My Very Many Things

Trip to Japan, Part 1: Asakusa, Hiroshima and Miyajima

2015-12-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

Torii at Miyajima

As I promised !! With this post I start the looooonggg story of my trip to Japan.

The idea of this trip was born last year when one of my friends visited Japan and wanted to go there again, but with friends. We thought that it was a good idea and bought the tickets that same year.

We chose to travel between the months of June and July, as it's the time when summer begins and in theory would have good weather ... Theory, because being there we realized that the last weeks of June and early July are summer rainy season; it rained almost every day, we had to buy umbrellas, water layers and closed shoes xD Anyway, the rain was tropical so we did not feel cold.

In total, the trip took about 19 days. We visited Hiroshima, Tokyo, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya (this was not in the plans). As there are many days, locations and photos (soooo many to edit), I will tell the details of the trip in several parts; this first part will cover the departure from Chile, arrival in Tokyo and visiting Hiroshima.

The Itinerary

The itinerary that we planned was this one, but it did not go as planned (story I'll tell you later :P)

- June 20: Departure from Chile. The flight was via American Airlines, with a stopover in Dallas.

-22 June: Arrival at Narita Airport. Travel to Tokyo, with 1 day stay in the Asakusa district.

-23 June: Departure to Hiroshima. 2 day stay.

-25 June: Departure to Kyoto. We stay in Kyoto for 4 days. From here we would visit Nara, Osaka and Himeji.

-29 June: Departure to Takayama. 1 day stay.

-30 June: Kanazawa Departure: Stay for 2 days.

-02 July: Departure to Tokyo. 8 days stay.

-10 July: Departure to Chile.

Journey Chile - Dallas -Tokyo

Well, of the flight itself there is not much to tell. Many flying hours, in total were about 22 hours of flight, not counting the waiting hours at the stopover.

The flight between Santiago and Dallas took about 8 hrs. and we had to make a stop of 6 hours. The trip between Dallas and Tokyo lasted about 14 hours.

Photos from the plane: Dallas at Night

During the stopover.

Photos from the plane: Japan, route to Narita. Beautiful crops, don't you think?

Photos from the plane: Japan, route to Narita.

All flights were unbearable for me. I'm quite tall (1.78 m.), so traveling in economy class became a torture for my legs. As there was no way to be comfortable and without pain in the feet, I slept very little, about 4 hours throughout the trip. So I recommend traveling with special tights for circulation, which helped me a lot and many hours of series and movies to watch.

We arrived at Narita Airport at 2 pm. This mega airport is located within 60 km. from Tokyo. It is literally giant, one can easily get lost. It has 3 different terminals, connected via buses and each terminal has trains to Tokyo.

After we get our bags and we position ourselves, we decided to split us in two groups; One look for cell phones chips we purchased to communicate and have internet, and the other group ask how to get to Tokyo. I ended up taking care of our many bags :P

There are several lines of trains to Tokyo and the travel time depends on the rate paid, but ranges from about 50 minutes on the express train and 90 minutes by regular train. There are also buses and taxis, but for convenience, we opted to take the train.

Narita Airport.

Traveling by train to Tokyo.

Asakusa and Sensō-ji Temple

Our first stop was at the Asakusa district, located in the northeast of central Tokyo. We stayed in a hostel type Ryokan, which have traditional Japanese rooms with no walls and where you sleep on a futon.

It was very interesting to sleep on a futon, it's more comfortable than you can imagine and it's apparently beneficial for the spine and for people who snore, because of the completely horizontal position in which you sleep. Our room had a small bathroom, but there were also communal bathrooms.

This is how the room looked. Photo from the Ryokan where we stayed.

After leaving the luggage, we decided to go to the Senso-ji Temple and the surrounding area.

Senso-ji temple is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist enlightened that is associated with compassion. It's Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in the year 628 and it's a rather large temple, with several buildings, statues, a five storied pagoda and a big central hall.

As we got to the temple at night, it was already closed but the outdoor grounds can be visited and the temple has ornamental lights.

Street to the Temple.

Nakamise Street: The main gateway to the temple.

From the temple you can see Skytree tower, which is a kind of "new Tokyo Tower." It has a height of 634m. and Tokyo Tower is 333 m.

Hozomon Gate: Main gate of the temple.

Pagoda located next to the temple. Inside, Buddha relics are preserved.

Kannnondo Hall: This is the main hall of the temple. Ceremonies are held here.

Statue that was in the temizuya, a pavilion where people perform the ritual of purification with water prior to entering the main hall of the temple.

Statue of Jizō, protector of pregnant women, travelers, children, firefighters, among others. Popularly known as the guardian of the unborn child and as an offering, the parents of these children dress statues with red cloaks and

knitted caps.

Statue of Bodhisattva Seishi, associated with wisdom.

Statue of Bodhisattva Kannon, to whom the temple is dedicated.

