The last days in Chile

I'm back to summarize the rest of my Chile experience. It's hard to believe that in 24 hours I will be back in Asheville! I'm ready to get home but am certainly emotional about leaving Chile and separating from the team.

So I left off with our arrival in Rancagua, which was our last city before coming back to Santiago. We were picked up at the train station by the Requinoa Rotarians and taken out to the country for yet another cookout. It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed each other's company (and the food!) tremedously. After the cookout and visiting the chinchillas that they raise, we got picked up by our host families from Rancagua and taken to our respective houses.

On Saturday, we were up and at 'em pretty early for our trip to El Teniente copper mine, the largest enclosed copper mine in the world! I was really nervous about the trip but am proud to say that I made it through with only minor anxiety. While we were there, we visited the ghost town of Sewell, which was once a fantastic American city where the miners and their families lived. Check this link out to learn more about it http://www.sewell.cl/english/index1.php.

On Sunday we spent the day in Isla Negra and visited Pablo Neruda's home and grave. It was a magical bohemian place! We had a wonderful lunch right by the ocean, a quick tour of Neruda's amazing house and then checked out all the handicrafts in the stores and stalls in the surrounds. Then it was back to Rancagua.

On Monday we visited a hacienda with horses and saw lots of old carriages before having a delicious lunch and being surprised by the entertainment of cueca dancing. After lunch, we visited a small winery called Camino Real.

On Tuesday we went to an alpaca and llama farm, which was amazing and then had another awesome cookout with fabulous people and food. That evening we had what would be our last Rotary presentation, complete with more cueca dancing.

On Wednesday we left Rancagua and headed back to Santiago where we were greeted by our host families! I was soooo happy to see Javier and Jimena and to catch them up on the last 2 weeks. It was a restful and relaxing day. Our team met up at the mall and did some shopping and then Erin and I can back to Javier and Jimena's to have dinner with us. It was a fun night.
Yesterday, after sleeping in a bit, we went to the pueblo los dominicos here in Santiago. What a cool place! It was full of artisan shops and gorgeous handicrafts. I finished up my shopping and then we went to the mall to have lunch. The rest of the afternoon consisted of a siesta and catching up on email.

Last night was a wonderful closing to our trip. The Santiago Rotarians surprised us with dinner and a show at a typical Chilean restaurant. It was awesome! We got to see and hear typical dances and music from all over Chile and even danced ourselves. Usually at places like that the food is not that good, but I think it was one of the best meals I've had here. After enjoying ourselves at dinner, we came back to Javier and Jimena's house and stayed up until 5:30am having what I now refer to as our closing ceremony. We all shared the special places that each one of us has in each other's hearts now and talked about what we learned on this trip. It was truly a beautiful experience.

Now I'm just hanging out til it's time to head to the airport in a few hours. It is my intention to do at least one more entry to reflect on this trip. It has been a life changing experience and I am forever grateful to Rotary International for making this possible! Viva Chile!

What a Journey!

I'm finally back in Santiago to enjoy my last few days in Chile. I've had very little internet access for the last week and a half and haven't been able to catch up my blog. That's what I'm going to do right now!

Our team spent Monday, May 4th in the cute town of Santa Cruz. A Rotarian came by our hostal in the morning and took us first to a public high school to talk to some students in 2 English classes. It was really fun to talk to them about what we're doing and to motivate them to study abroad someday. Then we went to have lunch and walk around the town for the afternoon. The highlight of the day was definitely the spa treatment at the Santa Cruz hotel and a dip in the warm pool. The guys went to a Rotary function and the girls ate a nice dinner in the hotel.

The next day we were picked up and driven to our next home Talca. Soon after we arrived and had lunch with our new hosts, we met up in downtown Talca to visit a branch of TVN, Chile's largest TV station. It was a small studio but of course I loved it all the same. We met a really nice journalist who was just selected to go to Denmark on a Rotary GSE trip in the fall.

Day 2 in Talca consisted of visiting the regional theater and watching the beginning of play, walking around the city to see the different court systems, eating lunch at another social club and finally getting interviewed on a TV station in Talca. That was really fun! The next day in Talca we visited a dam and hydroelectic plant and had a delicious picnic on the shores of the lake before making our way to the hotsprings for some great (and cheap!) treatments and a dip in the hotsprings. We made our way back just in time for the Rotary meeting that night.

