Back in Santiago

Finally, I'm back where it's warm, or some would say hot. I made it back this evening, without any problems. I've been catching up with roommates and will meet up with a Camp friend, who is down for the holidays.
Pictures will eventually make it up.

What a trip: "Cold" Summer Break

I´m back where I started, in the same hostel in Punta Arenas I was in December 10th. Since then I´ve been here and there. From here we went to Ushuaia, which is the official, End of the World. In fact I got my passport stamped with a stamp that says, "fin del mundo, Ushuaia Arg" So I guess that´s quite official. We did a hike from town up to a glacier, and walked around the coast another day. From what I´ve seen in pictures, the place reminds me of what Alaska could be like. From Ushuaia we basically bussed up to Puerto Natales, which took two days to get there because of bus routes and schedules. From there we headed into Torres del Paine National Park for eight days. This was the main reason for my 20 days in Patagonia, and I loved every minute of it from the freezing nights, snow flurries in the morning, 18 mile days, rainy days, sunny days, windy (every)days, drinking straight from the glacial rivers, relaxing, and just enjoying time away from it all, and enjoying the camping lifestyle. After the hike, we dried off and made some great food in Puerto Natales for Christmas Eve, and on Christmas we took a bus to El Calafate to check out a gigantic glacier. It´s something like 200 feet high and apparently, all of Buenos Aires could fit on top of the glacier. It was actually kind of a let down for us because the weather was rainy and finally broke 20 minutes before we had to leave. Plus in Torres del Paine we walked up and over a mountain pass(3.5 hours up, and 3 down) and had views of the 3rd largest glacier not in Antarctica on the way down from the pass. That, was an amazing view. But nonetheless, it was an impressive glacier and if the weather would have been more agreeable, it probably would have been special. Instead, we all read in the restaurant, and all three of us finished our books that we started the previous day. Since El Calafate, I´ve been traveling solo without Steve and Kaleah because they continued north, and I´ve met plenty of people already, and today, I tried to go visit a penguin colony with an Italian I met here, but with 70 mph winds, the boats were not leaving. So we walked around town and took pictures of all the "penguins" we saw around town. Tomorrow I head back to warm Santiago, and I´m ready. I know this wont sound too crazy to all you northern dwelling residents, but I haven´t worn shorts or a t-shirt since December 9th because it´s been windy, cold, windy, cloudy, windy and drizzly for the last three weeks. I checked what the weather should be like the next ten days, and it doesn´t look too bad, high of 89, low of 56 and sunny. I didn´t check for Boulder Junction, WI, but I´d assume it´s just slightly cooler. I´ll post pictures when I get the chance, and plan to upload all of them into a photo album.
Love to all.

Punta Arenas

I made it here safe and sound and met up with my two friends in the city without problems. Today we´re taking a 12-14 hour bus trip to Ushuaia. Last night I went to bed at 11:00, and it was still bright out. I´m pretty far down here.

Pucon was amazing

I got back from Pucón this morning, did laundry, had a class, went grocery shopping for my trek in Patagonia, finished grades, packed for the next twenty days, and am heading out to give my last finals in about a half hour. There's mainly pictures here because I can't focus enough to write anything coherent. Pucón has been the highlight so far, and I know the south will be equally impressive. The mountains, lush green trees and moss covered woods, rivers, waterfalls, natural thermals and a view of volcanoes were impressive.
Tomorrow I have a flight to Punta Arenas that leaves at 9:00am, and the plan is to take an overnight bus to Ushuaia tomorrow night. We'll see how that works. In case I don't get to update this before Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!


(View of Volcan Villarrrica, which I climbed on Saturday)



(Ojos del Caburgua. Very pretty waterfalls)


(Climbing the Volcano)



(More climbing pictures. We woke up at 3:45 and were hiking at 6:00am)


(2,847 meters up, or in "American" 9,340 feet up, on top of the Volcano)


(Natural thermas which were wonderful after hiking two days straight)


(In Huerquehue National Park, looking at the Volcano, that was climbed a couple day's ealrier)

Finals are wrapping up

Well, I have a break in my schedule between tonight and Tuesday night, so in order to use my time efficiently, I'm taking an 11 hour bus to Pucón tonight and returning Tuesday morning. Then Tuesday I'll do some laundry and pack for my trip to Patagonia. I leave Wednesday, December 10th, and will be down in the southern most part of Chile. I fly in and out of Punta Arenas. From there, we're heading south to the fin del mundo, or End of the World. The city is called Ushuaia. Then finally, I'm off to Torres del Paine .

