Huaraz: Walking Inside Pyramid's and Hiking to the Heaven's

After leaving Barranca and Caral, we headed to back to the cordillera (mountains) of Peru. In my opinion, the cordillera of Peru is a lot more beautiful than the coast. The whole coastline is desert, and I'm not really a desert person. The cordillera, however, the area surrounding it is green, with snow capped mountains...beautiful every direction you look.
We took a colectivo (shared taxi) over the mountains because it was safer and faster than buses. It was fun to watch the scenery change as we got closer to the cordillera, from a desert landscape to green hills to a backdrop of the Andes. The town itself was fine--the third biggest city in Peru and a major launching point for outdoor excursions (although since it's rainy season, there are a lot less people than during the dry season). The one good thing about it being a tourist hub? Lots of good food to choose from. I like Peruvian cuisine a lot, but it was nice to take a break and have some things like curry and salad. (Okay note: I had expected the vegetable situation to be the same in Peru as it had been in Central America--boil or peel. However, it turns out you can actually drink the water in Lima, and the water and vegetables are not as "dangerous" here as in central America. Another words, you still need to use you best judgement in where to eat, but in general you can actually eat a salad and other veggies and not worry about getting some really bad parasite because of doing so.)

Anyways, on our first day we just wandered around the town and took in the sights and enjoyed the food. The next morning we got up to go to Chavin de Huantar--a famous religious sight (sort of) near Huaraz. It actually ended up being about a 3 hour drive each way, but we got to go inside of the pyramid at the site which was AWESOME. The actual ruins themselves were a lot less impressive than some we had seen previously, but the fact that we got to go inside of the pyramid was just really cool.

The day after that we got up really early (5:30....) to got on a hike up in the mountains. We were originally planning on taking colectivos, because it was a lot cheaper than going with a tourist agency. But as we were waiting for the colectivos, a tourist van pulled up that had some extra spots and offered to take us for only s./10 more than it would have been in a colectivo, so we decided to go. The hike was one of the most beautiful and most challenging hikes I have ever been on. We started at a little below 12,000 feet (3,900 meters) and climbed up to about 14,500 feet (4,700 meters)--so the altitude definitely added to the difficultly of the hike.

I had trouble picking pictures, so there are a lot from the couple of days :)

Delicious, fresh mango juice at one of the cafe's in Huaraz. Also, (this is for you Mom, because I tried to show you over skype and it didn't work) a really nice, warm alpaca shawl :)

Maya and I at one of the lakes on the way to Chavin. The drive on the way there didn't seem to take too long. We got to stop and see this lake, which was pretty, as well as some other fun things along the way. The drive back, however, seemed to take forever. This road was probably the worst we went on in Peru. I don't think it's used very often, so they don't maintain it a whole lot...there are potholes everywhere, meaning they can't drive more than like 10 mph (or so it seemed) for fear of running into one. The upside of the drive home: a beautiful sunset in the altiplano (this lake is at 4,000+ meters, about 12,000+ feet)

This is the front of the pyramid at Chavin de Huantar. It was a religious site for Chavin culture. If I remember correctly from the sign in front, it was built between 100-800 BC (I could be a little off on my dates). In any case, the priests would go inside the pyramid (where only people of a certain standing were allowed in) and smoke San Pedro Cactus to be closer to the gods and have visions. Later, they would carve what they had seen during their "visions" into stone tablets. Hence, there are lots of really cool, slightly creepy carvings from Chavin.

In front of the main entry way to the outside of the pyramid. The interior pillars are intricately carved: one side is a woman, which at one point was white and is supposed to represent the good; the other side is a man, and was black, and is supposed to represent the bad. (All the old culture's in Peru were all about duality and having equality and two of everything to balance out).

Chavin has a really complex system of underground canals that brought water to the site. Our guide was also saying something about the priests walking in the canals, which confused me, because if they are full of water...how can the priests walk in them? Anyways, they run throughout the entire site.

Inside the pyramid. This was by far my favorite part. It was a whole intricate labyrinth of hallways and dead ends throughout the entire pyramid. There were windows looking between the rooms, and, every once in a while, you could see a "ventilation" window with a little sliver of natural light peeking through.

