Penny Comes to Lugo

Last weekend Penny decided to venture East, and came to see me in Lugo. She arrived into La Coruña on the Friday evening, and after picking her up from the airport we headed into town. La Coruña is one of the biggest cities in Galicia, and is responsible for the majority of it's economic output. It's a big business and industrial hub: international fashion chain Zara began here. It's on the coast about 2 hours drive from Lugo, and is a up-and-coming cruise ship destination, although tourism is still nowhere like down South.

This being Spain, we didn't go for dinner until the very reasonable hour of 10pm. We headed out to a nearby tapas bar and restaurant, to indulge in some shellfish and local wine. 

Dinner in La Coruña

The next day we had the day in the city. I got the bus times wrong, so we had a bit more time than expected (5 hours). We wandered around the old city, saw the central square, the port, a few churches, and also headed towards the Torre de Hercules. The Torre is the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world, having been built by the Romans about 2000 years ago.

Torre de Hercules

That evening we got on the bus successfully, and arrived in Lugo just in time for lunch: 6pm. We installed Penny in her very nice hotel, the Pazo de Orban, and she came down to my area of town and had a look around my area. Dinner once again, and another big meal at a ridiculous hour. The next day we started early, and had a wander around Lugo and the surrounding area.

Roman Bridge of Lugo

Penny came and had a look around the USC Campus, and all the architectural delights it has to offer tourists. We walked down to the river (via the motorway which Penny insisted we cross) and along the tow-path to the Bridge, another part of Lugo's hangover from the Roman occupation. Then it was up towards the town via the Camino Primitivo, a branch of the Camino de Santiago, and for an extended lunch.

Dinner in the Praia Maior

Other trips of note were searching for Dulce de Membrillo, going to the Centro de Interpretación de las Murallas, the Cathedral, and people shooting stuff in the woods by my house. Penny returned to England on the Monday tanned, tired, and extremely full: a successful trip.

Going to the South (of New Zealand)

In the spirit of the year abroad I decided to pack in Spanish speaking countries for a while, and headed to Nrew Zealand. I spent 3 weeks in the land of Speight's, sheep and bungee jumping with my wonderful family. I spent time in Queenstown, Dunedin and Auckland, walked a bit, climbed Ben Lomond, ate nice food, and avoided tapas for the duration of the trip.

Whilst the rest of the family were relegated to China Southern Air, I managed to get cheap tickets with Emirates, going via Dubai and Melbourne. Although this resulted in a rather long journey, it was all quite pleasant. They give you menus instead of announcing the meal choices over the tannoy, and have fake stars on the cabin roof at night. Classy.

I spent a few days in Auckland with the Taylor family, including of course Rex, my favourite dog in the Southern Hemisphere. We visited MOTAT, went for a nice Indian, ate a lot of meat, and played Call of Duty. All in all, a very productive trip.

I met Penny and Martha off the plane from Guangzhou, and we raced over to domestic for our flight down to Dunedin, making sure we had enough time to take waving pictures in the air bridge. Once in DUD we only had a few days there before heading off to Queenstown, time to wander round the town a bit and pack the car for the trip.

Once in Queenstown, and successfully reunited with Alice, we set about doing Kiwi stuff like climbing up mountains and sliding down them. Me and Penny climbed Ben Lomond (974m) in a very respectable time. We all went up to the Skyline Luge and raced down a few times. We played mini-golf, and the adults tied in first place. The children (Martha and Alice) lost.

Greg arrived and Martha managed to persuade everyone that going kayaking on Lake Wakitapu where thousands of people die every year was a good idea. It was actually quite fun, and Greg turned into Ray Mears for an hour.

When Auntie Susan arrived from Auckland the incomplete group was complete, and we went for an incredible lunch at the Tiger Woods favoured Amisfield Winery. The salad was very nice. We also ate rabbits, sheep and fish. Then we played Petanque - I lost.

Not feeling enough like Southern Men, and reeling after yet another Highlanders defeat, we headed out onto the Routeburn Track for a day walk up to the Flat's Hut. It was very pleasant. Then, after saying goodbye to the Auckland contingent we headed back to Dunedin, making sure there was time for a Jimmy's Pie en route.

