what's goin' on

Well it's still winter here, and still cold, but spring is around the corner! I have been told that mid-/late-September is when the weather perks up, and there are lots of flowering trees already in bloom!  Some have lovely little pink blossoms that remind me of all the cherry trees in DC, and there is an overwhelming number of trees covered in these neon yellow flower pods.  They are everywhere! In fact, there is a light covering of neon yellow pollen dust over all the streets in town.  It actually looks kind of cool on the sidewalks after it rains, because it pools into different swirly patterns and then dries on the concrete like that once the water evaporates (like marbled paper, but on the sidewalk). These pictures don't do them justice but they're all I have so far--the next time it's nice and sunny out I will try to get some better ones!

outside of town the fields are just chock-full of these trees.
that's the shadow of my bus in the bottom left! 

I also went this past Saturday to visit a nearby volunteer for her host sister's birthday party.  Ainsley and I met here through the program last semester, but she's actually from Columbus, IN, so we live less than an hour away back in the states! Small freaking world. She is living in a town called Traiguén, which is about an hour and a half from Angol. I had never been there before but it's a very cute town! And her host family was very sweet and welcoming, and we had a great time at their party.  The next day I got a little tour of the town and we walked up to the cemetery on a hill behind town.  I was caught slightly off-guard by how huge and ornate the graves are, and how well-kept most of them seemed.  They aren't just headstones; the whole plot is covered in concrete or marble, and many of them were covered in flowers if not actually planted with flowers like a little concrete garden bed. 

at the bottom of the hill were several little booths with gorgeous fresh flowers to take to loved ones' graves

I mean, look at that perfectly manicured garden-within-a-tombstone! I found myself wondering if it's a Latin American cultural thing to revere the graves themselves so much as a reflection of loved ones who have passed on. I know we certainly hear about that in regards to the Day of the Dead in Mexico, but I hadn't thought of it here in Chile.  Maybe I will ask my host family.  But yeah, I had a great time in Traiguén with Ainsley! Next time hopefully she'll be able to come to Angol : ) 

At school everything is going smoothly.  The freshmen are getting ready to give their group presentations on different technological innovations (in English!), the sophomores just finished mastering "may" & "might" and are moving onto combining past simple & past continuous ("I was walking down the street when I saw a llama"), the juniors are on a unit about natural disasters, and the seniors are working on a project.  They have to rewrite the lyrics to a popular song in English, so that they still rhyme and still make sense but are about something different than the original song. There have been some pretty clever results so far! Next they will have to make their new song into a music video. Very much looking forward to those...  

Also looking forward to September!  The second week of the month is my school's anniversary week. All schools in Chile celebrate their anniversaries, and the students have a week of ceremonies and activities and contests and parties.  I can't wait to see them! And then the following week is Chilean Independence Day, when everybody gets the entire week off of school/work to just party and celebrate for 8 days straight.  I imagine it's like if St. Patty's Day, New Year's Eve, and the Fourth of July were all rolled into the same week.  I, however, will not be here for it. What could be better than St. Patty's Day, New Year' Eve, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one, you ask? I'm going home to attend the first wedding in the family! My cousin is getting married in Chicago so I am flying directly there the day before, then spending 4 days in Indy afterwards before flying back down here to Chile.  I cannot wait to see Mom and Dad and Cal and Hen and Lil (and Lucy) (and my dear friends)! : )  : )  : ) 

Llama seeking friend

Last week I was pleased to come across Mr. Llama (Mrs.?) again after school, this time using the sidewalk like a civilized member of the community! He's really making strides to become a better neighbor.  Unfortunately, the dogs behind the fence did not appreciate his efforts, and they were going crazy barking at him. He maintained his usual stoic calm, but I could tell he felt dejected. Poor llama! He must be so lonely with only boring cows and unfriendly dogs to keep him company. Maybe that's why he's been edging his way into the human world, getting all up in our space so that we will accept him as one of our own.  Keep trying, llama.  