It should be a fun and busy last couple weeks down here in Chile.

Playas

Last weekend I headed to the beach, taking in the great Spring weather here in Chile. There wasn't any real adventures, but I did find out that that I'm done teaching at Duoc December 9th, so I'll be heading down to Punta Arenas December 12th and meeting up with Steve. From there we're hitting up Torre del Paine. Then I'm heading back to Valpo for their New Year's Eve celebration. I've been told behind the September 18th Independence Day celebrations, Valpo NYE is a close second. It feel good to have these plans made, but also it is kind of sad that my last two months are planned.


(Valpo shot. I love the architectural maze they have)


(Fishing boats, resting on Sunday)



(Chilean Flag in Maitencillo)


(Playa Maitencillo)


(A throwback to La Campana. We walked from where this picture was taken to the peak. No easy feat, or happy feet)

Pichilemu

I finally got to Pichilemu last weekend. It was everything I hoped it'd be and some. It was a relaxed, friendly beach town with wonderful smells and sights. Coming from the frantic hustle and bustle of Santiago, it was quite a relief to only hear the rustling of leaves, birds chirping and the soft drone of waves crashing opposed to buses rumbling by, horns honking, music pumping, doors slamming, or people arguing, which I'm quite accustomed to and helps me fall asleep at night. Saturday we met up for dinner and went to a Spring Festival headlined by Juana Fe. They were another fun, Cumbia band. I'm really liking the Cumbia music that seems to always being played where ever I go.
Sunday we went surfing, and I got to ride some good times for the first time in my life. It was great. I could ride the wave as it broke, and not just survive a dumping wave. After surfing we hit the beach for a little relaxation and a pisco sour. Luckily today, I'm not too sore. I got back to Santiago this afternoon, to a nice 87 degree and sunny day.
(Here we have Juana Fe playing their hit song, "Calegjero Ambulante." As the video shows, the crowd was into it, and the energy was incredible.)

(The beach)

(Goodbye sun)

(The view from the our lodging)

Last weekend

You may remember that I am an experienced mountain explorer, fending of mountain lions like a pesky mosquito, bounding up unfathomable heights without breaking a sweat, and gallantly exploring vast uncharted caverns, so it may come as no surprise to you that this last weekend, with a team of fellow adventurous souls, we summitted La Campana, known for it's intense, sudden and unpredictable weather, steep pitches, frequent avalanches, rock slides and furious skree fields. The six of us laced up our New Balance's, Pumas, and Nother Face joggers, packed a bag-lunch, applied SPF 50 sunscreen, and charged the mountain. Skin was scathed as we deliriously, stumbled up to the Cumbre(summit), losing feeling in our legs, and being assaulted by a team of vicious blackflies, and an intense sun. Finally after 4 grueling hours of hiking, we reached the top and were delighted to find a warm, calm summit where we were all able to dry off our soaked t-shirts and socks, soak up the sun, and eat the best lunch we've tasted in a long time.
From the top we were able to see the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountain range. It truly was breathtaking. I'm waiting for others to send me their pictures because my battery ran out on the top.
Sunday was spent with the crew relaxing on the beach in Reñaca, which is about 15 minutes north of Viña/Valpo.

This weekend I'm heading to Pichilemu, the surf capital of Chile.


(The wonderful vista from the top)

Santiago Rocks!

Last weekend I spent my time here in Santiago taking advantage of the multiple cultural activities at my fingertips. Friday was spent at "Santiago Rock." The link is there for all of you who understand Spanish or are curious. True to my prediction it was a mix of Milwaukee's Summerfest, Bonnaroo, and Manitowoc's Riverwalk Festival. Surprisingly absent from this concert was alcohol. This country lives of cheap alcohol, and with the huge Pisco advertisements all over, it only added to my list of things here in Chile that just don't make sense, and there is not logical explanation.



(Notice the huge bottle of Capel Pisco. It was a beautiful set up, from my Santiago)

Saturday was Oktoberfest, or as the direct translation of Fiesta de la Cerveza (Beer Festival), so I gathered up some friends and we made the trek out to the festival grounds.