We departed from Talca the next day on a train to Rancagua, not really knowing what the rest of the trip would bring. We spent the day and ate lunch in Requinoa, a small town outside of Rancagua. In the afternoon, we were picked up by our Rancagua hosts to spend the next few days there.

It's been awhile...

Greetings from Rancagua! It's been quite sometime since I wrote and we've done many interesting in the meantime. In fact, I don't really know where to start! The last time I wrote we were in Santa Cruz. Since then we've been to Talca and Rancagua. I don't have much time to write right now but will be back with full internet access tomorrow. I will do an update and post some pictures then!

Back to Civilization and Blogging...

After 2 1/2 days in the Sierra de Bellavista I am finally back to my WIFI connection and now have lots of catching up to do on this blog! I left off on last Wednesday when we were in Curico. That morning I was at a private school visiting with the principal and some of the administrators and teachers learning how things work in the world of private schools here in Chile. It was a wonderful visit. They treated me so well and had me hand out an award at an assembly that they had.

On Wednesday night we had the surreal, funny experience of being interviewed on a local access channel in Molina, a very small town near Curico. It was interesting to do an interview in Spanish! That night we had a Rotary club meeting where we did our presentation.

On Thursday, we rode the train to San Fernando (about 30 minutes from Curico) to spend the day with the Rotarians there at an organic fruit factory and eating a delicius lunch. We had to dress up in all white lab coats and hats to take the tour (still not really sure why). The factory was called Greenvic and they mostly export organic apples, along with other non-organic fruits. Before eating lunch on a beautiful farm, we had appetizers at one of the most amazing places I've ever been, which was owned by the owner of Greenvic. He had this series of fairytale-like cabins admist some gorgeous land, so although the day was a little gloomy, the scenery was immaculate!

Before our Rotary dinner and meeting that evening we made a quick trip to the supermarket to get groceries for our weekend visit to the Sierra de Bellavista. What a trip! The store was packed because Friday was Labor Day so everyone was buying out the store for the long weekend. Needless to say it was quite hectic, but once again, a great learning and team-building experience.

On Friday morning we headed up to the Sierra de Bellavista where we did nothing but relax for 2 and a half days. It was very warm so we spent most of our time around the pool soaking up the sun. It was actually surprising how warm it was considering it was in the 60's in San Fernando the day before. It was soooo wonderful to spend time with only our GSE team, bonding and processing some of the amazing experiences we've had so far.
On Sunday morning we got picked up by the San Fernando team and brought to Santa Cruz where we are right now. We had an afternoon cookout with the Rotarians here, a visit to a local museum in the afternoon and ended the day with a trip to the casino. Even though I didn't win any money, it brought back some great Las Vegas memories (that's where I got married) and it was interesting (and maybe a little dangerous) to gamble a little bit in Spanish. We are here in Santa Cruz staying in a hostal for one more night. Today we are headed to another town called San Vicente. We will see what the day brings.

Curico, Iloca and El Parque Ingles

We've had a wonderful stay here in Curico with many exciting adventures. On Monday we spent the day in the quiet beach town of Iloca, about 2 hours from our current headquaters in Curico. I loved that the main activity for the day was eating lunch! The food was delicious and we all ended up way to full of seafood and wine. It was so wonderful to be the only people in the whole restaurant/hotel. Our hosts were so gracious to allow us to have a relaxing day at the coast.

On Tuesday, we went to Molina to meet our Rotary hosts for the day. They took us to El Parque Ingles, a national park outside of Molina with beautiful waterfalls. Again, the main activity of the day was eating lunch and enjoying the scenery. We had to ride for one hour on a very bumpy dirtroad at very high speeds to get to the top, but in the end it was well worth it. We stopped first at Bridal Veil falls (we have one of those in NC!) and then went to the top for lunch in an adorable country restaurant. Once again we were the only ones there so we got excellent service! On the way down, we stopped to see another waterfall just before dark. What a great day!

Out of the big city....

I just woke up from a wonderful nap at my new host family's house in Curicó. We traveled here by train today (2 hour ride) and got scooped up and taken to our new abodes where we will remain for 4 nights (until Thursday). Melinda, my teammate and I, are staying at the same house with Jimena (yes, another Jimena!) Adrian and their son Adrian, but we both have our own room. The house is beautiful and sooo quiet with a huge back yard, complete with pool and 2 doggies! Definitely a breath of fresh air after 11 days in the noisy city of Santiago.

