Viaje para Chile (9/10 - 9/21)

This month, I had the opportunity to go to Chile for 10 days to help work on the MECESUP project with Telma from UEL. This is a project that 6 universities in Chile are proposing in order to have a unified and integrated curriculum for their Teacher Training programs. Telma was invited to help finalize the curriculum course strands, as well as work with teachers and students of universities on Critical Pedagogy in the northern part of Chile, in La Serena. I arrived a week later to attend meetings in Santiago and participate in the discussions. Unfortunately, the dates were not planned very carefully and they coincided with Chile's Independence Day - Sept. 18. So, most of the universities and teachers were already on vacation. I did have the chance, however, to meet with professors from Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago and work on the final writing of the proposal with them. The head of the Pedagogy dept. there, Mary Jane, was hosting Telma and so we saw her a lot, and also had the opportunity to meet her students when Telma gave a talk for them on Reflective Practices and Democracy in Teaching. I also met with the people at the Ministry of Education to learn more about the teaching/volunteer programs they sponsor in Chile, which was very interesting as well. I really liked Santiago. It had a European feel because of the architecture, size of the city – 6 million, and the outdoor cafes and pedestrian areas. I think the city could be a good fit for me in the future. We’ll see!

The whole experience was great. I learned a lot about Chilean history, culture, and food while we were there, and a bit of Spanish too, which was fun. We were in Santiago for 7 days, where we were at the university for part of the time, and touring the city the rest of the time. We also took excursions to Valparaiso (UNESCO heritage site) and Viña del Mar, which are twin cities on the water about 90 minutes from Santiago – very charming, and Valle Nevado, the ski resort in the mountains - marvelous! Then at the end of our stay, we flew south to Puerto Montt (~ 2 hour flight) to visit the mountains, volcanoes and lakes for 4 days, which topped everything in terms of beauty.

The area of Puerto Montt was settled by the Swiss and Germans, and definitely looked a lot like Switzerland, or even the NW of the United States too. Since Chile is such a long country, there is a little bit of everything. In the north there is desert and then as you go further south, you are getting closer and closer to Antarctica, so obviously it is much colder with glaciers and ocean. We weren't that far south, but in an area where people can go skiing or visit snow covered volcanoes. It was truly beautiful. Take a look at the photos below for more details!

Santiago
Downtown Santiago Pablo Neruda's house Telma at the Cathedral square La Mondea - Government Palace Santiago Library




University neighborhood



Sully's restaurant:
This place was a beautifully renovated house with several floors and a terrace with a view of the city. It was situated in this quiet neighborhood as seen above near Universidad Alberto Hurtado. What was so funny is that everything was very chic and sophisticated, and then in the room where we were eating, on the wall were huge blown up photographs of the MN Gopher basketball team and perhaps the Vikings football team? Although, I love the MN sports, somehow they didn't quite fit in this atmosphere! I said, the owner has to be an American from the midwest, and it turned out he was, from Michigan:)


View from the terrace
Chirimoya (graviola juice), tomato & mozzarella salads... ...and basketball? Mary Jane, Telma & Manuel

Go gophers! :-) Universidad Alberto Hurtado Me,Telma & Mary Jane In memory of the people who went missing from the university under Pinochet Barbeque at Olga's apt. With English teachers from the university Sunsets from Olga's balcony

Excursion to Valle Nevado


Snow, snow, snow...
Telma at Valle Nevado




Enjoying the sun & view from the terrace Skiers below The hot tub at Valle Nevado Hotel There was a Starbucks in Santiago - at last, coffee to go!! My Birthday at Como Agua Para Chocolate Valparaiso & Vina del Mar At casa sebastiana - Neruda's house (Valparaiso) Shake hands with me (Neruda) The hilly streets of Valparaiso Eating ice cream at Vina del mar (just a tad cold for helado, but oh well:))

Puerto Montt/Puerto Varas
On Wednesday the 17th we flew from Santiago to Puerto Montt. That turned out to be an adventure in itself because when we got to the aiport we learned that they had changed our flight from 8:00am to 10:45am. We could either wait or go 20 minutes early on a 7:40am flight. We got on the earlier flight, but then instead of a direct fight (1 hr and 45 minutes) we had a 3 hour flight with two stop-overs. Well, we got to see the middle of Chile on our way there, I guess:) So, once we arrived, there was supposed to be a van to pick us up, but because of all the confusion regarding our flight, there was no one there. The number we had to call someone was in Argentina and not locally because there were 3 parties involved - the travel agent in Londrina, someone they contracted in Argentina and finally our group in Puerto Varas!!! This made no sense, but gotta love working with travel agents! So, we took a taxi to our hotel and then spent most of the day calling Londrina and trying to figure out exactly who our local contact was - chaos! At least the first day we were there had somewhat cloudy and rainy weather, so we didn't feel like we were missing too much by not being outside. Finally, we talked to the tour agency in Puerto Montt and figured everything out. We were able to set up our excursions for the next couple of days, because two of them we had already pre-booked, so, if we hadn't been able to contact someone we would have missed out on what we had already paid for! Very frustrating experience, but in the end the tour guides were great and everything we saw was beautiful. We stayed in Puerto Montt itself, which is a fairly large city and not very attractive. The better place to stay is Puerto Varas, a smaller quaint town with a beautiful view of the volacano and closer to all the excursions than Puerto Montt as well. But we couldn't have been luckier with the weather. We had incredibly clear, sunny days, when normally this is the rainy season! We must have taken at least 50 photos of this volcano, Osorno. Here is just a sampling of them and others from this part of the trip:)

Puerto Montt View from our hotel - Diego de Almargo The heroic (or murderous) generals who founded the area - Puerto Montt Spicy peppers in the store Chirimoya Excursison to Frutillar (small German town) 9/18
On the way to Frutillar - Chile or Ireland?


Osorno Volcano Taking photos on the way to Frutillar Telma near Frutillar Frutillar On the pier in Frutillar Telma & me at the fisherman's port - Puerto Montt

September 18, Chile's Independence Day - Puerto Montt

People only hang their flags during this week before Independence Day, and they really were everywhere!



Dancing La Cueca - traditional Chilean dance



We saw this dance in more atmospheric places than the shopping mall:) But this video has the best view of what the dance is like. So, in the mall at Puerto Montt...




Excursion to Peulla Osorno volcano from the bus Telma & me & the infamous Osorno on the way to Petrohue On the way to Petrohue Osorno from the waterfalls Me & Osorno from the boat On the boat Telma on the boat Boat Ride to Peulla Ponte Agudo volcano from the boat In Peulla The boat harbor in Peulla Osorno volcano Osorno in the evening (from the boat) If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium - we were passing gorgeous scenery on our boat, and half the people were sleeping!:)

Our last day - Saturday 9/20 Puerto Varas Empanadas - our staple diet:) Beautiful views coming and going from Santiago From the airplane - arriving in Santiago At the airport - leaving Santiago ADIOS CHILE!