(It took some commitment, and about 90 minutes of transportation to get out there, but it was so worth it)
It was like Christmas for me. I could hardly sleep the night before and woke up earlier than all my friends and restlessly go back to bed because it was 6:30am.

I had been spoiled living in Madison, WI and having amble access to great beer from various parts of the US. Down here, buying a good beer not only costs about 2-3 times as much as a mass produced beer, but I also need to travel about 20-30 minutes just to buy it. So having 28 of Chile's (probably only) microbreweries in one location was magical. When we arrived there was a German/Chilean polka band singing in German, English and some Spanish making me miss the Essen Haus in Madison.

(Taking in the finer points of this Porter)

(Green Bay Packer Jersey Spotting)

(The German Band singing in Spanish to the full crowd)


(They're glad I (1) found out about the festival, and (2) dragged them out there.)

Swimming

I couldn't help but notice the contrast between my weekend weather and what I saw back home in Wisconsin. Here's some pictures from my Sunday body-boarding session.


(Riding the waves into the beach)

(Waiting for the next riding back to the beach)

(After eight months in Chile, I'm still amazing at the wires and cables found on the streets. Maybe in five years, Chile will go wireless, but until then, it looks like a game of guess and check)


A friend of mine sent me a message asking if I wanted to go at watch the WS game tonight. I guess I'm even more out of touch with baseball down here in Chile, because it took me a good minute or so to figure out this WS code my friend sent me. Finally I realized WS stood for World Series. Needless to say, I politely declined since after figuring out World Series I was completely at a loss for what two teams were playing.

Busy Times

Although we didn't do much in Mendoza, Argentina, it was an excellent time. I arrived at 5:30am Friday morning and met up with three friends shortly later who were coming from Viña/Valpo.

(This map shows how close Mendoza is to Santiago. I think it's a six hour journey with about an hour spent at the border)
Friday we spend the day in the parks and eating.

(Big kids in a huge park. Steve, Kat, Andrea, Me)
The quality and price of the food there is amazing. We had steaks, Italian food that our friend from Italy gave his approval to, and stumbled upon a Spanish Cultural Festival Friday night in the main Plaza. This provided us with traditional Spanish dance and music while we ate tapas, paello, and drank some sangria. Of course the Argentinians take their nights seriously, which we saw as we returned to our hostel around 12:30 and saw all of the outdoor cafes filled with people still eating, and drinking before they head out to the dance clubs. We decided you only spend one night in Mendoza on October 10th, 2008, so we might as well go out to one of the clubs. When in Rome, right? It was a fun place that showcased amble beautiful women. We were in heaven, even our girlfriend that we were with was shocked at the difference of the women between Chile and Argentina.
Saturday we signed up to go paragliding and were waiting for the company to pick us up when someone came up in a van telling us it was too windy to do it Saturday. So, we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, checking out the main five plazas, and of course eating.

(I guess we'll eat some food?)
Saturday night, we met up with my friend Dylan's friend who lives in Mendoza. They met in Vail, CO and she was very excited to meet me and my friends, so we had dinner with her and her friends at a very Argentinian time of 11:00pm. Then the eight of us(3 US, 1 Italian, 4 Argentinians) joined tables with some other friends and all of a sudden we had a group of about 16 people and we then wen to a birthday party with all of our new friends.

(The eight of us at dinner. Dinner was a pizza, but the crust was a juicy steak. I know, very healthy)

