Chillan

Visiting Cerro St. Lucia in Santiago with my mom and abuelita :)

This past weekend my mom, abuelita, and I went to Buenos Aires. Our first experience was paying per person to enter the country. People from Latin American countries do not need to pay and in my ideal world there would not be a fee simply for entering a country for a short visit. Another thing I did not appreciate was that my mom got a fake bill out of a bank at the ATM and when we spoke to a few taxi drivers about it they were not at all surprised and said that because of a lack of oversight even banks and the airport routinely give out fake bills. According to one of my classes Argentina had triple digit inflation for over ten years, it’d be interesting to know what kinds of effects all the fake bills are having on the current Argentinian economy. In the same class we did many comparisons between countries and found that in the following categories Chile was in the top three but Argentina was not: voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality-quality of laws, political stability, control of corruption, and transparency. In almost all the categories the other two countries were Costa Rica and Uruguay. 

We saw the corruption and lack of government control with the circulation of fake money. I was surprised by how similar Buenos Aires was to Santiago, there were many streets where I could imagine being in either city. The metropolitan region of Buenos Aires has about 12 million people whereas Santiago’s has about 6 million people. One thing I really enjoyed about Buenos Aires was the fact that there were so many restaurants on the streets that had tango performances. I love watching dance and really appreciate when it is an integral part of the culture of a place. Similarly to Chile, Buenos Aires had many vendors selling beautiful homemade goods. I prefer to buy things from mom and pop shops than from large chains (I avoid shopping at Lider, a supermarket here, because it is owned by Walmart) but my favorite is buying from people who made the item itself. Hearing the story behind what you are purchasing coupled with seeing your money going to the person who did the work behind it is truly a remarkable experience. 

Pictured here is the Congress building, the equivalent of the white house, a picture of a tango show we saw during lunch one day, some street performers, a bear at the Cultural Center, a street performance, some Argentinian steak, the zoo, the sunset we saw on our way back to the airport, and some leather masks my mom bought.

When we stayed in southern Chiloé we stayed in a town near the town of Quilén. The place we stayed at is where Isabel Allende goes to get inspiration for her writing. Neither of towns appear on maps or are recognized by the Chileans I mentioned them to. As they say, “time has forgotten” these towns. Being in nature is amazing to me. Studying in Santiago and exploring Chile has made me realize more than ever how much more I enjoyed being in nature to being surrounding my buildings. Whether I’ll ever end up living anywhere besides a city remains to be seen. Life was very calm in Chiloé and people seemed very happy with their lives they had chosen there. The majority of people who lived in Chiloé seemed to have lived in Santiago then chose a more peaceful life in the south. We had a guide who told us that he leaves the key in his door when he’s not home in case a neighbor needs anything. He lived in Castro which has a decent number of people, 50,000 which made this even more surprising. The days we spent in Chiloé were among my favorites in Chile without a doubt, perhaps some of the best of my life. I spent them relaxing in the beauty of nature with my incredible mom and abuelita :). Those are the memories you never forget and the ones that help you remember to spend as much time as possible with the people you’re close to for the years go by fast. 

Seeing the penguins!

These are from our drive to go see penguins :).

My mom and my abuelita came to visit me for two weeks and we had a wonderfully time :). For the first weekend we went to southern Chile, mainly Chiloé. Along the road we saw several animals including several cows finding their own way home after being milked. These pictures are from the cabaña we stayed in near Ancud and the views around there. 

The last night of our trip was spent in Puerto Saavedra, a beautiful beach. Once we got to the beach, we were fortunate enough to be able to watch the sunset from atop a cliff and spend some time on the beach. It was my first time seeing sea foam in such a great quantity, an amazing work of nature. 

During our trip, we went to volunteer at a Mapuche school. 100 % of the students who attend this school are Mapuches. The school is lacking in resources and so the CIEE study abroad group goes there every semester to help them out. This year our project was to build a cement floor of what will hopefully someday be a stage. I chose to play with the students instead and as they enjoyed using my camera, several pictures resulted. The kids were all incredibly lively and happy despite their poor living conditions. It is always amazing to see the spirit some people are able to maintain regardless of their live situations. I really missing playing with kids so this was really a special treat :)