Empanadas + Partytime

Last week was my host parents' 20th wedding anniversary and also a four-day weekend, so there was quite a bit planned. Various extended family was coming into town and we were going to have a party on Saturday night. Ohhh yeahhh, a party. We did a lot of prep in the days leading up, making little dessert treats and decorating the house and whatnot.  But my host mom, aunt, and grandma also took some time to make empanadas just for us. Well, they made a batch of big empanadas for the house on Thursday and then a lot of tiny little cheese empanadas for the party on Saturday.  As always, I was fascinated watching the process. Here's what I sat in on Thursday afternoon: 

So here's their system: they prepare the dough and filling beforehand (I didn't see that part). These are empanadas de pino, so the filling is a beef and onion combination, with hard-boiled eggs and sometimes olives (not this time).  Grandma rolls each circle of dough to the appropriate thickness, then Yeny spoons the filling into the center, adds one little piece of hard-boiled egg to each, and folds the dough over (she has a little bowl of water that she dips her finger in to make the edge of the dough circle sticky when she folds it). Then Aunt Betty does the fork-pressing thing around the edges to make sure they are sealed adequately, because the next step (not shown here) is to fry them! Empanadas can either be baked or fried, and you see both pretty equally here in Chile, but Thursday they went with fried. 

This process was repeated on Saturday, but with smaller dough circles and just cheese filling. Delicious! Another aunt also made several cakes (THERE WERE FOUR CAKES) and I helped out with some marshmallow shish-kabobs (see below!) and some little cookie balls called cocadas.

a festive touch! 

So Saturday evening we all went to mass because Yeny and Vlady were receiving a special anniversary blessing from the priest, and afterwards everybody came back to the house.  I was pretty amazed that they managed to fit over 50 people in the front room! We did a champagne toast (with lemon sorbet, very yummy) and ate all the little finger foods and then they took the tables out so that everybody could dance.  I didn't take any pictures with my camera that night, partly because so many other people were taking pictures and partly because I just wanted to enjoy the party.  I learned to dance to Chilean cumbia music (which all sounds the same to me, unfortunately), and was introduced to this song called La Escoba.  Basically, it's just a very goofy, very fast-paced song, and whenever it comes on you have to go crazy and jump and holler and do conga lines and switch directions and start dance circles and it's just madness but it's so much fun!  I wish I had a video of it, but just take a listen and picture a whole room of people acting silly:

And while I do know that more pictures were taken, they have not yet surfaced on social media so I have limited access to photos from the night!  Here's one that captures the mood of the Escoba pretty well, and I will pass along more when they appear : ) 

That would be my host parents stuck in the middle of the Escoba mob.  Happy Anniversary Yeny & Vlady! I had a fantastic time, 'twas a smashing success! : ) 

Harlem Shake

As promised, here's the video my camp staff team made  :) 

Unfortunately (but not entirely unexpectedly), that floor and carpet were suuuuper dirty and I had to take a shower immediately after this to get the dirt out of my hair. Good times though! 

Meanwhile, on my side of town...

Have you ever heard a cat in heat? I guess I thought that was just a saying. Until I came here. I had been warned a while back that August is the month all the lady cats just scream at all hours of the night and day, but I was still caught offguard the first time I heard it, and in fact I am still caught offguard every time I hear it! It sounds like wailing toddlers, and when I hear it my ears prick up and I feel like I should go check just to make sure it's not some small child who got hurt playing outside. Every time. Last night as I was trying to fall asleep I could hear three on our street alone. When will people start spaying and neutering their pets hereeeeee?!

Also, just to lighten the mood, a llama update for you!  Walking home from school I found him just sunbathing in the middle of the road, soaking up rays and the attention of passersby. I'm fascinated by how his little legs just tuck up in there.  He looks so proud!  

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

Stuff happened in Angol

Well I may have mentioned before that my region (similar to states in the U.S.), Araucanía, has the highest concentration of Mapuche people in the country.  The Mapuche are the largest Native American group in the southern portion of Chile (and Argentina a little), and, much like Native American groups in the U.S., their relationship and history with the government is a bit rocky.  They want rights to their old land (Araucanía) and autonomy, among other things, and unfortunately there are a lot of violent police-Mapuche confrontations.  I am trying to remain as objective as possible here, though a lot of the people here who have explained this issue to me were far from objective.

So far I had not seen any of this conflict myself.  I have not, admittedly, seen that many Mapuche people at all, because Angol is not nearly as associated with the Mapuche community as other places in the region.  But I have seen, of course, general cultural influences; various words in the Mapuche language are used by Chileans in everyday vocabulary--like "wawa" for "baby"--and there are Mapuche artesanal markets in the larger cities and towns around here.  But last week the Mapuche conflict came to Angol. 

