Peru, what a country!

The blog name will stay the same but the content is about to change. If I were to change it, it would be www.adreamcometrue.com. It will be longer be about Santiago and my Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching, but about our travels around.  We head back to the USA on March 25 and from now ‘til then we plan to visit Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Southern Chile and Patagonia if we can pull it off! I’m going to try my best to keep up with the blog.  

We barely had time to say chau to Santiago and let it sink in that we were leaving, before we arrived to the Santiago airport headed to Lima, Peru.  Not long after being in Lima, I was reminded how Latin American cultures and places are so wrongly lumped together.  Lima is so different from Santiago from the landscape, the architecture, the crime rate, the weather, and the friendliness to the food.  Oh, the food!  More on that later . . .

Flepi, the delightful family dog

We arrived on Christmas Eve and were warmly welcomed by my good friend and Barbieri colleague, Lisie and her family.  We got to have a lovely Christmas that didn’t make me miss my family or the seven-types-of-seafood Christmas Eve feast too much.  We spent Christmas Eve at Lisie’s aunt’s house with extended family.  Anton and I were operating on Santiago time, two hours ahead of Lima time and dinner, following tradition, wasn’t until past nine.  Christmas Eve is similar to New Year’s Eve in that it celebrates the coming of something, in this case, the birth of baby Jesus.  At midnight there was a champagne toast, and best wishes exchanged while illegal fireworks were set off around town.  

Lisie, her mom, three sisters, two nephews and niece were wonderful to be around.  They were generous hosts who were each very interesting and fun to talk to.  On Christmas Day morning we toured by bike around the neighborhood and surroundings including coastal parks.  Lima is very humid and overcast but has some great views of the Pacific and some pretty, old buildings.  We had a delicious lunch of salmon, salad and potatoes with an ají sauce called Tarí and it was SO good.  I haven’t been unimpressed with a meal yet.  For dinner we had sanguiches criollas.  Mine a chicharrón with fried pork belly, pickled red onions and sweet potato.  Anton’s was lomo huancaina with beef, lettuce, tomato, crispy thin potatoes and a huancaina, a cheesy aji sauce.

The next day we headed to the Haustein beach home in Ancon about an hour from Lima.  On the way Lisie and her sister, Delia shared some very interesting political history about Peru, riddled with corruption and attempted reform. We spent the afternoon on a boat ride, playing cards, taking dips in the ocean and eating more seafood and potatoes.  With more than one hundred different potato varieties and a huge coastline, Peruvians eat potatoes almost daily and seafood nearly as much.  Peru might be right up there with New Orleans and Italy for great food on vacation. More delicious food was had when we returned to Lima and has fushion sushi like rollos acevichado (ceviche roll).  Sunday morning I was introduced to fruits native to Peru at a local market.  Aguaymanto, pacai, granadilla and nespiro we all amazingly exotic and delicious.  We sadly bid adieu to Lima and the Hausteins to fly to Cusco en route to Puno.  

When we passed through Cusco I immediately had a flutter of excitement. For four years, I taught my third graders about the Inca and even though it was at an elementary level, to see the history of what I had read about right in front of me is so neat.  It’s just like after studying Spanish art for years in high school and making it to the Reina Sofia in Madrid to see Picasso’s Guernica.  There are platforms on the Andes mountains, ancient stone buildings, alpaca and Inca descendants all around. We took a very cheap, 8 hour bus to Puno on which we were the only white people among the quechua passengers.  Many women wearing traditional dress and speaking quechua.

Puno was just lovely.  It is a not-too-touristy, laid back, small city on the shores of Lake Titicaca with no chain establishments at all.  Many people walking around live in outlying communities and maintain a traditional way of life doing farm and artisan work.  It is 3,800 meters above sea level and despite warding off the site affects of the altitude we had a great time.  We stayed at a B & B, with an amazingly kind and knowledgable owner.  We visited the city’s cathedral and museum.  We toured the burial ground for ancient civilization’s leaders with towers up to 12 meters high for tombs.  We also did an unforgettable tour on Lake Titicaca of the Uros Islands, the 85 floating islands built from lake reeds with 1,500 inhabitants who speak Aymara, a pre-Inca language.  We also visited Taquile, a larger, natural island with habitants who speak quechua.  It was serene and beautiful.  While looking at the immense lake, we had a glorious lunch of quinoa soup and grilled trout with of course, fried potatoes.  We also met nice people in our tour group, including a couple from Cambridge, MA and a young guy who was riding his motorcycle from Vancouver to Tierra del Fuego.