Back in Dunedin we carried on the Southern Man theme and went round the Speight's Brewery for a tour, which was a lot more interesting than either of us thought it would be. Turns out they make cider too. That day, Greg left for London, and the trip was nearly over. After a few last minute excursions (MacAndrew Bay, Gardens, Sushi, Thai Hanoi) we headed up to Auckland one more time.

Seeing as I didn't fancy 6 hours waiting in the airport (again) we headed into town and went for lunch in the Wynyard Quarter, on the harbourfront after dropping off our stuff. Then we parted ways, and I resigned myself to another 400 hours of flying. Yet again, Emirates didn't fail to deliver and I had a very pleasant flight complete with menus and fake stars on the ceiling. Fast forward a few days and I'm back in Lugo, where I appear to have brought the sun back with me. Nice.

Paris is nice, too.

Last weekend I decided to take advantage of having no classes on a Friday, and headed to Paris, via the delights of the Galician Sleeper and Madrid Airport. I arrived in North Africa (aka Gare du Nord) late on Friday afternoon, met up with Megan and headed back to her apartment somewhere in Paris - still not sure quite where.

We sorted out what we were going to do that weekend, and hit the town. We went for happy hour cocktails at the very chic Le China, followed by a quick sightseeing trip up the Arc de Triomphe to see Paris at nice. Unsurprisingly, it's amazingly beautiful.

The next day was filled with some intense sightseeing, taking advantage of the sun by walking around a large area of Paris. We took advantage of free entry for EU under 26s at the Pantheon, where Victor Hugo and other French celebrities are buried, as well as at Notre Dame, went to the Jewish Quarter for a falafel lunch, and walked through the Tuileries and loads of other gardens just slightly prettier than the Wollaton Park.

That evening we met up with a friend from Durham, who took us to an Irish pub (classic Brits), Saint Germain, and then a totally legit bar which turned out to be some kind of metal club. Then we went home.

Sunday was where it got exciting. After a trip up Sacre Coeur (we got the funicular instead of walking - yolo) and watching the strict security guards throwing out numerous Japanese tourists for taking photos, we headed back towards the river.

We met up with loads of other Durham people for an afternoon of wine tasting aboard a riverboat next to the Eiffel Tower, and with the "creme de la creme" of the French wine industry there we had a fun time in store for us. A slightly awkward start to proceedings (several of us spoke next to no French) was improved by a chance encounter with an English speaking wine expert from some vineyard in Alsace.

His table was groaning under a considerable selection of fine wine, of which he proceeded to educate us about. An hour later, after making our way through the entire collection of white (average bottle price, 20EUR), we elected not to do the same with the red, and beat a very chatty retreat to a nearby crepe stall.

Then I went back to Spain. It was snowing.

Sorting myself out

So I've been here for just over a week, and in that time I've managed to settle myself into Lugo fairly well. I've found a nice flat in a great location just over the road from campus (and practically next door to several lovely bars), and am living with two other guys: one from the Dominican Republic and one from Poland.

I managed to register for all my classes, then had to change most of them due to clashes. I'm now doing some kind of hybrid Economics/Translation/History course which is apparently OK. Most of my classes are with humanities, which is a bit like going back to school as the biggest module has 8 other students in it. Translation theory is me, some Polish girls, and the teacher, who informed us that because we're all Erasmus we can study whatever we want. My history teacher is slightly scary though.

One hurdle stands before me though, which is the mandatory police registration. It took me several hours of form filling and preparation before I was ready for this, when I duly hauled my paperwork to the Policia Nacional this afternoon. However, it was not to be, as they apparently only do registrations before lunch.

Oh, and Lugo is nice.

Benvido á Lugo

So, less than a month after leaving Chile I'm sat in another foreign country: Spain. I'm going to start studying at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in the Lugo Campus. Lugo is a city of nearly 100,000 people in the north-west of Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia.

I would say more, but I don't actually have anywhere to live yet. So, instead of writing this, I think I should find somewhere.

