Getting to know the local rivers

I've just got back from a great weekend of paddling is Santa Bárbara. Santa Bárbara is a beautiful town about 2-3hrs south of Conce. It's nestled right in the middle of the mountains and has some truly amazing rivers. I was up early on Saturday to get a lift there with a group of rafting clients, a guide and the other safety kayaker. This was the same river, same rafting company and same people that I did  my first paddling trip in Chile with. I've gotta admit that it wasn't the most comfy journey as me and Paulo were sat in the boot of the van for the journey with very limited space!

I now know what it feels like to be a piece of luggage...

I tried to sleep through as much of it as I could, and when I wasn't sleeping I was swotting up on my Chilean slang using a book that one of my students gave to me. It's called 'Relatos de una mujer borracha' (Tales of a drunk woman), and is written using so many Chilean idioms and words. I'll give you a little taster in a future blog for those of you who speak any Spanish, or thought you did...! We got there eventually and after meeting up with the other guide and 6 clients and inflating the rafts we jumped on to the river. This time I was working as one of two safety kayakers for 2 rafts, picking up clients when they fell out (or the guides, which actually did happen this weekend!) and setting safety on some rapids. It's fair to say that this day was a lot more eventful that last time, with about 16 swims and a flipped raft in one rapid where a powerful wave flipped the raft right over and carnage ensued. The 12 clients had a great day and all the staff did too. Can't wait to go back!

Good company, solid team, awesome clients!

We spent the night at one of the guide's house in Santa Bárbara and we used today to do a run of the River Queuco. A really entertaining 8km section of very continuous grade 3/4. There were only three of us, Paulo, Diego and me. The section is very powerful but the consequences of messing up are low and we had a great time playing around on the river for a couple of hours, I don't think I've paddled many sections that continuous in the UK (things like the Lower Oetz in Austria would be a good comparison). The amazing thing about both these rivers is that they flow through some of the most breathtaking landscapes and you get to see places that nobody else has access to. I had an amazing weekend, spent in great company and doing a sport I love and exploring Chile's amazing countryside, it doesn't get much better than this. Pucón is hopefully the next stop in my kayaking adventure!!!

Just look at that landscape!

Purple rain

Why purple rain, I hear you ask... Well it's not as interesting as you might have been hoping for. There is a weird purple light on the street outside my room, it's tipping it down and it reminded me of the song. Creative right? The locals call Concepción 'Tropiconce', because the weather here can change in an instant. This week we've had rain almost every day but also sun most days too, you can be sat in a classroom and within one 45min session you've experienced two rainstorms and three brief interludes of glorious sunshine. It's like the city is trying to trick you into leaving the house in shorts and a t-shirt just so it can laugh it you when it pours down 10 minutes later and you don't have anything vaguely waterproof on you! (Sadly, this is a situation I find myself in all too often!)

It's fair to say that Conce is a city full of surprises. Every new part of the town I explore I find something interesting, weird, funny, creepy. On Wednesday on the way home from work we got stuck in a long queue of traffic whilst on the bus, since it wasn't that far from home I decided to get off and walk the remaining 5 minutes home. Turns out the long queue of traffic was due to some protestors starting a massive fire in the road and stopping all traffic from passing, they were protesting rubbish pensions which seems to be a very common thing here. Protests are way more common here than they are in the UK, happening once or twice (potentially more) a week! The best advice I was given was that if you see the police turn up with the water cannon, RUN! I've seen them use that thing and they don't hold back. Tear gas, fire and missiles (no, not explosives...) are not uncommon.

ComBUStion issues... (Maybe I won't use puns on this blog again...) 

"Selfie at a protest? Probably not appropriate, best stick with the standard photo..."

Even the university system here is characterised by the regular political activities of its students. There are two stages to university protests, as far as I'm aware. Stage 1 is called "En paro", which kind a means a pause in studies whilst the students protest (I think). The second stage is the one I know I little bit more about, it's called "En toma" and it's where the students break into the faculty at night, occupy the building and don't let any staff or officials in until they've got what they want or reached some resolution. It's really common here. In fact, the first week I walked around the UdeC (Universidad de Concepción) campus, most of the faculties were 'en toma', and some faculties won't start classes until Monday due to the protests! I find it fascinating that we know practically nothing of this in the UK and we don't realise it really exists in Chile because it's so normal here that nobody documents it, the same goes for other street protests. I'm thinking it might be interesting to do some kind of film or photography project that would give a bit more of a creative insight into the whole protest culture out here to foreigners.

Don't mess with armoured police single decker buses!