To catch you up on the last few days, I'll share some pictures.
On Thursday our group spent the day in the town of San Bernardo, which is about 25 minutes outside of Santiago. In this picture, we are standing outside of a snail-breeding greenhouse. One of the San Bernardo Rotarians, Clara, recently started a pilot project which allows mentally handicapped people to raise snails (that is what she does professionally). Who knew that raising snails was such an interesting and lucrative business?! She exports her snails to distributors to sell as escargot to restaurants and also sells snail "spit" to laboratories who sell it to cosmetic companies to put into creams and make up.

In San Bernardo we also visited the town hall and met the mayor and saw their modern cathedral. After eating lunch at the Rotary club and doing a brief presentation there, we visted a winery that is run by the army (could you imagine that happening in the states?!). Everthing there was done the old fashioned way...by hand! We got a kick out of the whole process and enjoyed our wine tasting. We headed back to Santiago in the evening.

On Friday we spent a wonderful day at the beach in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, which are two beach towns that have grown together into a metropolis of about 1 million people. It was beautiful! We walked on the beach in Viña and then headed to Valpo for the afternoon. We rode up to the top of the city (similar feel to San Francisco) on a furnicular to see the beautiful views of the city and enjoyed a Pizco Sour at the top and a little bit of shopping before heading to lunch at a wonderful seafood restaurant. After lunch, we visited the Congress, where the national legistalture meets and had a very informative tour. We headed back to Santiago that evening after sunset, exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep.

On Saturday, I spent the morning reading and journaling and in the afternoon our group presented at the Rotary District Conference. Our presentation went really well! After that, we celebrated with a "completo" sandwich in downtown Santiago. Then Jimena and I went shopping before meeting up with Javier and Mike and his family for dinner at Tip y Tap. It was a wonderful last day in Santiago.

It was kind of sad to leave the city this morning, though being in the countryside feels like ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Shortly we are headed to a BBQ with the rest of out group. I hope to be better at blogging this week!

Back to it....

It's been a few days since my last update so now's the time to catch you up on what's been going on this week. On Monday I stayed home and hung out with my family in the morning and met up with my group in the afternoon for a visit to a school for young people who have had difficulty finishing high school, for adults who want to finish high school and for deaf people. It was very interesting to exchange ideas with the teachers and principals and talk about ways that we can support one another. The school is privately owned but gets money from the government. The people who work there are some of the warmest and friendliest people I have ever met.

On Tuesday, after visiting one of the municipalities within Santiago and hearing about how the local government works, we headed up the curviest road I've ever been on to visit a school on the side of the Andes mountains. It was a very small school (only 56 students) with integrated classes that serves the ski village of Farellones. The school only goes to the 8th grade and from there children have to go to Santiago for high school (down the curvy road one hour!). They are working to build a high school very soon so this doesn't have to happen. Probably one of the coolest things about the school is that in winter they have 2 afternoons a week on the slopes! Many of the students end up being ski professionals because they start skiing when they are only 3 years old!
After our adventure in the mountains, we came down to have a bbq at a Rotarian's house. We had a blast and ate some delicious steaks. That night we went to a Rotary (Lo Barnachea-El Golf) with a wonderful group of people at an adorable restaurant with awesome food. Great day!

On Wednesday, we spent the morning at the University of Chile learning about how the higher education system works here and then it was off to the Santiago Rotary Club for our biggest presentation yet. The space was beautiful and the people were very friendly. Our presentation went OK but I definitely thought it could have been better. After speaking with my group and other Rotarians it seems that the best solution is to keep this thing short and simple. In the afternoon on Wednesday we went to visit the Palacio de la Moneda where the president works. It was a neat building and our guide told us lots of interesting facts. The president (who is a divorced, agnostic woman in a very Catholic country) was there swearing in some new ambassadors so it was quite the spectacle with red carpets, a military band and lots of press. After our visit we returned to the place where we had our Rotary meeting to sit down and chat before returning home for the evening. Today we are headed to San Bernardo to a Rotary meeting there (40 minutes from Santiago) and to possibly visit a vineyard. I'm looking forward to another great day!