Hang in there!

I'm not sure if I'm talking to all y'all reading this or to myself with the title of this post. Things have been slightly short of sparkly here in Santiago lately. I feel like my speech improvement has plateaued (hopefully just momentarily) and I'm a bit cranky because I'm from northern California and the temperatures are still regularly in the 80s here,  even after they promised it would cool down by April. So naturally I'm pissed because I'm swathed in sunshine and warm air.

Speaking of April, I move out of my host family's house on Sunday into my glam apartment in the most bohemian neighborhood in Santiago. I was thrilled up until the moment it actually became a reality. Now, of course, I am scared. Isn't it funny how difficult getting what you want can be sometimes?

In the meantime I plan to distract you from the fact that this post has absolutely no substance and the fact that I still have not told about the outcome of my internship with some pictures of the roommate I will be leaving behind when I go.






This is Chancho (chancho translates loosely to...pig). His favorite lock out perch in the house is my window, but sometimes on his way there he gets distracted and falls asleep on my bed. I can't be mad at him because I can relate too easily.






The funny thing about him though, is that when he falls asleep he sleeps like this:

often.

Face down, buried in the sheets.

Let's have a closer look shall we?

Even closer

There it is. Money shot. 

Why he does this? How he breathes? are all questions that remain a mystery to me. While I will miss the entertainment he provides in my life, I certainly will not miss the mysterious opening of my bedroom door at 6:30am when he wants to come in and look out the window.

I'll show you all the new place just as soon as it's fabulous. Hang in there with me!

Chao.

Initiation

Well team, I've been officially welcomed. On March 24 at about 4:20am we had a 5.1 magnitude earthquake here in Chile. The epicenter was several miles from Santiago, but even so it was enough to jostle me awake. Not to worry though, everything is fine! I didn't even have anything fall off a shelf. Mostly I'm just glad to finally be welcomed in properly. It's been 2 months team. Cheers to that!

Lesson #6: Jump on it

Y'all probably already know this but... getting an early start to anything and everything is preferred in EVERY culture. I'm learning this lesson for the millionth time this week. Only difference is this time I'm cursing myself in Spanish! Hooray for variety!

Suffice to say that I'm finalizing my class picks for the semester and trying to get an internship. I'll give you more details once everything works out, but for now blindly cross your fingers and send me your good luck vibes.

Please and gracias!

Punta Arenas and Lesson #5: Always end in style

Even though we saw some great sites while based out of Puerto Natales we were glad to see it go. The extra night we ended up spending at the hostal in Puerto Natales (because of a miscommunication with our host) turned out to also be the night when the bed bugs showed up. Ya, you heard me. Bed bugs. Poor Brian got eaten alive by the things, while the rest of us managed somehow to escape unscathed. Nevertheless we hightailed it out of there and hauled ass for Punta Arenas without so much as glancing back. (We did stick around long enough to make sure that our hostal stay was HEAVILY discounted, because there was really no arguing with the color and texture of Brian's skin)

At this point the boys set off on the cruise they had always been planning to catch and Isela and I booked a swanky, eco-friendly, positive-affirmation promoting, yoga practicing, oasis of a hotel in Punta Arenas to console ourselves from our Puerto Natales suffering. If any of you find yourselves in Punta Arenas I highly recommend the hotel Ilaia.

Besides our sweet digs though, Punta Arenas had some lovely things to offer.

like a craft market with cute handmade clothes and jewelry...

and pretty boat scenery...

and pretty girls... (oh wait!)

and pretty ocean scenery...

and penguins!

Punta Arenas is the launching port to visit Isla Magdalena, a island reservation for 1,000+ Magellanic penguins. In fact there are two places where one can go see penguins, but nowhere are they as accessible as on Isla Magdalena. Now, you're not allowed to touch the penguins but they waddle across the paths mere feet from you so it's the next best thing. While there I was struck by how human-like penguins are. I think that's part of the reason people tend to find them so endearing. They waddle like children and just have a playful demeanor in general. 

 I call this masterpiece "Basks in sun with poop"

 View from the top of the island.
As you can see there isn't much there. Isla Magdalena is pretty much one dirt/sand hill with a lighthouse. The penguins are only there about 3 months out of the year while breeding, then they take off for somewhere else. Fun fact: The males return to the island first to prep, then the females arrive. And only coupled penguins come back to breed. No single penguins allowed. I am told penguins mate for life so for the die-hard romantics reading that is another reason to like penguins.

I discovered that I have a lot in common with penguins:

... particularly these ones!

this one too!

And it cannot go unsaid that I did in fact "navigate the Strait of Magellan" to get to Isla Magdalena. Considering that once upon a time this was pretty much the ONLY way to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific I thought it was worth mentioning :)

But penguins aren't the only birds in Punta Arenas

The water at sunset is beautiful in Punta Arenas. It was a perfect way to end the trip.

That's all folks!

Calafate. That's in Argentina!

