Valpo

Well there has been a lot going on the last few days. I arrived on the 22nd and all the exchange students had to be here on the 23rd. i didnt even know about it because they never emailed me. so that worked out thank god. in the past 3 days i have found an apartment in valpo, bought a cell phone, took a couple spanish tests to see my level (i am in the middle of all the students), and finished getting my student visa. its been pretty crazy.

my apartment is nice. i live with a german and another chilean lady who is about 30 or so. she is very nice. the place is pretty great. its got everything i need and its in the nicest part of the city. there are two parts that the students live in, valparaiso and vina del mar. they are two different cities that are attached and pretty much one. vina del mar is very touristy and newer where valparaiso is not as touristy but it has so much history and its so beautiful. especially where i live. every house that is built in the hills is so colorful and old. the streets go every which way. i will have pictures of the city soon. there are huge murals that painters put on walls that are so nice also. its just amazing and hard to describe. so i am happy with where i live and who i am living with. it would be nice to have another chilean student but we will see if that happens. i sure hope so. there is room for two more people in our place. annnd i am paying 200 a month for it which is cheap as well.

so that is the big news. i start classes on monday which should be interesting. i hope they go well. oh my number is 76572824. i hope your calling card works tonight lauren! i will keep my fingers crossed.

chau all.

Ahhhh Canadians!

Well, I am ripping the canadian badge off my bag for awhile. Soo it came to my attention today that Canadian Police officers were beating up the Chileans at the under 20 world cup in Toronto and Chile is PISSED at Canada for it. I told a lady I was from Canada tonight and she said to not tell anyone that for awhile till this whole thing blows over. My friend who lives here who did an exchange in Lethbridge that I talked to tonight said to do the same. So I bought a paper and it is in the whole sports section. A quote from Harper too saying its not the Canadians fault or something. Ahhh too bad. Kinda makes me mad. Who would have thought it would be better to be an american in Chile... AH! Oh I am in the second biggest futbol town in Chile too. And if no one knew what happend, Chile was playing in the semi finals, which has been a HUGE deal down here, and they lost which must have caused the uproar among Chilean-Canadians. Its sounds silly but futbol, or soccer, is bigger down here than you think and these people were going so crazy over the whole ordeal of making it to the semies.

So other than that, I am good. I am in Valparaiso now. I had some good times in San Pedro doing some tours and riding horses then I was in La Serena and did a Pisco Vineyard tour. It was nice. Tomorrow I go apartment hunting, to the university, and to the embassy for my study visa. So I hope everyone is well. I am safe and feeling well.

Happy One Year Anniversary Lauren. I cant wait for you to come see me at the end of August!

San Pedro

well here i am in san pedro, i am travelling solo now because mike is going home earlier than planned and he wanted to check things out around valpo and i didnt cause i will be doing that for 4 months. so here i am. its been going good so far. i checked out some natural geysers this morning which was great. this town is half tourists and half locals. i have met a ton of people which is great. so i am doing a couple more tours and then taking a 16 hour bus trip to la salena. its another little tourist city with cool things to do. i will only be there a couple days then will arrive to valpo about the 22nd. i will keep you updated though. tonight i am going to look at the stars. there is a guy who has amazing microscopes and he does tours at night and tells a crap load of stuff. where i am is one of the best places in the world to check em out because there is never any clouds and the sky is so clear. should be good. well thats all for now. talk to you all soon.

pictures on facebook

ok there are a bunch of pictures on my facebook. sorry for those who are not on my facebook... mom and dad, get jay to show you when he is home. if your not on my facebook, i suggest you add me. this blog sucks for putting pics on it. so that is what i am resorting to. good ol reliable facebook... haha. and to think i used to be a hater.

Iquique Chile

Well after a 14 hour bus ride from la paz bolivia we made it back to chile. we are at a beach town called iquique. its decent. its cool temperatures right now which sucks but ah well. it is winter here. so next we are going to go to the largest copper mine in the world (che guavera went there in motorcycle diaries), then do some volcano hikes and then check out some salt desert thing. should be cool. i am tired of hanging out in cities, they can all be the same stuff sometimes. so after that we are going to go to valparaiso where i will be going to school. sounds like a gem. so i am on a fast computer so i am going to try and load some pics... heres hoping that they work!!
Sorry for not updating after the most dangerous road thing chals haha.
Talk to you tonight Lauren, I LOVE YOU!

