“Driving to the Bolivian border and back in a day" (Nov. 2011)

  

      After living in La Serena from July to November and experiencing way too many cool, cloudy days we decided to take a trip to a coastal town in northern Chile called Iquique in hopes of finding sun, warmth and warmer ocean temps. It's actually just a few hours from the Peruvian border. This town has very unique geography. It's about 200,000 people and sits on a plain next to the ocean. Behind the town about 2-3 kilometers are mountains essentially made of sand. Above Iquique is the Atacama desert...the driest desert on the planet. (This photo will give you some idea of the geography.)

       I also had great hopes for the skatepark that I'd read about and seen pictures of on the internet. Well the skatepark turned out to be terrible...badly designed, badly shaped and badly poured. Oh well...

     So after a few days of enjoying warm, sunny days by the beach we decided to rent a car and drive to a national park that we believed to be 2-3 hours northwest into the desert. We had already taken one trip by bus into the desert to a natural spring pool in a small oasis town called Pica. On this same trip we also visited a nitrite mining ghost town that was quite interesting. Using buses is much cheaper but takes much longer than renting a car. We ended up waiting at a bus stop on the highway by the ghost town for more than an hour before continuing on to Pica. And we barely made the last bus out of Pica to get back to Iquique.

     These photos of Humberstone don't even begin to show all that was there. This place had a town square, a theater, a swimming pool, housing for the miners and everything else a small town could need.

This was the swimming pool. (?)

Cherith looking beautiful while we wait for the next bus.

     Now back to our trip to Bolivia...  We were very excited to have a rental car. We made our plans with the maps we had. The car rental place didn't have maps of the region (?). So we headed into the desert in our rented Hyundai Elantra. The Elantra is a larger sedan by Chilean standards and we were excited to have it. And at this point I want to say that the hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of highways that we saw in our 9 months in Chile are comparable to those in the US. The difference being that most of them are two lane. Even the major north-south highway in Chile is primarily two lane.

     Our first stop was at the “Gigante de Atacama”. The “Giant” is the largest prehistoric anthropomorphic figure in the world with a height of 119 metres (390 ft.) and represents a deity for the local inhabitants from 1000 to 1400 CE. (See photo) And no, there wasn't a problem with crowds.

     As we continued to head up into the Andes mountains gradually gaining altitude I realized that words like stark and barren do not even begin to describe this geography. First, the Andes mountains have no trees. Yes, you read that correctly...no trees. At least from Santiago to the north the Andes have no trees. And in this part of the Atacama there really wasn't any form of vegetation at all. It actually reminded me of pictures of the surface of Mars. As we reached higher into the mountains we did start to see some plants and cactus. The higher altitudes do get some snow and rain. Eventually I passed a sign that said 4,350 meters. So I said to myself to just multiple by three and thought we were just over 12,000 ft. Well...no, we were over 14,000 ft. And we started at sea level.

     At our first site of Llamas we pulled over to see them closer and take pictures. It seems that water springs up in certain places in these mountains which allows grasses and plants to grow. The llamas feed off of this vegetation. And whether these were wild or somebody's livestock we weren't sure.

     After 3 hours and 45 minutes we reach Colchane at the Bolivian border which looked like a pretty big dot on the map we had. Well it wasn't. It was a village of about 150 people...I'm guessing. No place to buy gas which we needed in able to drive thru the national park and make it back to Iquique. Bummer. So we started by asking at the Municipal building. We get told that some people sell gas out of their houses or venders will sell it to you by the border. So we drive thru the mud brick houses looking for someone to ask and pretty much didn't see a soul. We drove up to the border check point, which was a bunch of official looking buildings to see if we could find someone to ask. At one point I'm convinced that I've drove across to the Bolivian side because when I tried to come back I was faced with a set of gates that wouldn't open and there was no one to talk to. In a state of panic, I walk into the office to ask what to do and a very helpful Bolivian border official tells me I had not actually crossed over and to just drive back out the way I came violating all of the traffic signs. Okay...I'm glad that's over.

