Assorted events

Last Friday was the regional competition for English Debates . My school colegio Santa Emilia once again performed well receiving first place. (I meant to take pictures but I forgot my camera). This means that we will be going to Santiago at the end of September for the national Eenglish debate competition. Once again I disagreed with the judges decisions … the other team from the Antofagasta region that is advancing to the national competition, I didn't think was the second best school in the region, in fact I didn't have them in my top three schools, because they had mediocre pronunciation and spoke rather flatly, but what can you do but laugh (the judges ended giving them same amount of points as colegio Santa Emilia which is absurd). One of my fears for Santiago is the judging, which I haven't always agreed with.

The other day I was talking to another volunteer who was telling me about the gyms in Chile. Apparently, Chilean guys tend to bring the girlfriends who watch them work out. Then the guys will lift way to much weight trying to impress the girls while displaying horrible technique. Apparently the guys will also often take off their shirt and flex in front of the mirrors. I say guys because in Chile girls almost never go the gym.

Speaking of the other volunteers, several of the volunteers from Antofagasta got badly hurt a week and a half ago when they were visiting San Pedro de Atacama. While traveling to the Tatio Geysers their car went off the road and they flipped. Because they were way out in the middle of nowhere it was 2 hours before an ambulance could reach them and for some of them over 30 hours before they received surgery. Their injuries were pretty serious, a cracked skull, broken vertebrae and a broken ankle but luckily luckily no one died and no one is going to be permanently disabled. Impressively, they are all going to try staying in Antofagasta until the school year ends.

I had a bad experience with a collectivo the other night. I took one back to my house after going out Friday night and when we got to my house the driver asked for 10 mil (about 20 bucks). Usually, I negotiate before I enter the collectivo but this night for reasons I didn't. I was pissed because the cost should have been 4 or six dollars. I argued with the drive for awhile showing that I a) understood Spanish and b) understood collectivo prices, however the most I could get him down to was 7 mil. There was no way I was paying that but the smallest bill I had was a 5 mil so I tossed it at him and left the collectivo slamming the door on my way out. While I was walking the rest of the way to my house the collectivo driver pulled up to yell at me some. I think he told me to be respectful and that people don't do this in Chile but I'm not really sure what he said because I only kind of understand Spanish. I said sorry and walked away.

I was talking to a half-chilean half Japanese man the other day. He told me he had been to Washington DC, considered it the most beautiful city he has seen and started telling me about the cherry blossoms. I do like DC a lot. I wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he got sick off of the seafood and had to spend a day in the hospital.

I've started helping the students practice for the up-coming spelling bee. They are pretty good but sometimes they will say the most random letter combinations in trying to spell a word. For example the word was weather and the student tried beginning it with a 'g' I just started laughing. The have the most problems with the 'v' versus 'b' , 'd' versus 't' and 'sh' versus 'ch'.

San Pedro Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/SanPedro#-- I've post the photos from San Pedro de Atacama. I think that they are pretty good though none can quite capture the view of the open landscape

San Pedro de Atacama

My trip to San Pedro de Atacama was pretty amazing. Eight other volunteers and I were able to tour the chilean countryside seeing mountains, the desert, lakes, and the altiplano. While our large group was a tad unwieldy we managed to get a good group package deal on our tours. Everyday the sky was perfectly blue without a single cloud and the temperatures comfortably in the seventies. At night it would become much cooler but nothing too extreme. Being there made me I wish I had down more outdoor explorations when I was in DC. Perhaps when I return I can put some cheap trips together.

San Pedro itself is a very cute little town with a church, a little shaded town square and many restaurants and tourist shops. However, it has many little oddities that made it unique. For example, the town has a bad electrical generator which means that the power in town was frequently out at both our hostel and in shops around town. When this happened some shops turned on their own generators, others closed or continued to operate without power. Unfortunately, one of the shops that would close was the ice cream shop. Also, there was no bank in the town and only two ATMS, both would stop running when the power was out and both ran out of money on Sunday creating problems for some people. Also, due to some past instance none of the restaurants or bars in the city have the proper permits to allow people to dance. At a bar when two volunteers danced a little salsa, they were warned that if they police showed up they could receive a ticket. Because of this we were invited to a party at some person's house where dancing would occur. We went and ended up talking to both tourists and Chileans standing around bonfire. It reminded me a little bit of college. 

Because the many pictures I took (to be posted soon) can do a better job showing the scenery than my writing possibly can I'm only going to mention the highlights here.

Got to try llama meat - tastes like beef

Saw the beautiful landscape at the Valley of the Moon,

Saw the Tatio Geysers ... one of the highest and largest active geyser fields in the world -- (to see them you have to wake up at 4am to arrive at sunrise when the geysers for reasons I'm not sure of are the most active -- Because they are so high up it was very very cold and my toes were frozen by the end.

Both when I was visiting the Tatio geysers and other altiplano lakes, I broke my personal record for the most distance from sea level while standing on the ground. El Tatio is approximately 13780 feet above sea level. My previous highest had been when I climbed Mt. Baldy in New Mexico which is 12440 feet. Interestingly, the view from El Tatio and the high parts of the altiplano weren't that spectacular because all of the nearby ground in high up while the view from Mt. Baldy was very spectacular because it dominated the surrounding landscape.

Got to see flamingoes on a lake in the middle of the salt flat.

Got to soak in some hot outdoor springs 

Got to climb around ancient atacaman ruins in on the side of the mountain. -- while climbing around I tried going down a part of the hill that was too steep to climb and ending up having to slide on the rocks down for about 100 feet.

The night sky was brilliant and truly amazing --- because of the lack of lights from the town and the clear cloudless sky.

I really can't wait for my next trip in Chile.

-- my next trip might actually be to Peru

Trip

So today I am going to be leaving Antofagasta, and heading to San Pedro de Atacama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_pedro_de_atacama) for the next four days. Despite being a small town in the desert, it is one of Chile´s top tourist attractions because it is near geysers, lakes with flamingos, and something called the valley of the moon.

This does mean that I will be out of contact with everybody for the next couple of days. More when I get back.