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Blogs from Vallenar, Atacama, Chile, South America
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Taltal to La Serena and the terrible dwarf penguins in the Humboldt reserve.
Published: January 15th 2012South America » Chile » Atacama » Vallenar
January 13th 2012
Double and treble assorted 4 -letter words my thingy just dumped 1100 words. Well I'll start again in for a penny in for a pound. Taltal was nice but the weather not so next stop was to be Caldera 300 or km south which is the only way you can go anyway, west is wet and east has no roads. The desert landscape seem to be losing it's enchantment, hills and rock and not a tuft of grass anywhere . VIVA CHILE!!! People out on the national highway picking up garbage, fantastic and good for Chile, cleanliness is next to Godliness. Driving through the desert reminds me of Americas song " Riding through the desert on a horse with no name" endless. Caldera is a bit of a dump nothing really to it, a mining port ... read more
Trip to Vallenar - Viaje a Vallenar
Published: January 17th 2009South America » Chile » Atacama » Vallenar
December 20th 2008
Trip to Vallenar (about 3 hrs north of La Serena) to see family with my grandparents. Viaje a Vallenar para visitar familia con mis abuelitos.... read more
May 21st 2008
Hey there, y'all It's been way too long since I've written one of these. I'm just realizing lately that I'm down to six weeks. Seems like a lot, right? Well, that means six 5-day school weeks to sit through, yes, but I'm down to just six weekends. Sad. But still, I'm feeling almost ready to go. I feel like there are just a few more things to do, and then I'll be really dying to get home. It's getting cold here lately, winter and all that. I have to go to school in the morning not only with the school sweater, but also with gloves, alpaca wool socks, and a thermos of tea or coffee. Well, all that's not really necessary, but it keeps my cozy. Today is the 21 de Mayo, a huge national holiday. ... read more
April 5th 2008
Hola It's a saturday, I'm lazing around right now, gym class killed me yesterday, and I've discovered that black tea with honey is amazing I'm definitely getting into a really relaxed phase of my exchange. I hang around the house with my host family a lot more. I like to cook. I study. I read. I salir on weekends. I've got school, but it's so much easier now. I understand a lot more, and they're not really passing much new material now. This year is more for getting ready for the PSU, which is like an ACT that gets way too much importance I'm getting anxious to get back, but I don't look foreward to leaving. You live in a place for a year, and it becomes your normality, a second home. I go to el ... read more
March 25th 2008
hello y'all My mood: tranquilo. I got my tooth fixed at the beginning of the month. School is going well. I haven't been homesick, though I've had some healthy nostalgia. Like, looking back and saying "those were good times" but not feeling sad about it. Life is good. I guess I could use a weekend. Well, I haven't been homesick, but every now and then I have a sad moment. Easter was cool. My gringa friend Laura came to visit for easter. We hung out, visited an iron processing plant in Huasco, and made nostalgic cooking projects. Banana bread and pancakes. We made my mom's and her mom's recipe, so we came out with two very distinct banana breads. Next time will be key lime pie and cheesecake. Good times And when we talked english (the ... read more
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March 23rd 2008
Having spent (for us) a relatively long time in Cusco waiting for our Inca trail tour we were keen to push on. We headed towards Bolivia across the undulating Andean highlands of Peru. A scenic drive running parallel to the railway, a sort of Peruvian version of the Orient Express. At one point it crossed the road with its wealthy passengers waving enthusiastically at us. I waved back enthusiastically with my middle finger. Our final destination in Peru was the town of Puno on the shores of lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is a 8,000sq km lake, at an altitude of 3,820m divided by the border of Peru and Bolivia. The purpose of our stay was to visit the famous floating islands. The floating islands are literally that, inhabited by the Uros people for many hundreds of ... read more
Why I no longer like cheese empanadas
Published: February 18th 2008South America » Chile » Atacama » Vallenar
February 18th 2008
Hola This has been quite the summer. It's been plenty long, but I haven't gotten bored. It's great. Not really looking foreward to school starting the 28th, but it'll be ok, I guess Goals for this half of a chilean school year: 1. read all the books they assign me to read 2. get a 7 (100 %) on some test that's not english, PE, or music 3. get good study habits. Some sort of daily routine. Never quite got that down 4. stop buying from the kiosko at the school. The overpricing there is ridiculous, as much as 50% price raises from what you get in el centro. Gotta bring food from home or something Nathaniel was here for most of January, and it was sweet. I'm sad he had to go. Miss having him ... read more
December 1st 2007
Hola Life is good. I think I did really well on each of the 4 tests we had. 4 more coming up this next week. Yeah. Crazy last two weeks. And I am counting down the days until the Rotary Orientation. And I just realized I've been here for almost 4 months now. Kind of scary The video game craze here in Vallenar is DotA. It's a variation of Warcraft III online, stands for Defense of the Ancients. As I understand, you choose a heroe, you defend a base, and then the game consumes your life. People here have "tareo." Everyone brings their computer to somebody's house, and they play Warcraft III all night. All night. Like, last night my host brother had a tareo here, and they started at about 9, and finished at about ... read more
November 22nd 2007
hola Basically, right now I am dying for some summer vacation. It's still crunch time at school. Finishing up the year. We've got 2 weeks left, and 8 tests left. And we're getting some final projects. Blah But I am totally pumped up for a Rotary trip to southern Chile in December. Going with other rotary students here in chile, the people from the orientation. Should be sweet. Going to go visit Punta Arenas, Punta Natales, Seno Otway, Cueva (cave) de Milodón, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, and Glaciares Balmaceda y Serrano. I'm not sure where all these places are, folks, but it's way down there. That's right. With the penguins if any of you are interested in Chilean politics, here's a big discussion topic right now. Trans-Santiago. Basically, Santiago is a really huge city and ... read more
November 14th 2007
hey, just wanted to let you folks know that we're ok here in Vallenar. There was a really bad earthquake further north, and I don't really know details. We just got a bit of a tremor here.... read more
