09-30-08

Apuntes
September has flown by me, and I have come to the conclusion that, for better or worse, I will never get bored in my life. I thought I might find myself down here, in what my guidebook described as "a barren and inhospitable landscape" with tons of time on my hands to read and draw, but that has not been the case. Puerto Natales is a small town, and yes, there are only so may places to have a coffee or get a beer, but school, family, and other misadventures wind up making this lovely little city a fairly bustling place sometimes. Here are a few things I have been up to lately.

• Fiestas Patrias - Chile celebrated its independence September 18th, so there was lots of cueca dancing in and outside of school. Casey and I celebrated with my host family at a party at Colegio Natales--mostly slightly older folks and not too many in attendence in the darkened school gym, but we had a great time dancing cueca and cumbia with just about everyone at our table. Earlier that day, I told Nino I would help out with some of the games that the Club de Leónes was hosting for the town. (Nino is presidente.) I didn't realize that my volunteering would result in a marathon six-hour shift at Leónes HQ. I was running a game called "payasos," which involved shooting three tennis balls into three distinct clown mouths on a painted plywood board. Nobody won all day! The closest I got was a guy who made two of the three clowns. The grand prize was only a bottle of coke or a tin can of strawberries, but still I felt the game was too hard. Halfway through the day, one of the leónes asked me if anyone had won a prize. When I told her no, she was delighted!
• Sabores - The tastes I miss most from Chicago are those imported from abroad--curry, sushi, burritos, and yes, margaritas. This past week, in addition to enjoying some wonderful comida típica de Chile, I have been able to satisfy many of my cravings because I have finally had the chance to do some cooking. The Friday before last, Casey and I made a vegetable curry for ten people at our friend Ricardo's house, and the next week, another friend made some fabulous sushi, served in three boats--the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. We got together at my house this past Friday to watch the presidential debates and feast on homemade burritos and margaritas. Sure, they weren't as good as El Cid, especially since there are never any limes in Puerto Natales (you would need to go to Punta Arenas for that), but greenish lemons sufficed. I also made a banana cake for Paola's birthday and a large batch of "salsa de garbanzos" aka hummous, which she really loved! Kate made some excellent lemon blueberry scones as well...so it has been a month of great eating in Puerto Natales! (Not to mention we discovered two of the more
• Excursiones - Last Thursday, I had the chance to travel to Torres del Paine for the day with my alumnos. We had a great time, but it was a very long day of riding on the bus, having snacks, and using the bathroom facilities at the park--I think we only walked for about ten minutes all day. Luckily, we were able to listen to reggatone music for most of the bus ride (oh no!!!) since someone had the brilliant idea of holding up a cellphone/mp3 player up to the microphone on the bus, so it was especially tinny and horrible sounding! And right as we passed the Paine massif, most of the students were so fascinated playing with the curtains that unfortunately, we could not see anything! It was a pretty funny school trip in the end, and we did have a chance to talk to a very interesting couple who have lived in the park for ten years, researching huemules, which look quite a bit like deer. G4 has had the good fortune of being selected to participate in a speical envirionmental program with an organization called Explora--which gives the school funding to take trips like these and even sent a large group of our alumnos to Puerto Edén on the Navimag. This weekend, I am going back to the park with alumnos from the tourism program Polytechnic school to camp and hike part of the W. My host mom is going too, as well as Charlie, a very nice volunteer from Milwaukee. (I just noticed that on Ruta 9 toward the park, there is still quite a bit of countryside filled with mines from a war with Argentina in the 70s or 80s...will have to find out more about this soon.) All of us volunteers, except Kate who was working on grad school stuff, scaled Cerro Dorotea this past Sunday. Doretea his a large hill, with one very steep face, but the climb was well worth it and offered a beautiful view of Natales.

