A Chilean Adventure
Nicole Schmidt - February 2007
Tonight was the big send-off with all the family. We put up decorations to celebrate everything from now until when I return on July 25 (Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s, Easter, 4th of July, everyone’s birthdays, etc.). I was really thankful that so many people braved the cold weather (-20 degrees) to come and spend the day with us, wishing me safe travels.
I had a lot of good-bye’s today, but no tears. I know I’ll see everyone again in a few months and it’s so much easier to communicate with all the modern technology. The biggest thing I’ll miss is the two baby cousins growing up. A lot will change as they go from 6-months-old to one year.
It’s so great to know that I have so many people supporting me and cheering me on with everything. It’s a wonderful family and everyone is very close-knit.
Today was a big day.
First, I had to make sure I had everything packed and that my suitcases weren’t too heavy. The new regulations on liquids makes it difficult to keep track of everything. Normally I would just put all my bathroom stuff in one bag, but now most of it has to go in the checked luggage with only the necessary liquids in small containers all in a single one-quart Ziploc bag. I made a big packing list a while back, but I just started packing a couple of days ago and now I think (hope!) I have everything. I’m not really sure how I’ll transport all of my stuff when I need to, but I’ll just hope I can strap together two of the suitcases and rent a luggage cart if it’s available.
Today was also the day I had to say goodbye to my family. We waited until Dad came in from the barn and had a good sit-down lunch. Then we got pictures with everyone and gave the final hugs. I cried a little, but once we got in the car and started driving a little I was ok. It’s only a few months and Mom and Kayla will be visiting in April. We’ll all be ok.
It’s refreshing to know that on my last full day in the U.S. I had time to really tie up the loose ends and do all the things that I kept putting off. I just ran errands around Madison: made a small photo album of things that I can share with people I meet in Chile, bought a headset to use with Skype, finally bought my bus ticket to the O’Hare airport, bought some chapstick with SPF 30, etc.
Mike and I will be going to eat soon with some friends of ours. It should be fun to hang out and talk and not think too much about how much we’ll miss each other.
One more thought: we had a mild winter so far until the weekend before I’m leaving. It’s so cold that most of the schools in northeast Wisconsin are closed today. It seems like that’s pretty nasty. Mike says that it’s actually good because it’ll make me more thankful that I get to go somewhere warm. I like his outlook better.
The last big goodbye this morning was pretty difficult. Of course it’s hard to leave my family, but leaving Mike is something completely different. Not only will I not see him and spend time with him for six months, but I will also miss the hugging and cuddling and just talking face-to-face with my best friend. The timing of this morning was pretty good though: I woke up and got ready, packed the suitcases in the car and we went to catch the bus right away. There wasn’t any time to sit around and twiddle fingers, which was good.
Now there’s only two more legs of the trip to go…but it’s the two really long ones. I made the drive to Madison, then this morning I took the Van Galder bus to O’Hare airport, and now I’m sitting in the airport in Atlanta. Next is a 9.5 hour flight to Santiago and then a 10 hour bus ride to Valdivia. Fun!
The travel thus far has been pretty good. Of course it’s kind of boring, as most travel is. Also, our 3-hour lay-over in Atlanta turned into 5 hours when they bumped us to the early flight out of Chicago. We’ve been looking at the travel books though and it’s really making me excited to travel around the southern part of Chile this month. I highly suggest that everyone considers traveling to Chile. There is so much to do and see! I’m sure that you’ll be convinced if you continue reading my blog because I’ll keep you informed and share some pictures.
Next time I write will be from Chile!
When we landed in Santiago today, we didn’t even know what to think. It wasn’t the typical feeling of, “We’re going to gawk at everything for a few weeks and then go back home.” Today it was more like, “We’re going to live in this country for six months!” Dang!