The worlds highest navigable lake

Chulpa- Ancient Inca Tomb, we later saw the mummies recovered from the site in a Musem 

Homes on one of the floating islands

A view from Taquile Island

Right this moment, I am writing from the Andean Explorer, an old fashioned, luxury train, a splurge for Anton’s big birthday!  It is like a movie set.  We’re sitting in seats that look like living room furniture with a white tablecloth table and there is a bar car and an observation car in the back.  The views of the Andes and countryside are majestic.  There was a three course lunch and lots of snacks.  We are headed back to Lima where we will meet up with Joe and Lindsey in preparation for our hike to Machu Picchu.  I can’t wait to see what adventures and dishes, Peru has to offer next.

and that's a wrap!

Like those pretty packages under the Christmas tree, my time in Santiago is all wrapped up.  174 empanadas, visits at 12 different schools, countless bottles of red wine, a summative report and a final project later, I am done with my Fulbright in Chile.  And I'm so sad it's over.  It’s been a while since my last post as our last two weeks in Santiago were BUSY, in a good way.

First, our dear, awesome friends Eric and Emi came to visit.  We were eager to show them and they were enthusiastic to see all the city has to offer and I think they were charmed by Santiago’s eccentricities.  Towards the end of the trip we were reflecting on the week’s highlights and when we started listing, we realized we were mentioning all the fun things we did!  At the risk of sounding way cheesy, the very best part of all was talking about life, past, present and future with old friends.  It is hard to pick the best part, but of all the good times, I had two favorite days.  One was on Sunday, when we rode bikes on the the closed city streets across town to the beautiful Parque Bicentenario.  There we had a picnic, relaxed, and saw the flamingoes.  On the way back, at random, we stopped off at a gourmet food festival and had so much fun visiting the stands of local foods and crafts, drinking local artisanal beer and eating delicious choripan from a VW bus food stand.  Another high point was buying fresh clams and other ingredients at the big central markets and taking them on a metro and local bus journey into the mountains of Cajon del Maipo where we stayed in a cabin surrounded by walnut and almond trees.  We hung in hammocks and enjoyed the views and fresh air.  Then with team effort, made an amazing clam and linguine dinner.  It was buena, buena! The visit was a great way to have a last hurrah!

Parque Bicentenario

After a chorillana lunch in Valparaiso

Across the street from our cabin in Cajon del Maipo

Meanwhile, being in Santiago through late December was great but strange.  It was hot, very hot, especially when in the sun.  When I would see a Christmas decoration I would be puzzled and then realize, “Oh yeah, it’s December”.  Christmas is commercial in Chile too, but it hasn’t reached the mania there is in the US.  It was kind of refreshing but like I said, strange.  Almost like a year the Christmas season didn’t happen.  No holiday parties, no baking cookies, no card writing, no gift buying.  

After the visit, I had a few days where I worked like mad to finish my Fulbright assignments and say good bye to the city.  I had to do more of the former than the latter. But we also managed to celebrate Anton’s birthday at the Concha y Toro vineyard.

Although not earth shattering, all in all, I think I wound up with some powerful findings that will help me be a better educator.  There were a few themes that came up in my classroom observations, reading and university class that I culminated in a guide for teachers.  The guide is meant to serve as “how to” for increasing quality of classroom interactions to enhance academic language learning.  Establishing a viable sense of classroom community through a strong social emotional learning program is key for successful cooperation in the classroom.  Teaching students to give and receive specific feedback with the goal of increasing quality of work is a way to have student use targeted, content specific, academic language.  Finally, implementing project based learning is a way to encourage students to collaborate instead of cooperate.  That is to engage in discourse throughout each stage of the project instead of dividing the work to be done and completing it individually.  

