the summary.

For the last month I've been too busy having a great time to write about it in my blog. Since I've got exactly 4h 29min left to my flight when writing this, I'll take the liberty and make a short summary.

It's been 4 months in this wonderful continent where:

not seeing Andes is a strange feeling;
"noh habloh espanholh"
friendships
getting lost's in Santiago
"me falta la ropa"
the best ice-cream on the planet (or at least, among the 25 best)
"Hola, soy Madara de Letonia. Sabes dónde está?"
AFS - another fat student
la chica vale
reggeaton
terremoto (waking you up both in bed and club)
"It took me four months to bake something that you all like!" (carrot cake, respect)
surprises on Paris & Londres
getting away from the world
30kg suitcase, 12kg handbag, another handbag and a photo bag (fingers crossed!!!)
Mada, Mara, Mady, Mary, Letonia, Rusia
"puedo escribir los verses más tristes esa noche..."
"Latvia?" "Yeah, that's an island by Spain/a state by Ohio/Africa."
best work colleagues with Whittaker's kiwifruit chocolate straight from NZ
vagabond dog in Mistral destillery
surprising get together's in 5 different countries
the Pacific
courageous globefish testings (and lots of other foods I had never heard of)
sleeping in on all week-days
not sleeping at all
stealing coconuts and mangos "just because we can"
midsummer flower wreaths of palm trees
nothing tastes like Migle
postcards in the mailbox
La Fonda Permanente
12 children and a lazy housewife
Los Prehistóricos
Los Prisioneros
Los Jaivas
"arribaarrrrrrrribarrrrrrrrrrribaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
mandolina in a bus on a hot summer day
Chilean winters and sun-burnt shoulders
hiking with a suitcase
kartupeļu pankūkas
melleņu debesmanna no pulverpiena
soļanka
ābolu plātsmaize
ziemīši katru dienu
Pablo Neruda in Plaza Armas and "that intelligent European look"
Mat Kearney - Runaway flying by the Pacific of Viña
"vamos a Chinchorro!"
Carribbean
Aymara
trekking at 4'000m
too little clothes in Torres del Paine
Santiago to Punta Arenas to Caracas to Arica to La Paz (and I lack a lot)
mojitos by Pacific one hour before the flight and record short trip to the airport
the green of Chiloé
the sand of Arica
the wind of Punta Arenas
the lobos marinos of Valdivia
the sun of Pisco Elqui
lack of time
the whole time on the planet
sunsets over the ocean
sunrises over salt lakes
travelling buddies
long lasting friendships
AFS
camps
orientations
presentations
friends
bienvenida that never happened and despedida that did
laughing at jokes I don't understand a word of
"Eres de Chile?"
"Usted sabe bailar cueca?" and Chilean discounts at Torres del Paine
7h long bus drives that feel like 7min
es gribu, lai laiks apstājas un vienmēr ir šitā
La Sebastiana, La Chascona, La Isla Negra
"eh! eh! eh!"
asados
weddings
baby showers
birthdays
"you know, the party got shut down because the neighbours called the police for someone smoking weed"
Frank Sinatra - That's Life and La Serena
"soy intolerante a canela y manzana cocida"
lost Japanese exchange students (I really am a good volunteer!)
"Qué no pare la fiesta!" and the club gets closed
horse ridings
sunbathing in "winter"
getting soaked in rain in 2min and not let in the house because my dear host brother is cracking up at me
salsa nights with Camila
reggeaton nights with Nina and Clara
"Čau, māsiņ, es tevi gaidu lidostā!"
longing for home (where is my home?)
Skype
empanadas
cazuela
el cariño de los chilotes
movie nights in Vitacura
completos
Valparaíso
pisco sour
"so what is it that I always end up hanging out with Germans?"
cold beer at a Caribbean beach
cold beer at Arica beach
sneaking in Valpo terraces at night
"eso no se hace"
140 km/h
spontaneous day trips to Peru
even more spontaneous week trips to Bolivia
what-happens-when-two-Europeans-meet-for-dinner
Dia del alumno and school-wide fame
2h long walking home's
surprising confessions
surprising people
"no, it's not Madera"
laughter & tears
chess in Plaza Brazil
carretes
friends
cariño
love
and lots more

happen.

Chile, it's been great. It's been awesome. The people I've met, the I-will-never-forget-this moments I've experienced, the love I've received. I've been blessed with having had the opportunity to get a glimpse of you, Chile, and one thing is sure - I'll be back!

Aquí estamos de pie
Qué viva Latinoamerica!

a side note - venezuela.