We also visited Daiso and Don Quijote stores which are open until very late (some of these stores are open 24 hrs). Daiso is a chain of shops selling everything at 100 yen and Don Quijote is another retailer, which sells everything, food, medicine, cosmetics, costume, basically whatever comes in your mind. These stores are everywhere in the big cities.

Photo of the entrance to the Don Quijote of Asakusa. The penguin is the pet of the store, isn't it cute? Photo obtained from the following Link.

Anguilla that was in one of the aquarium of Don Quijote entrance.

This is a Daiso store, so you can imagen the amount of stuff they sell at 100 yen. Photo obtained from the following Link.

The next day, we went to the post office to send our bags to the Kyoto hotel, so we can travel lighter to Hiroshima. This was really hard because you have to fill out a form and clearly we didn't understand what information was requested, and what we should write (it was written in kanji). The postal officers were so friendly and even though they can hardly understood us, they filled out the forms for us. They really had a very good disposition, they were too kind and without them we'd finished riding the Shinkansen with all the suitcases.

After the post office, we visited the temple again to see it with day light. We could see the various rituals that people do here and we even saw a ceremony in the central building.

Yogodo Hall. Home to the Buddhas who followed the teachings of Kannon. Buddha is not only a deity, it's all those who were able to attain enlightenment.

Group of schoolchildren visiting the temple.

Lady presenting the incense to the temple. Incenses are then burned in a censer and it's believed that the smoke have healing powers. Part of the ritual is that the person fans the smoke toward the body part they want to heal.

The temple with people. Here you can see the central hall and the censer.

Ceremony that was taking place. Here you can see the altar that is inside the central hall.

Pond that was in the temple grounds.

Group photo.

In the temple I took a paper with fortune or O-mikuji, which was pretty bad :P So as the tradition says, I folded and tied the paper with the fortune in one of the walls with wires. According to tradition, this makes the fortune to stay "waiting" in the temple, instead of binding to the person.

You take a random wand, which has written a type of fortune. Then you look for the corresponding drawer and take a paper with fortune.

Here my fortune stayed :P

We also saw the stores of the main entrance of the temple. These shops sell traditional and religious items, souvenirs and different kinds of food. A curious note is that in this place we ate ice cream (those typical with cones) and were not allowed to leave the store until we finish the ice cream; as we understood, this was to prevent we stain others as we walk. This was our first introduction to Japanese culture of respect for others.

Journey to Hiroshima

After visiting the temple, we went to Hiroshima. This was the first time we took the Shinkansen. The train is pretty fast but you don't feel the speed. Train' seats are very comfortable, with plenty space; and it's allowed to eat because is a long trips (which isn't allowed in other short trips trains or subway). To imagine how fast they are, the trip took about 5 hours and by bus is about 12 hours.

Shinkansen platform.

This is the inside of the Shinkansen. As you see it is quite comfortable, it has space above the seats to leave luggage (not very big), hangers for clothes or bags and plugs to charge your cell phone or notebook.

After leaving luggage at the hotel, we went to visit the Hiroshima Castle and the surroundings. Again, because we arrived in the afternoon, we were only able to visit the outer grounds, since the castle was already closed.

View from the hotel.

Hiroshima streets.

View from the bridge entrance to the castle. You can see the water moat surrounding the castle.

Hiroshima Castle and Gokoku Shrine

This castle was built in 1589, but was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945 and then rebuilt in 1958. It has 5 floors, in the first 4 there are various exhibits, as the castle is also the museum and the top floor is a viewpoint .

Hiroshima Castle.

The Shinto shrine Gokoku is inside the castle area. The original shrine was founded in 1869, but suffered relocations and was completely destroyed in 1945. It was rebuilt in its present location in 1956.

The Gokoku shrines are dedicated to those who died in wars and there are in several points of Japan.

Main entrance of the temple, with its corresponding Torii. A Torii is a gate that represent the separation between the divine world and the everyday world.

Central pavilion of the sanctuary, called Hayden. It is adorned because they were near the date where Tanabata is celebrated. This is a party where they celebrate the reunion of Orihime and Hikoboshi, lovers which are allowed to meet once a year, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar.

These are the Tanabata ornaments. They are named Fukinagashi and are made of paper.

In this photo you can see the fountain of temizuya, which is the hall where the ritual of purification with water is performed. The ritual consists in taking water with the bucket, wash the left hand, then his right, the mouth and finally the remaining water is poured vertically.

Resting.

One of the exits of the castle ground.

Here you can see the moat surrounding the castle and the outer wall.

After our visit to the castle, we ended up visiting the stores with arcade games and UFO-catcher. These stores are also open until very late and you end up spending a lot of money in these machines, they are really addictive xD

The UFO-catcher is the typical machine with "the claw" you move to get a prize. In Japan there are thousands of these machines, of different types and degrees of difficulty.

Corridor full of UFO Catcher.

