The first photo I chose depicts me and my American group on the very first day of the trip. Running on 4 hours of sleep on the plane ride the night before, we were somehow not exhausted touring downtown Santiago, as the excitement of the entire trip looming before us took away any possible fatigue. Right after that photo was taken, we went to the top of this hill through ruins of the founding of Chile, where there was a breathtaking view of the city. I developed some very strong relationships with the people in that photo, and little did I know on that first day that I would be really sad on the day I left all of them.
This next photo come just a day after on Wednesday, the 27th of July. That day, we had had our “initiation” in downtown Valparaiso, a pretty big city about 2 hours west of Santiago, where we had to make our way alone through the city by asking the locals. After another long day of touring a very cool city of Valparaiso, we made our way back to Santiago. We ate dinner, and then our group made a hike down the street at about 11 that night to an underground pool house. After getting past the overwhelming smell of smoke, it was really my first time actually seeing the interior of Chilean culture, as after work, just like here, men were blowing off some steam from the long day in the pool house. Also, that night was really my first time where I got to bond with the members of my group.
This next photo comes just a day after on Wednesday, the 27th of July. That day, we had had our “initiation” in downtown Valparaiso, a pretty big city about 2 hours west of Santiago, where we had to make our way alone through the city by asking the locals. After another long day of touring a very cool city of Valparaiso, we made our way back to Santiago. We ate dinner, and then our group made a hike down the street at about 11 that night to an underground pool house. After getting past the overwhelming smell of smoke, it was really my first time actually seeing the interior of Chilean culture, as after work, just like here, men were blowing off some steam from the long day in the pool house. Also, that night was really my first time where I got to bond with the members of my group.
The next picture of the bridge comes about a week later on Saturday, July 7th. After a week of community service, meeting new faces, and taking Spanish clases, I finally got a break that weekend to spend some quality time with my host family. I had spent a grueling 6 hours that morning building a greenhouse at a preschool, but after I got home and had some lunch and went on a brief road trip to the back country of Rancagua with my host dad and little brother. We got to see the property for their new house, which will be finished later this year, and then we drove further back to all the beautiful vineyards in the countryside. The bridge shown transports the liquid copper ore from the mines in the mountains. I found this picture important because at this point I felt like I had known my host family my whole life. Going to the country side for a change of scenery is exactly what I do with my dad from time to time, and it really shows that despite the distance and the language barrier, families universally differ much, much less than one would think.
This photo shows my host family on the last day of the homestay on Tuesday, July 10th at the going away party. Obviously, Chileans don’t like to smile in pictures as much, but this picture does not show the happy, charming personality of my family. I was extremely sad to leave them, after I had developed a family connection like that of my own with them, whether it was playing video games with Fernando, talking about boy bands with Constanza, Cooking with my host grandmother, doing handy work with my host father, or getting to know all of my host mom’s co-workers at her office.
The next photo comes in the city of Temuco on Friday, July 13th, where we were lucky enough to get our group leader to take us to see a night club one night. Temuco is about 8 hours to the south of Rancagua. The inside of the club was really cool with all of the lights, music, and just the people there out to have a good time. This was another one of those moments where it was strange to see how different, yet similar we are from the Chileans. A memorable night to say the least, as I got to dance to many native songs to these people, different from our own.
A polar opposite from the previous picture, this next photo shows the Mapuche Indian reservation outside of Temuco on Sunday, July 15th. This view was one of the highlights of the trip, as the sheer beauty of the lake, Lake Budi, next to the simple lifestyle of the Natives really made me realize how little you really need. At the mapuche community, we were able to paddle canoes on the lake, ride horses around the hills of the reservation, learn about textile making and medicine making in the community, and even get to see a concert of the Native music and Dance of the community.
The next picture was taken on July 16th in the River City of Valdivia on a ferry boat across the vast river. We had just gone across and looked at some very old Fortress, used to protect the shorelines from any foreign ships. Valdivia was a very cool city to visit, and there was a whole lot to do, whether it was kayaking along the river, looking at the cool old buildings, or ever watching the huge sea lions fight on the docks. This photo was a pretty lucky shot, because Normally in the winter time in that City it rains every single day, but for some reason it cleared up that night to give me one of the best sun sets I’ve ever seen.
The last stop on our trip, Castro on the Big Island of Chiloe, was a good conclusion to the trip. The city is also very influenced by water, having houses on stilts along the banks of the many canals, rivers, islands, etc. This Last picture shows a soccer match I had with a local indoor club consisting of 19-year-olds. It was fun to have one last interaction with people my age that I could relate to. I am wearing the blue jersey in this picture, and despite a valiant effort from the American boys in our group, we lost a blowout, 16-4.
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