Before departing for Santiago, I was asked what I was most looking forward to about my stay.  I said lots of things, like being in a new place to learn about its culture and reflect on my own,  getting a chance navigate life abroad and to leave amy regular life behind for a while, meeting new people, practicing my Spanish. . . check, check, check. 

Also before leaving, I told a good friend how I was nervous about pulling off my inquiry project.  She reminded me that I would learn many things along the way about education and life.  Perhaps most important, she advised, going to be able to be recharged and refreshed from a break from teaching while still developing professionally.  She was right. 

High and Dry in the Atacama Desert. But in a good way!

No, not Lawrence of Arabia, it's Anton!

December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a national holiday here in Chile.  Since it fell on a Tuesday this year, Monday the 7th was given as a sandwich holiday.  Since I turned 33 on the 6th, Anton and I took advantage and headed to the highly boasted about San Pedro de Atacama. Honestly I hadn't heard about it before being in Chile.  Everyone here has told me it´s a must visit, and it didn't disappoint.  I´m surprised it isn´t more well known in the States, as it has magnificent natural wonders and tourists from around the world.   It´s also record breaker as it's 2000 meters above sea level and the world's driest desert.

Caracoles, the main drag. Named after the Caracoles mine since workers would walk down this street to work.

It´s about a two hour flight to Calama and then an hour bus ride to San Pedro.  There is nothing to see but desert for the entire ride.  It´s not desert like what I would imagine African deserts to be nor like the desert I´ve seen in the Southwest of the US.  It was something all it´s own, crazy different and beautiful.  The small town of San Pedro is the oasis of this immense desert and the tourist hub,  with only about 2,000 non-tourist inhabitants.  The dusty streets consist of hostels, tour agencies, restaurants and artisan gift shops.  The north of Chile used to be part of Peru before the War of the Pacific.  Atacama and Peru have some descendants and handicrafts in common.

We arrived and realized the hostel we booked was on the outskirts of the town, next to the highway but with a great view of the towering Licancabur Volcano and it was just a short walk to the center.  Just the right amount of time for digestive walks after meals.  There are three mountain ranges in the area, the Andes, the Salt Mountains and the Doymeko which can be seen from different parts of town.

For dinner on the first night, we had great food and delicious drinks.  There are pisco sours all over Chile but in San Pedro they can be made with desert herbs like rika-rika, yum! To allow ourselves to adjust to the altitude, we spend our first morning strolling around town shopping for tours and relaxing in the town plaza.  It reminded me a lot of the piazzas in small town Italy minus the toursts.  It was a lovely public space for strolling, people watching, events and ice cream. That evening we went to Lagunas Cejar, Ojos de Salar, and another lagoon to watch the sunset.  The first stop was a lagoon with 30% salt content.  It was like swimming in the Dead Sea, or so we were told.  We walked past the rocky salt shore to the lagoon's center which is MUCH deeper.  It was somewhat eerie since it was like jumping off a cliff except one that was filled with salty water.  It was effortless to float and easy to be vertical in the water.

There is an abundance of tourist agencies that offer the same tour options for different sights in the area and it can be daunting to choose which one to go with. We lucked out with Roberto, a passionate, energetic and patient tour guide for two of our tours.  On day 2, we went on a tour of lakes in the high plains, about 4000 meters up.  First we stopped at a lagoon that is a flamingo reserve and learned lots of neat facts about the different breeds.  They eat a kilo of brine shrimp a day, and the men age more severely than the lady flamingos, they turn white when past breeding age. I didn´t even know they could fly, but we saw some in flight and learned engineers use biomimicry in airplanes to recreate their flight abilities.

That evening we went to space camp.  Not really, but we did go on amazing visit to an observatory and hear an astronomer talk about the stars as well as get to look through ten different telescopes.  Even without the talk, the stars were incredible.  You didn´t even have to look up since there were no tall buidlings.  The starts were all around us.  Not a bad way to spend a birthday.  Because there is very little humidity and light pollution, there is actually quite a bit of astronomical research that happens in the Atacama, including ALMA.

On day 3, we headed out again with Roberto, and 27 other tourists, to the Geysers del Tatio.  The third largest and highest geothermal field in the world.  It was spectacular.

