|
Puerto Domínguez, Chile - 14th December 2011
By: Leslie
Hola äiti! 
Days here have been sunny and the temperatures raising quite fast, bordering the 30ºC these last days.  I hope you are not freezing yourself back at home mum! I would like to send you some chilean warmth if I could! 
On one of those very rare cloudy days we went to a small town called Puerto Domínguez on the shore of Lake Budi, the only salt water lake in South America!
There were big sculptures of mapuche people, like this guy riding a horse...
...or this warrior with a spear  (who, for obvious reasons, I would not like to have as an enemy!)
Back there, behind the big fisherman, you can see the lake!
This is it! Lake Budi, the only salt water lake in South America 
There was a lovely family of black necked swans swimming around! They had 7 babies, but most of them were resting under their parents' warm wings
A little later we went up to a small cemetery with a nice view to the lake
Many many old and not so old tombs had one of Leslie's lastnames written, she told me it is because she's descendant of the Spanish guys who came to conquer this area back in the colonial times
Now the sun is shining outside so me and the others are going to go out to play 
See you!
Petunia
|
|
 Posted Dec 14, 2011, 2:23 pm Last edited Dec 14, 2011, 3:18 pm by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Serena, Chile - 10th January 2012
By: Leslie
Hello mum and dear audience!
We started a journey to northern lands
We slept on a bus for 8 hours and woke up in Santiago, the capital of Chile! But we didn't see anything there because we got off the bus and inmediately got into another one to keep going north Another 7 hours north!
The hills near Santiago have different vegetation than back south in Temuco... it starts getting more desertic, there is less vegetation here and you can even see cactus on the hills!
Then, after about 4 hours on the second bus we started seeing the sea!
The bus made a stop to stretch everyone's legs in a little Town called Los Vilos. There was literally nothing to see there but one single cactus, so Leslie, desperate to get me good photos, made me sit on it and pose!!! 
With my butt full of little red dots we went back to the bus and it started moving again...
By the road there was an enormous eolic park with thousands of giantic eolic generators spinning, some fast, some slow. They were really nice to watch!
And after a total of 15 hours on buses, we got to La Serena!
Mum, don't surprised if you find my butt a little flat when I come back home... This is why.
But traveling is never a pain, so as soon as we got there we left our baggage in the hostal and started walking a long long street that leads to the bech
There were many monuments along, but I specially found this one interesting, they are 2 condors (the national bird, remember?) hunting a poor rabbit! I hope Sweet Mimi didn't see it 
This is the guy whom the street is named after, Francisco de Aguirre avenue.
Then there were no more sculptures but road, just many blocks of road to the beach... surrounded by nice palm trees
And then, finally, after walking about 18 blocks we got to the beach!  we were starting to feel tired but as soon as we saw the sea, it took all our tiredness away!
The first thing you see when you get to the beach is a nice lighthouse which is the most known icon of La Serena
We stayed here the whole afternoon relaxing after so much traveling and walking...
You'll see more La Serena soon mum, and so will I
See you!!
Petunia
|
|
Posted Jan 10, 2012, 5:12 pm Last edited Jan 10, 2012, 5:12 pm by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
La Serena, Chile - 16th January 2012
By: Leslie
Hello hello mum and everybody else!
Another sunny day here in La Serena! In fact most of the days are sunny here and fantastically it only rains a few days a year!
In the morning ("morning" in holidays never means earlier than 9 am here  ...) we went walking to the centre, wich is just a few block away from our hostal and we found this beautiful church called Santo Domingo which was built in the year 1700 and something...
It has a very beautiful dome, doesn't it?!
Inside it was cold and they had nice music playing which gave a nice and calm feeling
Outside the church there was a garden with beautiful flowers! ...I always find it hard to repress my curious-bug instinct to taste all flowers!
Just across the street we found the main square, it's rather small but nice, and it was under some reparations, you can see white fences back there...
There was a tree of trumpet flowers (floripondio) and I, as a good curious bug, wanted to try it too...
But as I was getting to it Leslie pulled be back from my wings and told me not to!  She said they have very very stong drug effects and can be easily deadly when boiled as tea, so we both agreed it was best to avoid tasting it
Next to the square there was this big cathedral, Catedral de la Serena. It was built around the 1800s and it's the biggest and main cathedral of the city.
...We went in, and were lucky to find it almost empty because there was a big "no photos" sign I didn't mean to be disrespectful but such a nice construction must be photographed, right?
Next to us there was another tourist with his camera under his jacket, taking photos whenever he thought no one was looking! of course he never imagined there was a small toyvoyager bug watching him from between the big pillars! haha!
In the walls there were many images of saints and other religious people who, to be honest, I don't know who they are... But I did recognize this lady here as Virgin Mary of course She had the most decorated picture of the whole cathedral.
Then we went out to the street again...
Haven't I told you mum that in La Serena most of the constructions keep a colonial style? In the centre, for example, they can't build anything bigger than 4 floors height, and most of the contructions have tile roofs
Anyway, we were walking in the street and found quite a nice building, but it belonged to some court or something like that so we were just trying to sneak near the door, but a nice guard found us and invited us inside to take photos!
Inside the building there was a beautiful patio!
Then out in the street again we found this cool tile bench where we sat to rest for a while
I was distracted looking around and talking to the others when Leslie got us all into a cab...
...And somehow we ended up in a little gym watching an Easter Island dance! Which was a little like this
Now I need to go to bed, I'm really tired... using my last energy to upload these photos for you mum
Bye bye!
|
|
Posted Jan 17, 2012, 5:07 am Last edited Jan 17, 2012, 5:14 am by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
|
|
Coquimbo, Chile - 30th January 2012
By: Leslie
Hi dear mum! I heard you are back at home now, it's nice to know you're there to welcome me if I ever decide to go back home but I'm having so much fun here and Leslie told us about some plans for the next weeks so I'm really not thinking about going back yet!
Hope you don't miss me too much!
The photos you're going to see now are from when went to Coquimbo, a city next to La Serena, literally next to it, you can see how close they are in the maps.
First we walked through the coast where all the fishing boats were... back there you can see the desertic hills!
Then we went up to the highest point in the city, where there is the Third Millenium Cross, a giant monuent - view point It was inagurated by John Paul II in 2000
Here it is! Do you see the little windows in the "arms" of the cross??
Well that is the viewpoint!
We went up by an elevator... And this is the wonderful view from up there!!
Back there you can also see La Serena
You can see the city and the gulf...
And there's a privileged view to the ocean!
Up there there were sculptures of all the popes that have existed to far...
This is John Paul II, but I think they didn't quite get his face... do you think it looks like him?
Under the cross there was a small cathedral and a religious museum but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside grrr... I saw some of John Paul's belongings, like clothes, chairs and otehr things... And I saw Michelangelo's La Pietà! And this I was allowed to take a photo with!
After the Cross, we went to a fortress used to fight the pirates back in the day!
Look mum! A cactus with a flower!!
There were strange rocks around the place... very beautiful!
What a great cannion! I bet it sounded really loud!
I hope the winter isn't to harsh there for you! I wish I could send you some of the chilean heat in a bottle
Love,
Petunia
|
|
Posted Jan 30, 2012, 5:04 pm Last edited Mar 7, 2012, 3:05 pm by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Valle del Elqui, Chile - 14th February 2012
By: Leslie
Hello mum!
I know it's been a long time since I wrote here, that's because we were on a trip, a very nice trip, but you'll see photos of that later
Now I'm going to show you photos of the day we went to the Elqui Valley (valle del elqui). It is the place with the clearest sky in the world! That's why there are many obstervatories around these hills
Can you believe under this dam there is a whole town!?? One day in 1996 the inhabitants of Gualliguaica town were told they had to leave their houses, and the next day their whole town was under water!
It was rebuilt nearby but there are still people sad about it, specially old people who lived all their lives in their original town...
