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| Haha, and no I have never seen a sticker like this in Arica, only in Iquique. |
So I went to Iquique las weekend, we(Juan and Kevin and I) took a 5 hour bus trip there. We met up with some friends. They have two very big malls in Iquique, they are very much like the malls in the US. They sell everything, except for things that I want, like... dip. However, they sell a lot of electronics, but the electronics are about 50-150 dollars overpriced. This is because(IMO) Chile's population is not big enough for China to sell the electronics at the same price as they do to the US. I mean we have near 300 million, while chile has around 17 million. Anyway we met up with some other friends from Arica, they bought shirts and candy and some things. I don't enjoy shopping, in fact I really don't like the mall. But it was something to do.
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| Close to the malls in the US. |
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| Also in the market, this is 100% FDA approved shark. |
On Friday, I went out with all the Aricians(Ariqueños) went to a bar then disco then back to the bar. Met a man who had a store in the centro or center of iquique, he was from Miami, but was Chilean. He said he only lived in the Chile for two years while he was a baby, before moving to the states. Anyway, we had the after party at his store, was pretty fun.
The next day is where we went another mall, and I left the Ariqueños to meet up with some of the volunteers from the program that teach in Iquique. We met up kinda late(in US terms), went to a bar after meeting some acquintances just walking in the street, and went to the disco. We danced all night until about 4:30 am. Fun. Before we went to the beach area, where there are a lot of tourist places, I didn't bring my camera with me at that time so I do not have photos...
By the way, we took a bus, like a charter/grey hound bus. These are very popular in South America and are usually the cheapest way to travel. They don't really have trains here(for commuting purposes). So all in all the bus tickets were around 20 dollars(roundtrip).
Lago de Chungarà(highest lake in the world)
For around $40(a piece), Kevin, Nicole and I went on an excursion to the Chungarà lake. The bus was a little guy, around 13 people went with us, and lunch and breakfast was included. We left at around 8 am. stopped at this church:
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| Inglesia de San Jeronimo, In the Valle of Lluta. |
After that stop, we drove to the capital of the other province in the region. It is calle Putre. Since I am not that pretty and this photo is good, here is a picture of Nicole and Putre and the valley.
The region(or northern most state) is called Arica and Parinacota. Parinacota is a tiny tiny town
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| Outside of the Church and a woman walking past in Parinacota. |
To give you a time line of all this occurring, we left Arica at 8 am. We didn't arrive to the lake until around 3 o'clock. And we didn't stop at each place for more than 10 minutes. Anyway I have a lot more pictures of the lake, but I don't feel like uploading them, so you'll get to see them when I return home...
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| I snowboard in colorado the highest I have been is 3,680 meters in Winter Park. This is another 1000 meters higher or 3280 feet(.6 miles) higher. |
Two people in our 'travel group' got altitude sickness and both puked. An old man and a teenager, the old man was nice enough to step outside the bus and vomit, while the teenager apparently didn't have enough strength to get out. I almost vomited as well(from hearing it)... Anyway it was high and you couldn't walk more than 10 yards before feeling out of breath.
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| Me, Kevin, Nicole |
The lake was really beautiful and I want to print/frame a picture for my house at home. The trip was pretty fun and worth the money, I saw a lot of beautiful things. I got home in Arica at 8:30, it was a long day.
Tacna
Kevin left Arica today, He is going back home. This was one of the major reasons why I went to Iquique, and Lake chungarà. Because he was going back to the states we did a lot of traveling/seeing things. On Friday, we went to Tacna, Peru, which is a border town, like Arica, but obviously in Peru. I have been hearing that it is super super cheap, and the food in Peru is delicious. We ate Cerviche(they spelt it cerbiche) as the v and b has the same sound when you say them. It was good, but nothing out the ordinary. And I bought two handles of Rum, as I knew this was Kevin's last weekend, and he has been a good drinking buddy. Anyway the handles were 50 soles together, at around 3(2.72) soles to a USD, that made it around 18 dollars for 2 handles. Yes very cheap, about half the price in US and (have not seen a handle here in Chile).
We went with our friend Willy, he drove us to Tacna as it is a lot faster than taking a bus. Arica is seriously a 10 minute drive from the border with Peru. It took us more time, filling out the 8 forms of paperwork than it took us to drive to the border. Also, there is like a 300 yard like actual border inbetween the two border checkpoints. Obviously this is all desert, but it kinda seemed odd to me. After eating cerviche, we went into a casino and took our change from lunch and spent it on penny slots, we all lost, but it was fun. There was a casino on every street. The one we went into wasn't too big, but we got a free glass of pop from it. After losing like a dollar at the casino we saw the arch and cathedral in Tacna.
After being tourists for a little bit we bought malta y huevos. Which is beer and eggs, with some cinammon sprinkled on top. I was weary of trying it, but it was actually really good, and it will definitely be something I get again if I end up going to Tacna another time. Also the Spanish was a little different, they spoke a little slower and use the word coche for car, which is awesome, because thats how I learned it. Small things like that make me smile, I don't know whether it makes me feel at home or because I can finally understand... All in all Tacna was not too much different from Arica, I would actually say the main street was pretty nice, but overall it was similar, minus the spanish and Peruvians look a lot different than Chileans. I think the Chileans have more of the Spanish blood in them rather than the indiginious.
