Arrival in San Pedro

So I am typing this in my hostel in San Pedro now.  The day turned out to be a bit more adventurous than I was expecting, but not in the way I was expecting.

My flight left Santiago at 1:35, and due to the holiday I anticipated some difficulty using public transportation to get to the airport.  Surprisingly everything was running like normal, and I was there by 11:45.  The flight was uneventful, but the real adventure started when I landed in Calama.  Here I am after getting off the flight:

To put things into perspective for those of you who aren´t familiar with Calama, it´s not the safest of cities.  I purposely planned to arrive during the day so it would be safer than at night.  It´s very close to the Bolivian border, and so unfortunately there´s a lot of problems with drugs and crime coming over from the border.  There´s also minimal police involvement on top of that.

We arrived at 3:30, and so at the airport I considered my options for getting to San Pedro.  There was a direct shuttle bus to San Pedro that would take about an hour and a half, but it cost 10,000 pesos (about 20 bucks).  But then there was a shuttle bus that would take you to bus companies in downtown Calama for 3.000 (about 6 bucks), and the bus tickets were only about 2.500 pesos (about 5 bucks).

After waiting about 15 minutes for the shuttle bus to downtown Calama I decided to pay for the direct shuttle to San Pedro.  The problem was that it was filled up by the time I went back, and there were no others running for the rest of the day..  I found 3 other people (a woman from Italy and 2 guys from Japan) that were trying to get to San Pedro also, so we decided to split a taxi to downtown Calama and then get a bus from there.

We got the taxi for 5.000 pesos between all of us, and we went to the first bus company.  (There´s not really a central bus station in Calama, so you have to go to each bus company separately)  It was about 4:00 at this point, and at the first bus station the next bus was only leaving at 6.  So we walked to the next bus company, and they didn´t have any other buses going to San Pedro for the day.   On top of this people were coming up to us begging for money, and one of the Japanese guys was casually stopping to take pictures with his professional camera on every street corner as if he were a tourist in New York City.  Things were not looking good.

Someone suggested going to another company.  A scruffy looking man came up to us asking us what we needed, and I explained the sitatuon to him.  He helped us to get a taxi since none were passing by, and he asked us for a tip for his help.  I gave him a few hundred pesos and thanked him for his help.  Once we got to the this company´s location they luckily had one more bus going to San Pedro, so we were able to get that one at 5.  It cost us 2.500 each (about 5 bucks), and we got in around 6:15.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief once I was on the bus, and it was just a 10 minute walk from the bus station to the hostel.

The view on the way from Calama to San Pedro

After getting settled in and exploring downtown I made some dinner and am getting ready for a tour of the Taito Geysers bright and early at 4 AM tomorrow and Valle de la Luna tomorrow afternoon.

It feels great to be traveling again.

Teaching and Arrival in Mendoza

So I had three more days of teaching this week.  The class behavior varied from class to class and what time of day I had them.  Basically kids in grades 5 to 10 have 2 classes of English Lab working on computers each week.  For some classes these 2 classes are back to back, but for others it could be the 1st period one day and the 9th period another day in the week.  Since the lab wasn´t ready, we got to see these classes for both of their hours for English lab.

It is really interesting to see how classrooms vary from culture to culture.  German classrooms seemed to be rather teacher centered with students listening attentively, while US classrooms tend to be somewhat student centered and with students listening pretty well too.  Chilean classrooms seem to be rather teacher centered, but also with lots of side conversation throughout the class.  I had students work in partners, and they seemed to not be familiar with it.  I get a sense that my teaching style is going to be different than what they are used to, and I figure with time they will get used to it.

I felt pretty discouraged after teaching one particular class.  They weren´t listening, and over the course of about 20 minutes I had to take away the following things in the following order: cell phone, note, note, scissors, stars being cut out with scissors, paper being used to create said stars, note, note, nail polish (the two girls only got one nail painted on each of their hands) and a few more notes.  At the end of class I called for the class to stand and for me to dismiss them, and one student ran out of the class and a few more tried.  I went after him but wasn´t able to catch him.  Luckily one of the teachers recognized him and told me who he was.

