Time for some Chilean wine....

The other weekend we went on our first wine tour in Chile. Chile is apparently quite famous for wine (something I did not really know until I got here) and they have some incredible vineyards right outside of Santiago. My friend Elisabeth had a friend in town and they rented a car and took a day for tours and were generous enough to ask a few of us to come along.

The first place we went to was Undirraga Vineyard. It was gorgeous! A very old vineyard that was HUGE and backed right up to the Andes. The grounds were amazing as was the wine.

Jess, Allison, Elizabeth and I

After the tasting we just had to take cheesey pictures in thier old carriages.

Our next stop was to Cavas de Maipu and it was by far my favorite. It was this tiny little vineyard that produced about 6 types of wine, but it was run by the nicest old man who just loved wine. He also gave the tour in spanish..... and we understand almost all of it! It was an exciting moment.

This vineyard was in the Andes and just tiny and cute. He literally put on the labels by placing the bottle in a wooden holding thing and putting the sticker on himself. It was just great!

All of us tasting some amazing wine with cheese and nuts that his wife roasted.

All of his awesome wines.

Our final vineyard was Concha y Tora. We actually did not do a tour of this one... because we took too long at the others.... but it was for the best because this one is the closest to Santiago and is one of the most touristy ones because it is the easiest to get to. None the less, it was still gorgeous and so nice to get out of the big city.

All in all in was a really wonderful day! Lots of wine, spanish and fun with friends. Also, I was sadly very excited that we got to ride in a car! It's amazing the things that you end up missing, but since we really only get around by the metro or the bus it was very exciting to be in a car! Weird... I know.

Spanish Jokes

Learning a new language is just hard. I've been getting better at spanish, but it has honestly been a very slow process. Everyone said "Oh, you'll just pick it up when you get here" and to some degree yes, it's easy to pick up key phrases or key words, but fully understanding and being able to respond to things is a whole other story.

I've been taking lessons at a local language school and meeting with my intercambio buddy, Daniel. He wants to learn english so we speak in each language for about 45 minutes. (I did take about a 2 week break from both of these things, but know I'm back on track!) And here's my story from last night's intercambio meeting....

Here is a little background on this topic first. So everyday at the hogar Brianna and I eat lunch with all of the other tias (the staff at the hogar) and they all sit and talk in VERY fast spanish. I catch a few words here and there or try to respond when they say something to me, but a lot of the time if I'm lost I just watch the news that is on the TV in the background, because they actually speak at a normal speed on the news! So one of the tias, Tia Carmen, is just a really funny woman and always tells jokes to the girls, to any guests that come to lunch, she has so many jokes..... and the new joke of her jokes is to say it, everyone laughs and then everyone looks at me to see if I understood it. I NEVER get her jokes.... ever. So then everyone always laughs even harder! I mean I think it's funny now too, and understanding jokes in another language is just hard. You're focusing on the words so much and trying to understand it that it losing the humor.

So I was telling all of this to my intercambio buddy and he decided to test it out. So he told me a joke that his father tells at every family get together...... I did not get it. So we then spent the next 10 minutes explaining the joke word by word, as slow as possible. We were in the park and I'm sure if any other Chileans heard us they probably thought I was insane. However, I finally got it!!! And I laughed!! Then he made me memorize it so I could tell the tias.... I'm not sure about it, I will have to practice it some today, but I think I'm going to give it a try. Here is the joke in English so you can see how SIMPLE it really is....

A man ran to the doctor and said "Doctor, help me! My wife has gone crazy and thinks that she is a lawn mower!"

The doctor said "I can help you, but where is your wife?"

The man said "Oh, I let my neighbor borrow her."

**Small disclaimer: My intercambio buddy is very Chilean meaning he mumbles and speaks certain words very fast. So some days it's hard, but it's good for me because he really is helping me to be able to listen better when talking with someone in Spanish.

I then proceeded to tell him knock, knock jokes in english because I didn't know any other jokes. He didn't find them very funny.....

Jornada

So last weekend marked my 2 month anniversary in Chile! I really can't believe I have been here for over two months or that's it's almost Thanksgiving. It really feels like I just got here.

So to celebrate and to give us a little bit of reflection time on what we've been doing here and where we had hoped we would be versus where we are, we went for a retreat, Jornada, in to the Andes in Cajon de Maipo for the weekend. It was amazing! We stayed at this gorgeous retreat center right on the edge of the mountains. It was really so great to get out of the city and to be so close to nature and to have some fresh air again!! I like Santiago, but the smog and the hustle and bustle of a big city is just not my favorite thing.

We had a lot of free time to just relax and do nothing, which was amazing. I feel like I'm always trying to not waste time here and make sure I'm doing everything so it was great to just sit back for a bit. We also had some team building activities and reflection time which was amazing as well for many reasons.

