Cascadas de las Animas

Cajon del Maipo is a river valley located on the south eastern part of Santiago. It's a region where people can go camping, hiking, rafting, ect. There are many campsites and hostels to choose from and our Chilean friend Daniel told us to go to Cascadas de las Animas, "Waterfalls of the Spirits." We took his recommendation and camped there for a night. It was gorgeous! It felt like we were so far away from the city when it was only a train (40 mins) and a bus (40 mins) ride away.

Our campsite was nestled right between these two large mountains

Rio Maipó

Suspension footbridge that we would cross the next morning

Our campsite ....with my beautiful boyfriend ;)

One of my favorite things about camping

An overnight stay at Cascadas de las Animas comes with a free guided waterfalls hike

I would have gone under the waterfall too if the water wasn't so cold. Mark was the only one out of the 20-ish people in our group... crazy gringo!!

Mark's sword skills at the mirador (overlook)

La Serena

Mark and I went on a six-day vacation with our buddies Alejandro and Hans in Region IV of Chile. We rented out an apartment in La Serena and toured around the area.

There was a hot hair balloon event when we arrived at the beach

puesta del sol

The beach was covered with clams!

A good handful of them where alive. I love this shot!

This kid was so funny with his sand bigote!

The port city of Coquimbo

We rode one of those ferry boats that took us a couple of kilometers out into the city.

Video of Our Captain

Pastel de Jaibas - a delicious Chilean dish in which crab meat is baked in a dish called paila

The moon was really low!

We went to Mamalluca Observatory, which is about an hour away from La Serena. This area of Chile is said to have the cleanest atmosphere in the world, and therefore many observatories are located there.

This is the start of Valle del Elqui is where pisco is made.

This is an instrument that uses the vibration of the wind to make sounds.

Us four at the dam.

So strange- grapes are cultivated on random areas of hills and mountains

A small beach/fisherman town of Tongoy where we stopped to have lunch with Alejandro's brother.

Life at Plaza Italia

I've passed my halfway point here in Chile. It's the four-month stretch now.

The other day, we (my roommate Melissa and I) heard some loud drumming outside the window. We went to check out and saw about thirty people carrying all sorts of drums; djembes, surdos, timbals, ashikos, ect. They settled at Parque Bustammante and drummed samba beats, and with the drum line were capoeira dancers. I regret losing the video footage I took of the drum line and capoeira dancers. It was such a trip to have that kind of cultural experience right outside your window.

I love living at the cultural center of Santiago, Chile. I'm dreading being aburrido when I return to the middle-class suburban life. I will yearn for the cultural diversity of Santiago.

This is a video of Samba Drumming at Brazilian Day in New York. It was similar to this except it was outdoors and there 40-50 drummers and several copoeira dancers.

*phew* What A Summer!

Obviously, the highlight of my summer was Mark, my boyfriend of a year and a half. Doing a long-distance relationship hasn't been the funnest thing in the world, but when you love someone so much, obstacles can be overcome and it's worth every minute of waiting. He came down here for my summer vacation and shared this experience with me. It was his first time out of the country and I'm so happy, glad and honored to share that with him. I'm also glad that he was here with me when the earthquake happened. Now he is back in New Jersey working and I am here finishing up my last four months in Santiago. Here is a highlight of some summer favorites:

This is one of the three giant puppets that a French artist, Jean-Luc Courcoult, brought over to be viewed in Santiago. The giant puppets are operated by several humans and they walked around the streets of Santiago.

This is a video of the Tio walking in front of us.

gotta love their patriotism

Meet the chacarero. This is Mark's favorite of Chile. It's roasted beef, green beans, tomatoes, and spicy red Chilean sauce called ají. I like mine with avocado.

He is a happy man.

We had dinner at Los Vikingos and they let us wear their armors!

Having humitas at Alejandro's place.

Valentine's at Como Agua Para Chocolate. Food there is AMAZING.

Valpo

bowling

taking a break from our bike day with crystals and mojitos

mark biking

 
Mark bought himself an Indio Picaro, Naughty Indian

And then our trip to La Serena and Cajón de Maipo.