Adios, y Gracias a Chile

Despite it seeming like I only arrived a short time ago, I've actually been here just over 5 months. In those months I've moved to the other side of the world, become "Mr Gabriel", met some incredible people, explored South America, and found out a huge amount about Chile and this incredible continent.

So here's a few conclusions before I board my flight.

1. Learn to peel and stone avocado. At some point, you will be required to do it.
Chileans adore avocado and eat it in large quantities. It's cheaper and tastier than in the UK, so I made the the most of it. However, people will judge you on your palta preparation skills. Learn.

2. Working with kids can be both maddening and insanely cool.
When they want to do what they're meant to be doing, the job is great. However, I absolutely hate dealing with kids who are misbehaving or are being difficult, and uncooperative classes can be more than a little stressful. Teaching can often be more crowd control than actual teaching.

3. Being old has it's advantages, but can be really boring.
My life over here is a bit as I imagined being 30. Working 9-5 (or 8-4 in my case) is a drain, and the weekends are amazing. I never before appreciated the true joy of a Friday night. However, old(er) people are actually quite a lot of fun, and it's nice having more money than a student. (Edit: I just realised I now have no money.)

4. South America is incredible.
What a continent. I only managed to see bits of three countries: Argentina, Chile and Perú. All three are so different, and have a huge amount to offer. Even in the developed Southern Cone, things are done very differently to the UK, and as you head North things get a lot more exciting. There's no way I'm not coming back.

5. Being British is good.
Whereas the general perception of Americans around here is of culturally insensitive idiots, the British have managed to keep up a sterling reputation. We're stereotyped by the Queen, being polite, gentlemanly, on-time, and drinking lots of tea. Aside from a few issues with Argentina, it's all good.

6. I love Chile(ans).
Whilst I've been here, the people I have had the pleasure and privilege to meet have been amazing, and the places I have had the chance to go to have been truly incredible. The hospitality and kindness that everyone has shown me was more than I could ever expect. As well as being filled with wonderful people, this country also has some of the most incredible cities, towns and landscapes I've seen.

Thank you Chile, thank you Redland, and thank you to the Prado family. It's been awesome.

Diez Soles Muchacho?

I'm now back in Chile after a whirlwind trip to Perú, where I visited the gastronomic capital of South America (allegedly) that is Lima, and the ancient Incan capital of Cusco. I spent over two days on buses, and a pleasant 8 hours on aircraft. I tried Cusqueño beer, Inka Cola, lomo saltado, peruvian pisco sour, guinea pig nuggets, alpaca meat, and lots of té manzanilla. So what's Perú like?

Cusco, where I spent most of my time, is a bizarre city in the central Andes. It's promoted by the Peruvians as a cultural and historical capital, chock a block with traditional Andean culture, ancient ruins and Incan history. This is sort of true, but it's also full of all the shops that pander to gringo needs: Irish pubs, international restaurants, and 5***** hotels. The whole "cultural journey" seems a bit silly when you're seeing it from the window of your pub quiz venue!

First it might be worth mentioning the insane journey I took to get here. Not insane as in 5 day truck ride through the Amazon, but insane as in 24 hours in bus-borne luxury.

The bus was run by Cruz del Sur, and I was going to ride in their first class service: cruzero suite. The crazyness started when I boarded from the VIP lounge onto the huge double decker to find my wide, reclining seat on the top floor. I was offered tea and coffee by the attendant, and we quickly got under way. We were shown a variety of decent films, and after a few hours the attendant then came round with our dinner. Unbelievably, it was hot, and significantly better than airline food: beef and potato stew with rice, a potato omlette, and cornet manjar to finish.

This was swiftly followed by a casual game of bingo (I was the only one who found this a bit weird) which I didn't win, then another film and finally bed. This all continued into the next afternoon when we arrived in Cusco. I would say though, however comfy the bus is, you're still spending 24 hours sat on a bus.

Back to topic - you can't really deny there is some amazing stuff in Cusco. The ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Qorikancha, both within the city limits, are breathtaking. Going some 30 minutes outside the city shows you how seriously poor peruvians live, many still holding on to the traditional ways of life. We did in fact drive through some of these villages on the bus, something that was strange to see from the tinted windows of my VIP ride.

