Im officially a Marylander

Boston

Here are some pictures and a quick update from my now not-so-recent trip to Boston in October. I was staying in Cambridge for a week working with a collaborator at Harvard. While the week itself was mostly work and no real sightseeing, it was an amazing time because I really got to enjoy Cambridge, with all the little eateries, see some other parts of Boston and experience the T (Boston metro), and enjoy the beautiful foliage sights and fall in New England. The conclusion: Im in love with the area now. Besides, I also got to hang out with my Connecticut family, who threw a lovely surprise late B-day party for me, experience the Boston pumpkin festival, and visit the famous Salem, Massachussets (which in our joint opinion turned out to be a bit of a disappointment). Here are some pictures to recap the touristy things.

Boston Pumpkin Festival




Carving a Halloween Pumpkin for the 1st time




Fall in New England

General Impressions of Chile

All I can say about this vacation is that it was simply wonderful and relaxing! I really enjoyed Chile--it is an extremely beatiful country, with diverse landscapes, and developed infrastructure. The Chilean version of the Spanish language was a bit hard to understand, with tons of slang and double-meanings, but by the end of the trip, I was able to navigate the language better. Most of the people we encountered were very friendly, and this, in combination with delicious food and magnificent mountains, made it an unforgettable trip.

Finally, the penguins

Well, on my last full day I got to see the penguins.

However, I must start from the beginning. We went to the early service at Sarita's church, which is part of the Vineyard denomination. After the service, we decided to have another completo (reminder: Chilean hotdog with various condiments). We were also hoping to get it from this one place that had been highly recommended to us. However, it turns out that Sunday in Santiago is a day-off for many eateries...I was about to pass out from hunger, but we walked for over a mile to find this particular hot dog place, and all to no avail. In the end, we decided to settle for another completo place, which turned out to be great. After finishing off with some delicious ice-cream and Chilean desserts, we embarked on a journey to the Zoo.

The Zoo is on a mountain overlooking the whole city, and various animals are located on various levels so you have to work to get to see some exciting creatures. After seeing some regulars (elephants, tropical birds, and other cute savannah animals), we finally reached the long-awaited place: the penguin area. Oh my gosh, I don't think I could ever describe the feeling of seeing these absolutely cute little birds who were chilling in the afternoon sun, swimming, and waddling around. It is hard to find words to describe this experience: in addition to their utmost cuteness, they were also very fun to watch---diving for food, playing in the water with an empty water bottle, just sitting watching the people, and being pushed over by the seagulls who were stealing their food. The pictures speak for themselves.



After about 30 minutes, we decided to see what else the Zoo had to offer, even though in my heart I just wanted to remain at the penguin area. We saw beautiful swans, cool-looking camels, sleeping polar bears, and some other animals. The other exciting thing was to see a white tiger: at first, he was just laying in the sun resting, but since it was getting close to supper time and there were many people hanging out by the fence, the tiger suddenly got up and started angrily walking back and forth right by the fence...and since the fence did not look too solid and the tiger looked clearly annoyed and ready to eat, we sort of backed out and decided to go somewhere else before becoming tiger food:).




Before the Zoo was closed, we decided to see the penguins one more time. This time they were mostly out of the pool, huddled together for the night. The ones that were more of night owls were still swimming; one took his time deciding whether or not to jump into the pool (after about 20 minutes, he decided not to go for it). We also saw a quick penguin fight, even though it resolved amicably.

After a very exciting evening, we decided to go home and pack (after buying some penguin souvenirs of course).

Concha y Torro

After sleeping in (reminder: a major late-nighter the night before), we got a call from Lisa saying that we would be heading to a nearby vineyard which was also in my desired to-see list for Chile. It turned out that the one that we went to called Concha y Torro is one of the oldest and most famous vineyards in Chile. This brand of wine is also known around the world. They have several vinyeards around Chile where different types of grapes are grown to make different types of wines.