The first being that a lot of time we get so caught up in the day to day stuff at the hogar that I forget what these girls have actually been through and that when they freak out on me over very small things, it's often because of something a lot larger that they are dealing with. We've also been going through a lot of frustration at the hogar because the new director (who was wonderful and wanted to improve the hogar and change things for the better) was just "asked to leave" because some of the older staff are so set in their ways that they were threatened by the changes. It's just so annoying because we work hard to try and make changes and do things there and then you remember how broken this system in Chile actually is. So we talked at Jornada about staying positive and focusing on what you can change and what you can do while you're here.

The second amazing part was getting to spend more time with all of the volunteers here, who have now become such great friends of mine. We were of course able to share experiences about our hogars and relate to each other about all of it because no one else really gets it. However, we were also able to leave everything behind and just laugh and enjoy each others company in such a gorgeous place. We even made s'mores!!! It was hilarious because the Germans and the Brits had never heard of them and were honestly not that impressed with them, but I was loving it!

Here are a few pictures from the trip......

Our retreat center for the weekend.

Hiking in Cajon de Maipo

Gorgeous views everywhere!

Jess, Nola and I on our Sunday hike.

The whole group at the end of Jornada.

It was amazing, but with that 2 month mark also brings the decision I need to make on if I'm going to stay longer than my 4 months. Oh life decisions! Never easy to make!!

Busy Days

I feel like I have been so busy lately. So here's what I've been up to for the past few weeks.....

1. Update on the hogar.... Things have been going pretty good recently. The girls seem to all be warming up to us and are used to us being there everyday. It's tricky though because their moods change every day. One day a girl is hugging me and wanting to hang out the whole day and then the next day all she is saying is "no mira me" and "suelta me" which mean: don't look at me and don't touch me. So every day when we say hello to all 30 girls if also a test to see if they will give me a hug or ignore me.

Since we've been there a while now and know the ropes we have started to plan an activity every day for the girls to do after homework. This week our big hit was making puzzles. They loved it and it felt so good to have them engaged in something and have them like it! Some days they think our crafts are lame or they just want to be alone. So that was a huge hit! The low point of the week would have to be our first english workshop. We had 3 girls who finished their homework and joined us for the workshop. We played hot potato and when the music stopped they had to say "Hello, my name is ____". Well this was also the day that they all have about 4 ice cream cones after lunch so they were so jacked up on sugar it was an impossible task. So it was horribly frustrating, BUT one little girl has been saying "hello, my name is..." everyday I see her so I think that is a mild success. It's also hilarious because with their accent they sound Chinese and I have to hold back my fits of laughter listening to these 10 year old Chileans sound Chinese. It also makes me realize that I probably sound ridiculous with my spanish accent as well.

2. Salsa classes..... I have been taking beginner level salsa classes for about 1 month now and it's awesome! My roomie Nola and I go twice a week to the dance studio down the street from us and last night we completed our beginner level and have just signed up for level 2. It's so fun and we're getting slightly better. The class is about an hour and for the first half we learn steps and then the second half we get in a big circle with women on the outside and men on the inside rotating in a circle. We practice a dance with all of them and it is hilarious. Some of the men are so off the whole time and since I'm supposed to let them lead I just go with it even when they completely screw it up. AND it's getting hot in Chile so this dance studio is like a sauna an everyone has sweaty palms. It's like middle school dances all over again. Awkward and sweaty.

The best part is always when the instructor uses me as an example to teach the next part of the day because he's this insanely good dancer and doesn't ever tell you before you do it with him to show the whole class. AND guess what.... it's all in spanish. I can't ever understand any of so look like a moron when he uses me as the example, but oh well it's funny! I just want to look at him and say you should probably get somone who understands you beceause then you wouldn't have to say "turn, yes turn. ok now you turn this way" 10 times until I just figure it out based on his arms.

Nola and I are going to try to go to a salsa club next week to test out our new moves!

3. Church..... last Sunday Elisabeth, Jess and I went to Santiago Community Church, which is a local church mostly for expats and gringos. It was so great! Everyone was so nice and friendly. They had us sign the guest book and then made us stand up and wave during the church service! We were a bit embarassed by that, but oh well! It was all in English and it was just so refreshing to be there and feel a little bit like home. They also have all of these pancake dinners and things for Thanksgiving and Christmas so we were all really excited.

There has been lots more going on..... birthdays, language exchanges meetings and I've been matched with a local Chilean family to meet up and experience more of their culture. I have to leave for work in about 20 minutes so not too much more time to share.

This weekend I'm off to the Andes... even though Santiago is right on the Andes they feel so far away so I am SO excited to get to see them and spend a little time closer to nature. We are having our half way point "Jornada" retreat to celebrate our 2 months and to reflect a bit on how it is all going. I am very excited to get out of the city and relax a bit. Can you believe it's already been 2 months???? I can not! It feels like I've been here for 3 weeks!