Cusco also has a lot of conquistador history, where the invading Spanish tried to suppress the traditional ways in favour of their new European ideals. You can see how colonial buildings have been built on top of Inca foundations, and indigenous motifs have been absorbed into the new way of thinking: one of the most famous examples of this is a depiction of the last supper in Cusco's cathedral where the disciples are eating guinea pig.

Now heading back to Lima, the only site I really saw there of any importance was the Museo Larco, a huge collection (by Lima standards) of Peruvian artefacts, including some amazing pottery and jewellery. Sorry Martha, but it was actually quite interesting! The museum is really well done, with lots of information about the various artefacts of pre-Hispanic societies: quipus, human sacrifice, jewellery, and, Greg's favourite, hand axe thingys.

That evening I flew back to Santiago with TACA, after a slightly bizarre ride to the airport with an eccentric driver. Lima airport is big on security - only passengers are allowed into the terminal - and very modern and new. The country is clearly keen to shed the image of Shining Path that P&G probably still have in their minds. For me, they have!

Lima, Perú

So I arrived in Perú a few days ago, and am now sat in Maria's apartment in Cusco. To get here I flew from Santiago to Lima with Sky Airlines, who are apparently perfectly safe, and cheap. To their credit, they served me a massive lunch in flight, so it can't be too bad.

I arrived at Lima Airport, and got a taxi to Miraflores, the district where I would stay for a night before heading out of town the next afternoon. Seeing as I arrived late, I left Lima's sights til the next day, got some dinner, and went to bed. The next day I got up (relatively) early and headed into downtown, after an extended taxi bargaining session with multiple drivers.

It turns out, taxis in Perú are neither metered nor regulated in any way. I'm pretty sure that none of the taxis I took would have passed an MOT, and they can just be random cars with no outward markings on them. You also have to bargain a fare with the driver before getting in, which adds to the excitement.

Arriving into the centre of town alive, I walked around the city centre seeing two of the major sights in Lima: the presidential palace and the Congress. I was lucky enough to catch the changing of the guard at the former, and you can see a video of bits of it here and here. I then headed to the Congress, and got shown around the national congress by a random security guard on account of me being foreign and looking vaguely respectable.

Last stop was the Convento de Santa Rosa, where it turns out the oldest university in the Americas was founded in 16 something. Turns out it was actually in this room here.

With my time in Lima finished, I headed to the Terminal Cruz del Sur for a 24 hour ride of luxury into the Andes and towards the ancient Incan capital: Cusco.

Last Week at School

This week was my last week at school - not the first time I've ever done that! However, it was the first time I've done it as a "teacher", if that's what I can be described as. I wasn't really expecting to be at all sad about saying goodbye to the kids, but it really was quite difficult!

On Tuesday I was able to get a glimpse of the Santiago high life, when Ute invited us all to the Prince of Wales Country Club. The Senior English department was joined by Carolina, Edmund form Maths, and Leo from Music in a classy evening of Kunstmann and Churrascos Filetes. The PWCC is like a little haven of Britishness in the middle of Santiago, with great facilities, a pub, restaurants, a golf-club, and Twinings tea. Nice.

Also on Tuesday I said goodbye to the junior school kids who I've seen every Tuesday since I arrived. The class above is 1st básico, roughly the same as year 1/2, and because their English is pretty basic I spend lessons with them doing art, drawing pictures, running around, and generally having a great time! I also work with 3rd and 4th básico, and we did slightly more challenging activities - still a lot of fun though.

This class is 5th básico, who I've spent quite a lot of time with. They're one of my favourite classes, and with them we did loads of lessons about different places around the world, as well as random English-related things. I taught them about the Queen, British Police, and my chickens, and some more global topics like Hong Kong and the South China Seas.

This final class is 8th básico, who I saw several times a week! They're 13/14, but don't seem to have hit the annoying hormonal stage yet. Perhaps my finest moment with these guys was teaching a frankly inspiring lesson on Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" which I prepped in the 5 minutes Lorena was talking to them in the beginning of class. They were a lot of fun, and as such got their own page in my scrapbook where they wrote down all the rude words they've been trying to teach me all term.

