Thursday, September 22, 2011

To the Sea

So, a few weeks ago we decided to take a romantic trip to the ocean for a little sightseeing and dinner. After asking around we learned that the closest beach was a little seaside town called Puerto Saavedra. We were warned repeatedly that "it's not that beauiful," but, it is the ocean we thought, how bad can it be?
We set out for the bus thinking it would be a nice two hour ride with beautful scenery and maybe we could take a little nap. Boy, were we wrong. We boarded a bus with about 50 people already on it. Arden stood face to face with about three other people for the two hour ride.
As we approached the the end of our ride, we began to anxiously look for the ocean and the place we would spend the afternoon. As we deboarded the bus we were smacked in the face with wind and dirt/sand. We had to put on our full winter coats and hats. As we peered though the dirt, we saw there was no seaside town, no romantic view, just a few boats and stray dogs. Immediatly we were chased  by the only person in the port who spoke English, begging us to eat at his restaunt. As much as we tried to resist, there was nothing else to do. We spent the seaside day inside in a "restaurant" teaching the waiter English.
However, the food was amazing and so fresh. I think the man caught my fish and the cooked it while we had drinks. The two dollar bottle of wine wasn't so bad either.

Upon our return everyone asked us if we had seen the famous Lago Budi, the only salt water lake in S.America, and the Cliff with amazing views of the sea?

Ooops. Its seems we got off the bus one stop too soon...


Thursday, September 1, 2011

These are a few of our favorite things...

The Best Things about Temuco (so far):

Cerro Nielol- a beautiful park with beer on top
Portal Temuco- the mall where we work & shop
Helado - EVERYONE eats ice cream all day
Gohan- The fab sushi restaurant on our street. yumm
Anna- the woman who serves us FREE breakfast EVERY morning
Ensenar- every student wants to be there & says gracias
Bessos- everyone kisses you hello and goodbye (if you are a woman)
Colectivos- cheap(less than a dollar) shared cabs that run on routes like a buses
Chorrillana!- Their bar food-Bennihana on top of french fries[[ AMAZING]]
"work out"playgrounds- outdoor gym disguised as a playground

The Portal Temuco

Work

The view from the top of Cerro Nielol
Arden's Heaven