Tomorrow our groups leaves for Temuco, a city with a population of about 300,000 people that's located 600 kilometers south of Santiago. What a change of scenery it will be! The green, lush, wet terrain will be quite different than the brown, dry desert that is Arica. After a week and a half in Temuco we will hop over to Bariloche, Argentina for four days to relax and enjoy our last few days as a unified group. After that, October will be finishing and we'll all head on our separate ways for our ISP's.
My ISP month seems like it will be quite the adventure. I will be spending the first two weeks in Valdivia, a quaint city in La Región de los Ríos (The Rivers Region). Valdivia is known as "The Pearl of the South," and is thought to be one of the most beautiful cities in southern Chile. I absolutely cannot wait to go! I'll be traveling and staying there with one other girl, Elyse (who is actually from Olney, MD -- the same town Jimmy! such a small world). We'll spend most of the two weeks in a clinic doing research and gathering information along with getting the skeleton of our papers done (all while experiencing the city, of course!). From Valdivia (this is all tentative, but probably won't change much) we'll head to Pucón for a few days, where some of the most beautiful volcanoes and lakes in Chile are supposed to be. From there on we will move on to Santiago, Valparaíso, and Viña del Mar. Exploring, trying to not seem like tourists, using our spanish, and getting to know the Southern culture. I'll then be flying back to Arica on the 22nd of November to meet up with my friends who are staying there for their ISP's and head to San Pedro de Atacama that night. Four days I'll return to Arica, do the final revisions on my paper, take a deep breath, turn it all in, and prepare to present my findings to the group.
Doesn't that sound crazy?! Fingers crossed that it all works out. Assuming it will, I know it's going to be amazing. Here it all is written out more clearly:
- October 19 - 27: Temuco
- October 28 - 31: Bariloche (Argentina)
- November 1 - 12: Valdivia
- November 13 - 15: Pucón
- November 16: Santiago
- November 17-21: Valparaíso/Viña del Mar
- November 22 - 25: San Pedro de Atacama
- November 26 - December 5: Arica
and then after the program is over...
- December 5 - 13: Arequipa, Cusco, Aguas Calientes, and Machu Pichu! (Peru)
- December 14-15: travel HOME.
Wow, that just makes my head spin! I will definitely be taking all of this one day at a time trying to make it the best experience I possibly can. Fingers crossed (again) that by the end I have a camera full of pictures, a blog full of stories, a successful ISP, some money in my bank account, and a lifetime worth of memories. And of course, my sanity :).
Next time you hear from me I will be 1,700 miles south in Temuco, Chile!
Chao,
Brittany
to end, a photo from our cena de despedida (farewill dinner) with our families last night:
more photos: picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard
Who is this Jimmy?!
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