What a fun past couple weeks! September was full of fun and festivities. The weekend of the 8th, the school I work at, San Nicolas, had a Fiestas Patrias celebration. September 18th is the Chilean Independence Day. (Read all about it here :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiestas_Patrias_(Chile) ) Each grade level of students did a different type of Chilean dance. The Cueca is the national dance, and it is a flirty dance between a man and a woman. I helped watch the Kindergarteners, and really enjoyed watching all the students dance, they worked hard! After, the only other Gringo teacher, Noah and I experienced a true Chilean Fonda. Fondas are venues, often tents, prepared and decorated for the Fiestas Patrias where traditional Chilean dishes and beverages are served. The most popular food associated with the Fiestas Patrias are Chilean empanadas, which are a sort of bread pastry. The filling of the empanadas consist of pino, a mixture of chopped beef and onion, as well as half of a hard-boiled egg, raisins, and an olive. My favorite is the plain queso empanadas. Many Chileans also throw a barbecue for the Fiestas Patrias. During this time sales of meat products exceed $50 million! The preferred drink is chicha, a lightly alcoholic beverage typically made from grapes. Alfajores are a typical dessert. Alfajores consist of two lightly breaded cookies joined with manjar, a sweet filling made from caramelized condensed milk. They are delicious! So, Noah and I had our fill of empanadas, choripan (Chorizo with bread), completos (hotdogs with avocado on top) and anticucho, (grilled meat) and watched some of our fellow teachers dance in a Cueca competition.
The next week flew by, and the 40th anniversary of the Coup d'état in 1973 on September 11th was recognized. Many people protest to remember the horrors of that day, so many places closed early, and the teachers left early as well. September 11th was a sad day for the United States, so I took time to reflect as well. On Friday the 13th, (Bill's birthday!) Erin, Emy and I left for San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is to the far north of Chile in the middle of the driest desert in the world, the Atacama desert. We took a two hour flight to the city of Calama, and hung out there for a few hours, then caught the bus to San Pedro that evening. After a rough sleep in the "party" hostal, Erin, Emy and I walked around the charming town of San Pedro. The first day it was very hot and dry. In the afternoon we went on a tour to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley.) On the way we stopped and hiked in Valle de Los Muertos (Death Valley) and got to run down big sand dunes! We then hiked up to the tip of Valle de la Luna and watched the sunset. As soon as the sun goes down, it gets very cold in the desert! That night we walked out to the desert with some friends from the hostal and looked at the stars. I saw four shooting stars! The sky is much clearer than in Santiago. The next day we rented bikes and biked 18km to the Cejar Lagoon, which is a big salt lagoon in the middle of the desert. The ride there was nice. When we got there, we were expecting it to be hot, so we could lay out and relax in our swim suits and swim in the lagoon. Unfortunately, it was windy and really cold, so we dipped just our toes in, took pictures of the Flamingos that live there in their natural habitat and started our bike back home. On the way back , the real adventure started! Erin, Emy and I got caught in a windstorm! The winds must have been almost 50 miles per hour, they were so strong, and the sand was blowing so hard, we couldn't even stay straight up on our bikes! So, we ended up walking about 10 miles back in the crazy wind and sand. It took us several hours, and my pictures on Facebook show how much dirt and sand piled up on our skin and clothes. After an exhausting night, we made homemade guacamole and chorizo at our hostal and went to bed early. The next morning, we headed to the Tatio Geyser tour. The tour bus picked us up at 4:30a.m. from our hostal and we drove about two hours north of San Pedro to the geysers. When we got there, it was very cold, around 15 degrees Fahrenheit! The sun was starting to rise and hit the mountains beautifully as our tour guide explained the different steaming geysers. We we're around 13-14,000 feet high. After our tour, we had a yummy breakfast. Our tour guide put eggs and chocolate milk into one of the geysers to boil, so we had boiled eggs and hot chocolate, yum! We then had the opportunity to sit in one of the hot springs. Erin, Emy and I stripped down to our swim suits and got into the water...it was definitely not hot. There was one little stream of hot water, where around 15 people were gathered around, but the surrounding water was only luke-warm, so we only stayed in about ten seconds-but we got some good pictures! On our way back to San Pedro, we saw wild vicunas, which are like small llamas. We also stopped at a little village with a cool church and took pictures. There are only five people living in the village. They sold empanadas, llama meat, and little handy-crafts. I got a goat cheese empanada, and Erin and I tried llama meat. It was good! After relaxing a bit at our hostal, we went on a sandboarding tour with some friends we met at the hostal. It was a blast! It was very similar to snowboarding in deep powder. It was a great workout climbing up the sand dune too. After watching the sunset, we headed back into town where there was a parade through the streets in celebration for Fiestas Patrias. They had Cueca dancers and we tried Chicha, the sweet wine drink. Then, our hostal friends took us to a little restaurant in a house outside of town. Three women lived there, and made us a delicious home cooked meal. I tried Chilean soup, Cazeula. It contained a piece of beef, sweet corn, potato, and pumpkin. It was delicious. On Tuesday, our last day in San Pedro, we took a bus to a small town right outside of San Pedro called Tocano. The town was pretty empty because people were preparing for the holiday, but we took pictures of an old church. While we were wandering around the town, a man with five young girls came up and asked us if we spoke English. He explained that he was the town's only school's English teacher and they were preparing for the national English spelling contest. He said the girls had never heard a native English speaker before, and asked