Being a bad tourist and taking pictures of locals...but her hat and cape are just so cool. All the locals would tie clothes around their shoulders to protect them from the rain. Plus, the river and background are really pretty too.

An intricately carved conch shell that they found at Chavin.

One of the many interestingly carved stone tablets found at the site. I wonder WHAT exactly it was they were seeing. If those were the kind of visions I had, I think I would be pretty scared.

Back in the day, the pyramid at Chavin was covered in these heads. The Chavin culture (along with a lot of other pre-Colombian cultures) thought the feline was sacred animal. Thus, many of their divine creatures, and depictions of priests, have feline-like characteristics.

The sunset over the altiplano on the way home.

The next morning, bright and early, on our drive up the mountain. We first had to drive about 2.5 hours to even arrive at the trail head. This was one of the lakes we passed along the way. There was a group of three of them name: Mom lake, Dad lake, and baby lake (or something to that effect). The water was so turquoise and beautifully blue. The fog that was surrounding the lake just made it look that much more mysterious.

Some Andean geese in swimming in the lake. And, though it's kind of hard to see in this picture, the black bird swimming along side them has a bright blue beak! About the same color as the water...

One of many waterfalls we saw along our hike. The two main ones were named "big waterfall" and "small waterfall". We knew we were on the right track when we passed in between them. (We had a very professionally drawn hand map...saracastic, in case you can't tell, we got lost several times on the trek). We basically hiked from the bottom of this waterfall up to the top.

My extremely puffed up yogurt from going up in altitude. I could definitely feel the altitude as we went up as well. I felt like my head was expanding just like my yogurt lid... A couple of the girls actually ended up having to turn around because they got so sick from the altitude. Maya and I could both feel it quite a bit, but we both really wanted to make it up the mountain, so we pushed through. Later on that night, however, our bodies protested for putting them through so much stress.

The whole group at our destination, Lake 69. How it received that name? I have no idea, but I would like to find out. It was one of the most beautiful lakes I had ever been to. As you can see from the photo, it is a perfect blue color. There were two waterfalls on either side cascading down into the lake. Up on top was a glacier (glacier, not iceburg Mom ;), hence I think the lake is made from glacier melt, giving it that perfect blue color (that's just my guess, I'm not positive)

You can see the beautiful contrast between the green plant and the blue water. Of course, it started to rain on us on our way down the mountain...

The path turned into a waterfall. Although it is a bit hard to tell in this picture, we were basically wading through water. Although the hike was extremely rewarding, and the views were spectacular, I think everyone was happy to make it back to the car and ride the rest of the way back to Huaraz.

Coming up next: more ruins in Casma/Sechin, Chan Chan and Huacas del Sol y la Luna. The beach at Huancahco and finally...Ecuador!! This is picture of one of the rock slides on the road from Huaraz to Casma. Luckily, there were no rock slides while we were driving and we had a good driver who drove very carefully around them.

*correction from my last blog. Caral was city 5000 years before present, aka 3000 BC. Likewise for Mesopetamia and Egypt, I got my dates a little mixed up. Also, I would like to point out that following the diagram I read at Sechin, modern humans evolved 40,000 years ago. That means it took them 35,000 years to actually build anything that lasted until present day...that's a really long time!

Anyways, Huaraz was beautiful. We had wanted to go on another hike the day after Lake 69 but were both so dead tired after the previous day's hike that we just decided to head to Casma. I have to say...while I love the mountains, it's nice to be at sea level again.

Caral: La ciudad mas antigua de las Americas

Although I never learned about it in school, there was civilization in Peru that dates back from before Ancient Egypt, to 5000 BC. According to the museum we visited in Caral, Peru, the civilization that existed in Caral was established around the year 5000 BC. Mesopotamia, which we learn about in school, was in power around 5200 BC, and Ancient Egypt, which we also learn about, was in power around 4800 BC. According to Maya (she is my history expert, because she studies all about Latin America back in Santa Barbara) Caral was not as advanced as some of the other ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India), but I don't think that's any reason to leave it out of a textbook! There's still evidence that it existed.

In any case, they had a some artifacts that they had found at the site in the museum, plus we took a guided tour (it was the only way they would let us in, but it actually ended up being interesting).