On the one month anniversary of my arrival in Chile I found myself departing anew. We managed to get into Argentina after all, despite the mishap of the previous post. And it's a good thing we did because the glacier we went to see is just about one of the coolest damn things I have ever seen in my life. The glacier itself is called Perito Moreno, located in the town of Calafate, Argentina. A calafate is actually a type of delicious tart berry (sort of similar to a blackberry) that they like to make jam out of, but I preferred to integrate it into my booze. Before you get the wrong idea! I'd like to tell you that I had one calafate sour at a delicious african fusion restaurant (of all things!). Puerto Natales turned out to be the home of some very high quality food.

calafate sour + napkin ring, Afrigonia Restuarant

homemade bread squares + curried salsa, Afrigonia

shrimp tikka masala + salted potatoes, Afrigonia

 wood fired pizza margherita + anchovies, La Mesita Grande

Back to the glacier though...Perito Moreno is one of a few glaciers inside Argentina's Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The actual ice field pops out of nowhere. You're driving on a sunny highway alongside a lake that looks a little like Lake Sonora in our beloved CalifornIA...

and then...BAM!

 All of a sudden there is this huge wall of ice. The air temperature is not even that cold either. It's pretty bizarre. We continued along the road until we reached the glacier overlook where these pictures were taken:

Then you have the option to get on a boat and approach the ice wall from another side. So I did. 

Of course, these pictures don't really do it justice. In actuality the wall of ice pictured here is about 10 stories tall. The other thing Perito Moreno is known for is periodically dropping ice chunks the size of houses off the front face into the green-blue water below. If you're a lucky tourist you'll get to witness this take place. I saw it happen 3 times!

Once I caught it on camera!

This sucker produced a ripple effect that sent the boat rocking for minutes! Y'all wouldn't believe how loud the cracking sound is when a mansion sized piece of ice detaches itself from a glacier. It was pretty awesome to say the least. Lastly I have to show you one more time what it looked like directly opposite this fortress of blue ice:

You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but I swear it's true. Only in Patagonia!

Puerto Natales, Lesson #4: When life won't let you cross a border...

... go to a tourist attraction inside the country you're already in and have a great time anyway!

Puerto Natales is the launching pad for the Torres del Paine National Park, one of the crown jewels of Chile. The town is very much dedicated to facilitating outdoor activities for tourists and providing lodging for those who have finished doing just that. The entire town fits within a 2 x 5 block rectangle. We had planned to stay there only 3 nights so that we could do a day trip of the park (we wanted to camp but lacked equipment and time) and a jaunt to see a glacier. But as fate would have it we ended up staying 4 nights because the woman at our hostel who "helped" us plan the tour to the glacier as our first activity failed to tell us that we each had to bring our passports in order to see it. 

You see, the glacier, called Perito Moreno, is technically in Argentina. On some level we knew that, but since we were going with a tour company, and we had just learned in school all about how Argentina and Chile are brother countries, blah blah blah... plus there's that whole thing with the European union where everyone is super chummy so they let you go anywhere you want and they'll just pretend like you're from there...We didn't know if we were getting ourselves into something like that, or what. And since we did not automatically know (NOR WERE WE TOLD) that it was absolutely necessary to have your actual passport on you in order to enter Argentina and see the glacier, only one of us (ahem...me) had their actual passport on them. 

Thus we arrive at my latest lesson: When life won't let you cross a border...go to a tourist attraction inside the country you're already in! And if you can't do that, make yourself into a tourist attraction! (I will accept NO responsibility for any clothing shed or tattoos acquired in pursuit of this)

So after waiting around for 3 hours at the customs station in Chile (and calling the tour company frantically to ensure spots for the glacier tour the following day so that our money wouldn't be wasted) we bummed our way onto a full tour of the Torres del Paine National Park.

This is the sunrise. That's how early I got up to NOT go see a glacier.

This is what the sun did once it got going at Lago Amarga.

There are a number of different lakes and attractions inside T de P National Park, this lake is like the prelude to some of the other attractions, the most famous of which are the Cuernos del Paine and Glacier Grey (which we did not see on this trip).

 One thing I've learned about Chile is that it has this eery way of being familiar and new all at the same time. For example, these may look like ostrich (or maybe they don't I realize the picture is quite far away, sorry) but they are actually rheas. A flightless bird native to Patagonia, that is significantly smaller than an ostrich. 

And these may look like llamas but they are actually guanacos, which, when you get down to it, is even more fun to say, don't you think?

In this picture the actual Torres del Paine peaks are behind me shrouded in clouds. Thanks Mother Nature, thanks.

 As bummed as I was about Mother Nature ruining my previous shot, I was more sad to find that certain matters that should be left up to the all mighty MN are sometimes not. As some of you may know, T de P National Park recently suffered a humongous fire that was started accidentally by a visiting tourist. Talk about a guilty conscious, huh? "Listen Chile, I'm so so sorry I burned your most treasured, one-of-a-kind landscape to the ground. Won't let it happen again!"

Although the actual fire was months ago, recovery is slow as you can see from my pictures. But before I go and wallow too much I should mention that blue and brown are opposite ends of the color wheel so the two make each other pop reeaal nice in all of my pictures. (If you have blue eyes you should go put on a brown top right now, and vice versa for those of you with brown eyes. Go put on something blue. Seriously, go! You're welcome)  Although the ashy hillside wasn't that picturesque on its own, it certainly brought out the best in the sky and the water. See for yourself!

Check out the change in water color here: I call that ice blue in the far back, and turquoise-cerulean in the foreground. 

The last major stop of the day was at the waterfall called Salto Grande, translation: Big Jump. Hahaha! I had to laugh at the originality.