Leaving Chile in less than 24 hours....

This has been an extremely long but good month. I fly to Peru tomorrow early in the morning and should be meeting up with Ned and Emily in Lima around noon. On top of trying to get over a nasty cold I also came down with the stomach flu this past weekend and have been wondering how I´m going to survive backpacking in Peru these next two weeks. However, I´m finally starting to feel a little better and hope that I´ve seen the last of Montezuma´s vengeful ways. I have one last errand to run in Santiago and then it´s back to Batuco to pack up. I met a guy named Oscar in Santiago who lived in Provo for a few years studying at UVSC. He´s been involved in a number of import/export ventures and wants to send a few olive oil and avocado oil samples back with me to try and enter the market there. It should be an interesting project for me and something to get a little experience in exportation.

Hasta Peru.

Temuco, Villarica, Pucon, La Serena...

After spending most of my time in Santiago I thought it was about time to get out of the polluted city and see some of the other amazing areas Chile has. So last Saturday I jumped on a bus and headed south with Carolina. She has a friend in Temuco which is about 9 hours south of Santiago. The region is beautiful with the Andes to the east and incredibly green farmland. When Mom and Dad came to Chile at the end of my mission we visited Puerto Montt further to the south which was quite similar. I´ve taken a few pictures but never have the right equipment with me at the right time to download them. Maybe I can get Carolina to help me tonight since the house I´m staying at actually has internet. Thus I´m not counting each peso that I´m spending as I type. Anyway, back to Temuco...we didn´t do much there since I´ve had a nasty cold for the past week. However we did go to church on Sunday and found a very nice ward (about 50 people) with a pretty strong group of single adults. Tuesday, after a few days of rest and wanting to get out we decided to jump on a bus and travel an hour south to Lake Villarica and Pucon a nice resort town. If I had been feeling better I would´ve liked to have gone skiing on Volcano Villarica. Next time I guess.

So with 4 days in the South we decided to head north of Santiago and took a bus up to La Serena. After 18 horas on a bus with one transfer we arrived last night. The family here is great and quite entertaining. Anyway, we´re going to head to the beach today and over to a valley in the Andes tomorrow and Saturday. There are a few observatories there which are famous around the world and we´re going to see if some connections and get us in since we don´t have reservations.

Can´t believe I head to Peru in a week. This trip has been a lot of fun, and I feel like I´ve been gone for months.

That´s all for this morning.

La Izquierda...

Pictures would make these entries a lot more interesting....I´ll see what I can pull off tomorrow. Just to give an update of what I´ve done this past week. Last friday, Carolina a friend of mine in Santiago, invited me to go to Vina del Mar for the weekend. It´s about an hour and a half outside of Santiago along the coast and quite beautiful when it isn´t cloudy. Things here have been quite cold and I´m really glad I brought my good sleeping bag. So Carolina stayed at her friend´s house Pamela who has a son who was having a birthday party. I prefer spending time with people instead of going around and looking at all the tourist sites. Pamela and her brother are really interesting people who are extremely educated and are part of the strong left (politically speaking) here in Chile. We definitely had some interesting conversations and my Spanish was put to the test. Claudio is in his mid twenties, studying at a university in Valparaiso, and extremely creative. Recently a famous performing group from France (Royale?) came to Chile and they set up a disaster scenario in downtown santiago and had a huge doll (30+ feet tall I think) walk around downtown and was controlled by the actors. Anyway, Claudio, wanting to help with a protest at the University in Valparaiso decided to make a similar doll (is there a better word than doll? can´t think of one at the moment) but one that represented the director of the university. They took the doll around Valparaiso and had him looking for his ¨blue envelope¨ (similar to the pink slip -- basically saying he should be fired). A few students also decided to go to Santiago and pose naked in front of the Government building to show there discontent. Two of the five protesters were at the house for Pamela´s son´s birthday party and I was happy to see the "other cheeks". Anyway, they were in the newspaper and it was interesting to be closely associated with some leftists as this seems to be a very strong trend considering the positions Bolivia, Venezuela, and Argentina have been taking lately. Seems like it is taking hold in most countries down here at least on some level.

Anyway, Carolina has proved to be a great tour guide and will be taking me down to Temuco and up to La Serena a week from Saturday.

I also had an interview this week with an NGO that works with environmental issues in Chile. They seem to naturally want to tap into my connections at the World Bank for potential funding. I might take a look at how they could tap into Bank funds, but it seems like a lot of the WB´s focus has moved away from Chile and is looking more at Africa, so funding is becoming a serious issues for a lot of Chilean NGOs.

Alright, Mamita has lunch waiting for me and the missionaries should be coming over. Signing out...