The main part of the site is 5 pyramids, in a sort of semi-circular area. The upper class lived at the base of the pyramids and the middle class also lived inside the complex. The lower class, however, had to live outside of the main part of the city. We weren't allowed to visit that part, because they are doing a bunch of excavation and restoration work of the site (our "guide" was actually an archaeologist who has to give tours to tourists because they don't trust us to wander around on our own...)

During it's high point, about 3000 people were living in Caral. The civilization as a whole, however, expanded over the entire Supe Valley. While we were driving from Barranca, we saw other ruins off to the side of the road, presumably from the same civilization. However, they have only found 3 dead bodies thus far, so they think that they had a cemetery somewhere in the valley, they just haven't found where yet.

The place where we were staying, Barranca, was by far one of the skechiest places we have been (sorry Mom and Dad, didn't think I should disclose that informatin up front), but they guy who ran our hotel was really great. He always helped us grab a cab, gave us really good directions on how to get places, and would tell us where not to go. And, he wouldn't let us out at night by ourselves, he always made sure we went in a cab and that we went to a restaurant he knew. The drive to the ruins was about an hour. We first had catch a colective (shared taxi) over to the next town, and then from there, catch a colectivo to the modern day city of Caral. It was an interesting drive, though. It was my first time really being in the desert (and it's really desert there, why did all the really old civilizations decide to live in the desert??), but all along the valley floor, it was super green, which I thought was weird.

In any case, I was in awe that I was walking around one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Oh, the ruins weren't even discovered until 1994...maybe that's why I didn't learn about it in school, but Amelia and Eli's textbooks have no excuse...

After we got dropped off by the colectivo in Caral we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the ruins. The path was nice and shady (thank goodness!) and had a little stream running alongside it. Everything that was near the stream was green, everything else was brown.

Welcome to the Caral! The oldest (surviving...remaining...ruins? I'm not sure of the right word) city in the Americas!

Looking out over the pyramids. The hat that's in my hand? The hotel owner insisted that I bring it along since there is no shade at the ruins and I am very white. I was a little hesitant to wear it at first, but after doing a thorough inspection decided it was clean, and that it was hot outside, and I probably would burn my face without it (even with the copious amounts of sunscreen I applied). Besides, Maya said I looked like an archaeologist with it, haha.

Some steps leading up to one of the pyramids. We weren't allowed to climb on any of them because of the restorations :(

Maya and I in front of the most famous pyramid at Caral. Apparently it was the most "religious" one. The little circular courtyard in front apparently has some rooms underneath it where the priests used to go and have some "visions." (You an guess what they were doing down there...)

The ampitheater. I'm not exactly sure what they did there...

Me sitting on one of the sand dunes. I was going to climb farther up but was really tired after only going this far. The desert is such a crazy place.

The modern day city of Caral, not too far outside the ruins (3 km I think).

It was really fun and interesting to learn about a new civilization that existed so long ago...and most people never even learn about! The pyramids look like a mini version of how I imagine the pyramids in Egypt to look like. Hopefully someday I'll actually be able to make that comparison!

Lima: La ciudad del color de caca

In the words of the famous Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa "Lima es la ciudad del color de caca," translated: Lima, the city the color of shit. And so goes many people's view of Lima. However, Maya and I decided that we had heard of some cool things to do there, and wanted to give it a shot. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, and was pleasantly surprised. I actually think Lima is a rather pleasant city. While some parts may be the color of...well, you know...in general, I thought it was pretty, especially the parts of town on the beach and the center of town. We stayed in the part of town called "Miraflores," which is one of the upper class neighborhoods. It is perched atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean, which creates some spectacular views when it's not fogged in.

Our first night we didn't do much. We both arrived from Cusco on a plane and were tired, plus I was sick, so we just decided to go to the hostel and relax. The next day, we decided to head down to the center of town. Our roommate, a girl from Germany, told us there was a changing of the guards in front of the Palacio del Gobierno at 11:30am, so we made it in time to see that. We took Lima's "metro" downtown. It's essentially lane's that are just for the "metro bus," and it's surprisingly effective and fast, since there is a lot of traffic around the city. There are stations, just like metro stations, just instead of getting on a metro train, you get on a bus. I was impressed...way to be creative Lima. We watched the changing of the guards which took a full hour! You had to stand across the street from the Palacio and there were police all over, it was like they were expecting a riot or something during the changing. Anyways, it was fun to watch. After that, we walked around the plaza, saw the main cathedral, and walked down the paseo (a street just for pedestrians) from the Plaza de Armas to the Plaza San Martin, where everything is white: the plaza, the buildings... After that, we headed back up the Paseo to find a restaurant for lunch (set menu's are the best deal in Peru). We spent the rest of the day wandering around the center of the city. That evening, we went to Larcomar, a really nice mall on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and saw the move The Ides of March (it was really good, I recommend it). It basically discusses how awful politics and politicians in the US are.