After about one hour or so we got to the first and biggest city in the valley, Vicuña This is the main church right by the main square.
And this is the old city hall used around 1800 by the mayor and other politicians Now the main room is a museum where you can see pictures of the important guys who used to attend meetings there. I wonder how was this place when they were alive? how were their lives...? I bet they were very different to the traveler life I know so far I believe this building is on one of the stamps on the postcards I've sent you
In the museum there was an old newspaper called "The voice of Elqui". I'm thankful of living in a time when books and magazines have colorful drawings
Then we went to take another bus to go deeper into the valley
In the bus terminal there was a nice pictorial map of the valley. In Vicuña you can see the city hall and a face, that's Gabriela Mistral, a Novel winning chilean poet who lived here although she was born in another town of the valley... See how much I've been learning??
You can also see some observatories there and the town we are going to is Pisco Elqui, can you find it in the map?
As we went further into the valley it became nicer and nicer! The mountanis were bigger and the fields greener!
Mum, I'm in the place with the clearest sky in the world!!
- Astronomers: envy me!
And we got to Pisco Elqui! Even though there wasn't much to see there it was a nice place, very in touch with nature... small streets, small houses, many of them made of clay! This is the main church.
Then we went to have lunch to a nice open air restaurant, it was very late for lunch, but when we are traveling we use to forget about eating until we suddenly realize we are starving! hehe There's so much to see that one doesn't really care about trivial stuff like that, right?
And guess what ... Leslie did it again!
She said her excuse this time was the funny name of this cactus... although I think that's a pretty lame excuse! One of these days I'll put a cactus branch on her seat... let's see if she likes it!
Anyway, this is called "mother in law's cushion" (cojín de la suegra) I'm pretty sure that name was made by a mean man!
Later, before we went back to La Serena we bought some yummy jam of strange flavors like beetrot, onion, carrot with peanut, milk with cinamon and nuts, and some others I can't remember...
Then we took the bus back to La Serena
I loved the valley! did you like it?
I'll write again soon!
Bye!
PS: my bum still hurts
|
|
Posted Feb 14, 2012, 11:27 pm Last edited Feb 14, 2012, 11:36 pm by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
|
|
Temuco, Chile - 25th February 2012
By: Leslie
There are so many carnivals going on around the world and here we have nothing! It's unfair! ...so we decided to do something about it... Our own carnival!!
We weren't quite sure wether to do it the brazilian way, or more venetian... so we decided to do a mix, or own carnival style
This is what I gathered for a costume, how do I look? I know it's not as fancy as the ones that the samba dancers wear in Rio, or the elegant costumes from Venice, but it'll do for now
Then we all gathered on our colorful costumes to let the party begin!
We lit some candles and Ducky, who was wearing a more tropical style, started to play some music so we all started to dance!
Then Chrissi took the guitar and it was my turn to dance with Pato, who by the way had chosen a very venetian style and was wearing a wonderful costume!
Here you can see we weren't quite sure about what decoration to use... so we agreed some dices, candles and a cauldron would do
Then I danced with Ducky, this time the music was slower. Our carnival was very variated!
It was a lot of fun! and Chrissi did a great job with the guitar!
Our carnival was awesome! At the very level of Venice and Brazil I dare to say
See you mum
I'm having a lot of fun here!
Bye bye!
|
|
Posted Feb 25, 2012, 5:35 am
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Potosí, Bolivia - 1st March 2012
By: Leslie
Hi mum!
If you thought our 15 hour trip from Temuco to La Serena was long... wait till you hear this -> After more than 50 hours traveling, we got to the highest city in the world, Potosí! And, do you know where is that? ... in Bolivia!
Here we are outside the customs office in the middle of the andean plateau at 3.695 m.a.s.l waiting for our turn... At this height you can already feel the lack of oxygen and it was cold and windy but we were all very happy to be there!
After we crossed the border we kept going through the plateau...
There's an unbelievable amount of volcanoes up there!!
I had never seen so many and so close to eachother!
For hours I saw landscapes like this...
And later for some more hours, like this...