So I'm happy enough to have relatives abroad. And it has nothing to do with emigration. AFS allowed me to have a sister en Venezuela. Even more, Maria's mum, seeing me for the first time, already called me her Latvian daughter, so I guess now I have more uncles, aunties, cousins and grandmas than ever. And, since I've been in the same continent for 3 months already, why not drop by this paradise of sun, palm trees, mangoes and friendly venezolanos?

And I did!

The trip actually began a day earlier than planned. For your information, June 21 00:20 means the night between the 20th and the 21st, not the day after. Too bad Maria didn't think like that, and I, the superexcited tourist from Latvia, literally rushing through the arrival gate in Caracas international airport... didn't see anybody waiting for me. Two hours later, with the help of some random (and awesome) people, I was on a taxi (trying not to think of the tourist kidnapping stories heard before) taking me somewhere. Well, all was fine, just as it should've been.

I wish we had had more time exploring Caracas. It is a huge and loud city, filled with the rhythms of reggeaton and cars passing by. For some reason everybody thinks it's also an immensely dangerous city, and driving around the centre was the only way to see some more of it.

A startling difference from other cities was that, instead of swearwords and street art, the graffiti's consisted mostly of Chávez, Capriles or Maduro, just showing how absurd the situation sometimes is. It seems obvious to everybody that the writings with Maduro or Chávez are actually government propaganda, and by judging how fine and well - done they are, I must agree.

We spent the most time in the East of the country, where Maria comes from. I mean, what else is there to need, if you live in the city famous for two natural parks, and your neighbourhood is just ridiculously rich of mangoes and coconuts?

It was actually so hot we spent most of the days indoors. I mean, +35 constantly? You can't be serious.

The highlight came at the end. The only thing that was missing at the shore of the Caribbean was Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. Because it had everything else, cold beer at the beach included.

The trip, however, wasn't marked by the sights, the hot weather and sun. It was Prāta Vētra, soļanka, Laima, "kur ir mana lidmašīna" and beautiful memories that will go down in history.

Nos vemos en Letonia, māsiņ!

izņēmuma kārtā.

Ja nu gadījumā ar angļu valodu tev iet vēl sliktāk nekā ar google translate, es esmu uzcepusi nelielu rakstu par šo skaisto zemi. Protams, komentāri ir graujoši, un viens ir skaidrs - es negribu būt slavena.

treasure hunt.

I was really lazy that morning. Moreover, I thought I was supposed to spend the whole day by the computer  "doing stuff", and was secretly happy for the ability to have a lazy day off.

It didn't quite turn out like that.

Exactly at 10:00 am on May 29 I received a FB message, telling me to go to the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (I sighed at the one hour trip ahead), look for the rightmost palm tree by the entrance and a hole in the ground beneath, where a green envelope would wait for me.

Stop. Treasure hunt in the middle of Santiago with instructions sent from Latvia? "It obviously doesn't make any sense, and I just hope I won't be too disappointed," was my only thought until I actually saw that one palm tree with that one hole in the ground. I slowly approached it, and.. The envelope really was there. "So what exactly is going on?" The sheet of paper included the following instructions. It was clear that the Chilean asked to carry this out had no grasp of what Latvian language is, when at one point I just couldn't understand  what I was supposed to look for on the corner of Paris and Londres. Slightly annoyed by the illegible note, the lack of city map and uncertainty of the upcoming events, I set off for the place, when someone tapped my shoulder.

Blackout.

The feeling of somebody (or my brain) having played out this really bad joke made me sick for a moment, before I dared to glance again. "It can't be him!.." But it was! My (es zinu, ka tu mani bakstīsi par apzīmētājiem) amazing boyfriend was standing there, in the middle of Santiago, casually watching me as if wondering what exactly made me so surprised. I mean, if you're off home to Latvia from a trip to Germany, a layover in Santiago de Chile is what every sensible person would do, right?

So after I forced myself to believe that Maksis really was in Chile, my only aim (apart from just having the bestest time ever) was sharing my Chile with him, and I like to believe that I succeeded. 

After spending a rather frustrated first day (after all, acting cool when having somebody on a surprise visit can be difficult at times, especially if that somebody you had programmed to be "missed, far away") in Santiago, we soon set off for Valparaíso & Viña del Mar, which I had wandered around for merely a day some weeks before.

The day of the Spanish challenge, when I let the man arrange everything.. in Spanish! And you did magnificently well, deary.

Walking around the sunny and hot city, having it share its grandeur and bohéme with us really was a blessing. Apart from the already familiar hills and ascensores I had a new perspective on the city by staying in a remote part of Valpo, barrio Artilleria, which has its own plaza, rhythm of life and half-empty home cuisine restaurants.