(Here we have the four of us with our new Argentinian friends. We did some "cultural lessons" at the table, like how to say "slam it" in Chilean, Argentinian, and English)
This birthday party was not at all what I was expecting. I thought there would be 15-20 people sitting around drinking a little, talking, eating some Lay's potato chips, and that it would be awkward when our crew of 16 showed up, but when we arrived to this ranch style house, we discovered that the party was more like a dance club with about 100 people dancing with a dj, lights, food and drinks under a carnival tent. Then when we thought it couldn't get any better, a kiddie blow up slide appeared out of nowhere that delightfully entertained us.
Sunday, we woke up with the intention of getting a bus ticket home for Sunday night and to visit the vineyards, since that is what you typically do in Mendoza. About 70% of Argentina's wine is produced in the Mendoza area. This vineyard plan was thwarted by our lack of planning as almost all the vineyards were closed due to it being Sunday. So what did we do? Yup, ate and walked around, then eventually found a cafe to watch the Chile/Ecuador World Cup Qualification game with other Chileans.
I got in Monday morning, exhausted from a long uneventful weekend, and then Tuesday we had our Duoc 40th Anniversary Dinner at a huge conventional hall. It was like being at the Oscars, there was a live band, cameras on huge booms, and stars form the popular soap operas MC'ed the event. We were served extremely good food for about two hours then a famous Chilean comedian came on stage around 11 and performed for us. His specialty is impressions, which was great for me, because not only did I not understand his Spanish, he was impersonating people I didn't know. But it was a fun event and I got to wear on of my ties that I haven't used in about 4 months.
Wednesday night was filled witnessing History happen live. While I will regrettably admit I wasn't at the "Ice Bowl" and have the unfortunate luck of being born 15 years after man walked on the Moon, I can proudly claim that I was there when Chile finally beat Argentina in an official Soccer Match. Wednesday night marked the first time in the history of the Universe that Chile was victorious against Argentina and it was amazing. The energy in the Stadium was electric. Everyone was filled with optimistic hope, and when Chile scored their goal about 20 minutes into the game, the 80,000+ crowd erupted into cheers, songs, and chants for the next hour and a half.

(Celebrations after the goal. From http://www.santiagotimes.cl)
The game was intense with plenty of shots on goal, and good passing, but once the ref finally blew his whistle signaling the seemingly impossible had just happened, it was like a bomb blew as everyone celebrated. Well, actually there were a few explosions that went off. I think they were some kind of fire works. No one wanted to leave and people started light their newspapers on fire in celebration.

(The celebratory flares after the game was called)
As we left every vehicle joined in a chorus of beeps and honks of Chilean chants and songs. People were walking around proudly waving their Chilean flags and gleefully shouting.
Now, I'm trying to catch up on some work, and figure out what to do this weekend. I'm frustrated with my students' lack of motivation right now. For example, we had our Midterm last night for one of my basic classes, and we had reviewed the previous class, we did a two page review, and they have known about this exam for at least three weeks. Despite all of these preparations, I had student fill in two answers and tell me, "nope, I didn't study" shaking his head. I was shocked. How is that possible? This was my night class as well, the students that should be motivated to learn English to help advance their careers. I guess this was the first time I took a students failure personally. I know it is completely their responsibility, and I did what I could, but it was strange. I still compare my UW-Madison experience to where I'm at and need to realize they have different expectations and experiences shaping who they are. My Duoc students are now UW-Madison students. I mean, I don't think UW-Madison would hire someone who graduated from a Universtiy in China who majored in Chinese literature to teach Chinese without any certification.
I hope all is well back home. The weather is amazing here, we had our daylight savings last weekend, so the sun now sets at 7:50pm giving me the summer feeling that I missed in June/July/August.

Full Marathon 10K

Last weekend I had a wonderful time on the coast relaxing on the beach, hanging out with friends and running my first 10k race. This 10k was a Chilean experience.

It was similar to what you would find in the US, but there were some distinct Chilean moments. To start, the port-a-let followed the Chilean rule of efficiency. There were 5 for the estimated 500 people competing in the race, and there wasn't any tp in them. Then about at about 8:30 a Richard Simmons style guy takes the main stage by the starting line and leads maybe 50-80 people in jazzersize to "warm up." These people were getting into it, practicing some salsa, hip-hop and even country dances to warm up. Then at 9:00, when the race was scheduled to start the director stated that we had to wait 5 more minutes, "Cinco minutos más, solo cinco minutos, no más" Five minutes more, only five minutes, no more. Then he explained the entire course turn by turn, and finished by explaining our numbers needed to be showing to get a time. He also had this direct quote, "For you gringos: No number, no time." At about 9:10 we started and the first 2 or 3 km we had a pack of street dogs barking along the side of the road as they were wondering why hundreds of people are running down their streets. At one point things got a little intense as three dogs ganged up on another, in the middle of the street, almost taking out three runners ahead of me. Then the only thing of interest to me was that the people would run on the sidewalk instead of the six laned road we had. Unfortunately my stomach was feeling a little crappy and at km 7 I had to duck out and frantically use a gas station bathroom. Sometimes you just have to go.

