Chilean Karaoke

In San Pedro, we stayed at a very interesting campground. This place seemed to be pretty nice and offered everything from the use of a kitchen to hot showers. They even had a BBQ we could use. What we didn't know was that while using the kitchen, we'd be one thin door away from where the family lived. And in that space, they had their fun with 'at home chilean karaoke'. Please note Brian's comment on the corazon!

Street Performers Do It Right

We get to see a variety of street performers every day and saw plenty with Brian. These guys stuck out because not only did we get some video of them performing...but we saw them the next day in another part of town wearing different colored shirts. Hard workers. I'm not really sure what the draw of the little guy breaking it down dirty style toward the end is but it seemed to work as most people(including me) gave them money at the end. I was less than impressed with their excitement though. It seemed like the whole time that they were putting on this little drum/dance spectacular, you could see on their faces that they were loathing what they were doing. And immediately as they finished their dance they were waking out to the crowd wearing "pay me please, this is so miserable...yeah put the money in there...you know what to do" faces on. Anyway, this is pretty standard fare and always fun to watch.

Exploring the Atacama Desert

After a week of being back in Santiago with running, potable water...we already want to get out of the city again. San Pedro de Atacama was a really cool place with colors, temperatures, and a landscape all its own. I had never seen so many of the things we came across. From flamingos at the salt flat, the salt flat itself as well as a real desert oasis. On our first full day there we rented bicycles and headed out to explore as much of the surrounding valley's as we could. What started out as a pretty audacious plan to see Valle de la Muerte and finish with the sunset at Valle de la Luna turned into a spectacular though exhausting trek through Valle de la Muerte. We made it out to the most western edge of Valle de la Luna and watched the sun set from there. While it wasn't what you'd find in the tour books, I think the sense of accomplishment made us feel like we were seeing the best there could be...and maybe it was!

Chilean Soccer

Cait and I have had the opportunity to experience Chilean football(soccer) from two pretty cool perspectives. The first was pretty early on in our time here. We were sitting at home when all of a sudden, we heard the city erupt in screams, car horns etc... At first I was frightened, as the sound of that many people in buildings and on the street, was something I had never heard. After deciding that it could only be one of two things(a football game or a protest) we decided to turn on the TV to find out! We found Chile playing the neighboring Peru pretty quickly and enjoyed the rest of the game and each city-wide eruption that happened.
The next time a big game was going to happen...we were ready. We watched the whole thing as Chile beat its neighbor Bolivia handily 4-1. Caitlin got some videos of the reactions that we could hear and you'll have to take my word for it...it's louder in person and way louder than the TV. I've always said that watching baseball at home is more boring because you can't feel the energy of the crowd. This solves that problem.

Skiing at Portillo

Caitlin, Brian and I finished off our vacation in the desert with a day skiing at Portillo. Portillo is a pretty small resort that is located right on the border with Argentina. While it doesn't have a ton of trails, it is known for hosting the US Ski Team during the US summer and with the incredible views it offers. Notice the famous "Lake of The Inca's" behind the shot of our first run.

Chilean Jam Sessions

Being friends with some musicians down here has made for some excellent party nights and unexpected moments. First one of the most enjoyable ones from the weekend of music in Coñaripe and the second is from a recent birthday party.

bikes stolen

stupidly, i have to say we were very responsible for having our bikes stolen several weeks ago. we took off for a quick trip to the grocery store and left our two bicycles together on the same cable lock. did we use all the locks we had? no of course not. we ended up taking two of the locks with us into the store instead of throwing them on separate bikes. we also parked them a little further away from the store than we should have.

when we came out probably 2 hours later (pretty big shopping spree), they were gone. scott found the cut lock in the garbage nearby. we talked with a barber shop owner who i had noticed standing close-by, outside, smoking a cig. no he hadn't seen anything, but he confirmed it was a pretty rough area (you know, what the hell are you doing here kind of statement). we asked him about the carabineros and whether they would be willing, whether it would be worth it to report it. he directed us to a carabinero station (which we couldn't find) so we went to the one we knew was close to our house.

it was quite an experience... the carabinero we had was kind of like barney rubble. he didn't listen to anything we said and was kind of talking to himself a lot. quite notable was the fact that there is no basic form to fill out in this situation. our officer took about an hour to draft a letter about my missing bicycle. i told him several times how to spell the street name and he refused to listen, electing to get his information from his friend at another station. i told him several times throughout that two bikes were stolen but he only really allowed himself to listen at the end. i could hear him talking to his supervisor, accusing us of not telling him about it until the end. it was funny though, as he was selecting our nationality in the system, i could see there was no option for a person from the united states. we ended being "other american" in their system.

the system was quite interesting. it was like ms-dos and reports were printed on that paper that was around in printers in the late 80s, early 90s. you know, the kind with the edges that you need to rip off and you have a carbon copy underneath? anyway, it wouldn't let him file the report until he had entered my mother's appellido. i thought that was great.

as a follow-up, the other day i got a letter from the carabineros stating that my case was going to be "archivada provisionalmente" due to a lack of leads... in fact, we didn't follow up as much as we could have. later on the day our bikes were taken, we met a guy who worked in that same grocery store. he gave us the number to the store and assistance if we needed it. we also never checked in with the store to see if they had anything on their cameras.

no, we decided to be renegades. we looked for our bikes at a feria the next day but, to no avail, they were not there. but, we saw we could buy bikes for 15mil (compared to the 50mil my bike cost). benefit from someone else's misfortune and buy a stolen bike? well, at least we'd be in good company...

this is the letter i got from the carabineros about a week after i filed the incident report. it states both of my "apellidos" and says that the case will be archived unless any new evidence comes to light.