So, here's the link to the photos I took from Arica. As my camera petered out (again) part way through, I am going to try to bum some photos from my friends as well, and will add those as I get them. Hope you like them!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/AricaIquique#
Friday, October 31, 2008
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 4/5
Sunday morning, we took a taxi to the bus station where we caught the first bus to Iquique. 5 hours on a bus is not fun, and we were all very grateful we had flown from Santiago instead of the possibly cheaper option of taking the 28 hour bus ride (that would have been aweful!). We got to Iquique about lunch time, enjoyed the cities specialty (seafood!!), and then went grocery shopping for some home cooked dinner.
We were staying at the Backpacker's Hostel, which is a chain of hostels specifically designed for (go figure) backpackers. We had access to the kitchen, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. After shopping, my friends took a trip paragliding and as I am not quite so brave, I contented myself to reading on the beach and walking through waves - which was plenty of fun for me :)
We all ended up back at the hostel in time to start dinner. In the process, we met a lot of fellow traveler's from around the world, including the US, England, and France. It was fun sharing experiences, as we had all definitely been in Chile longer than most of them, and could share some very helpful tips. For dinner, we cooked some improv Indian food (yay for my friend travelling with Marsala mix) and then made a dessert of chocolate dipped fruit - a big hit with everyone in the hostel!
We spent the evening hanging out and talking, and got to bed late, but happy overall with our trip.
Monday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. As I didn't get home in time for class that day, I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping, which was well needed after our trip.
Anyway, that's the Arica trip. Pictures will be in the next post, so I hope you enjoy them.
We were staying at the Backpacker's Hostel, which is a chain of hostels specifically designed for (go figure) backpackers. We had access to the kitchen, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. After shopping, my friends took a trip paragliding and as I am not quite so brave, I contented myself to reading on the beach and walking through waves - which was plenty of fun for me :)
We all ended up back at the hostel in time to start dinner. In the process, we met a lot of fellow traveler's from around the world, including the US, England, and France. It was fun sharing experiences, as we had all definitely been in Chile longer than most of them, and could share some very helpful tips. For dinner, we cooked some improv Indian food (yay for my friend travelling with Marsala mix) and then made a dessert of chocolate dipped fruit - a big hit with everyone in the hostel!
We spent the evening hanging out and talking, and got to bed late, but happy overall with our trip.
Monday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. As I didn't get home in time for class that day, I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping, which was well needed after our trip.
Anyway, that's the Arica trip. Pictures will be in the next post, so I hope you enjoy them.
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 3
Saturday morning, we ate a very yummy breakfast of qunoa and hot milk (like a cream of wheat type thing), coca tea, and bread/butter. We then continued our trip up to the precordillera. We stopped on various occasions for pictures of the llamas, vacuñas, and alpacas, as well as in a couple smaller towns for a glimpse of atacameñan culture. About late morning, we reached Lake Chungara and the Parinacota volcano. Absolutely gorgeous (pictures coming soon)! Situated at 20, 413 feet, it was DEFINITELY high up! walking from the van to the edge of the lake (about 50 feet) was enough to leave us all breathless and dizzy - but totally worth it! After having our fill of picture taking, we stopped for a leisurely lunch nearby, where we also had a chance to buy various handicrafts made from alpaca wool, and then began the 5 hour descent back to Arica. As we quickly learned, the trip down is definitely harder than the trip up...all of us (including our driver) almost fell asleep on various occasions due to the altitude change. But, we made it safe and sound, bought our bus tickets for Iquique the next day, went out to dinner, and got to go clothes shopping in one of the cheapest cities in Chile for clothes (knock-off skirts for less than $4, for example). As we checked in to our hostel that night (the same as the first night), we were given a significant upgrade in rooms, which definitely made the stay a great deal more enjoyable.
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 2
Friday morning, we met our tour guide, Freddie, to begin our tour to Lake Chungara - the highest lake in the world. We started our tour with a trip to the "supermarket" - a huge warehouse like complex where families set up fruit and vegetable stands. After buying supplies for our trip, we continued out to the desert where we saw hieroglyphs - the ancient atacameños would create images on the hills using bits of rock, retelling stories from their history for future generations. After that, we went to Arica's museum and saw a detailed accounting of the development of the indigenous people in northern Chile, complete with mummies! From there, we started the looong drive UP: 5500 feet in one day. We drove through a good portion of the desert, stopping at a Hari Krishna monastery for a vegetarian lunch, and also for a hike along the Inka Trail (about an hour or so, during which time my friend got to get up close and personal with some guanaco). We ended the day in Putre, a tiny altiplano town 7000 feet above sea level, and were treated to a typical andean dinner of meat, vegetables, quinoa (a type of cereal that when cooked is kinda like couscous), and coca tea, supposedly really good for the altitude (worked for me, at least!). Then to sleep for an early morning the rest of the way to Lake Chungara.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 1
For those of you who didn't know, I spent this last weekend with some friends from my study abroad program visiting the cities of Arica and Iquique in the northernmost region of Chile. Overall, the trip was really worth it, as we got to see a lot of great scenery and...LLAMAS!! Yes, llamas, as well as alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna - other members of the cameloid family to which llamas belong :)
Thursday morning (as in prior to sunrise), the three of us took a cab to the airport and flew to Iquique, a quiet city on the coast. Geologically, it's a very interesting place, because if you stand in the city and look east, all you can see is desert, and if you look west, all you can see is ocean. Pretty crazy! From there, we took a lovely 5 hour bus ride (haha) to Arica. Due to the change in altitude, I managed to get a little lightheaded, but survied. ***Editor's note: I just learned that Santiago is located at an elevation of 1562 feet and Arica at 1503 feet; therefore, all elevation-related illness (at this point at least) was entirely psychological or related to the airplane/bus trip*** We arrived in time for a late lunch, followed by a little shopping and a nighttime exploration of the city. We stumbled upon a political rally geared towards the upcoming mayoral elections (they actually were just completed on Sunday), complete with cotton candy, music, and an Elvis impersonator (we think he was trying to sing in English, but aren't exactly sure). We then returned for a decent night's sleep in our hostel, which was not the nicest/cleanest/most travel friendly, but served its purpose.