Viña del Mar. On our way to Concón.

If there was one generally awesome thing about our trip is that no matter how and when we always found the nicest people places, characterizing the trip. Some of them include Elder Farnsworth, a Masson missionary who approached us in a bus to Concón, the gastronomical capital of Chile, just out of Valpo. He could obviously translate our worried looks by going to a random town in the middle of the night helplessly set to look out for a place to eat. This is what he told us while drawing a map on a grid paper: "So you go back this street until there's a white building on one corner, Godfather's Pizza on the second one and  a Methodist's church slightly further. Turn right and you'll see a fancy place where you'll leave 20'000 pesos for a plate. Don't do it. Go straight, turn left, go straight again and turn left once again. Now, just when you're at the point when you thing "where the heck am I", that's when you see Luis' restaurant. Just go in and ask for Luis, he'll take care of you." And we did find the place! Luis was there and promised to say hi to Elder Farnsworth when he would return for empanadas he loves.

We decided to see more of the north of Chile, and La Serena was the next on the list. I'm really trying to keep this as un-cheesy as possible, but from now on I have nothing against 7 h bus drives if there's that one person next to you making it feel like 7 minutes.

La Serena on its own is a regular summer town with a nice city centre and wide sandy beach, making it the top summer destination in Chile. Seeing the town and its fancy apartment building half-empty was at the same frightening and exciting sight, because the sea belonged to no one but us. We also challenged our relaxed and well-fed tummies by going to the nearby town of Coquimbo by bicycles enjoying the bike lane right by the beach. 

We managed to get to its famous cross, built in 2000 as a gift on somebody-very-special's 2000th birthday. Sorry for sarcasm, but I didn't find anything appealing in the 100 m high block of concrete, metal and rust. The whole thing was not only the experience in itself for having to pass some slums of Coquimbo and feeling the locals staring in my back; for the first time I found out what it actually meant to be afraid of height and panicking to tears when getting up the cross. Too good Maksis didn't fell out of the maintenance tunnel (which didn't have anything to stop suicidal fanatics) when the guide took us above the floor available to tourists. He must've mistaken my tears for an expression of some inexplicable excitement and went on telling me the height and the weight of the cross as a response to my "I really am afraid of height". A nice guy, really.

The most exciting part, however, was hidden inland.

I love that hat.

Valle Pisco, a magnificent valley locked by the cordillera, is where the best pisco in Chile comes from. I may have not mentioned it yet, but just like Mexicans extract their tequila from cactus and Russians can make vodka of anything, the spirit of Chile (and Peru, let's be honest) is pisco, which is pretty much distilled wine. It was amazing to see how the clouds by the seaside ended abruptly just as we entered the valley, making the sunny and hot (+20 or more) day a "rather pleasant" one, considering we're in winter. I love travelling in low season, because apart from us, we saw three more tourist couples wondering the usually packed tourist city. For us it was like it should be, a remote haven full of wine in the air.

Because eating cactus is fun!..

...unlike getting rid of the needles.

A fun fact I didn't know about Chile is that around 30% of world's astronomic observatories are located in the north of the country. "Chile, where the stars are the brightest" isn't only a tourist slogan, it really is true, because the clouds are kept away by the cold Pacific stream on the one and the Andes on the other side. San Pedro de Atacama is still on the must-do list, but visiting the Mamalluca observatory really was a treat.

Orion's belt just above the mountains.

None of us had been to an observatory, so seeing the Saturn in the telescope made us return to that childish excitement of having seen a planet. And countless constellations. And just enjoying a rather magic night somewhere between the Earth and the space.

Upon returning to Santiago there was the inevitable melancholy hanging in the air, as the time began running out. We still grasped the moment by trying out the urban student experience (thank you, Pato and Almut, for letting us enjoy it!) along with a crazy movie El Tio (The Uncle) by Ignacio Santa Cruz. He is the main actor and the director of the movie about one of the most controversial figures in Chilean military dictatorship. Even more, he is Jaime Guzman's nephew and, according to Maksis, "that one random guy I met at the airport". Anyway, watching the movie from the exactly the same bed where two guys make love in the first scene (and one of them sitting right next to me) definitely was an experience worth living.

And then came June 10. It was tears along with whispered promises that marked the day when Air France took him away. I can't imagine myself ever forgetting the greatest surprise of my life. Neither can I imagine any other man crossing an ocean and a continent just to see me. If this isn't a tribute to love, I don't know what is. One thing I'm not too sure of, though. What so good have I done in my life to deserve this?

Saule, tu zini. x

home, sweet home.

