Racing through the Andes

On Saturday, October 17, I ran a 10km race with two of my friends, Grace and Meghan. I don´t know what I was thinking beforehand. I guess having run the 5km race in my comuma of Ñuñoa, I was feeling pretty good about running. This race in the Andes was race sponsored by the North Face and was called Ultra Marathon de Los Andes. (http://www.ultramaratondelosandes.cl/select_languaje.html) Though nervous at the beginning, the race turned out to be incredible and one of my favorite things I have done so far in Chile, though at the same time one of the hardest. We gained, and then lost, 1600 feet of elevation and started out at about 3,000 feet above sea level. The views of Santiago and of the mountains we were running through made the work easier. There was one point though in which we were going up a 45 degree angle and everyone was climbing/hiking it because it was almost impossible to run it. At 6.5km the climb up ended and the climb down began. I was laughing as I ran because gravity was just pulling me down. It was the sensation of not being able your body as you run down a huge sand dune, however, I did have to be careful as there were rocks and mountain bikers and other runners all around me. It was also funny because at a few points in the run there would be a giant, fat cow or a group of horses grazing. The last 2 km were back on solid ground, out of the mountains, and were by far the hardest. I finished in 1:17:27, 6th in the women my age and 9th in the women overall. We received massages and spaghetti lunch afterward not to mention tons of water and Gatorade! The only downfall of this experience is the full body soreness I have been feeling since the race….

Race Gear!

El Corazón de Valle Elqui

The pelicans and sea lions we saw at the port city of Coquimbo. The cross constructed on the top of the hill in Coquimbo. The little windows on the crossbar is where we were able to ascend in order to see the entire town and the vast pacific.


Puclaro, the gorgeous lake where we saw the hydroelectric dam and tried to kite surf.

On the beach in La Serena. Pacific Ocean!Me, Grace, Katerina

Pisco Elqui for our horseback ride (and yes, I rode in my skirt and Grace in her dress!)

One of the many incredible views of the northern valleys.

Grace and the tumb of Gabriela Mistral.

When we went to the tourist office, we asked how we could visit Valle Elqui, thinking it was national park or town or something. The man told us that we were already in the heart of the valley, because the whole region is Valle Elqui....oh it was funny! Needless to say, this foto makes me smile....

How wonderful it was find out that Chile recognizes Columbus Day and there are no classes. Two friends of mine, Grace (originally from Naperville) and Katerina (originally from Moscow, Russia) and I took advantage of this extra long weekend and traveled 7 hours north to the IV region of Chile. We took an bus overnight on Thursday so as to have all day from to learn, explore, and relax. Upon arriving in our first stop, Vicuñua we were surprised by the tranquility of the town. It was about 8 in the morning and there was absolutely no one in the streets—just the group that had gotten off the bus and a few city workers sweeping the street with palm fronds. After eating breakfast (and finding out that Obama had won the nobel peace prize) we found a cute, friendly hostel, talked to the tourist office, and started the adventures with a hike up Cerro de La Virgen where we were able to look down at the entire city and beyond. It was a beautiful site and the thing that most caught my attention was the constant contrasts of the land. This area has lots of vineyards to make wine and pisco, a famous drink of Chile. The vineyards were vibrant green against café colored mountains and hills and a celestial sky. It was wonderful to sit and stare. After our hike, we immersed ourselves culturally, going to a natural history museum (lots of insects, butterflies, a fossil over 4,000 years old) and the museum and house of Gabriela Mistral, famous famous poet in Chile who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945. She was born in Vicuña and her life is quite interesting. She appears on the 5 luca (Chilean equivalent of $10 bill) and always looks quite ugly, like one of the Disney witches. A supposed lesbian, she never married but devoted her life to children as a schoolteacher and much of her poetry is about children and motherhood. She herself never had children but raised her nephew like her own son and was severely hurt by his suicide at age 17. She was also influential in politics and received much fame worldwide through various projects and travels. Additionally, we went to a pisqueria (a distillery for pisco) called Capel, which is one of the largest brands, and had a tour of how pisco is made and then passed some time hanging out in the town’s Plaza de Armas to people watch and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.

The next day, was incredible and I will try to spare some of the details for the sake of time. We traveled to Monte Grande, about 40 minutes from Vicuña to see the schoolhouse and grave of Gabriela Mistral. A solemn thoughtful experience was what we had in this small town. We continued the day walking to a river and having some wonderful and wet adventures. As we continued our walk (not in the river) we saw a fox and met a man named Pablo, who worked for a tourist company in another small town, Pisco Elqui, where we were hoping to visit that day as well. He ended up being our new best friend, leading us to a huge Incan rock with drawings on it, driving us to Pisco Elqui, recommending us to tour the pisqueria called Los Nichos, which was the oldest pisqueria in Chile and is considered artisanal because all the bottles are bottled by hand. Los Nichos is based on quality over quantity and has quite a remarkable, intriguing history. For comparison, Los Nichos produces 20,000 bottles of pisco per year while Capel, the one we visited the day before, produces 30,000 bottles of pisco per day! Pablo also hooked us up with his friend Pirata (yes that means pirate) who owned horses. We went horseback riding up the cerros/mountain to look out over the valle and took a pass through the entire town. Again it was a beautiful site and very fun to travel through town on horseback. Afterwards the Chile vs. Columbia soccer game was on and we watched about 5 minutes of the game before catching a bus back to our hostel in Vicuña. The crazy part of this was, however, that Chile beat Columbia 2-1 (Chi chi chi le le le, Viva Chile!) and the two goals that Chile scored—what everyone now calls the “two magic minutes”—were part of the overall 5 minutes of the game that we saw! All of Chile was celebrating that win and it was a happy, warm, everyone is family kind of feeling in the town. The game was important because it meant that Chile had enough points to qualify for the world cup in South Africa 2010. (For the record, the US also qualified). While in Vicuña we ran into some of our friends—3 French exchange students, one of which is my salsa dance partner. We hung out with them that night and had some wonderful discussions and laughs.