"Escuelita en toma" one of the many UdeC faculties affected

The doctors are at it too!

I'm off to bed now because I have to be up early tomorrow for what will hopefully be a whole weekend of whitewater paddling about 3hrs South of here. Stand by for the update!

Work and Play

Hi everybody! It's been a while since I've written a post on here. I'm now about 2 and a half weeks into my trip here. This week has been the busiest so far. Monday I moved into my new place. It's a small en suite room that gets quite cold, but I've got a decent electric blanket which has kept me nice and warm. Millie the cat seems to like spending the day sleeping on my bed, good thing she's friendly! I've met most of the housemates who are really nice, there are 8 Chilean students and 1 English girl, all around the same age. It should be good fun socialising with the house in the weeks to come.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to go on a short paddling trip. I went to a place called Santa Bárbara with a rafting company and a group of clients, me and a friend ran the river by kayak and stopped at certain rapids to take photographs and set safety for the raft. It was only a few hours away and was definitely the best quality grade 3 I've ever found anywhere!

Tuesday I taught the class to the firemen, which I mentioned in my last post. It was pretty intimidating standing in front of 20 firemen and having to deliver a class of 90mins on quite a niche subject in Spanish, but I managed to fumble my way through! It can't of been that bad because they've got in contact and want to do a few river-based sessions too which will be really fun. It was nice to be able to share some of the skills I've picked up in the UK with people out here who will be able to apply them in emergency situations. I also started work this week. I've taught lots of different levels of English to students of the Hospitality, Gastronomy and Tourism courses at INACAP as well as working with some translation students. The teachers are good fun to work with and in general there's a very relaxed environment in the classroom. I'm also working with the debate team who we're trying to prepare for a debating competition in English, so I've been spending a bit of time today trying to put together some resources to help them with their public speaking, intonation and debating skills. This coming week I'm hoping to organise getting a new kayak to use over here, working my first full week at INACAP and hopefully meeting lots of new people!

I first thought this was a cool idea at a local nursery for the kids to play with... I was later informed this is the emergency escape route in case of an earthquake! 

A week in...

It's strange to think that I've only been in Chile a week now, it feels like I've been here a lot longer! I think it's because you have to organise a lot of things in the first week, accommodation, identity card, banking, work, clothes etc.

I've had a really exciting week settling in and have met lots of new people. On Sunday I met up with a friend who took me to a place called Desembocadura, where the River Bio-Bio meets the sea. It was a really cool place and we walked up a slippery path to get a good view of the sunset. It seemed to be a popular spot with the local surfers and the waves looked pretty great.



Then we went to a local fast food place and ate 'completos italianos', a hot dog with tomato, mayonnaise and avocado... It's worth trying once I would say but I would probably opt for something else next time!

Bizarre intro to Chilean fast food...

Monday I was in the bank for an hour trying to figure out how the system worked and trying to pay the deposit for my new accommodation. As usual, everyone else knew exactly what they were doing and I was the one staring cluelessly at the different forms and slips to be filled in! The afternoon was a lot more relaxing, the English department at INACAP had organised a wine-tasting class which was really fun and it was good to meet the other teachers that I might be working with.

I thought English banks were confusing!

Working hard...?

I also met the other British Council language assistant who is working in Concepción at a different university, we went for a long walk around the town and had lunch together. We explored some really pretty paths in the local park, Parque Ecaudor.


















Yesterday I picked up the keys to my new place, I move in on the 8th so hopefully there'll be some pictures to follow. I also met with one of the local fire brigades, they specialise in rope rescue and aquatic rescue. They've asked me to run a classroom based theory session about whitewater safety and rescue as a bit of a refresher next Tuesday which should be good fun, We're also looking at the possibility of teaming up and heading out to one of the local rivers to set up some practise exercises and scenarios for them. It'll be a challenge teaching the session in Spanish, since a lot of the vocab is very specific but we'll see how it goes!!!

Settling in

The past couple of days have been really busy for me. I've visited the university that I'll be working at and met a lot of the teachers there. I also went to have a look at some possibilities for more permanent accommodation with one of the teachers from INACAP, the rooms weren't great at all... I decided not to go for any of them and to try to organise something by myself. Yesterday morning I had to sort out all my paperwork here, that meant going to the international police and the Registro Civil to sort out getting a Chilean identity card which I need to be able to get paid and other important things like that. In the afternoon I decided to go for a long walk around the city to explore as many different areas as I could. The main part of the city here is very urban, neatly organised and vibrant. There are loads of street performers out all through the day and lots of street sellers selling food, snacks, bit of clothing etc.