The next day we went to an anthropology museum called Museo Larco (named after the guy who discovered a bunch of the artifacts). Maya had heard about it from one of her professor's at Santa Barbara--it was by far one of the best museums I have been to in a long time. It talks about all the ancient civilizations in Peru, apart from the Inca's (although it talks a little about the Inca's too). I had no idea that so many ancient civilizations existed! There have been civilizations in Peru since 5000 BC...aka as long as Mesopotamia and Egypt. However, they often get ignored because their societies were not as elaborate as the Incan society. There were artificats from all different regions and time periods, and I learned A LOT about the history of civilizations in the Americas. Their "temporary exhibit" was on phallic pottery, yes, sex pottery. Apparently the Moche civilization was really into fertility, so they would water their plants with things like penis pots because they believed they were giving them life. It was really hard to be mature during that exhibit.

That afternoon we tried to paragliding, but with no luck because the coast was completely fogged in. We instead made an appointment to go the next day to some mountains to the south of Lima, where it doesn't get fogged in. Instead, we went and got manicure's and pedicure's :) The manicure and pedicure were amazing after having walked around Cusco and Lima for a week and a half. On our way, we stopped and had another set lunch menu, including our first taste of Peruvian ceviche (spelled cebiche sometimes in Peru...anyone who can explain why..?) Delicious.

The next morning we got up and checked out and headed to go paragliding. We got a "tour" of the city on our way out of town, which was interesting because we left from Miraflores, one of the upper-class neighborhoods, but then had to drive through some of the poorer parts of town on our way to Pachamac (where we were paragliding). It seemed like there was an even greater contrast here than in Santiago, which was interesting.

Paragliding was amazing. I don't really know how to describe the sensation, it's like flying outside I guess. The takeoff and landing were surprisingly smooth. It was like, one minute my feet were on the ground, the next minute they weren't, and vice-versa for landing. I got to go up pretty high because the way the winds were blowing, which was awesome. We were over the town of Pachamac, plus got an ocean view...pretty cool.

Here are some pictures from Lima, in reverse order (sorry):

The view of the coast from Larcomar.

Paragliding in Pachamac. That little dot up there is me.

Manicure's and pedicure's

Posing with some manikin's in Larcomar. It's a really, really nice mall. And very obviously for the upper-class.

Some phallic fertility pottery.

Some more phallic fertility potter...there were all varities.

The "storeroom" of pottery and Museo Larco. There were 4 big rooms filled with shelves from floor to ceiling which were filled with pottery from different civilizations. It was really impressive. These are some of the few pots they have found of women.

Some of the wear of the nobility. They had their choice of gold or silver, sometimes embedded with other precious stones. In most ancient cultures in Peru, gold and silver were regarded as equally precious metals. I just can't imagine wearing those nose and earring pieces...

Some of the pottery from the oldest civilizations. They can date how old the pottery is by things such as how many spouts it has, how long the spouts are, how the pottery is glazed, and what the pottery is depicting. I think that is quite impressive. Also, it was stunning how elaborate some of the early pottery was.

Maya and I in the Plaza de Armas. Why are the buildings are yellow...I don't know. Maybe that's where Lima gets its reputation for being the color de caca.

Changing of the guards in front of the Palacio del Gobierno. There was a live band and a march. In this part, everyone had a mini Peruvian flag and it almost looked like they were about to start charging each other with flags in hand. They didn't however, and instead turned toward the front of the Palace and changed the guards.

