33: The Entrapped Miners in Northern Chile

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very memorable day throughout Chile. For the past 18 days, 33 miners have been trapped in a mine in Copiapo, Chile (northern Chile). Along the pathway to reach the mine, rocks fell preventing anyone from entering and exiting the mine. The miners were left nearly half a mile below the surface in a refugio where they fortunately had some supply of water, beds, and plenty of space to move around.

No word had been reported of their health and even if they were alive. Until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon President Pinera and the rescue crew announced to the entire country that the 33 miners are alive and in reasonable health, 700 meters below the surface. They dug a space wide enough to send a camera down to the refugio and yesterday we saw the first signs of communication with the miners. They wrote a note saying, "Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33." "We are fine in the refuge, the 33 of us." It is truly incredible and I had had many doubts that they were still alive.

Now the real rescue process is set to begin. The rescue team says the operation may take four months to reach the refugio where the miners are. With that said, camera crews are reporting the latest 24/7, famous people are donating money to the families of the miners, and plans are being set to change the way mining operates in Chile. Yesterday I felt proud of the Chileans, their strength, and the unity that this country has. While it is ridiculously long and different regions offer completely different lifestyles, everyone was glued to their televisions to see that the miners were alive. Cars throughout the country were honking their horns, people were waving Chilean flags in the streets, and today schoolchildren were welcoming the machinery that is to guide the team to the refugio where the miners await.

Stay tuned for more news! Los Mineros volveran!!

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/23/chile.miners/index.html#fbid=yX7Dqie1z7o&wom=false

Fear the Gringo

Each day I take the micro (bus) to school. I come home for lunch and go back in the afternoons. I tend to listen to my iPod and mind my own business until several of my students board the bus and sit next to me. We talk about music, mix Spanish and English, and revel in how they sat on the sofa all weekend watching TV. Nothing exciting. However, it is during the lunch-time travels where Chileans avoid sitting next to me at all costs. It's as if a force around me prevents them from 'popping a squat'. If their is a seat open next to me, they would rather stand than do so. I don't know what it is. I shower, use deodorant, the whole nine yards. But last week I couldn't help but laugh at how far two kids would go to avoid sitting next to me on the micro.

The day was Wednesday, August 11, 2010. I was listening to the likes of Robert Earl Keen, 'I'm Coming Home'. Nothing compares to some Texas country in southern Chile. And no I am not coming home for several months. Anyways, two boys probably in third grade, were arguing over which one was going to sit next to me. They pushed and shoved, until finally settling on a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide their fate. At this point, I wanted to say something but couldn't stop laughing. Ultimately one of the kids sat next to me after much emotion from his loss. I think we have even progressed in our bus-riding relations as he sat next to me again later that week.

With all the hoopla about Chilean children, I am going to share some more stories about my Fifth graders. It's common knowledge that I have quite a techni-colored beard growing. It's mostly burnt orange, but I recently discovered a gray hair mixed in the bunch. One of my younger students, Sebastian, full of curiousity, asked me after class last Thursday, "Profe, why is your beard a different color than your hair?" Classic. He then grabbed at my beard and ripped some hairs from my beard. After confirming that he had in fact taken some of my hairs, he scampered out of my classroom smiling and laughing. Kids do the dangest things. This is also the same student that responds to everything I ask with, "Yes, I do!" ....What is today's date? "Yes, I do" How are you today class? "Yes, I do!" You get the picture.

Sticking with the same group of students, Jose, recently decided to watch several episodes of Simpson's. I can't blame him. I watch Simpson's everyday during onces with my family. However, Homer typically udders a few foul words in there. Thus Jose came into my class Monday morning full of new ideas, and when he forgot what 'skinny' meant in English, he said, "maldita sea" or damn it. He kept saying it over and over until I finally told him I understood him. I love my students so very much. They are hilarious.

In other news, our English Day at school is next Friday. The students are performing everything from Jeff Buckley's 'Hallejulah' to a Backstreet Boys song to a Mad TV skit, 'The Interview' to the Titantic theme song between Rose and that other guy Leo played. I plan on recording it for all to view.

Finally, here's an article the newspaper in Osorno published about me. Page 9, July 19, 2010. http://www.australosorno.cl/prontus4_nots/site/extra/pdp/pdp.html

Vacation: Part II

The difference between our hostel in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales was night and day. At Erratic Rock we had heat, lots of it, a constant flux of people coming and going which made it seem like a hot spot of sorts for travelers, a nice kitchen (where they make breakfast for clients every morning), eating area, and a TV with hundreds of movies beneath it. The people that ran the place also double as guides to Torres Del Paine, Tierra Del Fuego, and pretty much anywhere you want to go in the Southern parts of Chile and Argentina. There is little wonder why after such demand they made an Erratic Rock II in Puerto Natales and even one in Punta Arenas!

Everyday they hold meetings at 3 pm, providing insight on what you can do in the park and how long everything takes to accomplish. We had thought about a day-trip or something where we could get our feet wet but not put our whole body in. Then we changed to a two-night-three-day trip. Then Tyler, a fellow volunteer, asked us, "Why don't we just do the whole thing?" The whole thing as in the W Circuit that carves itself into the famous Towers of Torres Del Paine. Woah. We thought, thought some more, and then said why not, we have time and it's relatively cheap. So that was that. After we bought groceries for the trip including pasta, oatmeal, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, more pasta, quesadilla supplies, lots of chocolate, gummy bears, and fruit, we packed our bags and went to bed, ready to head out at 8 am the next morning.