So I've been back in Santiago for over a week now and for once I'm happy that my intuition was wrong, and the week has been full as ever. One of the highlights definitely was catching up with Nina, one of those I call my international friends. After all, a German and a Latvian, becoming friends in New Zealand and eventually catching up in Chile does sound international, right? Thanks to her I also got to know Almut and Agnesa, two amazing and curious volunteers exploring Santiago and Chile 24/7.

It is thanks to them we went to dpc or Día de Patrimonio Cultural, which was just a bunch of awesome events all over Santiago. I finally got to know barrios Brasil, Yungay and Concha & Toro, all of which remind me of Europe, of its calm grandeur, architecture and whispers of history inviting me further. For once my European soul has been solaced, Santiago is beautiful!

The highlight of the day was a visit to Cerro Blanco, a hill in the commune of Recoleta, where the indigenous tribes of Chile, including Mapuche, held their spiritual ceremonies before the arrival of conquistadores. Nowadays it doesn't have much to do with it, the community is rather a group of people trying to return to the era of harmony through spirituality and meditation. Now, it might seem exciting (and it definitely is, on the one hand), but listening to a self-proclaimed spiritual leader, explaining the philosophy and mixing the concepts of Andine philosophies, Hindu chakras and more, left me confused. It was continued by visiting a group of middle-aged ladies looking exactly like that one divorced señora we all  have seen in our neighbourhood, dressed up like a gypsy, having her tall and curly hair free in the wind, consistently speaking about the force of nature and inner harmony. Now, the culmination came at the end of one song (it went something like "I chose to be born, I chose to live, thank you, Mother Nature, for everything I own..."), when we were asked to shout in the air, freeing our souls... Imagine a 50+ year old lady, palms open to the sky, eyes in the sun and.. arribarrrrrribalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

No matter how strange and fake it seemed to some (you could tell when the people left or refused to participate), the eyes, faces and impression of all these people really was a thing. They are completely sure of what they believe in, and, after all, getting back to nature, regaining some spirituality and giving up stress is what we all need, right? The whole experience made me wonder, if it were the strange ceremonies, the trendy mix of world's philosophies, or the irrelevant setting, or my own reluctance to accept other views (and open myself to them), that left that one aftertaste full of uncertainty and questions.

I can only tell that in the last ceremony, pretending to meditate and see colours, when indicating the body part I felt most tense, the leader named just that one thing, issue, problem, you-name-it I've been worried about for some time now. I'm keeping it to myself, but the coincidence is startling. Was it a coincidence?

Too bad you'll have to imagine (or google) Santiago yourselves, since my camera, the always present companion, has left me for a short time because of an emotional breakdown after the South trip... in Canon service centre. Fingers crossed for me being able to share the best of Santiago with you soon!

Some of other memorable moments included a visit to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, two amazingly beautiful and different cities by the Pacific, with Agnesa and Almut. Valpo is what Chile was 80 years ago, coloured houses on the hills, bohéme, music, poetry, sun and unstoppable desire to live.

It has got its own romance. Before Panama channel Valpo was the largest port of South America, reflected in the grand Art Nouveau mansions and the intellectual heritage of the city (Pablo Neruda, guys). Now most of this is lost, and only abandoned ruins and music remind of what Valpo used to be. And, yet, wandering around the city and getting lost made me feel as if I was casting for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. A frightening moment occurred, when after at least three "you better get out of here" and "guard your belongings" we saw a dead rat lying on the pavement. A señor started excitingly "Sale! Sale!" (or "Leave! Leave!"), scaring us and, right when having turned away...

Bang!

The rat was gone, and we were hurriedly heading of for the city centre.

We ended the day in Viña del Mar, a city right next to Valpo, a whole different setting.

I can't really say I enjoyed the scenery, but the contrast was dazzling. Not only the high, grey apartment building opposed to the coloured hills of Valpo, it's the quicos, the wealthiest part of the society, parading down the seashore and showing off with arrogant smile, that made my mouth stay wide open.

The sunrise in Viña was the perfect urban landscape.

Did I tell you that the speed limit on highways is 120 kph? And even that seems insufficient, when it comes to the straight, perfect roads and an amazing car. Speaking from experience! That one trip and the sense of speed is definitely worth a mention.

Last week also goes down in history due to blisters on my feet after long walks (and longer conversations) with some amazing people, peeking in the making of to-be television stars and Uni Católica student spirit, endless cumbia (that's a dance, by the way) in the party-forever barrio Bellavista, sunrise over the Andes after far too short sleep before AFS Santiago Selección, bunch of fun activities needed to evaluate the students (and volunteers having amazing time), and the happiness of using the kitchen for gastronomic experiments.