Early last week a Mapuche man was found dead on the side of the road a few towns over, killed by a gunshot wound.  Given their history with the police ("carabineros") and the fact that, apparently, the road was used almost exclusively by the local police, the Mapuche community suspected (blamed) a police officer for the murder.  The police, who had brought the body here to Angol for investigation, denied any connection.  A large group of representatives of the Mapuche community came to Angol to retrieve the body and take it back with them, and to make something of a processional rally out of it. They were sympathetic gatherings in the regional capital, Temuco, and in Santiago.  One thing led to another here, and the group became violent, and windows were smashed and cars and shops were bashed.  The town center was blocked off, and police turned on the water cannons and there was a general melee.  These photos are from the following news story: http://www.canaldenoticias.cl/2013/08/07/graves-incidentes-en-el-centro-de-angol-tras-traslado-de-cuerpo-de-comunero-asesinado/

But not to worry! No one was seriously injured, and everything in Angol went back to being quiet and peaceful by the afternoon.  I was at school all day and didn't even know anything had happened until I got home (and my host mom casually mentioned the town center had been blocked off because there was a Mapuche thing). Angol sees hardly any conflict, Mapuche or otherwise, and this only happened here because this was the nearest legal medical center for the police to bring the body that morning.  So, as intrigued as I was, there's very little chance of any sort of repeat confrontation here.  [Read: no reason to worry, mom!]

Peru Travels: Extra Anecdotes

Ok, with more time to gather my thoughts I have remembered various little things that I left out in my story that you may appreciate. In no particular order, really:

- in Peru they eat guinea pigs*, or, as they call them, cuyes ("coo-eez") but they also celebrate them. We kept coming across cuy paraphernalia, like shirts and bumper stickers with cartoon cuyes on them doing funny things.  Best of all, they sell little stuffed cuy dolls make with alpaca fur, that are some of the softest, cutest things I have ever felt. So even though we were a little weirded out by the cuys-are-so-cute-that-we-also-eat-them operation goin' on, we fell in love with the little cuyes (and also with saying with word "cuy"). 

- In Cuzco our airport transfer didn't show up, so we shared a cab with a pleasant Argentinian lady who was in the same boat as us. We agreed to the total price of 30 soles for the 4 of us and were dismayed to see that her contribution was just 5 soles.  I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt--maybe she's just shit at mental math! But our cab driver actually scolded her for cheating us and she still stuck by her measly 5 soles, so as soon as she got out the cab driver went on a nice long rant about how Argentinians are always pulling crap like that, them and the Israelis, won't fork out the money that something is worth because they think they shouldn't have to pay it, blah blah blah casual racism colliding with cultural differences. We were politely laughing along and eventually he shifted to a more positive topic: how great Cuzco is! "Tourists are completely safe here, no one ever steals anything. The only thing they might steal is your heart!" Do they teach all cab drivers to give that spiel to gringo girls arriving from the airport, or does this guy deserve his own TV show? 

- As I mentioned, we got up super early for The Big Day and left our hostel to get in line for the bus around 4:15am. As we're trotting down the street, a girl opens a door to hop in the building to our right and bumpin' club music and flashing lights pour out onto the sidewalk where we're walking. We were super disoriented for a second and then realized, yes, that is a nightclub, and yes, some people are still awake from yesterday and are in fact partying in that nightclub as we are on our way to head up to some Inca ruins. Worlds collide! 

- The train rides were an interesting experience. One of the better moments came when we were waiting in line to board and the man in front of me, who was travelling by himself and had some European accent that I couldn't place, turned around to ask me excitedly if this was "the train that went UP Machu Picchu?" He did a fantastic hand gesture to go along with it, his hand going diagonally up a mountain like he imagined this train was going to do. I had to let him down easy and explain that no, this train did not go up the mountain, it took us to the town at the foot of the mountain. "And then there's another train that goes UP Machu Picchu?" Hand gesture again. No, sir, I'm sorry, there is no train that goes UP Machu Picchu. "So this is the only train?" This is the only train. He looked a little heartbroken. I can't blame him--how awesome would it be to have a train going UP Machu Picchu??

