Blogs from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 3

Well, I have sucessfully made it to Viña Del Mar! My group and I spent last weekend in Santiago and on Sunday we took a bus ride of only about an hour and a half to Valparaíso, the city adjoining Viña del Mar. That day I met my first host family. They were very nice, but it became clear early on that it was not going to work out. Thankfully, the university I will be attending (which is also in charge of placing students with host families) and the director of my program were very helpful in finding me another host family. I now live in a neighborhood called called "recreo" and it has been a wonderful place to live so far! I have about a 2 minute walk to a great ocean lookout, and maybe ... read more

Šiandien iškeliauju ne tik aš bet ir Luana. Luana keliauja į Pukoną, o aš į Vina del Mar. Pirmiausia išlydim brazilę, tada pervažiuojam į kitą stotį ir atsisveikinęs su Camila keliauju susitikti su Maxu. Maxas manęs stotyje nepasitinka kaip buvom sutarę, tad skambinu iš taksofono jam į mobilų, jis pažada atvažiuoti už 20 min. Aš per tą laiką užsisakau bilietą į Mendozą 10 val. vakaro. Netrukus atvažiuoja Maxas, nemačiau jo 7 metus, tad smagu vėl susitikti. Jis mane pasitinka su 84 metų tėčiu. Tėvukui šiandien pokerio vakaras su draugais, tad pas draugus jį ir paliekam. Važiuojam pas Maxą į namus, kuriuose jis užaugo. Maxas papasakoja, kad nebenaudoja couchsurfing, nes turėjo blogos patirties su šiuo projektu. Tačiau naudoja galybę kitų panašių tinklapių. Jo pagrindinė veikla šiuo metu surasti laidėją knygai, kurią jis parašė prieš keletą metų. Pažada ... read more

After a couple of days in transit in Santiago we headed down to Vina del Mar to celebrate New Years. Due to an indecisive member of our party we had booked our apartment quite late and therefore the choices were not the best. What we thought was an absolute find for a 2 bedroom apartment a 10 min walk from the beach with ocean views that would comfortably sleep 5 turned out to be a mass of false advertising. Let's just say that we learnt to appreciate our views of the hills and Jonathan and Rommel didn't mind practically sleeping on top of each other THAT much. Although in my head I had pictured a week of relaxing on the beach and our rooftop pool, a thick fog meant that there was no chance of that ... read more

Three years today (Nov 11) Coebbie and I have been in love. Unfortunately though I woke feeling less than average but there was no use in sitting in a cave feeling sorry for myself, especially considering how perfect the day was. So we gathered ourselves and caught the metro to Vina Del Mar (or so we thought). There was so much rubbish on the beach and the water was ice cold but Coebbie could not be deterred from taking a quick dip. We spotted something along the beach that people were milling around to take photos of. Sea Lions we think relaxing in the sun underneath an industrial wharf. I was shaking as I took a thousand photos. They were humungous but it was the deep hollow octaves of their bark that really terrified me. There ... read more

Yesterday was Easter (Día de Pascua). I went to church with my host family. I was very excited to be able to spend that special day with them. One thing I was NOT looking forward to was the epically long church service. Oh man!! I know I'm an adult with an attention span but I cannot handle it! Church starts at 10:00 and doesn't get out until 2:30!! That's 4 and a half hours!! I'm not used to that. I love going to church. Love it. It's a time for me to hear what God wants to say to me and bond with others in the Body. It's usually such a joy. In the states, I go to this great bible based church. I'm accustomed to having a church service for an hour and a half. ... read more