Tribunales, pretty central in the city. I think it's some kind of court.

I was surprised to stumble across a kind of shanty town on the outskirts on the city, it was in complete contrast to the high rise building in the centre of the city. This part was much closer to the big river that forms a boundary to one side of Concepción. I thought the Thames was pretty big but this river is absolutely enourmous!

The poorer area of town with the high rise buildings of the centre in the background

Concepción's enormous river, el Río Bio Bio

I also saw the memorial which was erected to commemorate those that died in the last severe earthquake here in 2010. There were over 500 deaths throughout the country and it was quite harrowing to say the least. One bit of graffiti on the memorial stood out to me, it read: "Te quiero mucho <3" (I love you a lot), whether it was supposed to be there a lot I thought it was quite appropriate. I was later told that the memorial was quite controversial in Concepción because it cost quite a lot to build, so not everyone agrees about its place in the city. 

Later in the day I had managed to arrange a viewing for some more accommodation, this place was a little more expensive but I was hoping it would be nicer. I was put in touch with someone who kindly offered to come with me in case I needed any help understanding what the landlord was saying. The room was quite small but much cleaner and in a sociable flat with lots of other students and a cat called Millie. I'm going to move in on the 8th August so I'll let you all know how it goes. Enzu, the guy that helped me with the viewing, and I then went out to a local bar. He works at the German school in Concepción and it was great to find someone to practice my German with so soon! He was talking about possibly learning to ski in a few weeks and that I was welcome to go too, I think it would be a good way to get into the outdoor sports lifestyle here.

I'm home?

My long journey is finally at an end! I'm now all settled in to my temporary accommodation in Concepción, a really nice apartment with a view of the river and the city which I will have for two weeks.

That 'random' search that happened at Heathrow did turn out to be a recurring theme... I got searched at every single opportunity there was and had to empty out my hand luggage on three separate occasions at security for random checks. Oh well it's all done now. The journey actually wasn't too bad, the flights were all quite comfortable and I even got a lesson in Chilean slang from one of the passengers I was sat with on my final flight. It was once I landed in Santiago that things became a little more confusing. Everybody here seems to know exactly where they're going so they just don't bother putting up signs properly, unfortunately for me this meant I had to ask somebody every 10 minutes to get directions to bus stations, coach terminals, taxi ranks and my apartment! Eventually I made it to my accommodation at around 5pm local time.

The Plaza de armas in the centre of the city

I met up with the previous language assistant who's role I'll be stepping into and she was kind enough to give me a tour of some of the city. I have to admit that when I arrived I wasn't that enamoured by Concepción but when I was taken to the heart of the city I really started to like the place. It's very lively here, there is live music on every corner and the local people are really friendly. Tomorrow I'm off to see the uni that I'll be working at and probably try to get some boring stuff like sorting phone contracts out of the way, A lady who I was speaking to on the coach said I should expect three things in my first week here: earthquake tremors, a student protest and a power cut, let's see how right she was...

Of I go!

The past few weeks have been really busy trying to sort out everything for my big trip. I've had to sort my visa (took a lot longer than I thought), vaccinations, travel details, health checks, packing and plenty more. It's kind of weird trying to plan what you need to take for a whole year of living abroad. It was obvious from the start that in having only one suitcase and a carry-on bag was going to be pretty tough to fit everything in. I had to prioritise things which I didn't think I could buy out in Chile or essentials from home i.e. some kayaking kit, my favourite clothes, laptop, paperwork, a few books etc. When I'd finished the case definitely weighed too much, but I was hoping that check-in would let it slide.

All packed and ready to go!

After a ridiculously early start (who even wants to be up at 5am!?!?) I arrived at T3 Heathrow ready to check in. There were a few hiccups along the way... The bag drop took ages because the system was confused about my visa situation, I got stopped for a random search at security and had to unpack everything and then got stopped again for another random search at the departure gate. I'm beginning to think this isn't so random and might be a recurring theme during my transits in the US, perhaps having "Mohamed" on your passport is not ideal when the world is at a high terror alert, it's sad really...

Anyway, I'm currently sat writing this at the departure gate just before I board my first plane for the start of a mammoth journey. 7hr30 flight to Boston, 2hr transit, 3hr flight to Atlanta, 5hr transit, 9hr30 flight to Santiago, 30min bus to coach terminal, 6hr coach to Concepción, ?hr car to final destination. I'm thinking stockpiling snacks might be a good plan! If all goes well I will be in Concepción in the evening tomorrow (local time) and will update you all then!