We kept going higher and higher all the time!
And after many many hours, we arrived to Potosí! the highest city in the world at 4060 m.a.s.l!
As soon as we got to our hotel we dropped our baggage and went out running to explore! Of course, we only run a few meters and realized how much oxygen we were missing and how super tired and extremely exhausted we were feeling, so we just walked from that moment on, which is somewhat awkward for us who are all used to be running and jumping around
I learned new things, so I want to teach them to you
The first thing we saw was this old church called "Nuestra Señora de la Merced"
It was built in 1555 when the spanish conquered Bolivia and forced the natives to build churches for a God they didn't even believe in...
A one block forward towards the centre we found the Omiste theatre
And just a few steps away, the main cathedral of the city!
This is one of the most modern churches of the city, built in the 1800s. See? I told you I've been learning!
The city centre and surrounding areas are overwhelmed by religious buildings!
I learned that there are 36 beautiful churches along the city, all built in the conquest times, around the year 1500.
This is the "compañía de Jesús" (jesus's company) tower.
How beautiful! Look at all those details!
And this is San Lorenzo church
The natives were forced to build and build as slaves, and they were so angry to be building churches to God that they decided to add some of their beliefs' elements to the contrsuctions, even if it costed them their lives.
Here you can see a sun and a moon in the corners, they represent the sun and moon deities that they worshipped.
I admire how brave they were to add these details even if they knew the spanish would kill them for doing it!
And later, when it was already dark we went to see the lights of the main cathedral, really beautiful isn't it!
Tomorrow, city tour
Stay tuned!
Love from the highest city in the world!
Your explorer, Petunia
|
|
Posted Mar 1, 2012, 3:02 pm Last edited Mar 1, 2012, 3:10 pm by Leslie
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Potosí, Bolivia - 7th March 2012
By: Leslie
Hi mum!
Another day starts here in Potosí and the city awaits to be discovered! so here we go! The photos you're going to see now are from our walking city tour
The first thing that caught my attention when we started walking were the very narrow streets!
The tour guide lady told us it's because they were made for tumbrils in the past! Now it's difficult to drive cars through these streets!!
Then we walked next to this big cathedral, but I can't remember its name It's very nice, isn't it!?
We had to make a few stops every now and then to recover oxygen
And we made a big stop at the post office Leslie kept talking about postcards and stamps but I was paying more attention to the old construction
This is Santo Domingo church
Then we came to this arch which is very famous, because in the past it was the limit between the aboringins' area and the spanish area. It's called "Arco de Cobija". And right there behind me you can see a "cholita" woman, an aborigin woman wearing what most of them wear
Then we made a stop right at the other side of the arch in this viewpoint where we could see a part of the city... Hey! don't think we are lazy! walking at this height is very tiring!
Back there is "cerro rico" (rich hill) that one day contained the mines with most silver in the world!
But the tour guide told us it was all taken to Europe and the city was left very poor with no silver left... now they extract some other less important minerals from the hill...
This city has a very sad history...
Then we kept walking and went to Santa Terera church What a bell tower!
...And we passed next to another great building
And then we went to eat lunch at a restaurant where they only serve typical food! The waiter said we wanted to surprise us, so we let him!
The first surprise dish he brought us was this soup! It's called kalapurka and it has a hot volcanic rock inside!!
Leslie filmed it so you can see it in action Here is the video!
And the second dish we got was this! It's called wakazapato, which in the aborigin language means "cow's shoe"
It's dry potatoe covered with cheese and some other things I never knew what they were But they were mostly all good
And last but not least we went to see the most famous icon of Potosí, that rather ugly face behing me. This is the patio of the goverment palace and that face belongs to a guard that many years ago discovered some fraud going on with the city's money.
Do you see how much I've learned mum!
And here ended our tour
What a day, mum!
I'm very happy I got to visit this city, everything here is so different to Chile, and of course, to home!
Many hugs and kisses for you!
Your Petunia
|
|
Posted Mar 7, 2012, 3:05 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