This is a UFO Catcher, can see more about them in Danny choo's Blog.

This is a machine in a pachinko parlor that simulates racing. In Japan you can't bet money, so they use these machines that when you win you get little balls, which can be exchanged for prizes. If you wish, you can exchange these prizes for money and a legal loophole is generated.

As we couldn't get inside the castle, we went again the next day. Inside there are displays of weapons, utensils, clothing and architectural items (eg tiles).

Viewpoint of the castle.

The view.

Shukkei-en Garden

The next day, we visited the Shukkeien Garden, which is a circular garden with a central lagoon. Inside the lagoon there are small islands and and a bridge with an arch that crosses it. Around the lagoon there are a number of hills, viewpoints and sections with different types of vegetation.

Panoramic photo of Garden.

The central lagoon.

Bridge in the middle of the lagoon.

Koi fish.

Very happy crab :)

White Heron and Crane.

Koi fish turned crazy, when we threw them food. The park has special food dispensers for them.

Ladies crossing the park.

Small rice plantations.

A large dragonfly.

Beautiful hydrangea.

Lotus Flower.

Miyajima

The Miyajima island is located about 50 km. from Hiroshima and was declared World Heritage by UNESCO. To reach the island you have to take a boat from a place call Miyajimaguchi, which takes about 10 minutes to get to Miyajima.

Group of schoolchildren visiting the island.

A Beach near the temple.

Torii in the way to the temple and stone lamps.

Stone Lamps.

This island is famous for its Torii built at the sea. When the tide is high it seems like it's floating.

This Torii is part of Itsukushima shrine, which is also partially built over water.

Inside the shrine.

Hall of purification, called Haraiden.

Exit of the shrine.

Statue that was outside the shrine.

Cord called Shimenawa, which forms a barrier against evil spirits.

Surroundings of the shrine.

There is also a five storied pagoda. This pagoda is associated with the medicine Buddha.

Another interesting thing about the island is that it is full of deer. They are everywhere, freely and try to get food from tourists (sometimes in a somewhat violent way XD).

Deer in front of the pier.

Deer trying to eat the bag of Hello Kitty.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

The last day in Hiroshima we visited the Peace Memorial Park, which is dedicated to all victims of the nuclear bomb. It was built on the esplanade that left the bomb and has several monuments, memorials and a museum.

The place is quite emotional. You can see the buildings that managed to remain standing after the bomb, permanent shadows in various places and the museum is really impressive.

The following photos are from different memorials that are within the park:

A-Bomb Dome. This are the ruins of the building of Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. This was the closest building to the hypocenter of the atomic bomb (the point where it exploded) and was partially resisted the impact.

Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students. This monument honors the souls of about 10,000 students, who were killed by the atomic bomb. In Hiroshima there were 8,387 students who were serving the state during the war, as demolishing structures or working in factories.

The ornaments that are on the sides, are groups of 1,000 origami cranes, called Senbazuru. According to Japanese legend, if a person folds 1,000 cranes is granted a wish. Currently they have become symbols of peace, because of the story of Sadako Sasaki, which I'll explain later.

Details of the Senbazuru.

This is the statue of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who was 2 years old when she suffered the radiation of the bomb. Product of radiation, at age 12 was diagnosed with leukemia and because of his condition, she couldn't leave the hospital. In the hospital she learned about the legend of the Senbazuru and began to make 1,000 origami cranes. He died shortly after and there are two ends to her story; In the first end, she didn't managed to bend all the cranes and their classmates completed the remaining cranes in her honor, and in the second end, she folded 1,400 cranes, after seeing that her wish had not been fulfilled.

Peace bell. This bell is rung to call for world peace.

Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound. It contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified persons killed by the bomb.

Statue of Goddess of Mercy (Kannon).

Cenotaph (empty tomb). It has the names of all persons who died from the bomb. The arc represents a refuge for the souls of the victims.

In front of the arc, the following sentence it's written: Please rest in peace, for we/they shall not repeat the error.

Statue with a permanent shadow, produced by the bomb.

Photo inside the Memorial Peace Museum. Here is the hypocenter (point of explosion) of the bomb, which was at 600 meters high.

Photos of some of the effects of the bomb. The first photo shows a woman burned by the pattern of her kimono, the second shows permanent shadows on the steps and the third shows the permanent shadow of a valve on a wall.

Finally, that same day in the afternoon we head towards Kyoto, the city of a thousand temples. I will tell you about this part of the trip in the next post ;)

Bonus: Food

These are some of the dishes we ate at this part of the trip :)

Yakusoba. Dish of fried noodles.

Okonomiyaki. It is made with a mass similar to pancakes with various grilled.
ingredients.

In this photo you can see how they prepare them.

Omurice Doria. The Omurice is like an omelet of fried rice and this one in particular was gratinated.

Look this Totoro dessert !!! It was so cute, I suffered eating it xD

What a long post !! I hope you liked it.