The Lost City: Machu Picchu

After taking the taxi from Cusco to Ollayantaytambo, we took the train from Ollay to Aguas Calientes, or "Machu Picchu City," because it is the city where everyone stays to go to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes is a tiny town, you can walk across the whole city in about 5 or 10 minutes. Everything is aimed at tourism since it is the entry point to Machu Picchu. All the same, it was cute and not a bad place to stay for a few nights. The first day, we decided to hike up to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calienetes is in a valley at the BOTTOM of the mountains, Machu Picchu is set at the TOP of those same mountains. It took about an hour and half for us to walk from our hostel to the entrance: 30 minutes from town to the "trailhead" and then one hour up stairs straight up the side of a mountain. It was a really beautiful hike though. And, of course, since it's rainy season right now, it rained on us the whole hike up in the morning and the whole hike down in the afternoon. We didn't count, but some Argentinian's told us that there were 1,460 (or something like that) stairs from the bottom to the top of the mountain. In any case, there were a LOT, and with the altitude, about 8,000 feet above sea level, it was quite a hike.

However, when we arrived and got our first glance of the city, I was in awe. Three best words to sum up how I felt: INCREDIBLE, AWESOME, INSPIRING. It's just so crazy to think that the Inca's built this city before there was all the technology available and everything. And just how intricate the city is, wow. The city was a lot different than any of the Aztec and Mayan ruins I have been to, more city-like and less pyramid-y. Anyways, I could go on and on about how much I loved Machu Picchu, but I'll just show some photos instead to try and transmit how amazing the ruins are.

Our train from Ollayantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. It was pretty nice even though it was the "cheap" train. It took us an hour and a half to go 27 miles, or so the announcement told us. But, the views were spectacular because we were going through the incredible, green mountains the whole time. As the automatic announcement on the train told us, "you will be able to see copious amounts of vegetation" :) You have to love those translations.

First view of the city with Maya. The part behind us is the main part of the city, with all the practical, city stuff. Maya informed me (she has studied ancient civilizations) that Machu Picchu was built as a "vacation home" for the Incan emperor. WOW.

At the sun gate. Apparently the "proper" entry into Machu Picchu.

See those roads zigzaging below? The stairs we hiked up cut through the middle of those roads. This picture doesn't do justice to how steep the mountain is.

The main entryway into the main part of the city.

Hanging out inside the city. These were the people I spent time with in Cusco: me, Karen, Lewis and Maya.

Looking out over the mountains and valley. The Inca's had a pretty nice view from their windows.

Enjoying looking out over the city. A lot of the ruins have been reconstructed to make the city look more complete, so it's hard to tell what is actually original. But it's quite impressive to see how the city may have actually looked (minus the roofs)

Llamas grazing in the main plaza of the city. They are "imported" (aka, they put them there for tourism sake) to demonstrate that even back in the days of the Inca, they used llamas to transport good.

Hanging out in some of the windows up near the observatory.

Look at how close together all the rocks in the walls are...impressive. Apparently the didn't really even use anything to hold them together, like we would today. Also, imagine even putting those rocks in place...I know I'm not strong enough.

Well, there are a few of my favorite pictures from our first day :) I can understand why it's called "the Lost City" for two reasons (I don't actually know the real reason...): it is buried so high up in the mountains that why would be wandering up there and also during the rainy season, it is constantly covered by clouds, making it really hard to see. It's more like the "disappearing city" during rainy season.

Cusco: the land of the Incas

Well I am skipping a lot of my summer adventures in hopes of trying to stay somewhat caught up with my tirp that I am now on: Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. I have been waiting for and planning this trip practically since I arrived in Chile, so it is pretty awesome that it has all been able to come together :)

On the night of the 20th, I said goodbye to my Mom, Amelia and Eli. It was definitely really hard, I wasn't ready for them to leave yet. But, we had a great time while they were down here and I am so happy they got to come visit me. Then, on the night of the 21st, I headed out. Although it was hard to say goodbye to Santiago and everyone there for 5 weeks, I was really, really excited for my trip.

I first took a plane from Santiago to Lima and spent th e first night in Lima. It was quite uneventful since I only had about 12 hours I didn't really go anywhere, just to my hotel by the airport, and then back to airport in the morning. But then, I was off on the first part of my adventure: Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Flying into Cusco was gorgeous. First we crossed over the Andes, then into the valley of Cusco. Everything around the city is GREEN, that was the first thing that I noticed. And all of the roofs in the city are red, making a really nice contrast. Coming in for landing, we made a really tight turn around one of the mountains and then landed in what appeared to be the middle of the city.