The drive to Torres Del Paine Parque takes roughly 40 minutes and the scenery only gets better. We saw the sun rise over the mountains, and then finally, the shape of the Torres Towers that steals front covers of many adventure magazines and also is the Patagonia clothing logo. After registering at the sign-in, confirming our pick-up with the driver, and finalizing the comfort of our backpacks we took off...in the wrong direction. For 45 minutes, we walked completely in the wrong way after a misunderstanding with the park ranger who said to turn in front of the house. There were two houses and we went in the wrong direction from the wrong house.

Thus our five-hour hike took us nearly seven hours through rolling countryside, heavy winds, streaming rivers, all of which had the giant Paine Grande mountain casting a bigger and bigger shadow over our group. We stopped along the trail, munched on our trail mix (thanks Alex), and took photos of the magnificent views. As the sun set we finally arrived at camp one. There is a hostel, which has a kitchen, and also bathrooms with running water, so the first two nights were rather luxurious. While we slept in our tents, we prepared our food inside and were able to do the simple things like wash our hands and take showers.

Day two we day-hiked to Glacier Gray, a monstrous glacier that reaches heights of 119 meters high at places. It is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and we were able to enjoy lunch with the glacier as our backdrop. Day three we went to the middle part of the W and witnessed two avalanches high up in the mountains. Sighting an avalanche is no easy task. First you hear something rumbling in the distance. Then you look and look until you see white stuff moving fast down the mountains. After seeing the rapidity of the avalanche you realize how massive it actually is. One of our Dutch friends was able to capture nearly a minutes worth of footage on his video camera.

Day four was the hardest day. We had a mostly uphill hike and the final haul had quite a steep fall to the right. The river down below reminded you how far the drop really was. But we did it. The nights were incredible, as we ate delicious dinners, conversed, and passed a Sprite bottle with some hard stuff in it. The third and fourth nights we had fires, nature's tv, and of course we played many a game of Phase Ten. It is safe to say that much of Southern Chile is familiar with this card game now. Finally, after a rain storm on the last day held us back an hour or so, we managed to get out of the park having accomplished the W. 50 miles, four nights, five days, and just enough food to keep us all happy. It was the trip of a lifetime and future backpacking trips will have a tough time beating this one. The weather was hiker-friendly (43 degrees would be a good average), the five of us got along splendidly, and aside from getting lost on Day One, we knew what we were doing. We even made friends along the trail which was hard to do seeing as we only saw maybe 10 people for five days.

That night back in Puerto Natales we all slept the best night's sleep in a long time and stuffed our mouths with pizza. Two days later, after spending the night in a Chilean couple's apartment that we had meet on the trail in Torres, we flew back from Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt, having experienced the best spent ten days in the Southern Patagonia that I could ever imagine.

Travel Chile 2010: Part I

While my trip with four other volunteers to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and Torres Del Paine Parque occurred over a week ago, I remember it like it was yesterday and am certain that I will never forget it. And in all honesty we had little idea what we were going to do once in the southern tip of Chile, home to Tierra Del Fuego, otherwise known as Land of Fire. We thought that since we were in Punta Arenas, a city central to Puerto Natales, Torres Del Paine, and Tierra Del Fuego that we could see it all. Little did we know that we were going to hike The W Circuit of Torres Del Paine that provides you with views of monstrous, granite towers, avalanches in Valley Frances, creamy opal colored lakes, and llamas and condors. But first here's Part I of III on how we got to this inspiring trail.

After a night in the matrimony suite of a hostel in Puerto Montt (they had nothing else available), we all arose early, took quick hot showers, and boarded a bus to the regional airport. We were told to get there an hour early. When we got there, their were lines longer than fans waiting for a Daddy Yankee concert in Santiago (think Chile's P-Diddy). We each tried repeatedly to confront the woman at the front desk with our problems. If you think it's difficult reasoning with an airline representative, imagine doing so in another language. Fortunately, many other travelers made the same mistake as us and all happily boarded LAN Chile's plane bound for Punta Arenas 20 minutes after the scheduled time.

Fast forward through the flight that presented me with pictures of vast glaciers and snow-drenched mountains and even a delicious box of crackers (I found out after that the first beer or wine is complimentary) and we are eating lunch in the Punta Arenas square at La Taza, a spanish food restaurant. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Chile and schools and businesses take off at least 1.5 hours of work to eat and relax. I ordered merluza, which is hake fish, an item that is close to the top of my favorite Chileans dishes, and took in the views. Unfortunately the views didn't include the Strait of Magellan but one can't expect all the Happy Meal toys in one trip to McDonald's either right?

We conversed about possible trips to take and then Alex said she was buying a ticket to Puerto Natales for the next morning. Sounded like a great idea as Puerto Natales is the stepping stone for reaching Torres Del Paine and one day there, I thought, would be incredible. Thus we left for Puerto Natales the next morning at 8:30 on a three-hour bus-ride. I have to give Buses Pacheco credit as it was the most enjoyable bus trip yet. I slept and then awoke to Avatar on TV all while passing by snowy Patagonian fields with ancient trees bent over from the strength of the southern winds. An amazing sight to see. After passing the Milodon (ancient creatures believed to have been founded in the Patagonia) that welcomes people to Puerto Natales, we walked to our hostel Erratic Rock. More on this incredible hostel and our preparations coming!

http://www.erraticrock.com/

Quick Notes:
1) My family called me Robert Costner because my last name sounds like the actor's
2) Reading Harry Potter in Spanish
3) Tomorrow is my host mother's birthday. I think she's 44.
4) Chile's version of Good Morning America is called Pollo Conserva and today's episode included news about a flea plague in New York. Cierto o Falso?
5) Almost a month of no shaving