¡Por fin!

¡Hola Amigos!

Kelsey posted her entry...scroll down to read it!

ya me voy, Andrius

Plans

¡Hola amigos!

This Monday marks the last week classes for me at the U, and I will be completely done with school by Thursday. My plans for after the semester are as follows. Saturday the 25th I fly south to the town of Punta Arenas, in the far south of Chilean Patagonia. It is very close to the southernmost part of the world: Tierra del Fuego. I will be traveling with Jeff, a friend from my program, and during our two and a half weeks in the far south we plan do do a serious amount of trekking. As of now our tentative plans are to hike the Circuit through Parque Nacional Torres del Paine which is a six or seven day loop around the park. From all accounts, the park contains some of the most stunning and beautiful landscape in the world. Any google search for "Torres del Paine" will turn up good photos and websites for those who would like to know more. After that we will head northeast into Argentina and do another loop through "Parque Nacional Los Glaciares" which is also said to be stunning. Time depending we may have time to see some other sights as well, but this being South America one can never be too sure. On the 12th of December I fly back to Valparaíso for a quick 3 day goodbye and then I fly to the good old US of A on an overnight flight that leaves the 15th. I will arrive in Colorado on the morning of the 16th.

That said, blog entries from may become a little bit more scarce. When I have access to a computer I will certainly try to post at least a short update on our progress. However, a large blog complete with photos of the trip south may not appear until December, at which point I can promise the most extravagant entry yet.

Don't tune out completely though because at some point Kelsey will post her entry (when she does post it, it will appear somewhere between the entry of "Buenos Freaking Aires" and "Valle del Elqui", I believe). Also see the recent addition of "Gringos in Pucón".

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and a for those of you in school, a strong finish in your classes. The next time we'll talk it will be from the southernmost part of the world, and until then:

ya me voy,
Andrius.

Gringos en Pucón

¡Hola Amigos!

Last weekend ISA took the last excursion as an entire program, and it was by far the best one yet. We left Thursday night on a tour bus rented exclusively by ISA. I can't quite express how much more interesting a long bus ride is when everyone on the bus is a good friend of everyone else on the bus. Activities ranged from football to soccer to singing Simon and Garfunkel, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows, CCR, Dave Matthews, Van Morrison, etc. accompanied by an instrument called the chorango (it is comparable to a ukelele although it's origin is South American, not Hawaiian). It was a riot.

Friday was occupied by a tour of the sights around Pucón, whose location in the Lake District of Chile made most of the sights water-related; we saw three waterfalls, a lake, and a hot springs. I think this time I'll let the photos do the talking.

Here's the bus we spent the weekend in. We took a day-long tour in it, we rode it up a horrendous dirt road to the volcano, and we took it ziplining on Sunday. Basically we spent a lot of time getting really cozy with each other. This is the same design as the bus we took to the first soccer game in Santiago (I believe I had a rather colorful description of the seating arrangement in that blog, and here's the living proof). This puppy seats 25.

This waterfall is called "Salto el China" and plunges urgently downwards a whopping 73 meters before turning into a tranquil mountain stream again. I needed a wide-angle lens to fit the whole thing in the shot--as it is the spray of the water hitting the pool at the bottom isn't even visible. From my best estimate, and by best estimate I mean the closest I can come to a real estimate without multiplying anything by -9.8m/s^2, it took the water 4 seconds to fall from the top. In other words this shot falls woefully short of giving the proper perspective of the size of this thing. (Try counting one-onethousand two-onethousand three-onethousand four-onethousand in your head and it'll give a better idea.)

The coolest part of the trip was climbing the volcano, Villarica. It is the most active volcano in South America and shoots up to a height of 2,983 meters. Here's the crew in the tourist agency, suiting up. We got the whole setup--ice axe, gators, pants, jacket, helmet, crampons, boots and a diaper-looking thing for glissading (that's the fancy word for sliding down a mountain/glacier/snow covered slope on your fanny). From left to right is Jessica, David, Will, Alex, Ole (center), Hal, Danny, Aubrey, Kelly, Adam and Anne.

Hal, Luke, and I. When you're carrying an ice axe up a volcano, you don't smile for photos. Villarica. I thought the cloud formation over the top was really cool, and I'm hoping someone with more meteorological knowledge than myself can tell me what the name of it is.

The crew climbing up Villarrica. In the background of the photo, a large lake is visible. The town of Pucón sits on the right hand shore of the lake. In case you're noticing a trend, it is difficult to capture a normal photo of Adam; see above photo of the rental shop.