09-15-08 Weekend in Punta Arenas

We left Puerto Natales Friday evening, feeling slightly claustraphobic, but the feeling disappeared as soon as we hopped on a bus to Punta Arenas, the big city, to meet with Casey, Dan, and the three other volunteers we hadn't seen since arriving. Kate and I were going to look for a hostel, but Dan's colleague, Ruth, invited us into her home, where we wound up staying all weekend and having a fabulous time. Ruth and her husband Lalo have two sons in their 20s, who now live in other parts of Chile--their attentiveness and hospitality toward us made it evident how much they must miss their boys. Kate and I slept in their beds upstairs, in the coziest little attic space--I only managed to hit my head twice on the rafters. Ruth and Lalo were great, "have a beer, invite your friends over, listen to music, sit in the living room..." everything we could have wanted. And they had 100% Columbian coffee and a real coffee maker--it was the best cup of coffee I've had in Chile, and possibly my life--I am still tingling from it.

Friday night, all of the volunteers met up in the house of Dan's host family. We wound up sitting in a little flourescent-lit shack, kept warm by a wood stove. We drank and chatted and listened to Victor Jara on cassette and eventually sang--Dan and his dad particularly, backed up by a little maraca and tambourine. I learned only one song--"A beber, a beber, a beber...esta noche no quiero llorar. A beber, a beber, a beber, esta noche yo quiero chupar." (Tonight, I don't want to cry, I want to suck down alcohol...poetic, no?) The sun was rising by the time we got home. We might have seen it rise, in fact, if the boys hadn't gotten into a pretty funny argument about the best place to see the sun come up!

Saturday we had breakfast at 3:30 p.m. We had gone to the supermarket the night before to get grocieries for a big "North American" style breakfast, although we wound up leaving the green onions in the shack at Dan's. It was a little difficult to make our omletts with all five of us in the kitchen. Ruth was so motherly--"Your coffee is going to get cold. That's going to stick to the pan. Your feet are going to get cold. You're going to freeze," and she actually put Casey's steak in a blender (we're not sure why)--but we managed to churn out three very excellent omlettes with goat cheese, whole-grain toast, apples, and another pot of great coffee. Later that night, we had dinner at a lively local restaurant called El Mercado, a charming brightly-lit room on the second floor of a building downtown. I had a shellfish stew (John would have been proud, I think), filled with many unidentifiable mariscos in a white-wine broth. It was excellent. We had a drink afterward, but weren't really in the mood to go out again, so we decided to go back to Ruth and Lalo's to drink some wine and watch a movie. In search of a corner store, we found a strip club, were offered drugs, and asked for money very politely--"Money, please." I am thankful to be in Natales! We took a collectivo home and took a bottle of wine to the Straight of Magellan, where Casey produced a small flute and a harmonica.

Sunday, I slept ridiculously late again, and woke up to a delicous lunch of hake that Ruth was making. We had mote con huasillos afterward and I heard Ruth utter "Pobrecita, va a engordar"--poor thing, she's going to get fat! We went to the cemetary in the afternoon, which is probably the most interesting place in Punta Arenas, filled with pine trees that are shaped like gumdrops, and meticulously manicured to sweep the floor. The cemetary is filled with many Yugoslavians, or Croatians, I should say, as well as Italians and English. There was also a memorial to "the unkown indian," who is buried beneath, and many people come to petition him for favors. There were men in blue jumpsuits and black berets digging graves with shovels--I know graves have to get dug somehow, but it was a sombering sight nonetheless. We had this brilliant idea for a photo, with each of us standing behind one of the trees and peeking out, and Lalo took it...but when I looked at it after I got home, I noticed that one of the gravediggers is walking in the background, his shovel slung over his shoulder. It's a really interesting moment, I think, and hopefully I can put it on Flickr soon.