Also, here is a video I make of this part of the trip

If you want to see more photos, here is the link of the Flickr album.

Hugs for everyone!!!

Trip to Tierra del Fuego, Punta Arenas and Preview of the Next One :D

2015-06-18T16:58:00.002-07:00

Crossing of Estrecho de Magallanes

During April I had the opportunity to visit Tierra del Fuego, because of work. This area corresponds to the western territory of the large island in the south of Estrecho de Magallanes, which is located in the extreme south of Continental Chile and belongs to the Region de Magallanes y de la Antartica Chilena.

Tierra del fuego, like the entire region of Magallanes is recognized for its very cold weather throughout most of the year, reaching temperatures below 0 ° C some months and with snow in winter.

To reach Tierra del Fuego, you need to cross the Estrecho de Magallanes, using ferries. In my case, we did the following journey to get to the sector we need to visit:

This journey takes about 4 hours from Punta Arenas city to the area of Cerro Sombrero, on the island. The crossing by ferry takes about 20 minutes or so, and ferries run almost all day, every day of the year, excepting on bad weather days.

There is an alternative way to reach the island, crossing from the port of Punta Arenas to the vicinity of the city of Porvenir. Eventhough this is a more direct alternative, the ferry ride is longer, it takes almost two hours and is performed only once a day, from Tuesdays to Sundays.

I want to show you some photos of the journey to Tierra del Fuego and a video of the crossing by ferry:

Waiting for the ferry.

In the ferry. Very crowded!!!

Photo in the ferry.

Video of the trip by ferry. The sea was a little agitated.

And these photos are from trip back to Punta Arenas:

Because we were on a working trip, we were most of the time in the vicinity of Cerro Sombrero, which is in the north of the island.

In this area you can't see a lot of height vegetation, it is rather a steppe landscape and you can see lots of wildlife.

It is very common to see guanacos and various types of birds, because in this area there are few human settlements. In addition, you can see many sheep, because the people living in this sector raised them and make their lives around them.

Video whit a lot of sheeps!!

The place is very quiet and calm. I highly recommend you to visit this place, especially if you like to watch animals in their natural environment and landscapes with little human intervention.

Now, back to Tierra del Fuego, we took advantage to know a little more of Punta Arenas.

It is a very quiet and beautiful city. Quite different from other cities in the southern Chile, probably due to its remoteness to the rest of the continent.

Delicious food in Punta Arenas.

Monument to the Goleta Ancud.

Monument to the Goleta Ancud.

Monument to the Goleta Ancud during day.

We visited the Tres Puentes wetland, which is located at the northern entrance of the city. Here you can see many types of birds of this area.

Also, we visited the city cemetery. I am well fanatic of visiting old cemeteries; I find that they have something magical and a lot of history behind them.

In particular, this cemetery is one of the nicest I have ever visited. It has been very well maintained, full of pine trees in between the mausoleums. Here I show you several pictures of the cemetery and a video walking through the corridors of pines.

Video walking through the pines in the cemetary.

Finally, if you want a relaxing trip, with beautiful landscapes and many animals, I recommend you Tierra del Fuego and Punta Arenas. In fact, if you can visit some of the national parks in Tierra del Fuego, much better! It looks that are very beautiful, but I had no chance to visit them.

Alberto De Agostini National Park. More information in the CONAF page.

Karunkinka Park. More information in the park page.

Now, like a preview, I tell you that this weekend I'm going on a trip to Japan !!!! I will be there like 15 day, so I owe you a post (or more than one XD) with all the adventures we have in Japan. So stay tuned!!

JR Pass. Pass for the trains in Japan.

Hugs for everyone!!!

In Photos: March, April and May

2015-06-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

Photo of Lollapalooza

Hello everyone!

It's time for the summary of what I did in the last few months :D

I've been trying to make several posts for a long time, but things have become a little bit complicated and I couldn't.

Internet life seems perfect, usually people don't tell the bad things that happen in social networks, but the truth is that life always has bad things.

In particular, recent months have been very difficult for me. I had many problems at work and in personal life, and that get me pretty depressed. In fact, to try to get out of this slump, I take a decision that was very difficult to me, and by the end of May I quit my job, without any backup plan. This is an uncomfortable situation for me, but the important part is that I'm way too much calm now and my colon is healthier :D

I hope these weeks that I'll be unoccupied, will be fruitful for this blog and can upload several posts.

Lets start the summary of these months :)

March

Ice creams of Palettas!! We tried Baileys and Watermelon with toasted flour flavours.

The Mugs of Oh Darn arrived :) These are merchandising form the youtube channel and stream of Sp4zie. This guy make funny videos of League of Legends. If you like LoL, I recommend you his videos very much. You can see the videos and montages in his Youtube Channel.

Also, I want to show you my first J-Doll (Japan doll, in 1/6 scale). This model is Via Appia. In the first photo she comes with her original outfit and in the second with a steampunk costume made by Makinarium Diseño.