It was somewhat comforting to me when I spoke with one of the teachers at the school and asked about how his class with them went.  He told me that it was really bad, and I asked him if he had to take anything from them.  His response was, ¨Yes, their lives¨.  I got a much needed laugh, and it put things into perspective that the kids were not just acting out becuase of me.

Despite this, I can say I am truly enjoying the teaching here.  The students for the most part speak pretty well and know a lot of English, and after having had them listen to Yesterday by The Beatles and dictate the lyrics I can see that they are eager to learn English.  Whenever I am walking around on campus, I hear ¨Hi Mr. Daniel! How are you?¨  And no matter how the kids act in class, it is nice hearing them speaking English and wanting to speak it with me outside class.

Thursday after school I got a new pair of clip ons (as I broke my first pair in half when they were in my pocket) and got my money changed to Argentinian pesos before I left.  I got to the bus station early and hung out at an internet cafe to kill some time.

At 10:15 I boarded the bus.  I traveled with Tur Bus, and they had it set up as a semi cama (semi bed) for each seat.  As we were going back and forth the winding road up the Andes, I thought to myself; ¨Right now I am crossing the Andes Mountains in South America going from Chile to Argentina.  This is pretty cool.¨ 

Around 1:15 we got to the customs/border patrol, and we sat on the bus for a while.  Then after about half an hour, we had to get out and show our tourist cards.  As we were waiting in line, I was wondering if Argentina is the only country where people (tourists, locals, and customs officials) can be smoking next to no smoking signs. 

We got on the bus again, creeped around the corner, and then had to get off again.  As we were waiting for them to X ray the luggage and search our carry on bags, I got to chat with 3 people that are from Germany and Holland who are studying in Santiago.  Then around 3:30 we once again got back on.

After fallling back asleep, I was awaken by my arm feeling wet.  It was raining, and apparently there was a leak in the bus.  Around 6:30 we finally arrived.  The first taxi I took was trying to overcharge me as he did not want to use the meter and didnt tell me it was broken, so I hopped out at the first corner we got to and then grabbed a new one.  The first taxi told me it would cost 15 pesos (which looking back at it was only 3 dollars) but the second taxi didn´t even cost 10 pesos using the meter.

The rain might alter my plans to go ziplining, mountain biking, trekking and repelling, and other adventure sports.  Apparently there are a lot of adventure sports to do here but also very good shopping.  It´s about 7:50 now, so breakfast is being served and there are some signs of people being awake.

I promise my next update will have more pictures and less writing.  :-)

New roommates, Power outages and middle school

Sunday turned out to be a bit of a lazy day for me.  After waking up and hitting snooze on my alarm, I decided to stay in Santiago rather than going to Viña del Mar after all.  2 more people moved into the house, and they are both from Mexico City.  They are studying here in Santiago and only arrived here last week.  We were chatting and decided to do some grocery shopping and then hang out in Bellavista.  I found a churro cart with delicious churros (and they even make them with filling too) for much less than at the coffee shop I have gotten them at before, and it was cool talking about the places I had visited in Mexico that they knew.

As we were walking back home, I decided to swing by the hostel to catch up with friends while my roommates headed back home.  Then we had the power outage.  This happened as I was on the patio debating if there was a change with Daylight Savings Time or not with some other gringos.  We hung out on the patio and discussed conspiracy theories that we had heard about the earthquakes and things along those lines while some others still debated what time it actually was then.

After about 15 minutes later, the lights were back on at the hostel.  It was getting close to 10 (or 9 depending on who you asked), and since the lights were back on I thought it would be a good idea to head home. When I stepped outside, I realized that besides the hostel almost no one had electricity.  It was pitch dark, and apparently everyone else in Santiago had the same idea about going home.  The metro was shut down, and so lots of people were wandering the streets.  At my bus stop there were about 50 people waiting for a bus.  I decided to try and catch a taxi (since I would have to take 2 busses to get home).  A lot of other people had the same idea, but after about half an hour I finally got one.

I got home, and some of my roommates had candles lit and were listening to the radio.  I found my flashlight and found the extra candles I bought a few weeks ago, and an hour or so later we once again had electricity.  I didn´t follow the news close enough to understand why we lost power, but I know that most of the country was without power for a while.  If you want to read about it, here is a news article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8567910.stm

Today another teacher in the program and I got thrown into teaching classes on our own.  I am so grateful that there was two of us, as it made managing the students much easier.  We taught 6th and 7th grade students, and we practiced conversations, played some games, and listened to The Beatles.  After that we spent time planning the rest of our classes for the week, and hopefully after this week we will have a set schedule.