This is to give you idea of what Colchane looked like. The national park we wanted to see is behind those colossal mountains.

     Safely back on the Chilean side of the border checkpoint I ask a man who is sweeping the curbs where I might find some gas. He says “I have gas, how much do you need?” Excellent. So I follow him back to the group of houses we had drove through earlier. He goes into his house, comes back out and says he only has diesel. Again...bummer.

     Next we proceed to the hotel/restaurant we had driven by earlier to see what there is to eat and deliberate on our options. It turns out to be a nicely decorated restaurant which caters to tour groups. We ask for a menu and basically get told the “menu del dia”. This means, here's what's for lunch today. The lunch was actually quite good...a traditional chicken soup and a pork chop sort of thing with some quinoa. After eating we talk to the manager about our prospects for still driving through the park and getting back to Iquique with the gas we have...using our two wheel drive Elantra. We end up deciding against it. The prospect of running out of gas late in the day in the middle of the Atacama desert did not sound fun.

     Outside the town we did stop at the big heard of Llamas we saw on the way in for some great pictures. And I actually ended up really enjoying the drive back. Just to be driving a nice car down from the Andes mountains on a good highway with almost no other traffic was fun. And we had our Ipod plugged into the stereo. We ended up making it back for dinner at the beach and great sunset.  The end.

We were on the local news!

We were on the local news! The program that is funding our English teaching is government grant money. So the story was about our school getting the grant and our students qualifying for it. It was really strange having a camera man in my classroom. See if you can get the video in this link to work. 
Rich and Cherith on the news in La Serena, Chile 

Otherwise copy and paste this link into your browser.

http://www.24horas.cl/videosRegiones.aspx?id=50362&idRegion=4
Let us know if you can't get it to work.

Tickets Home!

Today we booked our flights to come home. We'll be back on December 2nd. Soooooooooooo excited!

This is mom getting off the plane in La Serena. Our airport is the smallest airport I've ever been to in my life. It's a one plane at a time kind of place.

Mom is Visiting!

My mom has come to visit us in La Serena for two weeks! I am DELIGHTED! We have been having a lot of fun just hanging out, seeing the community and region, etc. It took her four flights, two short bus rides, and a 20 minute walk to get to our apartment. Wow. She is amazing. But, we're renting a car this weekend to make things a bit easier than walking and using buses all the time. She deserves it : )

Valle de Elqui

In Chile many valleys are created by the snow melt coming down out of the Andes mountains. One of the more famous valleys is Valle de Elqui. The water from the Rio Elqui is used to grow avocados, oranges, lemons, papayas and many other kinds of produce. But the big cash crop is grapes. Vineyards dominate this valley. Table grapes, wine grapes and a special kind of grape that are used to make Pisco are grown here in abundance. Pisco is a spirit made from distilling the wine made from Pisco grapes. In my opinion it is a cousin of tequila. They make a drink called a Pisco sour which is very similar to a margarita. They also mix it with Coca-Cola to a make a “Piscola”. The story on Pisco goes something like this...Pisco had been made for decades in Chile and in Peru. Then a shrewd Chilean politician from this region did some legal research and discovered that the name Pisco wasn't trademarked. So first he convinced one of the small towns in the Elqui Valley to change it's name to "Pisco Elqui" and then got it trademarked. And with what legal body do you trademark these things, I don't know? But think of how the name Champagne is trademarked by the Champagne region of France and you get the idea. That politician would become Chile's President in the 1950's.
Just over that mountain in the top left of the photo above is Argentina. And when I say mountains...there are a couple peaks in this area that are over 20,000 ft. For reference, Colorado has many 14,000+ peaks.

 One of the biggest towns in the Elqui valley is called Vicuña. The Capel distillery is here.

This is the town of Pisco Elqui. The Mistral distillery is here.