Have I told you that I love the gummy bears?? I think I'll see if I can learn how to do them.

Also, during March we have the babyshower of my boyfriend's sister. This babyshower was themed with animals, which I found super original. Here I share some pics:

Table ornaments

Table ornaments

Babyshower Favors

Details of the favors

Cake with animals :)

And it was Lollapalooza Chile!!! It was really fun but really hot, the heat was unbearable at times. Here are some photos and a mini video.

Boyfriend

Me with my Lydia's from Beetlejuice hat XD

Waiting for the presentation of Chancho en Piedra and Los Tetas

Juanitos! The mascots of Chancho en Piedra

Final part of the presentation of Chancho en Piedra and Los Tetas

Mini video of the final part of the Chancho en Piedra y Los Tetas show

Skrillex. The light show was amazing

April

For pushing me to go to practice volleyball, I bought these new sneakers, especial for this sport. They are Mizuno, and they really give good support and cushioning. Here in Chile they are not sold, but it can be purchased via internet with intermediaries.

Saddly I sprained a foot recently, so I'll be sidelined for a while :(

In early April was the Tabletop Day, a day where the board games where celebrated and University of Santiago had an event called Terracon. They had specialty shops, demonstrations of various board games, card games, miniatures and roleplaying games.

The board games area

Warhammer Miniatures

Roleplaying games' tables

Learning to play Go

Boyfriend learning how to play Go

One of the things I like of Go, is that you can notice the players different personalities. In the left panel is a way to play more chaotic than the one in the right panel.

And as I like board games I ended up buying 2; Black Stories and Shadows on London. Black Stories is about discovering different mysteries through questions that can only be answered with a yes or a no. In Shadows on London you try to catch Jack the Ripper, one of the players is Jack and the others player are the police and must catch him.

And in this photo, you can see my actual collection of board games and roleplayin games.

In late April, because of work, I had to visit Tierra del Fuego. This is the further south place in continental Chile . I'll do a separate post for this trip, because the place is really beautiful and I took many photos, but I leave some photos in advance:

Photos from the plane

Guanacos

Sheeps

May

During May it was my birthday :) It wasn't really planned because I was in the process of resignation, but I was still able to celebrate a little. We got together with some friends and play Shadows on London, eat cake and have fun :)

Passion Fruit Cake :9

Also, this month was the Comic Con Chile and I prepared a suit of Galadriel from Lord of the Rings. Here are some pics of the process.

Very biiigggg patterns! That is my picture window of my apartment

Wig and tiara test

Elf rings. Only the one of the middle is from Galadriel, but could not buy just one

Comic Con was pretty entertaining. Still had some problems, especially due to the amount of people going and distribution of the stands. This makes the hallways to be overwhelmed. Hopefully it will be better next year.

Here are some photos of the Comic Con.

Me as Galadriel and Tauriel

The Full dress

With the people of Sociedad Tolkien Chilena

Photo of the panel of Kevin Sussman (Stuart of The Big Bang Theory)

And finally, in late May I, finally, quit my job. This is the end of a cycle, I worked for four years in this company, in fact since I graduated. I hope this new cycle brings good things :)

Cementery of business cards. Part of the tradition that we had with my work partners, when one of them were leaving

With that, we finished the summary of what happened during these months.

Now, about the video games I played this months, I'll do a separate post where I will make a mini review. In any case, as summary, I finished The Order, continued playing League of Legends (the addiction) and started playing Bloodborne and Heroes Of The Storm in beta.

On the other hand, as I can not define in which month I bought everything, here I show you some purchases of these months:

Art book of the movie The Book of Life and brooches of the Wizard of Oz. The book is really beautiful, and it covers the design of characters, locations design and the Making Of. And about the brooches, they belong to a set released for the 75th anniversary and brings the diploma of scarecrow, the heart clock of Tin Man and the Medal of Honor of the Cowardly Lion. The brooches are of very good quality, so I recommend it to all fans of the Wizard of Oz.

Mermaid leggings. The truth is that you can found these in many Internet shops, so I recommend looking for the shop with best prices.

Ice Cream purse

Pattern that I use for my Galadriel dress, Cheshire brooch, brooch of Snow White's poisoned apple and earrings.

The brooch

Shopping of Feria Materia Prima

Pop Corn purse of Kate Spade. Bought second hand

ModCloth dress

Last Caveys of the collection. The girl how makes them decided to stop business and to start another :(

And obviously, to end this post in the most beautiful way, here are a lot of photos of Gin during these months :D

"Tell me more"

Helping to make the bed

Over the instructions of my patterns

While I try to play Heroes of The Storm

Well, I hope you liked this post.

Hugs for everyone!

PS: Some of these photos were taken using my cell and edited using the Beautiful Mess app or PicMonkey. Others were taken with my camera.

