Dune Diving Near Olmue

Mark and Sam showing their stuff

Pics from Talca

Kevin and Sasha.














Will Dayton, Nate, Sasha, and Kevin
















Will working on his third cotton candy of the afternoon













Nate and Will at the Chilean version of the Last Supper

Danky Crack?

Ok, so all of us here agree that this ice cream name is pretty weird.

Olmue

This weekend we went on a group trip to a small country town called Olmué. It involved a ton of eating, drinking, and basically a good time. Here are some representative photos:




The meal.









Kevin's flip flops have bottle openers on the bottom!

More Dogs!

These were so weird and funny looking that I couldn't resist...

And the dog at home in Santiago...

His name is Daiquiri

The Dog that Wouldn't go Home

This dog followed us everywhere this weekend. Like, it hiked miles down the beach and camped and everything.

Weekend at Horcon

Ben, Will and I just got back from the wildest 2 nigths at the beach!
I did some research ahead of time, and decided we should go to Horcón,
a small fishing village near some beautiful beaches for camping. A
bus there from Santiago is about 3 1/2 hours, so we left after class
on Thurday (around 4). So, it took us about 4 hours to get there, but
it turned out that the bus ended at a different town, Quintero, about
15 miles south of Horcón. We would have been fine camping there
instead, but Quintero happens to be a small city of like 50,000 people
or something surrounded by copper plants, oil refineries, and slums.
Oh, and the only nice beaches were covered with condos. So, we found
ourselves in a deserted bus stop next to the mother of all gas
processing plants in the dark. Just as we were getting set to set out
across a cow pasture to find the nearest campable beach (it looked
like about 5 miles or so), we saw a "collectivo" drive by. These are
old taxis that take people around the boonies. He agreed to take us
to Horcón for about 2000 pesos (4 bucks). So 1/2 an hour later we
finally arrived.

If any americans have ever been to Horcón, I would be surprised. The
town consists of one dirt track along the beach surrounded by old
rotting houses, a few bars, and a bunch of fish vendors. We showed up
really late, 3 blond guys with backpacking gear. We asked some people
where we could camp, and none of them knew of anywhere around Horcón.
Finally, one old fisherman said we could probably hike north along the
beach and find somewhere. Well, by that time we were pretty
exhausted, so we stopped by a store, bought some steaks and chorizo,
walked 200 yards down the beach (just outside of town) and made camp.
We actually had a great time.

In the morning, we woke up and realized we had camped right below a
huge apartment complex for summer vacationers from Santiago. We
didn't know it was there at night because it was deserted. Anyway, we
went into town and watched as the fisherman came in and cut up their
catches. We talked to lots of them, and everyone was incredibly
friendly and curious. No anti tourism or anti americanism there. One
guy had no idea what California was!

We bought a big bag of huge clams that were still alive, more chorizo,
bread, and water. Then we took off down the beach to what looked like
a cool (deserted) beach about 4 miles north. We hiked for a couple
hours, got there, had an awesome time all day exploring the
surrounding desert clifs and countryside, and made a delicious dinner
of grilled clams, angel hair pasta, butter garlic sauce, and chorizo.

This morning we hiked back to town overland (which took way longer)
and then took a bus back to town. I'm exhausted, but really thrilled
with an awesome trip that I can guarantee almost nobody has done.
This is the way to see Chile!

Random Santiago Pics

Snowboarding Pictures

I have internet!

Yeah. And it's in my own room AND it's fast! Like, as fast as the connection at Stanford.
So everyone has to IM me constantly. Okay?

1 week down...

So, as of Saturday Morning I've been in Chile for one week. Seems like a lot longer than that, but so far so good. Although I really wish it would get warmer. I've started sleeping in my backpacking sleeping bag so my feet don't freeze!

Snowboarding in the Andes was amazing, as expected. I'll be posting pictures of that and other things as soon as I get internet on my own computer. I think that might even be later today. Until then, I have to read like 50 pages of dense economic theory stuff in Spanish. Aurgh, I totally can't handle that yet. Like, I read it and understand most of it, but have trouble putting it all together.

Oh and another interesting thing happened. I was talking politics with my host mom, just to make conversation, and it turns out she is super right wing. She's voting for Lavin, the guy who is basically a clone of Pinochet (the military dictator in Chile from 1970 something through 1990). I just kept my mouth shut, other than saying the usual "I didn't vote for Bush."