- One of our more troubling mornings was spent in the Cuzco airport. When we first got there they tried to convince us to switch to another flight (if we change to tomorrow we get $50!) and we politely refused, but it turned out that our flight was over an hour late anyway. The Cuzco airport only has 5 gates, and all five were being used by other flights that also had boarding and departure times close to ours but were not ours. The gate we were first assigned was actually boarding for a flight later than ours, but when I asked the lady if we were in the right place her answer was, "I don't know, I don't work for that company." The only person in the terminal who did work for our airline was busy boarding passengers onto another flight so we waited and waited, and there were a lot of us waiting, and eventually tempers flared. An hour and a half later they shuffled us to a different gate and we were able to board, and... what?... what's this?... first class?? Yes. We had been bumped up to first class without realizing it.  Our patience had paid off and we got to sip orange juice and watch HBO and eat fancy grilled vegetables while the plebeians were herded like cattle into the rear.  IT WAS SO SATISFYING. 

- Ok mom, this last one is for you. Our last morning in Peru we had an early flight leaving Lima, and since the airport is almost an hour outside of Lima that meant getting up and hitting the road EARLY. We had arranged a cab through our hostel for 5am, and were outside waiting for it when we got a nice vision of just how well-policed the neighborhood of Miraflores is.  A group of teenagers were walking past, not causing any trouble or acting drunk or anything, just a big group of them heading somewhere, and a cop car was also driving past. As we watched them head down the street it clicked in my head that the cop car was just tailing them! He was just following right behind them, slow as you please.  What does that tell us? #1 they don't mess around here. #2 there was literally nothing more pressing for the police to attend to than tailing some teenagers.  As if we needed further proof, once our cab came and we were on our way another cop showed up and pulled us over. Why?  "Just to check in on the security of the ladies." Whaaaaat. YOU have a nice day, sir.  Mom I swear this is true haha



* and no I did NOT try one. you know me well enough by now. 

Wild Animals Barrelling Towards Maddie: Machu Picchu Edition

The story is not as great as the photo.  This guy was making his sweet little way along the tiers where we were waiting for the sunrise, and I got a little too excited about taking his picture when he just really wanted to eat the grass directly where I was standing.

Llamas. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, am I right?? 

Peru Travels, Part IV: Machu Picchu

3:45am-- We wake up. The Big Day has arrived.
4:15-- We get in line for the buses to go up to the ruins.  We have a while to wait, but multiple people have told us that you have to get there this early to get in the first bunch of buses going out.
5:30-- We make it onto the first bus heading up the mountain, still in the dark.  We pass groups of people who are walking up the mountain, but that takes 2 hours and we have decided that's not worth our energy and we want to be at the top in time to see the sun rise [this turns out to be wise].  It takes about 20 minutes to get up there and then we wait to be let in...

not even sleepy because we're so excited!

6:00-- They open the gates at the base of the ruins to let us stream in and we head for high ground! The sky is getting lighter but the sun has not yet broken over the mountains--we have about an hour till that happens. 

my very first view of Machu Picchu!

We do some exploring and find a spot to camp out and eat breakfast while we wait. I make my first llama friend.

everybody is waiting for the light to hit the ruins

~7:30ish-- the sunlight has finally crept its way into the valley and to the ruins, and we are incredibly glad we are here to see it! 

~8-- we set off around the left side of the mountain we are on (Machu Picchu Mountain; Waynu Picchu is the opposite peak we are looking at from here) to see the Inca Bridge, a narrow path across a sheer rock face that the Incas used to take.  Tourists can walk partway along it but the most dangerous part is blocked off, for good reason (apparently an Argentinian died there last year trying to cross it).

yeah we're happy right here, no need to go any further

We make our way back to the ruins and around the the other side of the mountain to take another, much longer, trail to the Sun Gate at the eastern-most point of the valley.

oh yeah, also I make another llama friend

~10-- we fiiiinally reach the Sun Gate, not having realized how far away it was. But it's a pretty sweet view...

We relax here for a bit to take in the sun and eat another snack. The sun is out in full force, and it is occurring to us that we're seeing a lot of people wearing hats and sunscreen but we have neither.  We keep our heads down and hope for the best but we can already tell we're getting burned. In our defense, we are drinking plenty of water and staying well-nourished (well, one of the other girls is not doing this as much and it's going to catch up with her later). 

We head back to the ruins and spend the next couple of hours exploring everything down there, being told we are not following the directed path, and posing for goofy pictures.  In order to climb either of the mountains (Machu Picchu, which we have hiked around but not up, and Waynu Picchu on the opposite side) you need special tickets which we did not buy, so those aren't options but we see just about everything else there is to see up there! 

two more llama friends!