11 and 12 of April: An Exciting Weekend Is Coming!

2015-04-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

Definitely, this weekend comes with a lot fun activities.

That is why I made this post, so you do miss any of them ;)

FIC SANTIAGO 2015

Image from https://www.facebook.com/FICSantiago

This is the fourth version of this festival of comics. On 10, 11 and 12 of April will be held, at the headquarters of University Santo Tomas at San Joaquin (San Joaquin subway Station).

I have attended all previous versions and I think this is one of the most interesting comics events of Santiago. It has important guests of the comic scene, both national and international and has the great advantage that is completely free.

Image from https://www.facebook.com/FICSantiago

This year will feature an exhibition of Ogú and Mampato, a tribute to Themo Lobos and as always, will be lectures, releases, comic stores, signing sessions with authors, and more.

If you want to know more about the guests and the schedule of activities, they can be found on the website of FIC SANTIAGO and on its Facebook.

League of Legends: Latin American Cup 2015

Image from the official page of Latin American Cup 2015

For the League of Legends fans, on April 11 will be the final of the Latin American Opening Cup.

In this final, Kaos Latin Gamers, winners of the LAS circuit (Latin America South) will play against Lyon Gaming, winners LAN circuit (Latin America North). They will compete in a system of the best of 5 games and the winner will win a sponsorship of Riot and a place in the Wildcard International Invitational, which is an emerging teams tournament.

This event will be held at the Teatro Caupolican and tickets are for sell at Ticketek, but apparently they are sold out. Anyway, for those who didn't get tickets, the event will be broadcast via streaming on the official channels of Riot Latinoamerica, Y outube and Twitch.

If you want to know more details of the event, you can found them on the official website: Copa Latinoamerica 2015

TableTop Day

Image from the official page of Tabletop Day

The TableTop Day will be celebrated on April 11. It is an international event that was founded three years ago and seeks to celebrate the board games and gather fans all around the world.

To achieve this, various local events are organized, where all types of games are played, whether they are cards, role playing games, board games, etc.

Two events will be held In Santiago:

Terracon will be held on 11 of April, at the Central Library of the University of Santiago (Estacion Central subway station). There will role playings games, board games, collectible card games and miniatures. Admission is free.

Devir Chile will held a totally free event at the Bellavista Community Center on April 12. There will be various games available for demonstration and competitions.

If you want to know more information about these events, you can found it at the following links:

Terracon:

http://www.roleros.cl/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1417509685228017/

TableTop Day por Devir Chile:

http://www.devir.cl/celebra-el-tabletop-day-con-devir-chile/

If you're not from Chile (thank you very much for your visits!!! They make me very happy!!!), you can find an event in your country, on the official website of Tabletop Day!

That is!! I hope you can go to any of these events :D

Hugs for everyone!!

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In Photos: January and February, Viña del Mar/Valparaiso Edition :D

2015-03-12T16:55:00.002-07:00

La Dulceria, Valparaiso

Hello!

It's time for the summary of what I did in January and February :D
I was going to make a post per month but my mood has been a little blue, so time beaten me and I wasn't able to make the January post, so I gathered two months again.

Let's start January with this pics of the birthday celebration of my friend Fran :) The celebration was a picnic with pets in the park and we played a lot with the new selfie stick of my friend Pilar :D!

XD!

Also, during January the Encuentro de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía was celebrated :) This is a fair that has different exhibitions of collections and activities related to science fiction and fantasy. In addition, there are some clinics of board games and activities for children, such as Jedi school.

Bender is my favorite character of Futurama :)

Exhibition of Star Wars Characters

Exhibition of Alien

Arcade Games!!

Ultraman Collection

Clinic of the card game Mitos y Leyendas

Transformer!

Clinic of the card game Mitos y Leyendas

For adults and children ;) Photo taken off the web page of the fair

Jedi School! Photo taken off the web page of the fair

Happy kids of the Jedi School! Photo taken off the web page of the fair

One of the best things about this fair is that it is in the Palace of Culture of Las Condes (one of Santiago's townships). This house is beautiful and has a huge garden, where you can take rest in the grass :)

The fair takes place every year during January. It is quite entertaining, especially for children. I leave you the page so you can stay tuned to the 2016 fair ;)

Web Page of Encuentro de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía

And we end January photos with the pic of a marriage to which I was invited. The place and the decor was beautiful!

During February we went to Viña del Mar with some friends, so we could plan the trip that we are going to do during June and to rest a little bit. Viña was really crowded! Well it was expected, since it is summer holiday period in Chile.

We also visited Valparaiso for the day (it's practically next door to Viña del Mar). The photos below are from Valparaiso.

In Valparaiso we went to La Dulceria, a shop which sells handmade candys. If you have the opportunity to go to Valparaiso, I recommend you to visit this shop. The candies are beautiful and really delicious.

