So I've been back in Santiago for a month now and I never blogged about my travels, but I figure the pictures I posted are sufficient. Most have captions so it kinda explains what I did. But long story short, basically it was about 2 months: 10 days traveling through northern chile, then a few days break in Santiago, then 10 days in the south...PATAGONIA (the BEST) with one of my best friends from California, Ali, then back in santiago for a few days break.
Then Ali and I and her boyfriend Mike who flew in to meet us crossed the border Chile from Santiago to go to Mendoza, Argentina. 8 hour bus ride. One night in Mendoza. 12 hour night bus ride to Córdoba, Argentina. Stayed in Córdoba for the day to see my friend Belén from rotary in Germany. 12 hour night bus ride to Buenos Aires. Stayed in BA for 2 nights with Ali, Mike, and their Argentine friend Nico. 18 Hour overnight/half day bus ride from BA to Iguazu waterfalls. Went to the waterfalls, crossed the border to Brasil (yah, without problems! Good thing my visa worked out well). Stayed one night in Foz do Iguacu. 16 hour overnight bus ride to Florianopolis, Brasil. Took short bus ride across the island (it's the island of santa catarina in southern brasil...connected with a bridge to the mainland) to the small town of Barra da Lagoa. Ali and Mike have been there before so they knew people and got us a hook up in a beautiful house up on the hill, away from the noise and lights (not that there was much, its a small town, but still touristy), each with our own room..and a queen size bed!!! Giant french doors, kitchen, mosquito net...the best! And CHEAP! It pays off to know people. We stayed their from about the 2nd or so of feb till Ali and I both flew out, the 15th of feb. Beach, sleep, rest, beach, swim, beach, surf...it was so amazing and gorgeous. I loved it!!! Also got to meet up with Bruna from rotary in germany because she lives near there!!
The 15th of feb I flew out headed to Ecuador while Ali went home. I had two 12 hour layovers, blech. Arrived in Quito...stayed at an awesome hostel there and met lots of cool people. 2 night there, then took an 8 hour bus ride through the andes, rainforest, etc, to portoviejo where I met up with Jaime, also from rotary in germany (these are all kids that were in my district in germany, but from these respective countries, ie argentina, brasil, ecuador). His family so kindly offered for me to stay in their home. Stayed there a couple nights and then met with Tito, also from rotary in germany, but not my district, and we went to Montañita...beach surf town a bit further south with them and Jaime's little brother. Went surfing, got smacked pretty hard in the nose with a surfboard, that hurt...but I surfed in the best surf of ecuador so it's all good. Stayed there one night then went to Baños while they returned home because they had university. Baños is a little adventure town in the mountains...went mtn biking, saw waterfalls, and white water rafting...rafting was SOOOOO COOL! Except I got smacked in the chin in the same place...first with a paddle by the uncoordinated english kid next to me, then with his helmet. And then the scrawny kid fell overboard and I had to pull him back in!! It was a lot of fun tho...I'm ready to go when I get back to California now in the Trinity!
Finally I headed to Guayaquil, largest city in ecuador, where i did my volunteer work with vosh (volunteer optometric services to humanity). We we about 10 from the US. 3 doctors, 6 others part of the org. and myself. I was the only optician, woohoo! There were a few that had minor experience dispensing glasses but I think I came in handy. Also there were only 2 of us that could speak spanish well...so sarah and I did a lotttt of translating. It was a really amazing experience. We gave eye exams to about 1000 people more or less, in the slums of the city. The lions club and a community center was who helped organize it all. We got glasses to everyone we could/needed them. I remember one man, probabaly around 50 years old and he'd never had glasses in his life. He measured to be extremely near-sighted...about -6.00 or -7.00 prescription...if you know anything about Rx's, that's pretty much blind without glasses. And hed never worn any. When we gave him a pair, which were'nt even dead on cause they were all donated, he spent the entire rest of the afternoon staring at everything. His hands, the wall, other people, just looking at everything ...he'd never known how it was to really be able to see. Well that lasted 3 days and then I flew back to chile, a week after the earthquake.
I've felt some good aftershocks, but not many in a while now...there have been lots of little ones that aren't always felt.
Oke I'm going to post this now and verrry soon I will blog about my latest experiences...volunteering with chile to help the earthquake victims.