We decided to take a bus to Valdivia from Santiago because it cut down on the cost of another flight…bad idea! We landed at about 9:30 this morning, went through customs and got our luggage and then went to brave the local transportation. There are three types: taxi, minibus, or city bus. Marcelo advised us to take the city bus because it’s cheapest. When we came to the long hallway of options, it was FULL of people going every direction. We made our way to an ATM, withdrew some money, and then we were cornered by two men who claimed to work for the information desk. We told them we were taking the city bus and they insisted that it didn’t stop at the bus terminal and we’d have to walk a ways to get there. We were good travelers though and didn’t trust them. We went to the information desk and got tickets for the city bus for about $1.50.
Riding the bus to the terminal wasn’t too bad, but in the process of turning too many times with my suitcases (I have three on wheels and two of them were strapped together), one of the wheels broke off. I couldn’t strap them together anymore and now I had three big suitcases that all had wheels, but I only had two hands. I can’t really explain how I managed, but I did and that’s all that mattered.
So, now that we’re at the bus terminal in Santiago, we immediately go to the window for the “Tur Bus” company (Marcelo recommended that company) and bought our tickets to Valdivia. Here’s the catch: 1. We thought the tickets would be about $20, but they were $50 each - we could’ve flown for about $100. 2. The bus didn’t leave until 9:40 p.m. We had nearly a 12-hour wait…with a ton of luggage!
We started searching the terminal for luggage storage and found a place that kept our suitcases-it cost about $12 for mine. Then we found a “baño ejecutivo” (executive bathroom) where we could each rent a bathroom that cost $7.50 for 30 minutes. It was certainly the best investment of the day!
We found a payphone and called Marcelo somehow (it was much more difficult than expected!) to let him know we were ok. He advised us to visit “La Casa de Moneda” (it’s like the Chilean capitol building), so we set off on our adventure in Santiago.
It didn’t take long to discover that we stood out a LOT more that we hoped to and all of the men in Santiago seemed to know just enough English to shout catcalls at us. It was quite disgusting and at some times a little scary.
We found our way on the Metro in Santiago (it was a lot like the Metro in D.C.) and found La Casa de Moneda. It was kind of fascinating that we were in the place of government for our temporary country. We even stepped into the Ministerio de Agricultura for a minute, but there was nothing to see except offices.
Then we made our way back to the bus terminal to kill the last few hours. It sounds like we did a lot, but really we had to waste a lot of time doing various things: walking around aimlessly, sitting on a park bench, taking a long time to eat meals, and we actually watched an episode of Gilmore Girls on my computer.
Killing time was actually really exhausting, but it also took a lot of energy to be on constant high alert. There was one time when we thought two guys were trying to steal my backpack. It’s too difficult to explain the situation, but it was pretty obvious that we got out of there just in the nick of time.
Augh! If this is what the next six months are going to be like, I already want to go home! This is a terrible way to arrive in Chile! I’ve seen enough of Santiago, and I don’t want to come back! I hope Valdivia is nothing like today! Now I’m going to sleep for the 10-hour bus ride and hope I wake up in a completely different place. ¡Buenas noches!
Our bus rolled into Valdivia this morning at 8:00 and already we could tell that it was a night and day comparison to Santiago. We sat with our luggage while the sun flooded the terminal and waited for Marcelo to arrive. We only had to wait about 15 minutes and he spotted us right away. He never saw pictures of us, but it’s pretty easy to spot two Americans in a bus terminal in Valdivia.
We packed our luggage in his tiny little car and Danielle was nearly crushed under a suitcase. Once we arrived at his house, we met his mother and sister (they were visiting him for a while), then showered, ate breakfast and went to visit the university. He showed us his office and let us use the Internet to send a quick e-mail to our families. Then we wandered around town a little and found a hostal to stay in for the night.
We didn’t do a whole lot in Valdivia yet, but that’s ok because we have five months to see everything in the city. Right now we’re just breathing a HUGE sigh of relief that it seems soooo much better than Santiago. I really think I’m going to like living here.
