Caldera / Bahia Inglesa, Chile (Days 7 to 10)

 Currently writing from Cuzco, Peru (March 1st, 2012) about the very distant past (Jan 23rd to Jan 26th) as I am very far behind in my blog, yet all has been written in my journal and remains fresh in mind:

We arrive to Caldera, Chile and want to get out of the city and into the tranquility of the beach as we were kind of exhausted of buildings after Santiago...We arrive to Bahia Inglesa to run into our first experience of mochileros (backpackers) caught in a tight squeeze or quilombo (chaotic situation), as we find out it is a quite touristic beach and every where cost crazy amounts of money to sleep...Luckily we spot some tents and find out that we can camp for $20 a night on the beach, which is expensive for camping, but beautiful nonetheless as the tent is much preferrable to any bed and the stars are better than any light...The beach itself is beautiful, but the water is cold and filled with jelly fish, literally thousands and half are dead and smell horrible...yet we find a part of the beach that is pretty and has less jelly fish and i take the risk of the cold and sting of the jellyfishes and jump into the beach rapidly and jump out even faster with the fear of tentacles running through my head literally/figuratively...we spend a lot of time relaxing, reading, playing cards, and Matkot!!! (or the israeli name for paddle ball on the beach!)...I am happy, relaxes, but ready for some "harder/rougher" and more rewarding situations.

Santiago, Chile (Day 4 to 7)

Santiago, Chile...Writing 1-22-2012

Oh Santiago, I wish I could have stayed with you longer than 3 days. Very small in comparison to Buenos Aires or Mexico City, but nonetheless the capital and most populated city in Chile...And, just as any city should be, it is filled with art, culture, and progressive movements....But, these progressive movements, and the street riots for change, led mostly by university students, but also many parents of those students, is held back by what still stinks in the air from 17 years of dictatorship (1973-1990)...Many are fighting, have been fighting since 1990, through street protest and literature, to recover all that was lost during the dictatorship and could have been made a reality if Salvadore Allende, the democratically elected president, was not murdered the day the dictatorship began in 1973...Nai and I had planned to go to the Salvadore Allende museum in Santiago, but we got lost and ended up in The Museum of History and Human Rights...It was important to see this museum as it mostly covered the view of Salvadore Allende, his ousting by a military coup, the years during the dictatorship led by Pinochet, and how the dictatorship ended...But it was difficult to take in, as some of the methods of the dictatorship reminded me of what I have seen in Holocaust museums, where detention camps were set up throughout remote regions of Chile for any one that showed the slightest disposition against Pinochet´s dictatorship, and disposition there was, as at least half the country had expected Salvadore Allende to be their president...Primary documents in the museum showed that many family members had been stolen or dissapeared during the dictatorship to never be seen again, or at best, those that were stolen were able to send generic fill in the blank letters to their family while they were held in detention camps...Yet the worst of the dictatorship was the extermination of ideas, particularly those of Salvadore Allende...Walking the streets today in Chile, murals on any random street scream for the stop of private, foreign mines in Chile, reading the newspapers or walking through the university and talking to students, you sense that the recent, nearly nation-wide manifestations for reform to the education system (no more tuition, fairly distributed school funds, etc.) are still very alive...Yet, the current chilean president, Piñera, refused to accept the request of the students to reform the education system...And many of the young of Chile today, fight against what they call neoliberalism, or a democracy that fails to listen or react to the people´s request, the people saying that what they are living with today are remnants of the dictatorship...Free education is something that is not thought about much in the U.S, as the day you are born your family begins a piggy bank for your college funds, in other words, tuition is expected to be paid...However, in Chile, which has Argentinian neighbours, and other nearby countries with free education and free health, the students of today are questioning the tuition that they must pay, as well as the distribution of greater funds to schools that perform better in nation wide exams (which only continues cycling funds to schools that perform well, while those that perform poorly fail to recieve support to improve)...I find this topic interesting, the fact that some countries have free education and free health, while others do not. Two very basic request of any person, yet in some places free, in others no...I´ve talked to most of my professors about this back at UT, regarding education, and some believe that it is crucial to pay a tuition to fund the school and ensure that the tools, teachers, and research is satisfactory, while other teachers are strongly against students having to pay tuition as they feel that it not only in genearal discourages the population from pursuing higher education, but it also discourages students from following what they truly want to study, as they feel pressured to study something that will reap the benefits after years of paying tuition, considering that many students are left with debt once they graduate...Anways, Santiago was beautiful, between its amazing parks, nearby mountains, and playgrounds with trampoleans!, but there is quite a bit of political tension concerning, first and foremost, the current education system, but also private/foreign mines, and other civil rights such as recognizing gay marriage that is difficult to overlook even as a mochilero (backpacker) passing by for a few days....

