Love, Lists, and La Serena

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LOVE
Congratulations Luke and Erin!!!

LISTS
I've been here for a month and a half, and having settled into the swing of things, it's time I start making sure I make the most of my time here. I started making a list of things I have done so far and things that I want to do while I'm here, and thought I'd share them with all of you. So here goes!

Goals For Chile:

* Visit Easter Island
* Snowboard in the Andes
* Surf
* Go on a wine tour (they have world-famous wine here)
* Spend New Years in Valparaíso
* Hike/Camp in the mountains
* Ride all 15 of Valparíso's ascensores
* Hang out in a hot spring in the Lakes District
* Visit the Atacama desert
* See the green flash of the sunset over the ocean (Anybody else ever heard of this? Apparently if you watch the sunset over the ocean on a clear day, there is a green flash right as the sun disappears)
* Walk from Viña del Mar to Valparaíso (O.K., so thats not that grand of a goal but its still a long walk)
* Discover Chilean music (This one's going to be harder than I thought, they don't really even listen to Chilean music here)
* Learn to dance the Cueca (Chile's national dance)
* See penguins
* Visit Torres del Paine (Almost at the very southern end of Chile, a breathtaking national park filled with glaciers and mountains)
* Stand on the very southern tip of America


Things I've done so far:

* Eaten kiwi fresh off the vine
* Taken a personal boat ride through Valpo's port
* Watched the sun set over the ocean (A few times, no green flash yet though!)
* Drank Agua de Coca (Yes, coca as in the plant that cocaine is derived from. The plant has been used by South Americans forever as an ailment for upset stomach and the symptoms of altitude sickness. Don't worry Dad, the plant itself isn't a drug 😉, it's just like drinking tea)
* Drank pisco (Chile's favorite alcoholic beverage, not available in the U.S. for less than 3 times the price so nobody drinks it there. Peru and Chile have a long-lasting rivalry over who first made pisco)
* Danced Cueca (Doesn't count as learning it though because I still suck)
* Played soccer with Chileans
* Ridden 5 ascensores (Still got a ways to go!)
* Visted El Museo a Cielo Abierto
* Biked from La Serena to the giant cross in Coquimbo
* Visited a pisco plant (Capel, the biggest brand name in Chile!)
* Observed the Chilean night sky
* Walked along Avenida Alemania at night (This is the street that runs through the hills of Valparaíso and offers views of a place like non other in the world)
* Visited Las Chascona (One of the three houses of Pablo Neruda, with plans to visit the other two)
* Went to a Chilean soccer game (With many more to come, viva Wanderers!)

Well, thats everything that I was able to come up with on my list. I'm pretty sure that some of the things that I want to do probably won't be able to happen, just with time and money and stuff, but I'm still going to do my best to knock everything off of the list. If anybody has any other ideas for me of things to do, let me know!

LA SERENA
Other than lists, this weekend our group traveled about 6 hours north to a town called La Serena, where we stayed in a nearly empty resort (not tourist season yet) for 3 nights and had some cool adventures. As I said above, three other people and I rented bikes from the resort and rode to nearby Coquimbo, where a giant cross was recently constructed on top of a hill. One of the people there told me that some people refer to Coquimbo as a 'mini Rio de Janeiro', and to that I would only add the word very to the beginning. The town is tiny and the cross is ugly (its a gigantic cement structure, how impressive can that be?), but I still had a great time getting there and climbing to the top to enjoy a great view of the ocean, mountains, and underlying city. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast, but impressive nonetheless. The trip proved difficult as well, as we had to climb up blocks and blocks of winding steep hills with crappy rental beach cruiser bikes, but again, still fun!
We visited the Capel plant in Vicuña, and later climbed up the mountains to an observatory, by which time the sky had thankfully cleared up and we enjoyed a perfect night for stargazing, complete with a little town in the valley below to look down on when our necks started to hurt from looking up. Our night there ended with the employs of the observatory playing music for us and making me jealous that their life is hanging out looking at stars and playing music. Not a bad living eh?

Well that about wraps up this post. As usual I borrowed some pictures from other people on the trip to satiate the undying thirst for pictures that I like to think you all have.

I hope everyone is enjoying reading this, and thank you to all that have left comments for me, I love getting them!

So long for now,

Michael

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Photos

Walking in Valpo
Another picture from those earlier ones I posted that Pancho took of me during a walk around town.

Rabuco Queca!
During our group's trip to Rabuco, these dancers showed and taught us a little Cueca

Artemisa
The captain of the good ship Artemisa explaining something to me, not sure what...

Walking along Errazuriz
I added this picture because you can see one of the ascensores that I've ridden in on the left!

Comments

[Tina Marie]

Everything sounds so wonderful...do you ever want to come home, because it sounds like heaven.

[Gary Swanberg]

Goals
I really liked this post... thanks! You can see some "sky stuff" (it's an astronomy term... pretty technical) that we can't see here. Like the Southern Cross, The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (they're satellite galaxies of the Milky Way) and lots more too... I hope you get a chance to see them. The "Green Flash" is difficult to catch (from what I understand) but I hope you get to; I've only read about it. Are you planning a trip to the southern tip? That'd be great! Love, Dad

[m1swanberg]

Re: Goals
Yeah! We saw the Southern Cross, both Magellanic Clouds, a llama whose name I can't remember that is formed partly by the Southern Cross...very cool!

[james st. james]

piscola et al
hey there. great blog. it's hard to tell from what you wrote but i think what you said was that pisco in the US is available but at 3x's the price you'd pay in chile (i think you said this and not that it's not available in the US, b/c it is, it's just hard to find). the pisco i find in the US (pisco capel, alto del carmen, and bauzá) sells for $12, $17, and $11 respectively. there really is no controversy as far as where pisco comes from. peruvians and most chileans who know anything about anything know it comes from peru. chileans didn't really start drinking it until after the war of the pacific (1879-1883), but chileans consume 10x's more pisco than peruvians and export 20x's more of the stuff. the issue comes up b/c peruvians refuse to acknowledge chilean pisco as pisco. in fact they always refer to it by the shorthand "otros licores destilados de uva" ("other liquors distilled from grapes") and they want to make it so only pisco made in peru is actually called pisco (similar to champagne officially only coming from france and no other european country can produce it and call it "champagne"). so when peru and chile make free trade agreements with a country, they have to agree to import only pisco made in that country. chile recently signed a FTA with japan, and you better believe pisco was in the fine print of that agreement. i think it's the dubest thing in the world. only two countries in the entire galaxy produce and consume pisco and there they are, battling each other insted of jointly marketing the stuff abroad. anyway, enjoy your time in chile and pisco. ps, i don't know where you're from, but if nothing else you can order pisco from this huge store in los angeles where i buy mine, check it out: www.beveragewarehouse.com cheers! james st. james

[Sara Jean]

I just felt like I should comment because everyone else in the family did. I don't have anything to say because I just sent you a long e-mail..so...check your email. ps. i wish i was you.

[Uncle Pat]

Hi there Micheal
I am up in Long Prairie so I thought I would check-out your blog. You have some beautiful pictures posted. It sounds like your having a great time. What kind of food do you normaly eat? Has the weather warmed-up? What is the time difference from Minnesota? Questions, Questions!! I will write again soon. Love Uncle Pat