09-11-08

The past week and a half has been quite busy here in small town Patagonia. I've been meeting a lot of nice and interesting people--a lady called Anne in my yoga class is dueña of a vegetarian restaurant in town that has been here for some time. "El Living" got a great review in my guidbook, and I can't wait to try it once it opens for the season. Norma is the nana who works at our house during the day. I've had many nice chats with her in our kitchen, some of them surprisingly deep (she is a Jehova's Witness, so she was telling me about the "suneño profundo" (profound dream) that comes after death, waiting out the second coming.) She is petite and shorter than I am, but is the mother of 6. The most adorable thing, I think, is that she wears a screen-printed tuxedo t-shirt! I have also been playing tennis with our demure janitor at school--he seems deperate for partners, as not many Natalinos know how to play (no courts). (Many also can't swim--no pool!). Also have been biking a lot on Ruta 9 heading north. I'm very happy with the bike I got from El Rey de la Bicicleta, Andres. It's light and quiet. The ride is usually feast or famine, it seems--either an effortless sail with the wind at your back, or a tear-streaked battle against the wind, when you have to pedal hard even downhill, but it is so enjoyable! I learned that Chile is the number-once consumer of white bread and soft drinks, but have been managing to enjoy some excellent food lately, including centolla and even locos. Also had a chance to squeeze in a quick cueca class--which was not easy for me! My ten-year-old partner could outdance me any day. My host dad assured me it won't be too much of a problem, come the fiestas patrias next week--he was lamenting that most people drink to much to dance or go for cumbia instead.

Here's a (hopefully) quick update of what else has been going on. I am heading out of town this weekend with two other volunteers, Kate and Casey, to go to the big city, Punta Arenas, population 120,000--and there are only 140,000 in this entire region!

• 09-01-08 El Señor de la Querencia Se Termine - The telenovela finally ended, in one of the goriest finales I've ever seen, with the señor killing most of the people on his estate. Lots of blood everywhere. There has also been a lot of news regarding the actor who plays the senñor--apparently he is now undergoing treatment in a mental institution because his role was so difficult. I met someone who went to high school with him many years before he was famous--apparently he also has a beuatiful singing voice. Now I just have to get into "Hijos del Monte..."
• 09-03-08 Perito Moreno Glaciar, Parque Nacionál Los Glaciares, Califate, Argentina - My friend Diana, who works in tourism, invited me on a trip to see Perito Moreno Glaciar, which was utterly breathtaking, over 30 km long, and perfectly blue on a gorgeous, sunny day. The only downside was that the journey to Calafate was really long. Five hours each way on a road that was largely gravel...hopefully I will have a chance to go back and spend much more time at the park!
• 09-05-08 Competencia de "Public Speaking" - I was so excited and nervous for my alumno Coni. In spite of her lasseiz-faire attitude about English, she pulled it together and really nailed her speech about JK Rowling. Unfortunately, we did not take home a place at the competition. I didn't feel that the outcome was fair, but Coni seemed far less irked than I was! I thought she was going to be devastated, because she had worked so hard, but she really just wanted to go to this math festival at the high school and play games with her friends when all was said and done. I'm happy that I had a chance to work on this project--and I think that she is going to do really well once she gets to high school.
• 09-06-08 Torres del Paine - This past weekend, some friends were in town from Porvenir, so we made a quick trip to Torres del Paine...way too fast, of course, but I will be back. We had quite a bit of time to wait for the bus at Lago Gray, so we wound up just lying back on this black pebble beach, which was actually quite comfortable, and munching on glacial ice--hielo de milionario (and, according to my host dad, meant to be enjoyed with whiskey!) There are some photos the park, and guanacos and foxes on Flickr. Later that night, I found myself back at Las Canalles, the karaoke bar, with Kate and our Chilean friend Rodrigo, who, like every Chilean at this very local establishment, loves to croon. I just have to give credit to Srta. Harmon--her "grandes éxitos" CDs, gave me a basic, but crucial understanding of some Latin artists that still resonate--Carlos Vives, Elvis Crespo, and of course, Alejandro Sanz, who has a great new duet with Shakira. I think that translating those lyrics in class may have been the most valuable thing I learned in high school.
• 09-07-08 Navegación 21 de Mayo - Kate, mi compañera de Canada, obtained some discounted tickets for a boat ride to Balmaceda and Serrano glaciares, which are located several hours up the sound. There were a lot of estancias along the way, accessible only by water--we had to stop at one and drop off a few sacks of potatos.

Abrazos,

Elizabeth