First few days

Cordoba to Uspallata, Mendoza, Argentina (1-18-2012 to 1-21-2012)

Packing up was a mess. Hours of strategic planning and packing to fill up each of our backpacks in the most space efficient manner possible, while taking weight into account, ensuring that the back held most of the weight, while the bottom and top part of the backpack held lighter objects... I think the length of the travels that we are embarking on began to sink in...Her family cried, wished her good luck, told me to take care of her, and as we departed I said goodbye to Cordoba, the second largest city of Argentina, which I have grown an affection for after passing up to 5 months learning about the place, starting from a coarse scale view of the surface including the amazing food, such as asados (giant bbq´s filled with a variety of meats, including blood sausage!) and the soccer and the sligthly more chaotic drivers and buses that you expect to see in most countries outside of the u.s...to the smaller, fine scale details of the city such as the names of each soccer club, the way in which their university functions, in which you study for 6 years and then finish with more or less an undergraduate as well as a masters and are set for your doctorate if you want it, the politics of the city and country, which is quite confusing between the 20 or so different parties that one can vote for, as I am use to a democratic, republican and maybe an independent party, the fact that the education and health is free here, which is something that i can´t get over my head...i could go on, but i must continue with where i am, what i am doing...

departing from cordoba, we headed off to the province of mendoza, which is found in the west of argentina. we took a bus to a hostel found in the middle of the andean mountains, surrounding by rivers and mountains so tall that it hurts your neck to find the top of them, filled with various colors i´m not sure i´ve seen before... the nearest town 7 km away, which we decided to walk to...the area is considered the place to go for outdoor adventures in the andes, so the next day we went rafting and hiking....while rafting i had to save the guide from drowning as well as a grown man from buenos aires that was thrown into the water after hitting a random rock, pretty ridiculous, but very fun...after rafting, we went rock climbing...while walking along the trail to get to the place we were going to climb, nadia asked me, as if predicting the future, if this trail turns into a river when it rains, i responded yes, but what she failed to ask me is if the road that we drove down turns into a river when it rains...when it began to hail on us we were with a group of people, and we formed a kind of shelter by hugging eachother under a tree since there were no caves or rocks to hide under, as they were all mostly vertical....everything turned white, as the hail poured down for 15 minutes without stopping, the balls of ice hurt a bit, but our man shelter functioned pretty well...all trails, roads, everything was flowing with water, and we could actually see the main road turn grow bigger and bigger with water...everyone loved it, people living in the town said they have never seen such a marvelous storm as they taped it with their cameras...our third day in uspallata we hitchhiked with some friendly buenos aires folks to the top of a mountain found at 13, 000 feet. riduculously beautiful (pictures coming), but head feeling the lack of oxygen and increase in pressure... we then went to the national park of the aconcagua, which is the second largest mountain in the world, found at roughly 20, 000 or so feet, and we hiked roughly 10 km this day, as my headache only worsened, luckily with lots of water, a nice nap on the bus ride back, and sharing mate with nadia and some new found friends at the hostel i felt normal again.

only on day 3 i feel like weve been travelling for months...between our both knowing spanish and english, and our quite different backgrounds we´ve found ourselves metting people from all over the world, engaging in silly conversations as well as more interesting, motivational discussions...i´have more to write, but have a lunch date with a professor in santiago about a short project in northern chile...more coming up soon...and figuring out how to get pictures to you still, so stay tuned.

Tavels Begin

I sit with a fan by my side, as I stare out to the trees of Cordoba from a window in Nadias moms house...Ive recently returned from the mountains of Cordoba, learning that these trees, at least the native ones, are found within the arid to semiarid forest of Cordoba...Violet, Nadias best friend, taught me this and much more, as she picked fruits and herbs from various plants and trees and told me to eat or chew them, without hesitation, as she began to explain the name and purpose of each type of plant. Violet is a biologist, but, to my surprise, this doesnt mean that she is going to be a doctor, as you may have realized, despite the 6 years she has studied, and 4 to come, rather, she is interested in learning and researching the health benefits of different plants...To say the least, she is unique in the sense that she is following something that she is truly passionate about...These travels I will be taking could take me anywhere, and a part of me is departing in search for what I truly want to study and or do with myself once these travels come to an end...Yet, at the same time, I am departing to take in and learn about others, absorb the best of those that I meet, and open myself to cultures and situations very different from what I am use to...

As I sit here, there are many thoughts in my head, primarily, what is my family thinking, knowing that this path I am going down is likely very different from what my parents had in mind for me after I graduated...I do feel and understand their thoughts and feelings...Yet, I have made a choice to take 6 months to take a step down a slightly different path, hoping to learn things difficult to obtain in school or an office, with my senses ready for anything.

If you have been invited to this blog that means that I would like to share my experiences and thoughts with you in the most open hearted fashion I can, while also informing you about the different places and adventures that ill be running into...Feel free to take part by commenting to the public or directly to me in response to anything you may see posted. Finally, any body that is reading this likely means a lot to me, so I send you a huge hug and the best wishes I can conjure up.