My first afternoon in Cusco we didn’t do much. I took a taxi from the airport to downtown (funny story about that…I decided to take a taxi from the inside the airport since only “official taxi’s” are allowed inside the airport proper and I had heard horror stories of people being violently assaulted in taxis in Peru. But, I tried to bargain with the guy to take me for s./10 instead of the s./15 he was trying to get me to pay. He told me it would be s/12 if I went out the street for a taxi—a total lie, but that’s okay—so I just decided to pay the s./15 for my peace of mind. When we got to the Plaza de Armas, where he was taking me, I only had a s/10 bill or an s/50 bill. He didn’t have change for s/50, so after thinking for about a minute and trying to find a way to get change, he gave it to me for s/10 anyways J ) As soon as I was standing in the plaza I realized what everyone meant when they said that Cusco is a beautiful city. It really is gorgeous…all the architecture, the way the streets are laid out. Maya and I had decided we would meet in front of the church at 1pm, and it was only about 12:15, so I sat down on a bench to do some people watching. Of course, after being there for about 20 minutes, it started to rain, so I had to run over to the overhang on the edge of the Plaza and squint towards the church hoping to see Maya. Luckily, I met up with her without a problem. She was traveling with two other people: a friend from England and a friend from Australia. Both were really cool and easy to travel with, and we all had a great time.

We decided we were going to go to Machu Picchu for 2 days, leaving the on Tuesday and returning on Thursday. Monday morning we spent running around to all the different agencies getting tickets, etc (of course nothing is in the same place…) We got everything worked out, train tickets in hand, Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu tickets, hostel reservation in Aguas Calientes, taxi from Cusco to Ollyantatambo (where the train leaves from) and our “tourist ticket” for the Sacred Valley (all the other ruins and museums in and around Cusco).

We had initially been planning to hike up to a ruin called Saqusaywaman (acronym “Sexy Woman,” real meaning “Satisfied Hawk” in Quechua) but because it was so late by the time we finished everything and we were all hungry, we decided to go to museums in the city for that day and climb Saqusaywaman when we came back to Cusco. We ended up going to three museum that day: Contemporary Art, the Museum of Qoricancha (some old Incan ruins in the city) and the chocolate museum.

This is the big church I met Maya in front of. It is HUGE, and I think by far the most elegant building in all of Cusco. I didn’t actually get to go inside because you have to get a separate ticket (they charge for EVERYTHING in Cusco), but just the outside was gorgeous. Also, there are church-like buildings about every other block in Cusco (on the Plaza de Armas itself there are two), I’m not really sure why there are so many. The “real” church (aka the one that is open for masses and such) is not actually on the main plaza, it’s about a block off of it. We did get to go inside that one, and it was also really beautiful.

There were lots of interesting paintings and sculptures inside. This is one of my favorites, depicting Machu Picchu in the clouds. It looks so mysterious and hidden, and I’m sure you can you understand why it is called the “lost city” if it’s always covered in layer of clouds! (Which is was for most of the day when we were there, since it's the rainy season.)

Here is the outside of the Art Museum. It’s in a smaller plaza located about a block off the main plaza. As I said, the architecture in Cusco is amazing and this building is just one example. On top is the Incan flag (not gay pride, as all guide books tell you), which is flown next to the Peruvian flag all around the Sacred Valley.

This is the site of Qoricancha. The big black-ish wall is the remains of the wall the Incas built, the church behind is what the conquistadores built. I believe that it was a Temple of the Sun, but I’m not completely sure. Inside the museum were artifacts they had found from around the valley…including Incan mummies!

This a delicious Peruvian dish called Aji de Gallina. It is kind of like yellow curry, except thicker. Peruvian cuisine is AMAZING. So many delicious foods and flavors. And the best part? You can get a set lunch menu for s/10-15, aka $3-5, for a lot of yummy food.

On the drive from Cusco to Ollyantaytambo. We decided to hire a taxi to take us because it was only about $2 more each, and then we could go on our time schedule. the drive between the two towns was breathtaking. We drove up through mountains and all around us were green hills and deep valleys. This is just a small glance at the incredible scenary. It just seemed like everywhere we turned the landscape got even more incredible.

