Pony Time, Pizza, & Packing Up

Thursday was dedicated to horseback riding, much to my enjoyment! We took a 45-minute van ride over to Ritoque Expediciones, which provides mini kayaking, ziplining, and horseback riding excursions to friendly tourists like ourselves. All the horses were tacked up when we got there. Lisa and I got first pick since we had riding experience. Apparently we got "the fast ones" ;) There was a donkey that followed us along the whole way! He liked Jessica a lot.

Everyone managed to get up on their horses without any major issues!

The ride was amazing. We rode all over these big sand dunes. There were a few scary moments where I wasn't sure how in the world my little Chincoya was going to stay upright, but she proved me wrong every time!


All the horses did a great job. Abby's seemed to be a little itchy, so he took a break..

Other than that, it was smooth sailing! Before we knew it, the beach was sneaking up ahead.

I don't think any of us could really believe that we were actually riding horses on a beach in Chile, but let me assure you, it happened! We got some good runs in.. Everyone stayed on just fine!


One of our guides, the husband half of the couple that owns Ritoque, was kind of like the Chilean hauso version of Chuck Norris. We all admired him greatly :)

On our way back towards Ritoque from the beach, we had to cross a river-type thing. We let Chuck Norris man go ahead to test out the waters. Him and his horse got pretty deep in the first time, but after the second attempt, we all followed. I'm really glad the horses were so willing to trudge through the water because I definitely would have thought about it a second time before plunging in.


As we neared the end of our ride, we came across some fish that were stuck in shallow water. There had been a pretty substantial river there all season, but the day we showed up, the river finally went out to sea, and apparently these fish had missed their ride. Being awesome and all, Chuck Norris man and a couple of the other guides caught them with their bare hands to bring back to make for dinner!

Speaking of food, by the time we got back to Ritoque, we were all starving. Luckily for us, there was a fabulous Chilean barbecue waiting for us! There was plenty of fresh salads, soda, wine, and of course, lots of meat! We had choripans as an appetizer (little chorizo hot dogs in buns) and then beef and pork with potatoes as the main meal. As soon as everyone filled their tummies, we all went into nap mode. For some reason, sitting on a horse for 3 hours takes a lot out of you!
A lot of napping and showering happened once we got back to the hotel. We met Werner and all of our student guides over the last 2 weeks at Diego Pizza. Everyone was there! Well, pretty much everyone. We had some different pizzas like one with maraschino cherries and blue cheese, a Hawaiian pizza, and the one I liked most had beef, tomato, some kind of corn meal, and avocado!We gave all of our university friends some pretty fancy-schmancy Pitt tshirts, and they got us all USM hoodies! I'm probably going to live in mine after this trip.
A few of us went to get our last taste of gelato. Nicolas and Daniela came with us. Sadly enough, we had to say goodbye to both of them before the night was over :(
The whole group ventured out to Goose for our last night out. We got to see Camilo, Mauricio, Javier, and Maria there! When Maddy, Marshall, and I ventured out to the gas station later that night, we happened to see Felipe, too. We felt just like locals! Except for the part where we're too white and blonde to ever fit in to that category.
The next morning started late for most of us. I tried denying the fact that I had to pack, but once everyone got in to packing mode, I joined in. Ironically enough, a few of us girls got Subway for lunch. Figures that our last meal in Chile would be something we could get in the states.
After we got back, I was messing around on my computer (putting off the rest of my packing) when I heard a knock at the door. I expected it to be someone from our group, but it was Javier and Maria! They stopped by the hotel to say goodbye, which was about the nicest surprise ever.