I haven't taken many photos lately, but here's one of a gorgeous sunset we had recently. Taken right out of my bedroom window.

Ciao!

Small Victories

Today was a good day at the hogar for many reasons...

1. I went in late today because I had to take the older girls to dance class. Brianna still went in at our normal time on Mondays (10am) and apparently Little V was asking where I was all morning. Even though she drives me nuts, apparently she really does love me and is starting to depend on me a bit more than I thought she would.

2. One of the other girls, who we will call Bea, came up right up to me when she got home from school and climbed up on the table so she was my height. Then she held out her arms and said I need a hug with a big grin on her face. So I grabbed her and hugged her and swung her around and then she told me she looked at me and smiled and said she loved me. It just about broke my heart. She is the sweetest and smartest girl (she's 10). All day she kept making me give her hugs. It was so cute.

3. Tonight, I took two of the older girls (16 and 20) to their weekly workout class. I was super excited to do this because I miss my workout classes and really wanted to particpate. The teacher said I could so I joined right now. However, the girls apparently did not feel the need to tell me that the first hour of the class was just running through dances that they all learned a few weeks ago! I was so lost, but it was so fun. Then on the way home Tati looked at me and said "Tia Romy, do you love me?" and I said of course I love you and she said ok, good, I love you too.

Also, I would LOVE to post pictures of all of the girls at the hogar, but for various reasons I am not allowed to post any pictures of the girls on facebook or blogs. I also can't use their real names.... hence the very odd names I've come up with for them.

San Pedro de Atacama: Day 2 and 3

After getting just a few hours of sleep we woke up early once again and headed out for our day of tours! We loaded up in a small mini van on that day with a roll bar built in, but no seat belts.... we felt safe! Our guide also told me he could speak English and when I asked him a question and he asked me to then repeat it in spanish, I realized I was going to get pretty confused on this tour.

Our first stop was to the town of Socaire where we saw this very old church. Unfortunately, I know nothing about it since it was about 8am and I didn't ask the guide to try to speak in English again. I do know that it was built around the 1700 or 1800s.

After that we stopped and had breakfast by the mountains, it was gorgeous and it made me realize how much I really love mountains. They are just so big and make you feel so small in the world. (And we stole extra sandwiches for lunch.... of course)

Then we headed up in to the mountains, pretty much 4-wheeling, to see two of the most beautiful lakes in the world! Imagine, crystal blue waters, surrounded by a white ring of salt and then mountains and volcanoes in every direction. It was just amazing and so remote and untouched. It was gorgeous. They were called Miscantes and Miniques Lagoons. We wandered around the trail for a bit, again one lined with rocks that someone picked up for right there. It was so natural and beautiful.

Our next stop was to see the Atacama Salt Flats and Chaxa Lagoon. These salt flats are the second largest salt flat area in the world and they are huge! All you see for miles and miles are these rocky salt formations and then you look up and see volcanoes all around you. Again, it was awesome!

There is also a national reserve for flamingos in here so we got to see some wild flamingos! It was very cool since I have never seen them outside of a zoo, there were all different types and they were flying over us and in all of the little shallow water areas.

Our last stop for the day was to a town called Tocano.... we went to some woman's home and she had a shop of all things made out of cactus wood and lama wool. It was weird because we were in her home. We could also feed a lama - Charlotte was the only one up for that.

After a short nap at the hostel we were back out again! With the same tour guide.... in the same roll bar van!! But this time he was a little more friendly, I think he just wasn't a morning person....

This was our second "sunset tour" and it started off a little rough because we were SO toured out and tired, but again it turned out to be amazing and beautiful. So for this tour we were supposed to go swimming in a salt water lagoon and then watch the sunset from another lagoon. We got to the first stop, Laguna Cejar, which is a sink hole and so salty you are supposed to float like in the dead sea. Well it was freezing outside! I think we went a little early in the season, but they have so many fun pictures of people swimming in their office that we just couldn't pass on it! So Jess and I ended up sitting on the beach and enjoying the views.... Charlotte was the brave one and jumped right in for a swim!

The best part was that it was so salty that after a minute of being out of the water you would have huge salt circles and patches on you. So to prevent this the guide had to hose you down with water..... it was hilarious!

Our next stop was to Los Ojos, which is one of my new favorite places, but unfortunately the pictures do not do it justice. We drove for about 40 minutes in to the middle of nowhere. Literally, nothing but open desert in all directions and then all of the sudden you came up on these 2 sink hole lakes that were perfect circles, right next to each other. Los Ojos means "The Eyes" and they literally looked like two eyes in the middle of the desert.

And it was late in the day so we got a little cheesey with the photos....