Entrance to the vineyard

This particular location (in the cordillera near Santiago) is famous for its red wines, especially the Casillero del Diablo line. The legend has it that Don Concha y Torro, a Spaniard who started this vineyard, quickly became successful with his wine so the bottles began to disappear from his cellars. Suspecting his workers, he invented a rumor that one of his underground cellars was haunted by the devil...since then, not a single bottle disappeared.

Me in the Casillero del Diablo

Anyway, after snacking on some delicious empanadas, we began our tour of the vineyard. We walked around the gorgeous gardens lush with trees and bushes. We also went to the actual vine plantation, but since it is early spring, the trees were bare. We then proceeded to the cellars, including the one formerly inhabited by the devil, which was re-enacted for us. What I really enjoyed is learning about how wine is produced, processed, and stored, and is supposed to be drunk: almost right away we were handed a glass for the wine tastings, so beginning with white wine, we tasted several kinds of red wine, all of which made Sarita and I a bit giggly and wobbly:), but we utterly enjoyed ourselves and the tour.

Touring the vineyard and tasting the wine



Vine trees


Wine cellar

Santiago

Friday was our day to tour around Santiago. However, the adventures of the previous days had tired us out, so we spend the morning and part of the afternoon lounging around and napping. In the afternoon, we decided to finally go to the center of Santiago to look at some historical buildings. Our attempt to visit the Museum of History was futile since it was closed to renovations. After surveying the main plaza, we went inside the main cathedral. I have definitely seen many of them, but this one had a certain air of grandeur. We then walked a couple of blocks to the White House, the seat of the Chilean government. It was a site of the military coup on Sept 11, 1973 that brought Pinochet to power. We even walked by the outside door through which the dead body of Salvador Allende was carried out after the coup---he committed suicide once he realized that Pinochet's forces were taking over.

Later in the evening we took a bus to a fancy part of Santiago with a gorgeous mall which reminded me of a luxury shopping center in the US...it even had an Apple store. From where our friend Lisa picked us up and took us to her apartment where we were reunited with the rest of the Benetton crew. We ordered sushi and drank expensive Chilean wine...until about 5am!!! It was almost sunrise by the time we got home.

Chilean Coast

Just a day after the arrival from the south, we headed west...to the coast of Chile. Since the country is long, but very narrow, it only took us a few hours. Our principal goal for the day was to reach Algarrobo...a small village where there was an island where a clan of Humboldt penguins (or pajaros-ninos) have settled some years ago. Of course, for those who know me, I had pretty much become obsessed with seeing them.

Well, before we reached Algarrobo, we had an unexpected, but a welcome detour....we stopped at Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda spent a good number of his writing days. We visited his house to discover that he was really a lover of the sea and all nautical things judging by his collection of ships in a bottle, conch shells, maps, and other sea-related things. His desk was in a room overlooking the Pacific ocean (hm, I think I could be a great poet myself if I lived there). His grave was also there, along with that of his third wife.


Our next stop was Algarrobo....our excitement was building up, but was bitterly crushed when we got to the beach and realized that there was not a single boat that could take us to the penguin island since the local fishermen decided to take a day off after working the long holiday weekend. The matter was complicated by the fact that, even though the island was connected to the mainland, that part of the beach belonged to a private yacht club. Our last hope was to try to convince the guard to let us on the island...however, it was to no avail. We tried to climb the nearby hill and try to search for the penguins through our 12x zoom cameras, but we couldn't see any penguins. After inquiring around, we learned that since it was getting warmer and warmer (beginning of spring in Chile), the penguins were already underwater. Oh well, there was still the Santiago Zoo. In any case, we really enjoyed Algarrobo.

Our next stop was Valparaiso, the seat of the Chilean parliament and an important port. The city was distinctly different from Santiago and to Sarita and myself had a strong resemblance with La Paz with its hills and narrow streets. We visited the harbor, had a delicious lunch during which I even tried some sea critters, and visited several lookouts to see the whole city.



The last stop of the day was another coastal city Vina del Mar and its suburb, a beautiful beach called Renaca. We could smell the ocean in the air and enjoyed watching the huge waves crushing against the shore.