Sunday, we again had an unforgettable day—involving lots of walking and a few hitched rides in the back of trucks. We went to a hydroelectric plant called Puclaro, tried to kite surf and realized it was super expensive and time consuming, basically walked around the entire Puclaro lake, went by bus to La Serena, a slightly larger town than the others we had been in, went to the beach, explored the town, its churches and artisan fairs, met a man named Miguel Angel who gifted us with bracelets and hand-crafted plaques with beautiful quotes on them and took pictures of us in ridiculous masks. . He shared with us that he likes to give someone a free gift each day because a few years ago he was ready to commit suicide and he doesn’t want anyone to ever feel the loneliness and depression that he felt. He sees beauty in life now and wants to share that and wants to see others smile. I honestly was not able to stop smiling after meeting him. Sunday night, the sky was finally cloud free so we were able to go to an observatory called Mamalluca and see the entire milky way, new stars, old stars, binary stars, other galaxies, and Jupiter—with the lines produced by the gas and 3 of its moons. The constellations are different here in the southern hemisphere—it was kinda sad because usually the only constellation I can see is Orion and that was not in the sky. Also, there is not a north star but there is a way to use two other constellations to find north. I learned so much and felt so small and insignificant after observing the vastness and greatness of the sky.

Our last day of our trip, we traveled about 20 minutes along the ocean to the “cousin” of La Serena, Coquimbo. This town was a port city for sure with colorful houses, steep slopes, and more pelicans on the piers than people! We first visited La Cruz del Tercer Milenia (The Cross of the third millennium) which was constructed in 2000 for the celebration of Christ’s birth. It had a 360 degree view of the entire city and, of course, the ocean. We traveled along the pier to check it out, ate fish empanadas, saw pelicans, sea lions (they were soo close us and there were tons of them!), met fisherman who let us play with a sea urchin and a sea star with over 20 legs. We caught the 7 hour bus back to Santiago that afternoon. It was one of the best trips I think I have ever been on, for various reasons. The sights, the tranquility, the hospitality of people, the wonderful company of my two friends, the way God revealed himself to me throughout the trip, and realizing that there is no need to fear, that there lots of value in talking to others and to listening to their stories. ¡Aprovechar!

3 months have come and gone....time for a quick check-up

hola a todos!
I can´t believe how fast the time is going here, the fact that I have been here over 3 months, which means that in less than 2 months I will back in the United States (and the winter!) boggles my mind. I know that I am going to miss my host family and friends here so much, just like that is what I miss most about being here. Seeing as it is over the half-way point of the semester, I thought I would post some quick thoughts about how I´ve been and later post more about the amazing adventures and trips I have been having.

Physically:
*Healthy, though still a little sore from the 10km on Saturday
*Have been able to go running at least twice a week
*Absolutely love and look forward to salsa class every Thursday
*Today was my last session of therapy and I have improved in both mobility and strength-the x-ray I had on Tuesday also reported that the bone is growing together and is lined up nicely. I also have permission from the Kinesiologist to play tennis again.
*Food is always abundant and delicious-my host mom is a wonderful cook :)

Intellectually:
*I have had exams or essays for every class so far and they have ranged from tough, good, and bad. Sometimes it is harder to study here because there are assumptions that we, the students, have learned certain things in high school. For example, in my history class we are learning about the history of Chile and America in the 19th century. Our professor assumes that we all have a solid knowledge of Chilean history, so I have been having to study the material that we are learning as well as the basics that my classmates learned in previous years of school. Though it takes more time, I have been learning so much and really enjoy havning more humanities based classes as opposed to science classes.
*My life views have also been expanded and continue to expand. I have been realizing that there is so much you can learn from someone else if you just take the time to listen and talk to them. Along these lines, I have learned to not be afraid to ask and to not be afraid to give.
*I have had many conversations lately about politics and religion. I have watched more news here than probably my entire life in the United States.

Emotionally:
*I love it here but can´t ignore that fact that I miss everyone from home!

Culturally:
*Accustomed to life and living with my host family
*Have learned the short-cuts on campus, still like to discover new routes to get home, have mirco routes and streets memorized, seldom get lost now
*Still fall over sometimes on the metro/micro

Spiritually:
*The beautiful Andes mountains are still a reminder every morning of the majesty of God
*Found a church, Iglesia Vina, that is wonderful and has corportate worship similar to Hope´s Gathering. Fun fact: the pastor of this church has been to Batavia, IL! He went to the Vineyard church in Batavia and we talked about the Fox River and a restaurant that he ate at in St. Charles!

until next time,
Katita