if we could read and quiz them on the words! They were used to hearing them with a British accent, so Erin, Emy and I did our best to read them with an accent. The girls spelled every word correctly! The teacher told us that they would be the only rural school there, and that the last few years they've placed in the top five! They hope to get first this year. It was really neat to be able to help them. We then walked around some little shops in the town. One nice lady let us go in the back of her shop where she had three llamas. We got took pet them and feed them hay! When we got back to San Pedro, we shopped around a little more and got on our bus to start to head back to Calama, then on to our flight to Santiago. We got back to our apartment from the airport around 2am, and Bill was due to come in around 9:00 am that morning. I set my alarm to get up so I could wait for him outside once he arrived in a taxi. I woke up and started getting ready when my apartment telephone rang. A little worried, (because our apartment phone only rings when the doorman needs to buzz someone up) I answered. The doorman started speaking very fast Spanish, but I replied, "Grande gringo?" And then Bill started talking on the phone. "You didn't give me your apartment number!" He said. Oops! Apparently, Bill's flight had gotten in early, and he had been trying to communicate with the doorman for about thirty minutes about how to get to my apartment. (I forgot to give him my apartment number!) He showed the doorman pictures of Erin, Emy and I and finally the doorman knew which apartment to call. After the confusion, I met Bill and the bottom of the elevator and we hugged and kissed for the first time in three months! I was so happy to see him. The day he got in, was the 18th, or Deiciocho, the Chilean Independence Day, and we had Fondas to go to! While Bill napped, I baked him a chocolate cake with my new favorite manjar (similar to caramel) and sprinkles on top for his belated birthday. Then, Erin, Bill and I brought along some Pisco and went to a Fonda in La Reina. The Fonda was huge! It is like a big carnival or fair. There was a rodeo arena, a petting zoo, horseback riding, carnival games and rides, lots of typical Chilean food and drink stands, people dancing the Cueca, and the Chilean military had big tents as well. Bill started talking with one of the Chilean Airforce men who spoke pretty good English. They talked for a while and then the man asked for a picture of them together. When we said good-bye, he handed Bill his Airforce patch from his uniform. It was a really special moment, and so cool! After all the festivities, we were all pretty tired so we came back and watched a movie and relaxed. The next day, Thursday, I gave Bill a tour of the neighborhood, then we went to the most famous Fonda in Chile at Parque O'Higgins. It was easily the biggest and most crowded Fonda in Santiago. It had all the same things as the Fonda from before but it was much bigger with many more people. We ate empanadas, completos, and chorizo, and drank Terremotos, or "Hurricanes" which consists of a sweet wine, pineapple ice cream and a flavored syrup. The 19th is Chile's national Armed Forces Day, so there was huge parade with different Chilean forces marching. The Chilean Airforce also flew over lot of different kinds of airplanes. Bill told us the name of each kind and the purpose of course! That night Bill took Erin, Emy and I out to the Hardrock Cafe of Santiago. The Hardrock Cafe is special to Bill and I, because when we first started dating, we went to the one in Times Square in New York together. We had a bottle of wine and some good burgers! Friday, Bill and I left for Valparaiso and Vina del Mar on the bus. Our first day in Valparaiso, we explored the whole city. We walked to the port and watched the ships, rode the Ascensors (elevators) and took in the beautiful views, went to the Naval Museum, and ate dinner while watching the sunset. It was nice to spend time together. The next day, we went to Vina del Mar and took a horse and buggy ride to tour the city, and walked by the ocean. That night, when we got back to Santiago, we went to a pretty park where they have a fountain light show, and walked around the cute, Bella Vista area with little restaurants and shops. Then we went to one of my favorite restaurants, California Cantina. We got yummy nachos and Chilean beer and watched some United States college football live that they had streaming. Sunday was Bill's last day here, so we woke up early to tour more of Santiago. It was a gorgeous day, so we went to some beautiful parks, toured the Human Rights museum, visited the cathedral in Plaza de Armas, walked through Mercado Central and the fish market, then walked up Santa Lucia to take in the beautiful view of the city. It had recently rained, so the smog was down, and the Andes were wonderfully clear for Bill to see. Finally, we met up with Erin and Emy at a park to say good-bye then headed to the airport. Bill's visit went by way so fast, but we had a lot of fun together. Saying good-bye at the airport was tough, I cried, but we're over the hump, only two more months until we see each other again!
The first week back at school was a reality adjustment...and I am back to bribing kids with candy, hey what ever works right? On Thursdays, I have a day off, so I went to the rock climbing gym with Emy. She taught me how to belay and we took turns climbing, it was scary and fun! I'm going to start going more often. This weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday night Emy, Erin, Noah and I had went to Salsa lessons, then went to another fun dancing club. Around 2am (early for Chileans) we met up with Noah's roommates at Denny's for some breakfast. Everyone was excited to go, because it had just opened. Saturday was spend Skyping friends and family, and cooking and cleaning. I did some honeymoon research as well, fun! Today, the roomies and I ran to a park and did free Zumba outside! It was fun to dance around and be silly.
Mom comes to visit in about a month, so I also have been doing research on hotels, flights and fun things to do while she and her friend Karen are here. The weather is finally starting to warm up now here now, as it turns to fall back home. I keep seeing delicious pumpkin recipes though, which makes me miss the season!
Until the next adventure! Love and miss you all!
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