I leave you the page of this shop

La Dulceria, Cerro Alegre, Valparaiso

Beautiful Lollipop of Maracujá

The best presentation card I've seen! Really creative and with real candies inside.

Pau very happy with her purchases

The jar with assorted candies that I bought

Another photo of the presentation card

I obviously took the opportunity to buy things for my collections. A new brooch and more keys, which reminds me I have to do a post about my collections :P

Musical Note Pin that boyfriend gave it to me

New Keys for my Collection

During February was Valentine's Day! I've never been a big fan of this celebration, but this year we went with some friends to a sandwich restaurant called Fuente Mardoqueo. This place is pretty entertaining, it has collections of paintings, typewriters, chandeliers, musical instruments, etc. and their sandwiches are huge and delicious!

I leave you the page of this restaurant also ;)
Fuente Mardoqueo

Everyone at the table! Forgive me for putting pictures of you guys, but I love you :D

During these two months I've been playing mostly League of Legends. I resisted it for a long time but finally I fell XD. I must say that my wallet suffers the most, because of the skins!!.
Mainly I play with Ahri, I've always liked this champion, but still I am not strong enough in mid lane. So I'm taking turns between playing mid lane and support.

Skin with I currently play. In case you don't know the game or Ahri

If you do not know this game, basically is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) where you play with 4 other players in a team and the goal is to beat the other team, so basically you have to kill them and destroy their base. There are two styles of mode that are the most popular, Howling Abyss, better known as ARAM, where there is only one lane where the battles occur, and the other mode is the Summoner's Rift, where there are 3 lanes of battle and a whole jungle area in between.

Map of the Howling Abyss, as you can see there is only one lane of battle. Image taken off this web page.

Map of Summoner's Rift, as you can see there are 3 lanes of battle: Top, Bottom (bot) and Mid. Image taken off this web page

Mainly I play Rift and in mid lane. But also, I've playing in bottom lane as support (support of the other champions) or ADC (champion that make the kills). I hope you understand something of this mini explanation of League of Legends (or better known as LoL). If you like it, I can make a further explanation with more technical details.

And at the end of February, The Order: 1886 game was finally released. I've been waiting months for this game! I really liked it, the effort they put in graphics, textures, lighting and details it's showed. The Order mixes different styles of games, similar to the concept of The Last of Us, where at times it is a simply a shooter, but also you have to solve puzzles, and in others you simply have to go unnoticed like in a stealth game as Thief.

I leave you some screenshots that I've taken, and if you want to see me playing bad and cursing more than what I should, you can see some videos that I have on twitch. I still can't manage the dynamics of some fights because sometimes there are enemies with whom you can not go melee, and there are other enemies with weapons that you can not face directly.

Screenshot of The Order: 1886

To end this summary, I leave all the pictures that I took to the Gin during these two months. If you hadn't noticed, I love her XD

Well, I hope this post has been entertaining.

Hugs for everyone!

PS: Some of these photos were taken using my cell and edited using the Beautiful Mess app or PicMonkey. Others were taken with my camera.

Vacations 2014 - Part II: Huilo Huilo!

2015-01-26T09:09:00.000-08:00

Salto Huilo Huilo

This post if it is long overdue, because I was too lazy to edit the photos :P

It's is the second part of my summer vacation 2014, where I visited Arica and Huilo Huilo. You can find the post where I tell you about my trip to Arica here.

The Huilo Huilo reserve is located in the southern part of Chile, about 56 kilometers from Panguipulli, in the province of Valdivia. This sector has a rainy temperate climate, which is characterized by mild temperatures and abundant rainfall throughout the year.

Mapa base obtenido de Google Maps

In the map above, you can see the area of the reserve, which is within the red circle, and the black dot shows a nearby town called Puerto Fuy.

The purpose of this reserve is the conservation of flora and fauna found in this sector, which is part of the Valdivian Forest. This is because the Valdivian Rainforest is a "hotspot" of biodiversity, since in this area can be found species of animals and plants with unique characteristics and are endemic (not found naturally nowhere else in the world).

This makes that this reserve possesses an incredible landscapes and also has four hotels that have a very interesting architecture. The only bad thing is that the reserve is private and the hotels are quite expensive for the average salary of Chile. Many of the rides do not need to be hosted in some of the hotels, paying entrance obviously, but if you're hosted you have more access to areas of the reserve.

So for me, it was kind of a dream to go to this reserve, until one day, looking for hotels in Chile, I found an offer that reduced quite the price of accommodation. I decided to took the offer and get a bit into debt to fulfill one of my dreams :)

I stayed at the hotel Nothofagus, that belongs to the reserve. Here I show you some photos of the hotel.

Nothofagus Hotel. Photo from the reserve webpage

Giant tree found in the center of the hotel

Sunset from the balcony

Room Interior

Tempered swimming pool of the hotel

The greatest attraction of this place is the Salto Huilo Huilo, a waterfall of 37 meters in height.