And, still, the moment of the week belongs to that one sight down Apoquindo, the central business street with glass skyscrapers, glazing orange, yellow and read in the sunset, bright moon just at the tip of the Andes, the sound of the bike wheels taking me home and me, for the first time fully and completely realizing - I love my Santiago.

valdivia.

A perfect cappuccino in the floating cafe tfs, with a view on Valdivia and its military parade today, fanfares and cheering, and lack of hot water is what marks the last day of my trip in Southern Chile.

Valdivia was the last on the list after Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, Castro and Puerto Varas, among other short stops on the way. I can only say that this lovely student city on the banks of three rivers and home to one of the best Uni's here in Chile is the perfect way of how to end the trip. It is completely different that the pampa of south or the evergreen hills of Chiloé.

Valdivia is  marked by its student spirit, quirky cafe's and, surprisingly, German influence. Now I really understand what my Geography teacher once said about the German colony in Southern Chile. Almost half of the streets have names like Franz, Joseph, schmetterling and eichhörnchen, it's almost as if Germans belong to a higher social class, and wandering around its streets and costanera and listening to Ger-nish makes me feel like... well, Europe.

My host here in Valdivia was Niklas from Germany (what a surprise!), even though our friendship is just another proof of just how little the world is. So, in July 2011 we met in Portugal during the AFS Volunteer Summer Summit, me, him, and his friend Anne from Germany among other 200 volunteers. Even though losing contact soon afterwards, when I found out about my acceptance in the Uni of Edinburgh, it was Anne, who offered to share a flat in Edi and at some point mentioned that Niklas is in Chile at the moment, so, getting in touch with him was obvious, as visiting all AFS-ers around is always a must-do.

We actually caught up in Puerto Varas, an idyllic village by one of Chile's largest lakes Llancahue facing Osorno, an impressive volcano (well, I wouldn't actually know, because it was either raining or foggy all the time but when we were inside, though the postcards definitely create the right impression). We visited los Saltos de Petrohué, which was the perfect Laws-of-Murphy-in-action experience, since it stopped raining for the rest of the day at exactly the point when we got on the bus back.

Niklas let me explore Valdivia on my own (someone has to study as well), and I, having arrived without any expectations whatsoever, fully enjoyed the process of discovering its streets, floating market and the lovely sea lion colony on the riverbanks.

I will also use the opportunity to make a short introduction to what affection means to most Chileans.

End of introduction.

One of the many memorable moments was a short trip to Niebla, a tiny coastal town, with a sandy beach, sun and seagulls, my personal get-away for the day.

I must've looked like one of those middle-aged single women meditating at the seashore, but I'm sure that the seagulls didn't really mind.

And maybe it was even better that my phone doesn't allow international calls, this way I could actually stop the time for even if only a short time.

Staying with Niklas was really a student experience. Having take-away empanadas for lunch at the banks of the river, watching Uni's rowing team practising, unsuccessfully trying to translate rosemary in the central market (romero, for your information) and successfully liquidating Niklas' wine and beer resources. I guess I'm just at that one point of superexcitement to go to Edi in September. I even miss the studies, but let's wait until December or so to see if I actually mean it.

I also had two surprising conversations. Firstly, turns out that one of Niklas' Uni mates studies Lithuanian, just for the sake of understanding the meaning of ruda (rue in English, even though I have no idea what exactly that is)  in their mythology (at least that's what I understood from our screaming-over-the-table conversation in the crowded German student bar Salzburg, never mind it's in Austria). The most striking moment, however, came, when Niklas' landlord visited us and greeted me with Dievs, svētī Latviju, the name of the national anthem and also the slogan on the old 5Ls coins, an episode that officially goes in history. Turns out his former colleague with family emigrated to Chile during the WWII, before permanently settling in the USA.

I also had the opportunity to go to a Modern World lecture, which was actually a very exciting discussion about education in Chile. It's quite clear that the inequity is one of, if not the greatest, problem of the modern Chile, but I hadn't occurred to me before that virtually anybody with sufficient funds can found a private university, eventually decreasing the overall quality while increasing the price of education over here.

Autumn in Valdivia.

Among all, I just cannot appreciate even more the opportunity to get to know so much of Chile. It's not only the landscapes, it's been 3 different families, students, office, schools, Uni, bars, social protests and more where I've peeked in to find my understanding of Chile. All the way from Punta Arenas to Santiago, I officially declare the South of Chile to be conquered.

Back to Santiago, but the trip never ends.

P.S. Did I ever mention that Punta Arenas is so isolated from the rest of Chile (blame the Andes) that, in order to reach it by land transport, there's just no other way but to pass through Argentina?

You can always fly, though.