One of the things I did before I left for Chile was to learn about the history of the country and of Valdivia. I learned that Valdivia was called "The Pearl of the South" because it was a really important port town, but I didn't really know why. It seemed that it's too far from the coast to be a prime port. Our tour today made the whole puzzle fit together.
During the time of Spanish rule, Valdivia had 17 forts protecting the city. However, in 1960, Valdivia was only 10 kilometers from the epicenter of the largest earthquake ever recorded. The earthquake, along with the tsunami that followed destroyed many of these historical sites, leaving just a few partially intact forts. The one we went to in Niebla happened to have a guide our age who grew up in Canada and moved to Chile just a few years ago. He gave us the whole tour in very fast English.
So, the reason that Valdivia was such an important port is because when ships were rounding the southern tip of South America, Valdivia was the first place they could get fresh water before continuing further north. Because of the fresh water, nearly all of the foreign goods and merchandise moved through Valdivia. When Chile gained its independence from Spain, Valdivia wasn’t included and remained royal to Spanish rule.
Finally, Chile launched its attack to conquer the port of Valdivia. Since the Spanish had the 17 forts located all along the mouth of the river, they had to think of a way to attack other than by ship. They docked their ships at night beyond the mouth of the river and attacked on foot. The forts were only set-up for a water battle, so none of the men knew what to do. The Chileans conquered fort after fort and when they got to the other side of the river, all of the other men had already deserted. The Spanish forts of Valdivia lost their first and only battle, regardless of their canons and other weapons at their 17 forts.
Valdivia remained an extremely important port until after WWII when the U.S. led the construction of the Panama Canal. The Canadian tour guide got a kick out of blaming us for the “fall” of Valdivia’s popularity.
I’m usually not much of a history buff, but there have been some really cool history lessons thus far since getting to South America. I’m also reading a novel by Isabel Allende that takes place in Chile during the mid-1800s and then the characters go to California during the gold rush. All of the sailing references seem to go hand-in-hand with the things we’ve been experiencing in Chile. It’s like the history is coming alive in my imagination, making it more fun to learn and remember the new information.
We moved into our cabaña on Sunday, Feb. 25, exactly five months from our departure date (July 25). It was the quickest move-in either of us has ever experienced. The most difficult part may have been deciding who’d have which bedroom. One is a tad bigger with a full-sized bed and a desk and the other has two twin beds and a lot of sunlight. Danielle decided she didn’t really need a desk and the extra twin bed would be a good landing spot for things she didn’t want to put away. That settled it.
Despite the size of our suitcases, unpacking our things really didn’t take long. We just put our few articles of clean clothes in our closets and I set out the pictures I brought on my night table. We rearranged the “living room” a little, but that only took about 10 minutes to move the wicker furniture.
It’s kind of hard to describe the cabañas because there really isn’t an equivalent in Wisconsin, but I’ll try. The whole building looks like a big house and has four separate cabaña downstairs and two upstairs. Each one has its own door to the outside deck, a living room space (with a bay window!), a kitchen space, bathroom, and two bedrooms. Also, it’s all fully furnished with all the necessary kitchen utensils (pots, pans, plates, bowls, everything), sheets, blankets and pillows on the beds, a tv, and a wicker chair and loveseat. The only thing missing is an oven. We won’t be able to make any casseroles, desserts, or even frozen pizza. That might be tough to get used to.
Most students attend a university in or near their hometown and they live with their families during college. The few who do go a little further away typically live in cabañas. There are a couple of dorm buildings, but I don’t think they house a lot of students.
And now…for the best part of the cabaña…(drumroll please)… There’s a cleaning lady! Once a week she comes in to change the bathroom and kitchen towels, change the bed linens, vacuum, and clean the bathroom. All of that is included in the price of the cabaña, but if you want her to do your laundry it’s about $5 more per week ($2.50 each). She takes the laundry on Friday and returns it Monday morning.