(I finished with a time of 43:44, and I have this flattering picture from the finish line to prove it.)
Also, one of my "students" told me the beginning of the race is on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwxyPQzxLo See if you can find me. I have a look of concentrated focus on my face, and a little bit of confusion.
Overall, it wasn't to bad. I had a goal of 40 minutes, and at 5km had a time of 20:10, so I think I could have clocked in close, but with a potty break, I'm not too disappointed. I also got a free dryfit t-shirt!

Tomorrow night I'm heading to Mendoza, Argentina for vacation. Everyone has told me Mendoza is beautiful and being Spring, I'm sure it will be. I head out Thursday night, and will return Monday morning. I think it's about a 6-7 hour bus ride.

Springing around

Teaching is still going well. Yesterday our director came in a took some pictures, so I may be on the CIEE Teach in Chile brochure in the near future. I think that's pretty funny. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this semester. I have a good variation of students: some who are in lower level classes than they should, some just at about the right level, and some that can't understand a word I say. Also I have accumulated some private classes which are always fun. The weather has been beautiful here lately, and I just checked today and realized sometime in the last month Wisconsin and Santiago have done a complete flip. We're having low temperatures in the high 40's and low 50's with consistent high temps in the low/mid 70's, as the days continually get longer.

I added the pictures from "Winter Break" from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and Peru.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

September

Well I've been pretty good about updating my blog, expect for the last few weeks. A lot has been happening, and I've been trying to plan out my future, or at least my next year, or couple months. September 16th, I went to see Medeski Martin & Wood. The show was good, but not fantastic. It was great to see a jazz/funk band from the US in the Chilean environment. Normally at their shows you have the hippy/dancing crowd, but September 16th the norm was sport coats for men, and dress pants/skirts for women. I actually heard someone "shhhhhh" someone else. Definitely a cultural experience.

Then the parties of Chile began. The fiestas patrias are what drive Chileans to live. It is a combination of Thanksgiving, Spring Break, Christmas, the State Fair, and July 4th. This year September 18, their Independence Day, and September 19th, their milatary day happened to fall on Thursday and Friday, so the party got started on Wednesday night. Many schools were closed all week and people left Santiago on the Sunday before. I say it is like our holidays for these reasons
Thanksgiving: It is centered around eating. We had bbq's every day, and ate empanadas every day.
Spring Break: It is getting nice down here so people are antsy to get outside, and the beach towns are flooded with vacationers.
Christmas: We put up decorations, banners, flags, and people just had a general giddiness about them that reminded me of the last day of school before Christmas Vacations. I saw students running up and down the hallway giggling gleefully on the Tuesday before "the parties"
The State Fair: All around Santiago and the country there are huge "Fondas" which are basically huge fairs with games, live music, tons of food and drinks, dance tents and a fair like atmosphere.
July 4th: The whole country shows their patriotism during the entire month of September. In the grocery stores, in the little corner shops, in the pharmacy, there are decorations, banners, flags, and national colors hanging proudly. In the major grocery stores there is Traditional Chilean music playing non-stop. Now I thought people may get sick of these songs, but every time I went in, I'd see fathers singing to their children, couples happily reciting the lyrics and generally loving the music.
I didn't leave Santiago for the vacation but instead hung out with my "family" down here and enjoyed hanging out with them.


(Carne galore. Meat, meat and more meat. I think I ate more meat that week than I had in the previous couple months.)


(The cueca, the traditional dance that is performed during this week, but otherwise sort of forgotten about. There was a show on the street outside my apartment in front of the Municipality Building)


(Military parade outside our apartment. They really take their armed forces seriously down here. The parade started in the center of the city and lasted about 3 hours. Then each section of the military marched back through their communities.)


(José-Tomás continues to entertain me, or I entertain him. I'm not sure, but it is fun to have him around the house. He always walking into my room and trys to pull down everything from my desk and investigate.)


(Teaching Angie how to make cinnamon rolls. My "family" is obsessed with the rolls. They think I should sell them outside of Starbucks for $2 a roll. They swear I'd make a ton of money)

José-Tomás and Me

(Via my computer camera)

La Roja

(Craziness for their national anthem)


(The crew, with the funny man in the background, who demanded to see his photo after. It made me feel comfortable that I wouldn't get stabbed during the game, which is a legit fear.