Another highlight of the weekend was sleeping.  Sounds silly but it was so relaxing to sleep on the tour buses vibrating with the bumpy roads with the sum beaming in the windows as they drove from sight to sight.  Napping was a necessity after the early wake ups to visit the sights and with the fatigue brought on by the heat and high altitude. A lowlight, and a conflict of visiting any popular sight, is dealing with the throngs of tourists and the invention of the selfie stick.  I, myself love to commemorate occasions and try to capture the beautiful views to treasure and share.  However I don't go to the extreme that some do, pretending they are supermodels at a photo shoot.  Por ejemplo, Anton and I were trying to enjoy one particular geyser and were asked to move over because we were in someone´s photo.  We obliged and slid over. Not two minutes later we were approached yet again by another lady asking us to move back in the direction we were just in because we were in her photo.  Good grief!

My favorite, and our last visit, was to the Valle de la Luna, a place unlike one I had even been before.  It was if the Badlands National Park, the Sahara, the Moon, and a salt flat procreated together. There was different and awe striking landscape every where you look.  I was most impressed with the massive sand dunes.  I love when nature takes my breath away, helps you understand the order of things.

It is great to return "home" to Santiago, if only for just  few more weeks.

The best things in life are free. Or maybe just 7 lukas*.

Ok, so maybe not all the best things in life are free since food, clothing, shelter (and travel, the other essential) can cost a pretty penny.  But there are some things here in Santiago that are worth more than you could ever pay for.  Like after 3+ months of riding the Metro and having no one give me more than a stare, to have a businessman start up a pleasant conversation and then when we arrived at my stop tell me "que le vaya bonita" (that things go beautiful for you).  Or after giving a presentation on a what school is like in the US to two classes of 45 first graders having one run across the patio at recess screaming "Tia, Tía!" (they call their teachers aunt here) and when he reached me say, while out of breath, "I really liked your class".  Or taking part in the many free cultural offerings this city has on offer from dance and music performances and lectures to historical walking tours of different neighborhoods.  This past Sunday I joined the Cultura Mapocho group on a tour that highlighted patrimonial sights a few blocks from my apartment on a street called Compañia de Jesus.   The tour is run by volunteers who give interesting tidbits about the sights and also encourage critical thinking.

For instance, as we visited several restored palatial homes that had been converted into a shopping center, the guides questioned by whom, for whom and for what purpose should restoration and preservation be done.  It was really neat.  

Nothing in Santiago is complete without a quiltro.

Not free, but delicious and equally neat, was the lunch Anton and I had afterward at Peluquería Francesa, a very cool old restaurant in a historic building with different rooms, old knick knacks and paintings for decorations, and where no two table and chair settings are alike.  The food was delicious, we needed steaks to fortify ourselves after a tough hike the day before.  The restaurant gets its name for the barber sharp next door that seems to have kept everything in tact for the last 60+ years.  Old sinks, wall decorations and chairs makes you feel like you're taking a walk back in time when you enter.  I saw they give lady haircuts, that it was only 7,000 pesos and took a chance.  Fidel, who must have been about 80, gave me one the greatest haircuts I've ever had.  It was really delightful to have someone like a grandpa, doing my hair with simple unsophisticated tools and supplies in a way that only an experienced barber could.

this is a google image shot of Peluqueria Francesa.  I really need to get over my photo taking shyness.

Santiago has so much wonderful energy and amazing things to witness, both free and pay. What I love most is that it's not in your face cool like Barcelona or Paris but it has many gems right below the surface waiting to be discovered.  Don't get me wrong, I can get frustrated by the inefficiency, lack of customer service, indirectness and everything else different than home.  But every time we go for a walk in a different part of the city, I am struck my something new, interesting, and thought provoking from pretty architecture, a neat shop, or public art to name a few things.  I'm not out of the honeymoon phase quite yet and am sad to have to get ready to leave.  I had my last visit at my most favorite school today and I was not happy about it one little bit.  The one consolation to my impending departure are the travels ahead.  I've never been a backpacker before!  Traveling around South America is a dream come true! I just want to make sure to hold with me all the awe and wonder this experience has brought.


*A luka is the slang term for 1,000 Chilean Pesos, about $1.50 USD

.