Sorry to keep it so short for tonight, but will continue tomorrow with more details on Friday-Monday.
Thursday morning (as in prior to sunrise), the three of us took a cab to the airport and flew to Iquique, a quiet city on the coast. Geologically, it's a very interesting place, because if you stand in the city and look east, all you can see is desert, and if you look west, all you can see is ocean. Pretty crazy! From there, we took a lovely 5 hour bus ride (haha) to Arica. Due to the change in altitude, I managed to get a little lightheaded, but survied. ***Editor's note: I just learned that Santiago is located at an elevation of 1562 feet and Arica at 1503 feet; therefore, all elevation-related illness (at this point at least) was entirely psychological or related to the airplane/bus trip*** We arrived in time for a late lunch, followed by a little shopping and a nighttime exploration of the city. We stumbled upon a political rally geared towards the upcoming mayoral elections (they actually were just completed on Sunday), complete with cotton candy, music, and an Elvis impersonator (we think he was trying to sing in English, but aren't exactly sure). We then returned for a decent night's sleep in our hostel, which was not the nicest/cleanest/most travel friendly, but served its purpose.
Sorry to keep it so short for tonight, but will continue tomorrow with more details on Friday-Monday.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Photos!! - Pucon
Here are my pictures from Pucon. Just a heads up...lots of landscape! Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/Pucon#
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/Pucon#
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Long time no write + Pucon
I apologize for not having written in so long. Things have been crraaazzzyyy.
I have had three projects these last two weeks. Chilean professors have this horrible habit of not giving you your paper topic until two weeks before the paper is due, and not giving you your study guide until the class before the test. While I do have procrastinating tendencies, even this was a little much for me. The good news is that all three papers (two of which were group projects) are done and the test has been taken. I also got a grade back from a paper a few weeks ago and pulled off a 6.1 - a solid A-.
Brief vent about group projects in Chile:
Chileans are all procrastinators. My group for my Education paper decided that the Friday before the paper was due was the day to write the whole thing - 5 pages + bibliography. As if that wasn´t bad enough, all the information (a summary of the educational sociological theory of a British sociologist) was in English...which none of them speak well. Hence, I spent the five hours of our paper writing scanning articles and translating what I hoped were the most important parts of them. Hopefully I should be hearing more about this paper in the next couple of weeks. My other group project was a poetry paper. My partner also decided that the Sunday before the paper was due (aka two days after spending five hours translating British sociological theory) was the perfect time to write this paper, especially since she failed to show up to our get together on Thursday. Unfortunately, this plan also had serious flaws as we spent four hours going back and forth between each others houses (separtely, not together) due to misunderstandings as to whose house we were meeting at. Loooooong day. I do not have really high hopes for that paper, but ya never know.
Ok, enough school stuff.
This weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go with my program to Pucon, a resort town in the south of Chile. For those of you familiar with California, it is a lot like Three Rivers. We drove down all night Thursday and got in early Friday morning. After a shower (yay) and breakfast (double yay) we took a tour of the area, seeing volcanic lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Everything was absolutely gorgeous. Pictures will be coming in the next couple of days, but warning: they are not anywhere close to what these things looked like in person.
The place where we´re staying is a resort composed of different cabins. But these are not your run of the mill camping cabins...these are like cabins on steroids! Kitchens, TV, radio, whirlpool, etc., it´s really luxurious (now that´s one way to go camping!).
Saturday, I got together with some girls in the program and we did a canopi tour. Basically, we climbed a tree and zip-lined through the forest for an hour and a half. For someone who has never really like heights, it was definitely a step out of my comfort zone, but totally worth it. The forest was beautiful, and we got to zip over a big river, which was really cool! Following lunch, this same group of girls and I decided to go on cabalgatas, which is a horse-back riding tour. While at first it was kinda nerve wracking (they didn´t give us any instructions for riding...thank goodness I´ve done this before at Camp St. George), the trip was beautiful. Our guides took us up the mountain where we dismounted and hiked to a fantasticly out of this world waterfall (took a video of this one). It was so surreal, I didn´t want to leave. But, we had to, so we hiked back up to the horses (a lot harder since it had rained and the trail up the hill was completely muddy and slippery) and then rode back down the mountain. One of the girls´ horses slipped, which was really scary, but she held her own and everything turned out all right...no injuries to either horse or person.