Leaving really was quite odd, but Mr Gabriel will be back for graduation and the final ceremonies in a weeks time!

Maria comes to visit!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Santiago with Maria, a friend from University. She's currently working in Cusco, in Perú, with the Latin American Foundation for the Future. All in all it was a pretty awesome few days - but what did we do?

Maria arrived on Thursday, which happened to be the start of the Flyers oral exams the junior school kids were taking, and I unfortunately had to be on hand to act as usher, and make sure they didn't have a nervous breakdown waiting to start. However, these were only in the morning so we had the afternoon free. The first day Maria came to Redland for the afternoon, where she met the English department, had a look round, then rapidly persuaded me that it would be a good idea to go and see the new James Bond. We did, and it was awesome.

Friday night arrived, and we celebrated this in true middle-aged fashion by going for some drinks and getting something to eat in Barrio Brasil, which for me was the Chilean equivalent of sausage and chips. We then met a few of my friends, and by 2am headed out to Barrio Bellas Artes for a bit of cultural education.

The next day we continued our cultural education by heading into the south of Santiago to visit Bodega Concha y Toro, one of the largest wine producers in the world, producers of labels like Casillero del Diablo. We joined a tour, and for an hour were shown around the place along with a large group of Brazilians, who apparently swarm the place. 

Concha y Toro is very tourist oriented, but it's nice all the same, and it's not often you have the chance to discuss the "floral notes" of a fine Chilean cab sav whilst wandering around vineyards in the foothills of the Andes. However, we did get a little bored with the slightly pretentious wine tasting, and ended up amusing ourselves by taking increasingly ridiculous photos and making bizarre claims about the taste, something the Brazilians were somewhat alarmed/amused by.

For the final day, we headed out of Santiago and to the coast, where we spent the day in the "jewel of the Pacific": Valparaiso. I've already been there before with school, and so it was nice to show Maria around and also see some things I hadn't really had the chance to see. Valpo is a big port city on the Pacific coast, and is very different to Santiago: it's very cultural, historic, dirty, busy and increasingly touristy, and a really interesting place to be.

We visited the Naval Museum, which was actually quite interesting, and amusingly anti-Peru. We found loads of Simon Bolivar statues and streets, which was quite fun given that we both studied him last year. We kept up the cultural stuff by going to the Valparaiso Museum of Fine Art, which is very well done but contains mostly terrible paintings. We walked around the port, up a few hills, used the old funiculars, bought some empanadas and avocado (doesn't get much more Chilean), and then slept most of the bus back.

Nice weekend. Oh, and I'm going to Perú next week.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Last weekend Greg was in Buenos Aires for a conference at the university there, and given that it's only a 2 hour flight away from Santiago, I decided to hop on a plane and go and see him. It was a great opportunity to see the Argentine capital, optimistically dubbed "the Paris of South America", and also to see Greg! I stayed with him for three days in a flat in Palermo, and over the course of my stay we did some serious mileage walking around BA, visiting a lot of the major sights and neighbourhoods.

Los Andes

Buenos Aires is a very different city to Santiago, and is a lot dirtier and noisier compared to the almost European feel of over here. BA also has a lot more museums and culture associated with it, as well as being generally older and more run down; the streets were regularly filled with rubbish, the pavement almost constantly in disrepair, and dog poo is a constant hazard.

Getting to BA is very easy from Santiago, and it's possible to go by bus (24 hours) or fly (2 hours). Given that I was taking time off work, I decided to fly, and LAN (the Chilean national airline) broke all stereotypes with an amazing flight that was cheaper and better than any European flag carrier. Also, the views as we flew over the Andes were pretty stunning.

El Ateneo

I arrived Sunday morning, and Greg joined me the next morning, bright and fresh from a terrible 13 hour flight with Iberia, and the bizarre Argentinian customs/immigration procedure. That day we made our first inroads into looking around the Federal Capital. We spend the morning in Recoleta, looking around the large and famous cemetery there (resting place of the likes of Eva Peron) and then headed to the Museum of Latin American Art, where I was lucky enough to find some works by Frida Kahlo, potentially my least favourite artist ever.