(The opening minute, kick-off, face-off, first pitch, or whatever you call it. The beginning of the game)


(Token cute kid picture. José-Tomás with Angie)

So much for Roll out the Red Carpet

Let's see this last weekend was spent at home. Sometimes you need a relaxing weekend en la casa. Friday night we had a dinner party. We sat down for dinner at 11:30, and cleared the table around 12:30-1:00am. Then we had some drinks and called it a night at a reasonable 4:00am.

(Rodrigo and Elizabeth with the spread of meats we cooked up Friday night. Notice the clock on the wall. They call me Bencito, which is kind of a joke. Bencito is like saying, Benny or Benny-boo-boo. It's a term of affection. And Oliver wrote it on my food cupboard.)
Saturday was spent playing with José Tomás and then we had some completos and a rocket for dinner. Completos are glorified hot dogs with avocados, tomatoes, red onion, and ketchup(mayo if your Chilean). In essence, they are high blood pressure, sodium, and fat content on a plate. They're good about once every other month. Any more than that and you get burned out.

(Completos and a rocket for dinner, what a classy combination)

Sunday was the big day for the Brasil/Chile soccer match. Brasil is the equivalent of the USA's Dream Team. Watching the players warm up was amazing. When they warmed up I was able to see just how talented each player was. Juan Pablo, Stefenia and I arrived to the crowded stadium 2.5 hours early and we struggled to find a place to sit. By then the Chile/Paraguay woman's game had started and we watched that. The whole time the crowd would spontaneously erupt into songs and chants. One of them roughly translates to, "If you don't jump around for Chile, then you're a bum from Brasil." Then when the Brasil players were announced the entire 80,000 people in attendance would shout, "Screw you." Once again, I am roughly translating the phrase into PG terms. It was quite funny. Then the game started and everyone was focused on the game. We came out and seemed to have control for the first 15 minutes, but then the athleticism, skill, and strength of Brasil outmatched Chile. After the game, the fans for Brasil had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit. I guess it's a common practice to make the away fans wait before they exit for their safety(I don't think Michigan had it that bad). Nonetheless it was fun, and I'm heading back to the stadium in two days for the Chile/Columbia game.


(This was taken 2 and a half hours before the game started, it's a little different from our late arriving students in Madison)
(The Huaso Peregrino leading the cheers in the stadium before the game. This guy goes to every game, home or away to lead this cheer.

Cheee!
Laay!
Chi chi chi, lay, lay lay. Viva Chile!!!)

I signed up to run a 10k in Viña del Mar October 5th. That should make me stay motivated to run around Santiago.

Hiking around

Teaching is still going well, after I realized that there is only so much I can do to help students learn three weeks of material in one class. I had students who showed up for two or the six classes and well, big surprise, they did terrible on the first quiz. We'll see how my intermediate students fare tomorrow during their first quiz.
Last weekend I headed to Viña del Mar for some hiking at La Campana. It's located roughly between Viña and Santiago and provided us with a healthy challenge as we attempted to summit the peak. Unfortunately it took us longer than expected to navigate taxis, buses, subway, and then another bus, so we had to stop about 2 hours short of the top. But we plan to head back in a couple weeks and do some camping at the bottom so we can head up first thing in the morning. Of course we celebrated with a big bbq Saturday night and had a great time enjoying the food and drinks.

(The hiking crew, senior picture pose)


(This was taken during what may very well been the end of third quarter in Madison for "Jump Around"

(Christmas card 2009)
In domestic news, Angie and José-Tomás moved into the apartment so we now have a 1 year and 3 month year old in the house providing entertainment at all hours of the day. It's really fun. Angie is Oliver's(my "brother") girlfriend, and José-Tomás is their son.
This Sunday I'll be going to the Chile-Brasil soccer match which should be wild. This is a World Cup qualifying game. I know that doesn't mean much to most American's, but in the rest of the world, it's a huge deal. The tickets have been sold out for a couple weeks now, and only about 2,000 $300 tickets are left. The game starts at 9:00 pm as well, which will make it even crazier. Normally the big soccer matches are in the early afternoon to avoid problems with drinking and partying(think Badger football games) but they scheduled this game for late because historically Brasil is not as comfortable playing in cooler temperatures. Talk about home field advantage.
The flowers are out lining the streets, and everyone is getting super excited for the September 18th celebrations. Since day one, I've been told about how amazing that week is, so I'm joining the rest of Chile in building up excitement.


(The clearest I've seen Santiago in six months. This is after a day of rain. August 28th at 8:30am. By 2:00pm the smog was back)