Los ojos at Los ojos.... get it?

The final stop was to a Lagoon that I don't know the name of.... but wow gorgeous!
We parked the van and set up snacks and drinks to watch the sunset surrounded by a lake, volcanoes and mountains. It was just beyond words.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip :)

After that we headed back to the hostal for a good nights sleep and a tourless day for Monday to round out the trip. On Monday, we wandered in the town of San Pedro and checked out all of the little shops and fun local stuff. I bought a pullover from lama wool that I have been living in since I got back.... it's so warm!
We also saw a church that had been built in 1774 without using a single nail! Unfortunately, it had to be partly rebuilt in the 1800s, but it was still gorgeous.

That was it for the trip! We loaded up on the bus that night, took a flight and got some more great airplane food  and headed back to Santiago. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

San Pedro de Atacama: Day 1

So this past weekend I packed my bags and took a trip up to Northern Chile to San Pedro de Atacama. This is known as the desert of Chile and it's gorgeous.

Here's a map of where it is incase you're wondering.....

San Pedro is the area in the orange and Santiago is 6 regions below that. Looks a lot closer than 20 hours right?

We took a flight there to avoid the 20 hour bus ride. Apparently, Chile is relatively small in size it's just insanely long and it takes forever to get from one end of the country to the other. I would have never imagined it was 20 hours! That's almost the time from NC to CO! Anyway, we hopped on a flight Friday afternoon and got in around 8pm after taking a bus from the airport in to Atacama. We couldn't see much when we arrived, but we wandered the town for a few minutes and then went to bed early.

We woke up at 3:45AM to go on a tour of the El Tatio geysers. It is the 3rd largest geyser field in the world and the 2nd in the highest elevation. So we loaded our small little tour bus and took almost a 2 hour drive up in to the mountains. When we finally got out the sun had just barely started to rise and it was FREEZING!! We knew it was going to be cold, but this was bitter cold with like 4 shirts, 2 jackets, hat gloves and two pairs of pants on. We wandered through the geyser fields for a while and then ate berakfast as the sun came up.

The best part was that it's not like yellowstone where everything is marked and organized. It was so natural, no roads, just open land. There were some stones marking the perimeter to keep you from stepping on a geyser, but it was just so natural.

Charlotte, Jess, me and Elisabeth at the Geysers

After we ate breakfast (and stole extra sandwiches for lunch), some people swam in one of the hot springs. I however chickened out..... I know.... but I couldn't feel my toes or fingers and there was no place to change out of your suit after jumping in and you were not allowed back on the bus in a bathing suit. The other gals went and they said it was nice, but more like a warm bath so I'm ok with my decision. Also, the sun finally came up all the way and it was a gorgeous day!

Elisabeth, Charlotte and Jess in the hot springs

Hot Springs

After swimming and wandering for a bit we loaded up the bus and went to a tiny old mining town. There are only SEVEN people that live in this town in the middle of no where. They were salt miners (or maybe copper....) but now they just welcome the people who come through and sell empanadas, lama meat and there is one woman selling socks. Can you imagine living here? Literally, it is in the middle of nothingness for miles and miles.

Wild animals as we entered the town

The church of the town.

The one woman selling socks and gloves.

Our last stop on the morning tour was to the Cactus Valley.... another gorgeous area to see. We even got to climb up a little mountain...

Sea oats, desert sand and snow covered mountains all in one.

We got back to San Pedro around 2 and took a quick nap before heading out again for our next tour. ( The only way to see all of this is through tour guides because they aren't like national parks in the US. They are really remote and you're pretty much 4 wheeling and not really on a road a lot of time.)

This tour was to Valle de la Luna - Vally of the Moon - again, gorgeous! Think a mix of Moab and the Grand Canyon, but with a lot less people. It's just a gorgeous landscape of red rock formations that really do look like how you would picture the moon and then massive sand dunes.

Valle de la Luna

Can you tell it was a little windy?

Salt rock formations. The white stuff is salt and it expands during the day and shrinks at night when it cools so it's crackling around this time of day.

More salt rock formations

"The Amphitheater"

"The 3 Marias" Do you see how they look like angels praying?

Inside an old miner shack.

The last stop was to the top of mountain to watch the sunset. It was so gorgeous, but unfortunately it was also insanely windy with sand blowing everywhere! It was so windy we could hardly hold our heads up to watch the sunset because your eyes were just pelted with sand. I bascially wrapped my head in my scarf, put on sunglasses and pulled my hood so tight around my head and was THEN able to enjoy it. Gorgeous red rocks, mountains and volcanoes in every direction!

Our view point for the sunset.

Gorgeous volcanoes in the sunset.

After that tour we headed back to town grabbed a quick bite to eat and then crashed in our hostal. It was a long day and we had another big day planned for Sunday! I'll share all about that later!