The next day we met with Lucas, Greg's contact at the University, who took us out for lunch at a very edgy vegetarian restaurant in Palermo SoHo, after which we headed into town again. We went to el Ateneo, one of the best bookshops in the world, and housed in an old theatre, then got the metro into the Microcentro. We saw Casa Rosada, the seat of the Argentine executive branch, several churches, Puerto Madero, the "hip" docklands area, and then headed down into San Telmo, a very bohemian barrio of Buenos Aires.

Teaching Assistant?

Most people actually have no idea what I do. To be honest, neither do I a lot of the time; it's a really undefined job role, but it basically involves doing everything teachers do except actually properly teaching.

I spend 4 days a week working with kids in middle and senior school, which is year 5 to year 12. The other day I spend with the junior school, working with slightly younger kids who are from year 1 to year 4. Predictably, the two schools involve slightly different work.

At the junior school my role is almost entirely to run conversation classes with groups of kids, where I'm responsible for what I do for the 20 minutes I'm with each group. Although I started off just talking about various things (usually One Direction, for some reason) this quickly got boring so now I tend to do a frankly bizarre mix of exercises.

Last week the group took it in turns being a "tour guide" and showing me around school, and for another group I set up a mock border, which we all had to cross (legally) and have our passports and luggage checked. This week we got topical, and one group all pretended to be characters from James Bond and we ran around playing secret agents (I had a great time...), and another filmed election ads. In fact, here they are:



Working in the senior school, unfortunately, isn't quite like this. I do cultural classes, help the kids with their English and writing, and generally just be British. The general level of English is very good, so it's less teaching and more giving them practice speaking. I also help out with a bit of marking, exam administration, and general work around the department. Not bad, all in all.

Andinismo

In classic Chilean style, I was invited on a hiking expedition over an extended lunch one day. The trip was over 2 days, up into the Andes mountain range just to the East of Santiago, climbing a mountain called Cerro Provincia, a relatively small 2750 metres high. Despite Wikipedia telling me the trip was doable in a day, I was assured by Enrique (the other teacher I was going with) that the kids we were taking would take at least double this. We were going with 15 children from Primero Medio, which is pretty much year 9, aka 15 year olds. Yay.

Enrique's orange trousers

We left at 8.30am on the Friday, and I rapidly realised that Enrique was entirely correct and these were some of the slowest people I'd ever walked with. This being Chile, we also had an extended 90 minute lunch break for everyone to have their food and a nap. The walk up was pretty easy, and we arrived at the campsite by 1500 that day where the boys went off to find water (no taps here!) which we collected from a nearby stream. Because there's really no wildlife up that far (save the odd Mountain Lion) and it's remote, the water is drinkable straight out of the stream - at least this is what I was told. However, no cholera so far, so it seems as if it was indeed legit. Arriving back at the campsite (basically a clearing) we put up the tent and had a nap, followed by a dinner of chicken and rice that Enrique's friend had brought with her. Then, marshmallows over the bonfire and an early night, after a suitable amount of time admiring the insane views over night-time Santiago.

Defying health and safety

The next day we were up early (well, 7) and after a quick trip for water the one group that was still keen headed up towards the summit. On this trip the path became a gradually less well-defined concept, and at some points we were essentially climbing, minus safety equipment. However, still alive, we reached the summit after about 2 hours climbing and found it to be considerably colder than expected; snow was still on the ground from last week's bad weather. After a few group pictures we rapidly headed back down, and made it back to the campsite in good time, amazingly without any major casualties. Finding the girls had wandered off somewhere, and decided to do nothing in our absence (like take their tents down) we settled down for another nap and waited for them to arrive. 2 hours later we were ready to head back down to Santiago, and set off with me at the front attempting to set a slightly faster pace. This rapidly failed, especially when combined with the steep slopes and massive lack of traction - lots of slipping and falling ensued, and meaning I accidentally taught some of the kids a few more colourful words in the English language.