Our location is about 4-5 blocks from the university and 6-7 blocks from downtown. The rent for a month is about $215 for each of us, not including the gas, water, and electricity. That’s still probably only half of typical Madison rent! I really don’t have any complaints…except that I wish it had an oven.
The first night we moved in, we decided to get supper at the local Italian place because we didn’t have any food yet. It’s probably going to be very tempting to go there a lot because it’s only two blocks away and has some great pizza at a reasonable price. We might end up being regulars there.
It feels good to have a “home” in Chile. A comfortable bed and a place to make hot chocolate when the cold, rainy days come. Hopefully we’ll soon make friends that we can entertain. If not friends, I’m sure Mom and Kayla will find it comfortable when they visit in a few weeks!
The evening we went shopping made us really feel like we had fully settled into our cabaña. It was a three and a half hour excursion and we hauled back a lot more food than we really needed to at that time, but that was ok. Marcelo told us that Lider is the best grocery store with the best prices, so we took his advice. It was easy to get there because most of the city buses have signs of some sort that say their major destinations: Centro, UACh, Lider, etc. The university has a busy bus stop, so it didn’t take long to find one with a Lider sign. It cost about 80 cents to get across town to the store.
Once inside, we were amazed at how many people were there. Marcelo said that most people get paid at the end of the month, so that was one reason. It was also right before a lot of public schools are starting so there were a lot of people buying school supplies. (Lider is kind of like a small version of Super Walmart with clothes, electronics, office supplies, and groceries all under the same roof.)
It took forever to find everything we wanted/needed. Instead of just grabbing things off the shelves like I do with the familiar brands at home, now we had to inspect all of the options for price and variety. A lot of things are similar to options in the United States with a few exceptions. Mayonnaise is everywhere here, but there’s something different about it that gives it a sweeter flavor and a most yellow color. We found peanut butter, but it obviously isn’t as popular as in the U.S. because there was just one tiny part of an aisle that had two different brands. A lot of the condiments (ketchup, mayo, spaghetti sauce, etc.) comes in one-liter bags instead of jars.
The difference that might be hardest for me to get used to is that the milk sits on shelves. That’s right, it isn’t refrigerated. They use UHT (ultra high temperature) pasteurization, which brings the milk to such a high temperature that it is possible to leave it sitting on a shelf for about six months before it goes bad. Once opened, it must be refrigerated and consumed within three days. It doesn’t taste much different, so I’m sure I’ll adjust.
The only thing that we got that wasn’t a familiar item was sopapillas. It’s a box mix that you just add water to, shape the dough into flat circles of 3-4” diameter, and then fry for 45-60 seconds. We’ve already tried some and they’re fantastic. It’s really more of a dessert than anything, but a really good dessert that you can eat with a lot of different toppings.
On the way home, we put our heavy items in our backpacks and still had four bags each to carry. When we got on the bus to go back, it didn’t go all the way to Isla Teja, so we had to carry everything about four blocks. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but with all those groceries it was.
The next day, we went to the fería fluvial to buy our fresh fruits and vegetables. It was a little like the Madison farmer’s market with all the different stands displaying their produce. The difference was that across the aisle from the fruits and vegetables there was a row of fresh fish that created a terrible smell.
The smell won’t stop us from shopping there though! The food is amazing and the prices are better than in the Wisconsin grocery stores during high season.
There are avocados, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and more for the vegetables. The fruit selection includes peaches, apples, bananas, plums, cherries, pears, grapes, blackberries, and more. On one trip to the market, we got four peaches, a half-kilo of blackberries, a half-kilo of plums, five bananas, a bunch of cilantro, two tomatoes, an onion, four avocados, and lettuce for about $11.
Since we don’t have much to do right now (no classes, homework, or student organizations), we’re spending a lot of time making some good meals. We’ll see how long that lasts, but I’m sure that the abundance of fresh food will. Some vendors at the market told us that it is open through the entire year nd with all the same selection. I think I have to see it to believe it, but my fingers are crossed!
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