This happened on Friday and we returned to Arica in the night, I was freezing, because I was wearing sandals, shorts and a T-shirt. Willy has been making fun of me saying that I am never cold when we go to the isla to pre-game or just have a few beers. Well I was cold and the term Chilly in Chile came about. Even Chilly in Chile with Willy is even better... Anyway I had to be back early, because my school was having some sort of party/show. There was food, drinks(with alcohol, we all had a debate on whether this statement was going to be true or false) and shows. They have TV shows like 'Mi nombre es' o 'Soy', in English My name is or I am, these TV shows have people dress up like a singer or band, sometimes Michael Jackson or Shakira, and they sing. Well there were about 6 groups, 3 of them resorted to this tactic. Men dressed as women, one used a long rubber flesh colored thing, for well, I shoudn't have to explain any further. My host mom's group dressed in all black tights, painted their faces black and wore like hawaian style skirt and bikini. They filmed this mind you, and the editing was pretty good. They did a type of 'jackass' show and ran around Arica, got put into a paddy wagon, got weird reactions from passerby-ers.
The show/party was called Cafe con fe, overall it was funny, but I don't understand some of the humor. They really like the slapstick type of humor, and or dressing up like someone who is famous... After the drinkers stayed after to drink and I found out one of the teachers owns a pub. We went there for after hours. Walked in at 7 am(i'm begining to get used to this).
Side note:
Last week all my students had their English tests, They have one usually once a month. Anyway, most write in pencil first, and they overlap it in pen and erase the pencil under. It's quite rediculious and takes a looonnnggg time for them to finish their tests. Apparently for tests they must only use pens...
I have been in the newspaper for the upcoming Winter Camps here in Arica. I didn't take a photo of it nor will I, and they spelled my name wrong, which is completely understandable since my name has been spelled wrong and pronounced wrong in my own native country.
Tacna
Kevin left Arica today, He is going back home. This was one of the major reasons why I went to Iquique, and Lake chungarà. Because he was going back to the states we did a lot of traveling/seeing things. On Friday, we went to Tacna, Peru, which is a border town, like Arica, but obviously in Peru. I have been hearing that it is super super cheap, and the food in Peru is delicious. We ate Cerviche(they spelt it cerbiche) as the v and b has the same sound when you say them. It was good, but nothing out the ordinary. And I bought two handles of Rum, as I knew this was Kevin's last weekend, and he has been a good drinking buddy. Anyway the handles were 50 soles together, at around 3(2.72) soles to a USD, that made it around 18 dollars for 2 handles. Yes very cheap, about half the price in US and (have not seen a handle here in Chile).
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| Soles. |
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| Willy |
We went with our friend Willy, he drove us to Tacna as it is a lot faster than taking a bus. Arica is seriously a 10 minute drive from the border with Peru. It took us more time, filling out the 8 forms of paperwork than it took us to drive to the border. Also, there is like a 300 yard like actual border inbetween the two border checkpoints. Obviously this is all desert, but it kinda seemed odd to me. After eating cerviche, we went into a casino and took our change from lunch and spent it on penny slots, we all lost, but it was fun. There was a casino on every street. The one we went into wasn't too big, but we got a free glass of pop from it. After losing like a dollar at the casino we saw the arch and cathedral in Tacna.
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| St Louis? |
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| Cathedral |
This happened on Friday and we returned to Arica in the night, I was freezing, because I was wearing sandals, shorts and a T-shirt. Willy has been making fun of me saying that I am never cold when we go to the isla to pre-game or just have a few beers. Well I was cold and the term Chilly in Chile came about. Even Chilly in Chile with Willy is even better... Anyway I had to be back early, because my school was having some sort of party/show. There was food, drinks(with alcohol, we all had a debate on whether this statement was going to be true or false) and shows. They have TV shows like 'Mi nombre es' o 'Soy', in English My name is or I am, these TV shows have people dress up like a singer or band, sometimes Michael Jackson or Shakira, and they sing. Well there were about 6 groups, 3 of them resorted to this tactic. Men dressed as women, one used a long rubber flesh colored thing, for well, I shoudn't have to explain any further. My host mom's group dressed in all black tights, painted their faces black and wore like hawaian style skirt and bikini. They filmed this mind you, and the editing was pretty good. They did a type of 'jackass' show and ran around Arica, got put into a paddy wagon, got weird reactions from passerby-ers.
The show/party was called Cafe con fe, overall it was funny, but I don't understand some of the humor. They really like the slapstick type of humor, and or dressing up like someone who is famous... After the drinkers stayed after to drink and I found out one of the teachers owns a pub. We went there for after hours. Walked in at 7 am(i'm begining to get used to this).
Side note:
Last week all my students had their English tests, They have one usually once a month. Anyway, most write in pencil first, and they overlap it in pen and erase the pencil under. It's quite rediculious and takes a looonnnggg time for them to finish their tests. Apparently for tests they must only use pens...
I have been in the newspaper for the upcoming Winter Camps here in Arica. I didn't take a photo of it nor will I, and they spelled my name wrong, which is completely understandable since my name has been spelled wrong and pronounced wrong in my own native country.
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