Bolivia or Bust

well we are still in bolivia and are ready to move back to chile. it has been good hear but the unstructured life here has been getting somewhat... hmm... annoying. no one knows whats going on. we survived the most dangerous road in the world. it was pretty crazy, one guy almost fell off the edge on our trip. 29 bikers have died since tours began. we road down this road where 100 people die on average a year for about 5 hours. it was one of the most intense things i have done. its almost all gravel so one wrong move, your gone. i am not making it sound dramatic either, its pretty crazy. we had a great company though with amazing bikes. so after that we came to a place called rurenbaque. it is in the bolivian jungle and we did a three day two night trekk thing that was very cool but cold too that involved a terrible bus trip. at the end of the tour the town that we have to pass through went on strike (how a town goes on strike, i dont know, but in bolivia they build a five foot wall, sorry two five foot walls of dirt that dont let and traffic through. sooo we had to walk past the town, about 7km, with our things to get to the van to bring us home... ohh bolivia). so now we have almost zero money cause the town we are in has no bank machine and are leaving bright and early back to lapaz. we have just enough to get there then we are fine. dont worry, we do have enough. we tripple checked. this town wont exchange money, has no bank machine, its frusterating. soooo we are thinking of heading back into the more structured country of chile and doing some more hikes and checking out some beach activities before going to valparaiso. sorry it took so long but we have been busy. i will let you know how chile goes. oh i guess i should mention some more about the jungle trekk. we saw crocs, anacondas (our guide caught one and we all held it, oh and held a 2 year old croc), sloths, tons of great birds, too many big spiders. so it was awesome in that way. so much wild life. cant wait to show you the picks. we road a large canoeish boat through a river in the jungle and slept at cirtain `points. so that is all for now. im going to bed and will talk to you when i am back in chile.
mom dad, love ya, i am fine. whats going on with the house? any new news? i will be calling you in the near future!
lauren, keep working hard at those camps. i love you!
and i love whoever else is reading my blog.
hasta luego,
matthew
ps... bolivia was not a bust... just here and there i guess. i mean i love those loco bolivianos when it comes down to it.

LaPaz

Well I am in Bolivia and I am here safe and sound. The border crossing weent smoothly and now we are in lapaz. the capital of bolivia. its hug eand built right in the mountains, its really breathtaking. there ar ea lot of indiginous here and many manny markts, as well as a witchees market that has actually ´¨witches¨¨ i wont them put a curse on me, done worry. (i am having trouble with this keyboard). so yesterday me and mike saw volcan changara and it was amazing. we did a 5 hour hike and then saw it from anouthre view. it was great. we have been travelling alot and i am a little tired but nothing a good night rest wont fix. eveerything has gone smoothly (knock on wood) and we hopee it stays that way. we are going for a bike ride on the worlds most dangerous road tomorrow or the next day then a hike through the bolivian jungle. wee will see how that works out.

everyonee praises valpaiaso where i will bee going to school so that makes me excitd to get there. no entry from mikee, he is in thee room. no pics eithre. the usb doesnt work. theree are somee great ones too.

takee care and talk to you soon.

much love

Sorry cant load pics on this damn computer, that just means you get a bunch later!

Santiago and Arica

Hola hola,

the trip has been going well so far. we have been travelling a lot but have some down time today so its super nice. were in a cool little village called Putre that is super small and right in the andes so there are mountains all around us.
We had a long lay over once we got into Santiago so we went downtown for about 4 hours and walked around. Its a very nice city, lots of smog though as you will be able to tell in the picutres. After that we flew to the northern tip of Chile to Arica. We spend just one full day there and it was nice. Right on the ocean. Its also one of the dryest spots in the world. They havent recorded rain in a long long long time. I actually dont think they have it recorded. In Arica there was a cool cliff that overlooked the city (see pics). there was a big war between Bolivia and Chile and Chile won and that where it took place.
My spanish is doing a lot better than i thought. there are holes i have to fill in but i am having convos with people and they say they understand me. mike doesnt know any so its just me doing most of the talking. he is learning stuff surprisingly quick though.
thats all for me, here is a few words from Mike or as we say Miguel: Hey mike on the mic, here is my bloggers debut. Im having a great time in chile, its been super busy - go go go - but were making wicked time and weve had a chance to see alot. Cerro Santa Lucia in Santiago was cool, its where the Spaniards claimed and founded the city of Santiago. Pretty much its a huge hill with tons of 18th century architecture, and at the top you have an unreal view of the city surrounded by the mountains. In Arica, against brother Matteos advice I went body surfing at the playa de chinchorro and it was suprisingly warm, and the waves were pretty dece. Talk to u later.....