We got to chat about what we thought of our trip and what it's like in Pittsburgh (because Javier's going to come visit us in 2011!) Pretty quickly after that, we had to throw all of our things on the bus and leave for the Santiago airport. I won't go in to detail about the rest of it because it's lame, but everyone's home safe and sound now.
Now I just need a job so I can buy my next plane ticket to Santiago :)

Games in the Sand

Wednesday we had all morning off, so we got to sleep in! The group converged at Entre Masas, which is a really good empanada place right down the street from our hotel. I think most people stuck with having empanadas for lunch, but a good amount of us blindly ordered something else from the menu. I ended up with a huge shrimp salad! It was nice to finally get some veggies. Obviously, I had a shrimp empanada on the side :)
The rest of our day was open for games on the beach! Mimo and Daniela met up with us at the hotel. Unfortunately, Mimo had to leave us because he had a wedding to attend in New York. It was no fun saying our goodbyes so early.

Doesn't he look spiffy, though?
We walked to the beach with Daniela and got some group volleyball and soccer time in. German and Mauricio showed up a little later, and the USM kids had us playing some strange games. I won't go in to detail, but there were balloons, ping pong balls, and a lot of human contact involved. It was a bonding experience, I'd say! We got some traditional tug-of-war in there, too. There was a friendly doggy playing with us all afternoon. He was a big fan of chasing handfuls of sand that we threw. A few people got in the water.. I'm kind of upset I didn't bring my bathing suit because it was a beautiful day!

We randomly met a kid that was from Alaska. He's in Chile for a month just for the heck of it, it sounds like. I think we were all jealous of that.
We had our last salsa class at the university that night. Since it had been a while since we had taken a class, we were a little bit rusty, but it was fun nonetheless! We'll have to make sure to take our dancing knowledge back to the states.
We went to Café Journal again for International Night. We found our Alaskan friend there! Mine and Jessica's volleyball friend, Niko, showed up, too. I'd say it was a successful evening overall :)

Tuesday: Neruda & a pool

I'm assuming no one's actually going to read this anymore, but for my own OCD-related reasons, I'm going to talk about our last few days in Chile..
On Tuesday, we had pretty much all day at Pablo Neruda's house. That guy had a good thing going: he had an absolutely FABULOUS view of the ocean! His house was set up to be kind of like a ship based on the things that he collected and a few touches around the outside like a big anchor and a helm-like lookout along with ropes instead of railings on the inside.




Our tour guide also informed us that the house was set up to mirror the geography of Chile. It was really long and narrow with the ocean on one side! A poet would do something creative like that. It was a little freaky looking at all of his things knowing that he had been there and used them, but he's dead now. Actually, he's buried right outside on his helm lookout that I mentioned with his last wife, I believe.




We got to eat in the restaurant attached to the house (I'm assuming it wasn't there when Neruda was alive). We had nice fresh "Reina" or lady fish, I think! ..and steak for the fish-haters. We had lots of beach time, too.


Daniela suggested we swing by the world's biggest swimming pool while we were in the area, so we got to take a 15-minute bus ride to a neighboring town. When she said it was the biggest pool in the world, I'm not sure if everyone really understood how big it would be. It was GIGANTIC. It had to be at LEAST half a mile long. From what we were told, people put boats on it and go scuba diving because it's so deep. It's right on the beach and filled with salt water because that section has waters that are too dangerous (major undertows), so it feels like you could be swimming in the ocean, but you're safe and sound in the huge pool!

For dinner, I had my first and only "completo", which unfortunately I didn't take a picture of, but the main idea is that it's a hot dog with tomatoes and usually sauerkraut (this one didn't have any) then it's smeared with mayo and guacamole. I couldn't really handle the mayo, so that came off, but I feel like it's kind of necessary to try one once while you're in Chile. Checked that off my list!

Adios, Chile..

We're leaving in 40 minutes, and I still want to put up a post about what we did the rest of this week, so I will, but probably not til I get home. I hope everyone forgives me for lying about what I'm doing and what country I'm in! I need to finish packing, so I'll see everyone in approximately a lot of hours.

Santiagooo

We had to get up real early on Monday to finally go visit the Santiago Stock Exchange, which is my group's company for our project.. Yes, we still have to do homework on this trip! Sure doesn't seem like it. Our guide, Francisca, was a little nervous to speak with us because they had only told her that the presentation would be in English about 2 hours before we got there, and she said she hadn't practiced her English in about 2 years. She did a good job, though!


You could definitely tell that it was more of a business presentation than an engineering presentation like the others that we saw. It was kind of sad when we went to see the floor of the stock exchange because it's almost never used anymore. There were 2 or 3 guys on computers on the floor, but Francisca told us that since the exchange made a completely electronic transaction system, brokers don't need to actually go to the stock exchange anymore because it's all online.

After our final company visit, we had all day to explore Santiago! Our first stop was La Moneda, which is like the Chilean equivalent to the White House.

There was a nice policeman outside that let people take pictures with him and his doggy :)

That's our buddy, Javier, in that picture, too. He'll be in Pittsburgh in a little over a year!
We then walked to the Plaza de Armas, which was originally supposed to be the "center" of the city, but since Santiago has been built up so much, it's not really the center anymore. There were a bunch of vendors set up with paintings, some guy trying to be funny with a big group around him, and as we kept walking, a guy with a camera crew. Javier told us that he's on a TV show that makes fun of Chilean politics and things like that. I almost got to be on his show, but then he said that he needed Chilean girls. Oooh well.



We went for a big group lunch at a restaurant within the Mercado Central, which was just a huge indoor fish (& other things) market. I feel like I ate pretty much anything that has ever been taken out of the ocean to be made into a meal. We had appetizers of parmesan razor clams, oysters, jumbo shrimp, scallops, and on and on. THEN we got our actual meal which was 4 different types of fish. It was so good.. I couldn't even stand it.


After lunch, we went up a HUGE incline to Cerro San Cristobal, which allows you to see all of Santiago!



It's a very religious place, so there were people's ashes kept there, a gigantic statue of La Virgen, and even a small church.




We shopped around a little bit once we went back down the incline. Someone found a Yogen Früz, so I had to try lucuma, which is a Chilean fruit that they make into an ice cream flavor a lot here. It kind of tasted like a fruity vanilla flavor.
We were lucky enough to get to watch Mamma Mia on the bus ride home. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for all but the very beginning and the ending.
Got a shrimp & cheese empanada for dinner.. fun fact is that we ate at a Chinese restaurant. There is no shortage of empanadas in Chile!
I thought I was going to have time to write another post about going to la Isla Negra yesterday, but we have a group lunch in about half an hour, so that might get delayed. Enjoy all the pictures! Chao!

Some Free Time

So our free weekend went pretty well. Unfortunately, it was raining when we first started on Saturday morning. The Fonck Museum was closed due to renovations after the earthquake, but a couple of us got to look through a gorgeous church nearby. The sanctuary was damaged from the earthquake, as well, so services are being held in smaller rooms within the church. Thankfully, all of the stained glass windows stayed intact!


We walked around in downtown Viña where there were a bunch of smaller malls and market-type things set up. Everyone got a bunch of souvenir buying completed, so expect goodies when I get back! We managed to find an Italian restaurant for lunch, which was absolutely wonderful. It was a little tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and our waiter was really helpful.




Did I mention that it ended up being absolutely gorgeous outside?

Because of this, we decided to move our shopping extravaganza down to the beach where more booths were set up. Jessica and I were lucky enough to find two Chilean kids playing volleyball in the sand, who also happened to speak English!, so we were there til after the sun wouldn't let us play anymore. That's when we saw some crazy kids run into the freezing cold ocean. As we walked further down the beach back towards our hotel, we discovered that those crazy kids were none other than a few of our fellow Plus3ers! When in Chile, right? :)
That night we went out to celebrate Jeff's birthday on the roof of one of our student guide's apartments. He was really happy to finally be 19!

To tell you the truth, Sunday was kind of a bust. I got up at like 12:15.. I think the sleep deprivation wass starting to really kick in. Everyone wanted to leave to find a place to watch the Chile vs. Mexico soccer game about 10 minutes after that. We walked around for a while with no results, and ended up walking back to the taco bar right down the street from the hotel. We all got a good meal, but had to watch Chile lose :(

After that, the day was full of catching up on journals, napping, and lots of time wasted on Facebook. I think we all needed a good rest.