If you really want, you can watch my video of the trip below, and notice how, for some reason, I go massively rah at sunset. But that's about it.

Government Chats

In a slightly odd turn of events, this week I ended up at a panel session with two members of the Chilean cabinet: Minister of Energy Jorge Bunster Betteley and Minister of Agriculture Luis Mayol Bouchon. They each gave a short talk, introducing their ministry and what they are doing at the moment, as well as giving a lot of background information.

Unfortunately, the Agriculture talk was unbelievably boring, and seemed to only discuss water supplies throughout the country in great detail, but the Energy talk was significantly more interesting. The Minister talked about the Chilean power network, gas prices, dependence on foreign powers for fossil fuels, and the increasing role of alternative technologies. Impressively, Chile has 35% of its energy coming from hydroelectric sources. The rest is made up of mainly coal and natural gas, with some other renewable technologies thrown into the mix (don't say my blog isn't educational...).

It also gave me an excuse to see the seriously nice (and expensive) Grange School where the talk was held, and who kindly invited me along...

Valparaiso Cerro Abajo

Last week I had the luck to be invited on a school trip with 7th Basico, who were spending the day in Valparaiso. Valpo is a large city about 90 minutes drive from Santiago, which used to be a major shipping hub in the South Pacific. According to Wikipedia it's the site of the longest continuously running Spanish language newspaper, and of Latin America's oldest stock exchange. The Guardian also has a semi-interesting article.

On the trip we visited a few museums, went to an organ recital, walked around the town, went in a funicular, and took a harbour tour (it's still a big container and naval port). It's quite a dirty, sprawling town that has a lot of character and is a very interesting place to look around. However, it's also the site of an annual downhill bike race (Valparaiso Cerro Abajo), and you can see one guy's ride downhill here - pretty impressive stuff:

Terremoto

So today I experienced my first earthquake! According to the USGS, it measured 5.5 on the Richter Scale, and 17.22 UTC, which is 14.22 my time - just as lunch was finishing. I was in the office doing some marking (/on Facebook) with the others, when the floor started shaking like someone was playing really loud, bassy music below.

(You can see more info from USGS here)

Initially, that was exactly what I thought was happening until people started getting under desks and someone mentioned it was an earthquake. The shaking got stronger and then stopped after about 15 seconds. Although it was definitely noticeable, nothing was falling off the walls or toppling over, so it was hardly chaos.

This kind of thing happens really frequently in Chile, given their unfortunate geographic position, and so there are established drills for earthquakes, just like we have fire drills in England. Everyone knew exactly what to do (except me) - we all went into the playground and counted the children. Maintenance then inspected the buildings to make sure everything was alright, and we went back inside.

Such fun.

Fiestas Patrias

The Phoenix, of
Chilean miner fame

The Fiestas Patrias are the two most important days in the Chilean calendar, and they mark both the beginning of the Chilean independence process from Spain (September 18) and the Army Day (September 19). However, for most Chileans it's a great excuse to eat huge quantities of meat, drink a lot, and dance some cueca. Although only a 2 day holiday, the government decided that, seeing as the fiestas fall on a Tuesday and Wednesday, they'd better give everyone the Monday off as well so we can all have a 5 day weekend. Not bad.

Unfortunately, my dieciocho (meaning 18th, cunningly), was somewhat spoiled by some unfortunate timetableing constraints with a TurBus, which meant that I spent the day on a coach back from San Pedro watching Undisputed 1, 2 and 3 badly dubbed into Spanish. Not exactly what I had planned.

However, the next day I went to a fonda with Ignacio and Soledad in a local park. A fonda is basically a sort of temporary outdoor fair, where they put together a mix of eateries, bars and entertainment together with more Chilean flags than I've ever seen in my life. They're hugely popular, and this is where pretty much everyone goes over the fiestas patrias.

Meat being cooked on a traditional wooden fire.

Me and Ignacio (plus randomer in background) with Terremotos

Chorillana: chips, steak, chorizo, egg and onion.

A Chilean cowboy, aka Huaso

Traditional rodeo with huasos