12:45ish-- it's getting cloudy and we're getting tired, so we head back down the mountain after our 7ish hours up there.  Our compromise for having taken the bus in the morning is that we will walk down, but even heading down takes us an hour and a half!  We're exhausted and burnt but absolutely thrilled with our day.  

Getting back to Aguas Calientes, finally

~2:45--we have to gather our things from our old hostel and move them to a different hostel for the night (booking problems!) but we have a private room this time, with our own bathroom, so it's worth it. Showers, naps, etc. then we head for a bite to eat.  

sunburned beauties

We have decided in advance that this afternoon we are going to Treat Ourselves, but we are so tired that by the time it gets dark (around 6) we are actually pretty delirious and can't do much but go back to our room. We are knocked out by 8pm.

(I barely remember taking this picture, that's how out of it we were)

Ok, so *Reflections*

We were obviously expecting the ruins to wow us, but they were even more amazing than we had expected.  Unfortunately, there isn't really any way to describe or capture in a picture the experience of being up there.  The whole day I kept thinking about how much I wished my family members could have been there to see it too, because I knew they would love it just as much as I did. And in addition to just the ruins, the setting itself was enough to take my breath away. I hadn't thought about what the surrounding forest would be like, but it's a jungle! We felt like we had stepped back in time into some sort of ancient hidden wild place (Caroline kept throwing out Jurassic Park), and the wispy clouds when we first got up there only made it more surreal.  There were a lot of tourists there, especially as the day wore on, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. For one thing, the area is a lot bigger than it appears, so there were still plenty of spots to hike to for secluded views and quiet thinking time.  Also, there was no trash anywhere, or obnoxious signs or other modern additions (other than the occasional arrow pointing you in the right direction), which I appreciated.  As exhausted as we were, we weren't sore at all the next day (aside from our sunburns, which were pretty bad).  All in all, I don't think there's anything I would have changed or done differently about how we saw it, other than possibly getting the extra tickets for hiking up the mountains. We didn't have a tour guide, obviously, so we had to make our own guesses about various things, but we preferred having the freedom to wander wherever/whenever we wanted as opposed to being stuck with a large group.  I do wish I had read more about the ruins and the Incas beforehand, just to appreciate the specific history of it as we were up there. But it's really impossible to make any complaints about the experience; it was fantastic! I really do hope all my family members get the chance to see it some day : )   

Peru Travels, Part III: Getting to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes)

So, as I said, we took a van/bus out of Cuzco. The whole surrounding area is beautiful hilly farmland, with high peaks in the distance. We saw someone paragliding!

That van took us to Ollantaytambo, which is a town in the Sacred Valley, which just means there are a lot of Inca ruins in the area. Because of scheduling things we didn't have time to look around there, just went directly to catch our train to Aguas Calientes.  I'd never actually travelled by train before! It was a real, chuggachuggachoochoo, steam train and it went pretty damn slowly but I realized that was because it was winding around mountains.  We followed the path of the Urubamba River through the valley, and there were ceiling windows so that we could enjoy the views along the way. It got pretty hot in there with the afternoon sun and those ceiling windows.  Still, I thought it was very nice. Here it is, plus a video so you can get a feel for it, and an example of the gorgeous scenery along the way:

It's like you were right there with me! We made it to Aguas Calientes, which is not even really a functioning town so much as just the overnight point for tourists going to or coming from Machu Picchu. It's nestled in the valley straddling a river and built around the railroad tracks.  Every direction up is huge rock, and it would be a charming little place if not for the near-constant stream of Peruvians shoving menus in your face trying to get you to come eat at their restaurant.  We were accosted to sit down and eat dinner while we were very visibly lugging all our bags and things up the hill to our hostel. No thanks, sir, we're a little busy, if you can't tell. 

Plaza Mayor

restaurant row

We got to bed early that night and were quite pleased to discover our hostel had the most comfortable beds we had felt so far in Peru.  Which was a good thing, because the next day was The Big Day... 

p.s. If anyone is interested in getting a better grasp on the various ways to reach Machu Picchu, this was the best website we found that explained everything adequately for us: http://www.leaplocal.org/goinglocal/how-to-go-local-in-peru/how-to-get-to-machu-picchu/