Pucon Weekend Day 1 Friday

Day 1:
Breakfast
Horseback Riding
Canopy/Zip lining
Mexican Food

Master Bedroom

Cabagaltas

He was such a rebel!

Elaine, Lea, Vyvy

Caroline, Deepa, Sam

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Providencia, Cafes, and Bellas Artes!

Yesterday, Monday, we had our first midterm for our microbiology lecture. It was an interesting test,in terms of scoring:
+4 = correct
-1 = incorrect
0 = no answer
Haven't had a test like that since the AP/SAT testing.
After taking our midterm, a bunch of us went to Providencia via the metro. It's a popular street with many stores and cafes. The cafes are what makes this place fun, as there are plenty to choose from. Cafes are the place to be here in chile.

Providencia.

Vienne Latte at Tavelli Cafe.

Tavelli Azucar!

Today, after class, we went to the Bellas Artes Museum near Santa Lucia. The museum is pretty sick, my favorite exhibition being the photography section by a local Chilean by Rene Combeau. His picture are has that Chilean aesthetic feel. Properly setup from lighting to positioning, he is able to convey what it is like to be in Chile. To top everything off, all his picture were in black and white.

After the museum, my roommate Kent and I tried to find wine bottle openers with a Chile logo. There are none to be found as we went through as many stores as we can. For a place that sells lots of wine, they sure don't have the essential tool to drink it. I hope to find one soon. yeee.
During our journey for bottle openers, we went to a cafe called "Cafe Tomodachi" or "Cafe Amigo". I had myself a superlatte caramel.

Super Caramel Latte!

For dinner, a bunch of us went to a restaurant called Domino Fuente de Soda. I ordered the Rodeo Burger with churasco, courtesy of Mayur Mistry and last years travel study group. It's a burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, cheese, churrasco, and onions. It was BOMB!

Rodeo Burger with Churrasco. (Before)

Demolished Burger!

Today was a long day with lots of walking. The Pucon trip will be planned tonight after studying some FUNGI!

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

SNOWBOARDING IN THE ANDES!

Saturday was an epic day because we snowboarded in the ANDES! The view was beautiful, the snow was soft, the park we went to was not that crowded, everything went smoothly as planned.

We went to the ski resort called El Colorado. White snow everywhere. So blinding!

Here are some pics. I couldn't use my dslr, I was scared to use it while boarding. I pushed my snowboarding limits and did the steepest hills at this resort. Was fun, but now i'm very sore.

oOo...

This is an interesting picture that came out. Purple sky!

D-rell

San Cristobal Hike and Empanadas Todo!

Hello! So today after class, a bunch of us decided to go on a hike at a local mountain called San Cristobal. A distance of 6km or 3.8 miles, eeek...It was accomplished =). But I advised to not do it in thermals and chucks! My feet and knees were killing me, nonetheless, I feel accomplished. Below are some pics on the journey up this trail!

Bottom: Small shops before the trek up!

VYVY and J. MAI

View from 1km.

Continuing on the journey...

Can see the Andes!

A trail we decided to take to catch up to the rest of the group! It proved to be worth it as we went from being the last to being to the first at the top!

The Virgin Mary at the Summit! A Catholic and religious feel at the top as there is a Church, Statues of Jesus, and an open stage for holding processions.

More small stores near the trolley station.

The Trolley station, at which we decided to ride down the mountain at 900 pesos!

I feel so accomplished after that hike! Afterwards, we went to Empenadas Todos, down on Bella Vista to feed our hunger. I got myself a Palmito, which consisted of corn and cheese, and a Salque, which was Salmon and cheese! SOOOO GOOODD!!!!

Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Chilean Beer Pong

Makeshift Beer Pong in Chile. I guess Beer pong is not that big down here in Southern America. We got a table going, which consisted of a sliding closet door from the triple room, two chairs, and 20 white cups. The table was NOT steady at all. The white cups were really narrow at the mouth. It's pretty amazing how John Mai and I won 4 straight games here in Chile. GG. We are undefeated so far. Let's hope this continues..yee...

Buenos Aires ...YEE...

Hello. Sorry for the lack of updates. Been pretty busy from long eventful 18 hour days. Here's a lengthy update of my weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina! We left thursday afternoon using LAN airlines. It was a 2 hour trip east of Santiago chile. After arriving, we had a filling meal at Santa Fe Cafe, which is open for 24 hrs!!! Something we don't have at Santiago Chile. So here it is, a 4 day recap..yee..

Day 1:
Hotel De Las Americas
Santa Fe Cafe
Steak Meal #1

Day 2: DO DAH TANGO!

Sabor a Tango. Tango Lessons, dinner, and a SHOW.

Got some tango lessons so lets DANCE the TANGO!
SIERRA <3!!!

Steak Meal #2 at the Tango Show

Bar - Jager Bomb

Clubbing at Larsky's. Listened to some good rap music for once hahah. Nonetheless, it was a small club, with 2 rooms, one played hip hop and the other, local rap argentenian

Day 3

Argentina vs. Germany...a German Massacre of 4-0.

Find the German! Many Argentinians gave her the bird. lol. Pretty Funny.

3 coarse dinner meal at Mala Cara.
Steak Meal #3 + red wine

A classy bar. 3 floors of fun!

Imperial - reminiscent of Honduras..yee

Lazy night...watched Justin Bieber, Chris Brown Crying, Tae Yung dancing to Wedding Dress, and random Dance Videos. Hahah. Buenos Aires is tiring.

Day 4

Ricoleta Open Air Market where they sold handcrafts!

Vyvy learning how to throw a boomerang properly. I got myself a boomerang so it shall be fun.

Cemetary at Ricoleta - some fancy graves and creepy ones
Cafe

Lots of stray cats live at this cemetery. This is one of the creepy cats. eeek.

Lunch/Dinner at the oldest cafe in Argentina, Cafe Tortoni, which began in 1858.

Steak Meal #4 + Red Wine = LEGITI <3 RED WINE!!!!!

At Buenos Aires, I noticed a couple of things. 1) the people here are really nice, they don't stare at you and are more tolerable of tourists. 2) When ordering at any restaurant, they do not like to take notes of your order, they do it straight from memory. 3) The people actually want to have a conversation if they know you're not a local. It's pretty nice. 4) The spanish interaction is much easier as I feel that it is slower when they speak, making it understandable. 5) Argentinians are very prideful, in a good way. They do have the best steak that I have eaten. They are known for their bife de chorizo..yee...

- Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas