It occurs to me that I've been slacking in my blogging, hopefully some pictures will make up for it =)
This past weekend, I went with half of the people on my study abroad program to two towns in northern Chile, Iquique and Pica. Northern Chile consists (mostly) of the Atacama desert, and I got the chance to witness an incredible sunset in the desert, and the most stars I've ever seen at night...really, words can't even begin to describe how amazing it was to look up and see so much light; the smog obscures the night in every city I've ever lived in.
Our trip began on Friday, when we had to be at the airport at 6 am. Drowsily, we congregated in front of the LAN counter, a bunch of gringos desperately in need of cafe real...(not to be found anywhere in Santiago except Starbucks, which are few and far between and who wants to go to Starbucks in Chile anyways..). After some problems with a few peoples' tickets, we took off and landed in Iquique around 9am.
Leaving Santiago:
Flying over northern Chile:
Iquique's a relatively small town in the North, located between the coast and the mountains, and we spent the day exploring--the city itself has an oddly old-western feel, and there were flags everywhere since Chile's independence day (festivas patrias) is coming up pretty soon.
A few shots of the city from our hotel window:
(this was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! the water was too cold to go in though)
me with some of my friends, posing in front of what turned out to be the police headquarters..oops..
On Friday, we went to a delicious vegetarian restaurant for lunch called El Tercer Ojito:
Zucchini soup and kiwi juice!
there was some really cool graffiti in Iquique:
(end violence against women)
We also happened to walk by a cueca performance in the streets.. cueca is a traditional Chilean dance:
Sunset in Iquique:
The next day, we went to visit 2 historic salitreras, where they used to mine nitrate.
sometimes, things get lost in translation:
Next, we went for a long and bumpy bus ride through the desert to see los cerros pintados (the painted hills) which have drawings made in the stone:
the vastness of the desert amazes me:
We continued on to Pica, a super tiny town in the middle of the desert, and stayed at a resort-sort of complex, which had a pool and orange trees, and its own petting zoo.
Sunset, as seen from the road leading to our hotel:
I don't think there's enough paint in the world to adequately capture the intensity of this sky:
In the morning, I went for a run through the town (and got some pretty hardcore sunburn)..I stumbled across this little shrine on the side of a cliff:
On our drive back to the airport, we stopped at a small town to look at an historic church..the stained glass was beautiful:
And, as we were going through security at the airport, my fork (which I flew with to Iquique with absolutely no problem) was confiscated..and now sits in this bin, with all the other "articulos prohibidos":
to see the rest of my pictures, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038192&id=1122150280&l=e63d2f752f
All in all, it was a great trip, one that made me wish I had my paints and a canvas with me. It was nice to get out of the city and hang out with my friends (it's weird getting used to being in school without living with other people my age!)
Since coming to Chile, I've been devouring books in English..it's sort of my escape from constantly being surrounded not only by Spanish, but by Chilean Spanish..sometimes I get a headache from the intonation and from the speed at which people consider it normal to "talk." There's a really small "English" section of the university library, and after some searching (it mostly consists of Shakespeare and every 'classic' book you avoided reading in high school), I came across a fantastic memoir by Ilan Stavans called On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language. He is Jewish and was born and raised in Mexico and later immigrated to the United States, and his life story is especially appealing to me now, as I'm struggling to make sense of what it means for me, an American, to be here in Chile.
a quote I really liked:
"Still, graffiti didn't disappear; it simply relocated, as it always will (...). It happens simply to prove that order cannot exist without chaos looming in the background, threatening to collapse the whole urban structure. Sure, graffiti is portrayed as obnoxious and unpleasant by government bureaucrats. But they fail to see its unparalleled harmony and uncompromising message: that, as much as we strive to eradicate anarchy, it will always live within us." (pg. 17)
and, some songs I've been listening to recently:
<33 and a shout out to my mom, who recently sent me the best care package ever, including burt's bees chapstick for me and Hannah Montana shirts for my host sisters, who now think I'm the best gringa ever.
Also, as 9/11 approaches in the US, all I can say is that this sort of thing makes me sick. C'mon America, we are better than this sort of senseless hate.
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