Today, we learned that Daylight Savings has started in Chile. I am now two hours a head of Central Time Zone time (instead of one), so that´s good to know. I took a little trip to town and had fun taking nature pictures (Dad, can´t wait to show you). Also did a little shopping (Mom, I have a surprise for you :)) and bought some chocolate, which is REALLY good. Right now, I´m just kinda bumming around until our bus gets here to take us back to Santiago. We should be getting in early tomorrow morning, then I will go to class and then coffee/tea/lunch with Lorena, before studying for a test this Thursday.
That´s kind of it for now. Definitely going to be looking in to different nature-lover things to do for when I get back to Iowa, because it is really so much fun. I hope all is well with everyone, and please shoot me an email if you get a chance, or if too much time has gone by and my pictures still aren´t up (I have a tendency to put them on my computer, but forget to upload them).
Love you all!
I have had three projects these last two weeks. Chilean professors have this horrible habit of not giving you your paper topic until two weeks before the paper is due, and not giving you your study guide until the class before the test. While I do have procrastinating tendencies, even this was a little much for me. The good news is that all three papers (two of which were group projects) are done and the test has been taken. I also got a grade back from a paper a few weeks ago and pulled off a 6.1 - a solid A-.
Brief vent about group projects in Chile:
Chileans are all procrastinators. My group for my Education paper decided that the Friday before the paper was due was the day to write the whole thing - 5 pages + bibliography. As if that wasn´t bad enough, all the information (a summary of the educational sociological theory of a British sociologist) was in English...which none of them speak well. Hence, I spent the five hours of our paper writing scanning articles and translating what I hoped were the most important parts of them. Hopefully I should be hearing more about this paper in the next couple of weeks. My other group project was a poetry paper. My partner also decided that the Sunday before the paper was due (aka two days after spending five hours translating British sociological theory) was the perfect time to write this paper, especially since she failed to show up to our get together on Thursday. Unfortunately, this plan also had serious flaws as we spent four hours going back and forth between each others houses (separtely, not together) due to misunderstandings as to whose house we were meeting at. Loooooong day. I do not have really high hopes for that paper, but ya never know.
Ok, enough school stuff.
This weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go with my program to Pucon, a resort town in the south of Chile. For those of you familiar with California, it is a lot like Three Rivers. We drove down all night Thursday and got in early Friday morning. After a shower (yay) and breakfast (double yay) we took a tour of the area, seeing volcanic lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Everything was absolutely gorgeous. Pictures will be coming in the next couple of days, but warning: they are not anywhere close to what these things looked like in person.
The place where we´re staying is a resort composed of different cabins. But these are not your run of the mill camping cabins...these are like cabins on steroids! Kitchens, TV, radio, whirlpool, etc., it´s really luxurious (now that´s one way to go camping!).
Saturday, I got together with some girls in the program and we did a canopi tour. Basically, we climbed a tree and zip-lined through the forest for an hour and a half. For someone who has never really like heights, it was definitely a step out of my comfort zone, but totally worth it. The forest was beautiful, and we got to zip over a big river, which was really cool! Following lunch, this same group of girls and I decided to go on cabalgatas, which is a horse-back riding tour. While at first it was kinda nerve wracking (they didn´t give us any instructions for riding...thank goodness I´ve done this before at Camp St. George), the trip was beautiful. Our guides took us up the mountain where we dismounted and hiked to a fantasticly out of this world waterfall (took a video of this one). It was so surreal, I didn´t want to leave. But, we had to, so we hiked back up to the horses (a lot harder since it had rained and the trail up the hill was completely muddy and slippery) and then rode back down the mountain. One of the girls´ horses slipped, which was really scary, but she held her own and everything turned out all right...no injuries to either horse or person.
Today, we learned that Daylight Savings has started in Chile. I am now two hours a head of Central Time Zone time (instead of one), so that´s good to know. I took a little trip to town and had fun taking nature pictures (Dad, can´t wait to show you). Also did a little shopping (Mom, I have a surprise for you :)) and bought some chocolate, which is REALLY good. Right now, I´m just kinda bumming around until our bus gets here to take us back to Santiago. We should be getting in early tomorrow morning, then I will go to class and then coffee/tea/lunch with Lorena, before studying for a test this Thursday.
That´s kind of it for now. Definitely going to be looking in to different nature-lover things to do for when I get back to Iowa, because it is really so much fun. I hope all is well with everyone, and please shoot me an email if you get a chance, or if too much time has gone by and my pictures still aren´t up (I have a tendency to put them on my computer, but forget to upload them).
Love you all!
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