The first visitors

As the end of my first semester came to a close, my first visitors came into town: my Dad and Gray. I cannot explain how wonderful it was to see some familiar faces from home. While I love Santiago and my friends here, it's always amazing to see your family and old friends from home. Anyways, I ended up having to meet up with them at my apartment because I had a test the day the arrived (lame), but everything worked out rather smoothly for them getting from the airport to my apartment (minus a minor taxi mishap that was easily fixed, thank goodness). I only got to see them for 24 hours because then they headed out to Buenos Aires for a few days, which actually ended up working out perfectly because I had my finals to finish up.

In any case, the end of the semester in Chile wasn't too different from any other end of the semester: stressful, lots of tests and essays. One nice surprise did happen though: I showed up to one of my exams only to be told I didn't have to take it because I had a high enough grade in the class! I guess that is sort of a common thing here, and it was definitely a huge sigh of relief for me. Other than that, everything ended up going pretty well at the end of the semester. I now that I passed all my classes...another good sign ;)

When my Dad and Gray got back from Buenos Aires we took a few days to check out the city. We walked around my neighborhood and downtown area, and I did my best to share the knowledge I had of the city. I felt a little bad, because I kept having to leave them to go do school stuff, but I tried to get stuff done the quickest I could to enjoy maximum time. It was kind of weird taking people around the city, and realizing how well I actually do know the city now, and how, just by chance of living there, I have already seen most of the major tourist sites.

One of my favorite nights that we spent together was Thanksgiving. I had my last final the morning of Thanksgiving (which was weird to have school on Thanksgiving), which was actually nice because the I could enjoy the evening and not be stressing out about school that night. We all shopping at La Vega, the big open air vegetable market in Santiago, for the freshiest veggies for dinner. Then we hopped on the metro and went to one of the biggest supermarkets in town (called Jumbo) to find the rest of our supplies. All and all, we were fairly successful in finding everything. Once we were loaded up, we headed back to my place to cook. My kitchen, and especially my oven, are not of the highest quality, so we had to do our best with what we had.

Gray and I prepared most of the food (mostly Gray teaching me what to do...), and surprisingly, there were no major mishaps :) We made some of the traditional foods and improvised some of the others: chicken (instead of turkey), cooked veggies, salad, beans and bacon, potatoes, pie... We had scheduled to have dinner at 8, so of course no one showed up until 9, which actually ended up working out well because the food was all ready at the point.

It was a really fun Thanksgiving, even if it was not the traditional one. I'm so glad that my Dad and Gray could be there to share it with me and that they were willing to prepare a big dinner and invite people over, in the Thanksgiving spirit. And, I'm so grateful that Gray was there to help prepare everything or I would have been completely lost! We were the only United Statsiens (I can't say Americans anymore, it has been drilled in to me down here), so for everyone else it was there first Thanksgiving, which I think made it all the more special and fun. We had Ivan and his parents, my roommate Pauline, Barbara and Eduardo (Barbara is the amazing woman who I stayed with when I first arrived in Santiago). Everyone seemed to get along, which was a huge relief, and the night passed quickly with a mixture of talk in English and Spanish.

Somehow, Gray's time in South America came to an end way to quickly. It seemed like she had just gotten there when it was time for her to hop on a plane back up north again. It was so much fun to spend time with her and my Dad in Santiago and I'm so grateful they got the chance to come down and visit me and I was able to show them a little piece of my life in South America :)

After Gray headed back, I had one more essay to write, which of courese I put off until the last minute (not totally my fault, my teacher kept pushing back the due date so I kept putting of writing it) until finally it was 12 hours before my Dad and I were supposed to get on a plane to Bolivia and I had still only written a paragraph...So, I ended up staying up rather late the night before finishing my essay, BUT I finished in time and got it sent off to my professor and a friend to print it and turn it in for me.

The morning before my Dad and I left, we tried to go get visas from the Bolivian consulate. However, they didn't have any (how a consulate cannot have visas, I do not understand. I think the only explanation is that Chileans don't need them to enter Bolivia, and not very many US citizens try and get them in Santiago). So, after a nice scenic trip to the Bolivian embassy, we were on the metro to the airport...

(for those who didn't realize the post below this one is also new even though it says it's from November, just FYI)