Finally made it to Santiago

I walked all day today...feel like a missionary again. I saw a family I havent seen in 10 years. By the way, I{m in a small internet cafe and the keyboard is in "Spanish" so you{ll have to ignore some of the typos. I have eaten 4 completos aka...hot dogs (chilean style) since I arrived. They{re actually not as good as I remember..but still not bad. They pile on tomatoes, avocado, and mayo. I should probably eat something else.

A short list of things I did today....

Saw more than a 1000 dogs (i might not be exaggerating...really)
Stepped in dog *&"! 3 times
Tried to kick a dog once, missed, but avoided "una mordida"
Was licked by a mean looking but very nice rotweiller (which apparently sleeps in my bed)
Saw a dog eat its own vomit (sorry if that grosses anyone out)
And ate... yes....another hot dog

Did I ever mention there are a few dogs down here?

Alright, that[s all for today.

I{m tired.

I thought I said Chile´po....
After approximately 32 hours of traveling and just 30 minutes away from Santiago the fog decided to roll in, and our plan decided to go elsewhere. So my wishes to see Argentina were granted. I´m hanging out in Mendoza, a beautiful city that reminds me of Europe (even though I´ve never been to Europe) just on the other side of the Cordilleran (The Andes Mountains) from Santiago. I could actually see Santiago pretty well from the sky and could pick out all my old areas even though it was 2am. Emily would be proud of my birdseye mapping skills. So this morning I´m hanging out at a very nice hotel hoping I don´t have to pay last night´s bill. I also went for a little walk this morning around the downtown area. I could tell the air was quite polluted by the small cough in the back of my throat by the time I finished. Being winter here there is a bit of an inversion, but overall the sky is pretty clear and it isn´t too cold. It´s amazing how many feelings from my mission are rushing back being down here. It´s been eight years and just seeing Santiago from the air and walking around Mendoza has reminded me a bit of what it was like to be down here. My journal entries don´t seem to conjur up the same emotions. It will be interesting to see how I feel after being here for a full month. I´ve talked a little about looking for a job down here, but not sure if I´m being very realistic about that. I typically make decisions based on how I feel about things, and I´m pretty sure a month will tell me if I could handle it down here.
Last night I met a guy named Raul as we headed to the hotel. He´s from Peru, probably in his mid-40´s and works in exporting/importing heavy machinary. He was asking me a lot of questions regarding exporting back hoes from the US. Fascinating, I know. I volunteered to look up which states had sales taxes and if there were tariffs in the US for exporting such things. While I´ve wanted to get involved in more non-profit work, I´m also interested in learning more about export/import with the US and South America. Raul also happens to be from Cuzco where I´ll be in just over a month. Now I have a friend there that I can visit. His sister owns a hostel in Puno where Ned, Emily, and I will be for a day or two. Anyway, I think people are waiting to use this so I´ll wrap up. Until my next entry...which hopefully isn´t too far off. Signing off from Mendoza...

Lesson of the week...

When you go to your own birthday party, don't do the following. (This is assuming you'll be expected to blow out the candles in front of what I now call "former" friends). I learned the hard way last night that eating sour candy is an incredible stimulus for saliva production. So the lesson...Don't eat lots of sour candy right before you blow out the candles on your cake. I think the pictures tell the rest. An embarrassing moment? Yes indeed. Actually, the people there must be my true friends since only one or two opted to not eat the cake after my disgusting episode. I knew I was in trouble the minute I started blowing the candles out, but I live by the rule that you just can't stop blowing out candles...the shame of not finishing the candles would be much greater than dousing the cake with one's saliva.

Better update if people are going to be actually looking at this...




This is the campground at the Puerta de Fe orphanage. I've been working with The Kaiizen Foundation since July and have organized 2 trips for the San Diego chapter and been down numerous times this past year. It can be fairly time consuming, but it's nice to be doing something that feels more rewarding than reading books about economics.

If I can stay focused I should be done with school in June. If you've wanted to take advantage of having family/friends in San Diego, now's the time to act. I don't know where I'll be after June. I'm just starting the job hunt, and I haven't narrowed my search to any specific location. San Diego is nice, but it doesn't have to necessarily stay my home.

This picture was taken at a benefit concert in July. We raised about $400 which exceeded my expectations. We just had our first trip to Mexico last week. I'll have to post some pictures when I get around to it.

Megan, Jay, and kids came down to Southern California in October. Had a nice walk with Michaela around Big Bear Lake. 

Moving to San Diego

I moved to San Diego at the end of August 2005. In order to take my next step toward a meaningful career I began a masters degree in International Relations at UC San Diego. A month and a half into the program I rightfully ask myself if this is going to take me in the direction I want to go. Perhaps this blog will be a good place for me to put in writing some of the nuggets I find along the way and a place to discuss my growing interests.

As always, taking myself too seriously.