Viña by week, Santiago by weekend!

This week was super busy! I spent a lot of time in Viña, getting more and more acquainted with this wonderful new city of mine. Filled with yoga, Chinese food themed potlucks at our apartment with the others in our program, swanky dinners out at La Flor de Chile, empanadas in ConCon, late night beach relaxing, getting to know my internship supervisor and my responsibilities there, and a weekend trip to Santiago. It was definitely not boring and everything I do and see makes me fall in love with Chile just a little bit more <3

I went to a yoga class at a place called Savittar, which was really great! The great thing about yoga is that it can be taken in any language, as long as the instructor uses the Sanskrit names of poses! But it was really interesting to take yoga in Spanish, and notice all of the ways to describe postures and alignment and meditation. My instructor spoke very softly and hearing her delicately walk us through postures in her eloquent Spanish was so calming. Just what I needed! I signed up for a once-a-week package and can't wait to go back next week :) 

I also discovered a few new things about Viña:

 

1) The delicious, Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant near our house, La Flor de Chile, has an amazing Spanish Potato Tortilla. Crisped to perfection.

2) They have Oreo Milka bars at Lider! (Walmart's South America brand) These are actually magic.

3) They (unfortunately) have stick family stickers on cars here too. They're everywhere. Why??

We also went to ConCon this week to go to an amazing empanada place called Las Deliciosas, which was absolutely worth the 20 minute bus ride. They have really delicious (living up to their name) seafood empanadas, and they are fried to perfection, without skimping on the cheese, the most important part. Like you all know, anything that combines carbs and cheese and seafood, and I'm in.  Plus ConCon is a sweet little beach town that's got a really relaxed vibe. There's a great surfing spot there, and a beach-side shack that rents surfboards and wetsuits. Once it gets warmer, that is definitely something that I'll have to come back and do (they had the big lame foam surf boards that I can actually handle haha). There were a few brave souls out there the day that we went though, and that water is freezing! 

On the bus ride back, we drove along the ocean and had some unbelievable views. All in all, it was a really wonderful and easy afternoon trip and something that I will keep in my back pocket on free afternoons.

Does that look real to you? Me either.

Saturday I went to Santiago as my first official act as an intern at AndesTrek, the adventure tourism company that I'm working for until the end of September. (Here's the link for the company if you're interested in seeing where I'm working! http://www.andestrekadventure.com/en). We took a group of students from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on a city tour to Santiago, and had a blast! They were a really friendly and curious bunch, and we had a great day touring and learning about the city. My job as the intern was basically just to chat with them and answer any questions they had, and just make sure that they were having a good time and a fun experience, something that I can definitely handle :) And I got to work with my boss, Francisca, and see how she runs things and help her in any way that I could. Plus I got to go to some amazing places, like Pablo Neruda's house, the Cathedral, El Museo Precolombina, Donde Augusto for lunch, all for free! We came back that night, exhausted after a long day of exploration and discovery :)

The sunrise on my way to meet the AndesTrek group

Fish market at El Mercado Central

This is also where Donde Augusto is, where we had an amazing seafood lunch

The magnificent Cathedral

Love those vitrales! (stained glass)

Mapuche headstones made from wood, designed to resemble the deceased

Statue with a bullet hole in the cheek, a consequence of the 1973 military coup d'etat. You can also see where bullet holes hit the building behind it. It's so eerie to be in the city where so many tragic things happened relatively recently, but the Chileans are more than ready to put their dark history behind them and I admire them for their strong recovery and determination to not let their past taint their future.

Beautiful Valparaíso at night on the way home

 The next day, I went to Santiago again, but this time with the people in my internship program. There was a food truck festival (the first one in South America apparently), so of course we had to check that out! We spent the afternoon hopping from truck to truck trying delicious arepas, pizzas and chocolate covered fruits. There was so much to taste and I wish we had had time, but the lines were crazy long; I'm glad it was so popular! Then we headed on to the Cerro San Cristobol, which is a part of a giant hill/park in the middle of the city that has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary at the top, overseeing the city. It requires either about an hour walk or a funicular ride to the top. We opted for the funicular in the interest of time (and because funiculars are just really fun), and we had some great views on the way up! There's also a church and memorial sites, and there is are beautiful church hymns and songs being played over the speaker the whole time. Despite the hundreds of people at this pretty touristy spot, it is incredibly peaceful at the top. There are beautiful views of the Andes mountains in the distance and somehow just a sense of tranquility. It was a great way to end our little jaunt to Santiago, and we left just in time to make it back to the bus with 4 minutes to spare!

If you listen closely, you can hear the music in the background that was playing over the speakers that was so beautiful and peaceful

Our funicular ride down the hill!

This was my last week in Spanish classes, so tomorrow I get to go into the AndesTrek office and start working!  I got a taste of what it's like to work with them on the Santiago Tour on Saturday, but it will be nice to see how the marketing/backstage logistics side of the company works. Since it's still winter here, August will mostly be spent doing all of that office work and marking kind of work, but I'm glad to be involved in that side of the business as well; I want to learn as much about all aspects of running a small tourism company like this as I can. In September, we'll start more of the actual excursions, like horseback riding through the Andes mountains, hiking La Campana, and much more. I can tell that this is going to be a really valuable work experience and that I'm going to learn a lot. I can't wait to get more involved!

Besos! xox