Beach

I haven't told you about when I went to the beach. I went last weekend on Saturday and Sunday. My family owns a house in Caldera, so we went for a little vacation. Caldera is about a 45 minute drive northwest of Copiapó. Well, Copiapó is built in the Copiapó River Valley, so it is surrounded by "mountains" and as soon as you leave the valley, going noth it is total desert. Because one of the characteristics of Copiapó is that it is the gateway to the Atacama Desert. So the drive was a really wierd experience for me. On Saturday we went to Bahía Inglesa, supposedly one of the top destined and most beautiful beaches in the world. It has really cool black rocks on the beach to climb on. (Which we did because the water was way to cold to swim this time of year. We are in spring, and swimming is only good in the summer, because the Pacific is alway cold.) Bahía Inglesa was cool, but the white sand was terrible, because it is made out of seashells, not rock. It sticks to you really badly, and it hurts more. Then after lunch we went to Playa Ramada. That was your classic beach, white-ish sand as far as you could see. And wavy waters perfect for swiming. Pauline, Fabi and I built a sand castle. The greatest part of staying on the coast, is that there are hundreds of beaches with in 15 minutes. Because basically all of the coast in this area is a beach because the desert comes right up to the water. And on Saturday we ate empanadas. I don´t like the traditional kind, but these were just cheese, and deep fried...basically like GIANT cream cheese wontons. Then on Sunday morning we went to this really cool beach called Corrillos. You dirve there and then park the car and walk, because the car can´t get to the beach. You climb over some rocks and then you get to a little bay, and you have to time the waves with your sprint to the other side, climb over so more rocks and you are there. It is pretty secluded, we were the only ones there and there was one family coming as we left. The waves are really strong there, so it isn´t a very good beach for swimming, but there are a lot of little outlets and coupled with the strong waves, there are a lot of rocks and shells to look for, and all of them are partially polished. There are also rock formations here, and the waves crash over them in a Little Mermaid fashioned. It was really cool. I had a good time. The pictures are: First, A view of Bahía Inglesa. Then, Fa and I at Bahía Inglesa. The third is Pauline building the sand castle at Ramada. Next is Fabi and Bruno walking to the Chorrillos beach. And the last is just a picture of Chorrillos where we parked the car.

Mountain

Today I climbed a mountain! Well technically in Spanish it isn't a mountain, they call it a Cerro. I guess with the Andes so close by, all of the mountains around Copiapó aren't really mountains. But anyway, it was really cool. Although extremely difficult, climbing isn't easy when then rocks are set in sand. I was really suprised when we drove up and they said that this is the mountain that we are going to climb, when they said mountain the really meant it...it was huge. There are two rocky parts with a sand chute down the middle. We climbed to the top, and to get down we slid down the sandy part. The really cool thing is is that this is a reverberating mountain. So we all lined up, and ran 4 or 5 steps down, then listened. It is this really cool low humming sound. Apparently it sounds like an earthquake, but with out the tremor. There are hollow chambers beneath the surface and when the sand is dislodged, it echoes. My teacher (I went with my biology and physics class) said that there are only two reverberating mountains in the world this one and one in Africa. The pictures are: starting our climb we are going to climb up the rocks in the middle and then slide down the sand to the left. Second, taking a break about a fourth of the way up. third, a view as we are climbing, there we like three humps. And last, we almost made it, you can see the first people waiting off to the left.

Tongue

A few days ago, September 25, was my host dad's birthday. And as one of his presents from my greatgrandmother, he recieved lengua de torro (bull's tongue). It looked so gross, just like a tongue, but huge. You could even see the taste buds. It didn't taste so bad, like a cross between roast beef and lamb, but just the thought that i was eating a tongue complete with taste buds grossed me out so much that I could only stomach one bite.

Spanish

Everyone is asking me how my spanish is coming, so I will explain. I am much better at understanding what people are saying. If, they are talking to me. Classes are more of a problem because it is more lecture talking than conversation talking. I am not thinking in spaninsh yet, but once that happens, I will be able to understand everything and be able to talk faster, becasue I won't have to translate like I am now. Although I am getting faster at that. Before I had to wrack my brain for the word, not they kind of just jump out.

Rotary Asado

On Saturday 15, I had an asado with Rotary. An asado is basically a Chilean Barbeque. It was a celebration of the Chilean Independence (On the 18). Fabiana, and Pauline (an exchange student from Belgium) and I flew kites. I lack vital skills in that department. There was one tree in the entire area, and I got my kite stuck in it. When I was pulling on the string to get it out of the tree, the string snapped and the kite flew across the road and landed in the brush. I had to climb over the fence to get it, but there was so much brush that I sunk up to my knees. When I passed the kite to Fabi, the string got stuck around my glasses (See attached photo). It was basically a disaster, but flying kites is a tradition around this thime of year, because September is extremely windy.

I also learned how to dance the cueca, Chile's national dance. It is really strange, and you swing a handkerchief around your head, basically the whole time. Here is a picture of me dancing the cueca.

Milk and Pop

Here's a little interesting tidbit. The milk here is really gross. It is UHT (Ultra-high Temp) milk, which basically means that when they are pasturizing it, they heat it up really hot (hotter than normal) for just a second and then bring it back down again. This allows the milk to be shipped and sit on the shelf for weeks without refridgeration. Great idea on the chalkboard. So, I drink chocolate milk, because it covers up the taste, actually I like it better than in the US. They make really good chocolate milk here, and I think it is because so many people like it better than white milk.

Oh, and here no one drinks milk with lunch. They all think that I am crazy for liking milk with lunch, it is a very American thing. Instead they drink pop or juice. Usually soda, they drink tons and tons of pop. And here it comes in about 10 different sizes, whereas in the US it only comes in about 3. It is really cool to buy a tiny little one or a HUGE one. Oh, and they have a lot more fruit flavors like papaya, pineapple, strawberry, etc. I really don't like the fruity ones. I really miss Pepsi (the caffeine free, diet one), because if you aren't drinking a fruit soda it is coke.