Victory! Me, at the top. It's hard to see, but this shot is of the crater of the volcano. The top was so windy and cold that we only stayed for about 5 minutes--it was practically unbearable. It was one of those situations where the wind could practically support your body weight. What's more, the odor coming from the crater was absolutely horrendous. To take this photo I had to hold my breath. If you want to get an idea of the foulness of the smell, take the strongest salt and vinegar chip you can find, place it on your tongue and inhale. When done properly this will make you cough. Multiply it by twenty and you have "arôme de volcan". I managed to get close enough to the crater to get a shot of the lava, but it didn't turn out very well very because of all the smoke. This was the last photo I took before my camera died, so fishing and ziplining in the rain on Sunday are photographically undocumented. All in all the trip was a blast and it was fun to get the group together one last time before we leave. Hope all is well at home.

ya me voy, Andrius

Huevón.

¡Hola Amigos!

Although I do not believe it to be in bad taste, the subject matter of this particular entry lends itself to being a little more crass than usual. Peruse at your own risk.

Due to my tendency of long-windedness, this starts with a story. Last Tuesday I took a three day trip to Mendoza, Argentina, a town located opposite Santiago on the Eastern side of the Andes. Not having found any friends to accompany me, I decided to travel alone. The trip was relatively uneventful and doesn't really merit a blog in and of itself, but there was one event in particular that sparked my creativity.

The highway to Mendoza is the same that we took on our trip to Portillo (see archives) and is one of the most intense mountain passes I have ever been on: what's more I did it in a tour bus. Midway on the journey one also has to stop to pass through customs and immigration. Between the twisty bumpy road and the 2 o'clock disembarkation in the freezing cold Chilean Andes, sleeping is more difficult than the typical night bus. When I arrived at 5:30 am Wednesday morning in Mendoza, I wanted nothing more than to crash for a couple hours. I went to the hostel and checked into the only room available: a ten-bed dormitory. I went straight to my bunk and laid down. Finally, I would be able to rest.

I was right at the fringe of consciousness when into the room walked seven guys, all about my age. The very first words I heard one of them say were "¡Oye huevón, otro huevón ya está!" ("Hey huevón, there's already another huevón here!). The minute he opened his mouth I knew two things: my roommates were all Chilean, and I wasn't going to get any sleep. Huevón is one of Chile's many modisms (slang), and is so unique that it practically defies translation. Even after three months in this country I am unable to use the word as the Chileans do. I will do my best to define it.

Huevón originates from the word "huevos"; a word that means both "eggs" and "balls" (testicles). It's origin thus being decidedly masculine, the term is generally applied to men, although it's usage among women (and in reference to women) is not uncommon. Due to the verbal sloth of the Chilean population, the pronunciation has been distorted over the years; hence when spoken it sounds something like "wheon" (pronounce it like English and you'll get the idea).

"Huevón" has several meanings. Primarily it is used among friends the way Americans use "dude", "man", "guy", or "buddy." For example, "¿oye huevón, que pasa?" could translate as "hey dude, what's up?" or "what's happening man?" However huevón can also be used as an insult. A close approximation in American English would be "jerk". "¡Vete de mi casa huevon!" might translate as "get out of my house, jerk!" In terms of usage and versatility, the closest English equivalent to "huevón" is a very vulgar four letter work that rhymes with the small black disc used to play ice hockey. Those familiar with the colloquial usage of this word will know that it too can be used as an insult, greeting, and exclamation among other things. Huevón, however, is different. It is not a word you would be afraid to use in front of your mother, for example.

The sheer frequency with which "huevón" is used is actually quite comical. I mean, if I had just one elephant for every time I've heard the word "huevón", I would have a whopping large pile of elephants. Here's an example we were given in my grammar class that illustrates the point well. (Yes, we had a 1.5 hour grammar class on the sole topic of swears, curses, vulgar expressions and the like. The whole class assumed that the professor had just used the curses to grab our interest, and we kept waiting for the tie-in to some infinitesimal grammatical nuance. We were wrong--an hour and a half later, the only things that had changed were that the room was painted blue and we were able to tell people exactly what we thought of them...in Spanish.) Ok, back to the example. Three Chileans are in a Chilean bar (this could only happen in Chile). Friends A and B are seated at the table, and friend C just went to buy another round of beers. Since friends A and B have each purchased a round already, friend C is buying the third and is subsequently a little loaded. As he winds his way back to the table holding three bottles, he fails to notice that there is a small step up in the floor. He trips, and the only reaction his dulled reflexes can come up with is to open his hands to prevent the ever painful nose-bashing-floor-boo boo. In the process all three beers fall and shatter on the ground. At this point, friend A leans over to friend B and says:

"Oye, el huevón huevón, huevón."

Let me explain. The first "huevón" refers to friend C. The second "huevón" refers to his screw-up, and can be treated as a verb: "to huevón". The third "huevón" refers to friend B, to whom the oration is voiced. Thus is "huevón". It can be shouted at a TV during a soccer match, hollered out a car window to a friend, screamed out a car window in a fit of rage, crammed into a sentence so full of "huevones" that you didn't think another would fit, and used to greet a long-time friend or someone you just met. And that doesn't even scratch the surface. At the same time "huevón" means everything, and means nothing. Even in Argentina I was unable to escape it, and you know what they say: "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Ya me voy, huevónes.

Andrius