out on to your feet. I really liked it. We visited two major islands, Amantani and Taquille. We hiked a bit and on Amantani we stayed with a family which was very nice! The islands were beautiful and the lake was beautiful, and all and all i really enjoyed it!
From Lake titicaca my fam and i flew to the rainforest! Iquitos, Peru. It seemed like a city i would like to stay in for a little longer, but we only got one night there. then we went into the rainforest the next morning for 5 days. We stayed in relatively rustic lodges and saw some pretty cool animals. It was great to actually be in the amazon river. the jungle itself was really amazing too. there were almost no wild animals that we saw, just some birds and sloths from far away. One day we went to monkey island, sort of an animal sanctuary i suppose, where there were tons of monkeys that jumped on us and held our hands and it was really great!! My favorite part of the whole trip though was on our last day, when we went to a village of a native tribe and they had a baby sloth there and i held it!! If you didn~t already know, sloths are my favorite animal in the world, so holding a three toed baby sloth was absolutely a dream come true. it was so cute and soft and i wanted to take it home!!!! I think i~m in love.
After the rainforest we flew back to lima where i left my family in the airport because they flew back to the US that night :(
I spent the next two days in Miraflores, a suburb of lima, in a really great hostel that was $4 a night. i loved it! I met some guys and we walked around all day the first day - the ocean views are beautiful! and we went to a museum of the inquisition in central lima where we saw various torture devices that they used to use... a little morbid, but cool.
On the 23rd of Jan, I flew in to Sao paolo brazil with jen, my travel buddy. We enjoyed walking around the city for the day and then that night we got on a bus to floreonopolis in the south of brazil (11 hour bus ride). Now i´ve been on the island of santa catalina (where floreanopolis is) for two days and it~s wonderful. we are at a campsite right by the beach and it is gorgeous! So far i have felt completely safe in brazil and I love it!!!
REMEMBER, Email me if you want to know more, i could talk about this stuff forever, its just that i am bad at writing mass email things.
hopefully i can keep up with this blog better!
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