Something that is nice is that it turns out that I will have completed my work hours for the week in 4 days, and so I have a long weekend.  I´ve decided that Thursday evening I will head out to Mendoza to enjoy some steak, wine tours, and adventure sports.  It looks like I can go ziplining and moutainbiking, which I actually haven´t gotten to do in a long while.  I´m looking forward to it, especially since I was lazy this weekend.

The beach, ATMs, public transportation, and new friends

So today I started out by going to the beach at Copacobana with Kristie and Ben, the English couple that I explored with yesterday.  It was surprisingly easy to get to using the bus.  It really reminded me of the beaches in New Jersey with the water especially.  We took turns in the ocean so that we could always have an eye on our things, and when we were all together we had good conversation about traveling and our lives and how different things are here in Rio and back home.

When I asked them what time it was, I realized it didn´t mater at all, and we all laughed.  We then debated what time we thought it was.  Seeing that we are traveling now, the time of day, day of the week, or month are pretty meaningless to all of us.

After getting some ice cream we packed up and headed back to the hoste to rest.  We all discovered our sunburn, with Ben and Kristie having it over most of their bodies (they opted to stay in the sun almost the entire time), but me only being burned on my knees a bit and on my tops of my hands a bit.

I got a bite to eat at a place specializing in chicken dishes, and I got Chicken Bora Bora.  It was grilled chicken breast with some seasonings along with rice with fried potato, egg, onion, and ham.  I was only able to eat about half of it so I got a doggy bag.  I didn´t have my camera on hand, so I will post a picture of what it looks like once I eat there again.

A bit later others at the hostel told me about a big party happening in Ipanema, and an Autralian named Luke offered to help me get to a bank to get more money.  It turns out a few others also needed money, so the journey began.  Bank 1 was closed. We waited at Bank 2 while a young guy took about 20 minutes to complete a transaction, and after all that we figured out that the ATM didn´t allow you withdraw money.  Bank 3 didn´t accept visa, but with the tip of a young guy who spoke English we made it to Bank 4 and were able to get money.  I sure hope this won´t be as difficult for the rest of my travels.

Around 7:30 we headed out for Ipanema for the party.  We met a bunch of Brazilians that were starting the party in the metro, and they were friendly.  I asked if I could join them (since that is the way to truly appreciate another culture), and they offered to take me under the wing.  They seemed interested in me being American and loved hearing me sing Linkin Park and Beyonce, and we were communicating between English, Spanish, and Portuguese.  They bought me a Carneval shirt and took me along with them, and I was really surprised (but in a good way) with their hopsitality.  We took pictures all along the way, and they gave me their email addreses so we could stay in contact.  As they helped me get a taxi back to my hostel, we promised to meet up at least once more before I leave for Santiago.

To end this entry, I would like to share the philosopies of both taxi and bus drivers in Rio.  These are based on my observations and experiences over the past few days:

Taxi driver rules
1. Variety is the spice of life, so treat red lights the same way.  The first time you encounter one, go completely through it at full speed.  The next time, come to a quick halt, even if it minds jerking you and the passenger forward.  The third time, approach cautiously and go through it only when it is safe.
2. If other cars are stopped or in your way, this is by no means a reason to slow down or change lanes.  Changing lanes is acceptable only at the very last minute, and of course without the use of a turn signal.
3. Driving as fast as possible between cars that are halfway in your lane on each side is not only acceptable but encouarged.  One way or another somoene will move out of the way.

Bus driver rules
1. Brakes and brake pads are to be abused.  Passengers need to be tossed around as much as possible.  Stop as abruptly and as often as possible. 
2. Consequently, passengers should hold onto hand rails with the jaws of life with both hands until seated.
3. Pedestrians are a nuisance that need to be taught a lesson.  If one tries to cross your path, do not slow down.  In fact, speed up a bit.

I just heard that there is another party going on tonight, and I´m debating if I should go to it or not.  Will update with pictures soon enough.