This valley receives very little rainfall and receives about 300 sunny days out of the year. These clear days and nights make for great star gazing. In fact, this region is dotted with observatories. From my little bit of research, there are over 25 observatories in Chile. Several of these are open to the public. And to my surprise observatories employ a lot of people. My perception was that a lone astronomer stays up all night at the observatory drinking coffee and looking at the stars. So far in La Serena, all of the gringos we have met here either work at the observatories or in mining...and a few are English teachers like ourselves. (Click on the photo above and you will see two observatories on the mountain in the distance.)

This last photo I've added to show how little precipitation falls here.  I started to noticed how different these mountains looked than the Rockies and it's not just that there are no trees. I concluded that because there is so little rain very little erosion occurs. So the slopes of many of mountains are just even angled surfaces.

School and Getting There

This is us having just arrived at our school, "Norteamericano". We bike to class. It is 30 minutes from our apartment on the beach up the hill in the back of town. It is actually a pretty nice ride and great exercise. We get quite a kick out of our "get-ups" - layers of clothes because it will be colder when biking home in the dark, backpacks, helmets, gloves, right pant legs tied back so they don't get caught in the chain, and bike lights and reflectors on the front and backs. Its good exercise, and a pretty nice way to get around. We bought the bikes used from a mom and pop shop near our house. He cobbled them together for us actually, but the price was good. Now the owner wants us to help him learn English so we might have some new work out of it, too!

Our students are excellent! They all had to apply, write essays, and take tests to get accepted into this program. It is a government sponsored program to develop the English skills of the business and tourism professionals of the country. Rich and I are teaching the business students. The are so eager to learn! It is a breath of fresh air compared to the students at the college in Santiago who really were only taking the class because they had to in order to graduate. These students work really hard and keep us on our toes!

Here are some more photos of the school, etc (It is in a house that is converted into a school). Instituto Chileno Norteamericano is the name of the school. There are multiple campuses around Chile. It was started in the 70's by the US State department and is still sponsored by them today.

Rich getting ready to start class.

The entrance to the school.

Lucy - She tries to keep us all in line.

Towards the back of the house. This is where we have "break" and there are more classrooms out behind.

Where we live, La Serena, Chile

Out the front door.

Out the back door.

Full moon out the back door at night.

 

Down the road.

We just love the ocean and are so enjoying this beautiful place God has blessed us to live in for a little while.

Teaching Cupcakes

Cata and Cherith

This is my friend Cata (short for Catarina) and me making cupcakes. Cata and I met when I put up a sign in the basement of my building (in Santiago) asking if someone would like to exchange English conversation for Spanish conversation (they call it "intercambio" and it is a free way to practice languages). Anyhow, Cata is my intercambio partner and a wonderful friend! And, they don't have cupcakes in Chile, but she had some in Australia and she wanted to learn how to make them. Well, all Americans know how to make cupcakes, right!? Well, at least I sure did. I love to bake, and I've taken a bunch of cake decorating classes so I love to decorate, too. So, I told her I'd teach her how to make cupcakes. She was a natural from the beginning. Here are some of the final products:

Ecuador!?!?

 OK, the last big news in our little world....to yours : ) Weeeell, the Peace Corp has offered us the option to go to Ecuador instead of Africa! Wow! For those of you who don't know, we wanted to go to South America in the first place but they told us we couldn't because our Spanish wasn't good enough. Instead they were going to send us to Africa. We weren't very excited about that but we were going to do it. Anyhow, I guess since we are now in South America already and we are learning the language they changed their minds! We didn't even ask them to do so! This is a very pleasant surprise! We'd much rather keep learning Spanish and stay here in South America. And, everyone says Ecuador is beautiful and has a wonderful, warm climate. We don't know - we've never been there! So, the plan is that we will finish here in La Serena at the end of November. We will return to Denver at the beginning of December for a month and a half. We'll be living with Cherith's family and maybe with a friend for a little bit in Denver, as well as traveling to see Rich's family. Then, we'll leave from Ecuador, from Denver, on January 18th, 2012. Although we are happy here in Chile, we are a bit homesick and very excited to come back in December, even if it isn't permanent yet.