Salto Huilo Huilo

Water color in the area of the waterfall

With my boyfriend, resting and taking photos

Copihues are the national flower of Chile. We found them on the path to the waterfall

Another attraction of the place is the hatchery of deer and wild boar. I had never been near these animals, so I was very excited. How we went on a season with few tourists, we were very lucky and saw many of these animals.

Llama that was hanging out with the deers :P

Also we took a horseback excursion on a trail of the reserve. It was the first time I rode a horse :P

The horse that I rode.

With a funny face XD

Photo by Sebastián

The last day of our trip, we decided to visit a town near the reserve, called Puerto Fuy. It's located on the shore of Pirehueico Lake. From here depart barges that cross the lake and from there the road continues towards the border crossing Hua-Hum, located just minutes from San Martín de los Andes in Argentina.

Pirehueico Lake

Dock

Barge departing to cross the lake

And here I leave more cute photos taken during this trip:

Thistles are my favorite flowers!

Well, I hope you have liked the photos of southern Chile.

Hugs for everyone!

PS: Some of these photos were taken using my cell and edited with PicMonkey. Others were taken with my camera.

In Photos: November and December

2015-01-21T17:48:00.001-08:00

Artic Monkeys Concert

Hello everyone!

Now it's time for the summary of what I did in November and December :D I was going to make a post of each month, but I had few photos of November, so I merged the months.

We are going to start with the pics of November, with this one of the birthday of my boyfriend. It is a little bit blurry, but I love it :)

In the first week of November was the Arctic Monkeys' concert, with The Hives as warm up show. It was awsome!! I ended up falling in love with The Hives, they were very entertaining in the show.

The Hives

Arctic Monkeys

During november I had to work on a pumping tests in Los Andes. This city is really hot, we worked in full sun, with UV shield clothes, with nearly 40°C (104 degrees Fahrenheit). It was very interesting, I learned a lot, but the heat was unbearable!

I also finished Destiny! I am thinking whether to buy the expansion. Well, the photo shows what happens when you play alone in Destiny. 140 Kills !! Insane! You spend over an hour per mission XD

And here I leave you some pics of things that happened during november:

Gin "helping" with the laundry

Beautiful night of november

In late november, I received my Dalek dress . I love it: D

Then came December and raspberries began to appear! They are my favorite fruit and if there is something I like of summer, it's that summer is the season of red fruits! (in everything else, I hate the summer XD)

Yummy!

The first days of december, we took advantage of the nice weather and went to train beach volleyball with my volleyball club. It was very entertaining but it was awfully hot!

I appear here! I'm roasting XD Photo by Clubvolley

Photo by Clubvolley

Few days before Christmas, I went with some friends on a mini trip to Viña del Mar (Viña is around 2 hours drive from Santiago). It was very relaxing and I slept everything that I wasn't able in the whole year! I spent more time sleeping than awake XD

View from the apartment of Pilar

And during the trip we went to a japanese cafe. I had never been in one and tasted very few japanese sweets, so I ordered a degustation of sweets, to find out what they taste like.

All of us complicated with the menu. No one knew what to order XD

In the next photo you can see the coffee that I had, along with peanut butter Mochis. Mochis are the round sweets that are behind the coffee cup. These candies are made with glutinous rice flour, giving them a rather chewy texture. I must say that I found these candies are a kind of acquired taste. I had tried Mochis previously, because I experiment making the ones that come stuffed with ice cream and initially I hated the texture, but as more I taste them, they have been "convincing me".

Coffee and Mochis

Koala cookie, that came with the coffee

In the next picture, you can see what came in the sweets degustation. I already forgot what each one was, but all these sweets had in common that they are actually a little dry. In Chile we are accustomed to European pastry, which is more "wet", so usually we do not find much "grace" in these type of sweets. It was very entertaining to taste something so different from what you normally eat and I suffered a lot eating up the sweet that was shaped like a rabbit! It was too cute and I felt sorry for "kill it".

Japanese Sweets... This rabbit is still in my conscience XD

Eating the Sweets

After the coffee, we ended up at a christmas fair, looking for gifts.

Photo in the christmas fair: Pilar, cute christmas tree and me. Photo by Pilar

When I return of the trip, Gin was waiting for me ... it seems that she missed me.

And finally came the holidays of the end of the year. I didn't decorate much the apartment, I was very tired and the end of the year came very fast. Still we put up a christmas tree and we didn't have a star, so we use Patrick XD

Our Christmas tree is tiny but we decorate it with a lot of love. In the photo, you can see part of my collection of Caveys. At the top, along with Patrick, we have Christmas Tree Cavey and Vixen Reindeer Cavey . Below, between the branches is Camo Cave, who use his skills for camouflage.

In the above photo didn't appear, but just one day before Christmas I got the cutest ornament that I have bought. I love the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, so just as I saw this Disney ornament, I bought it.

And as part of the tradition, the company where I work gave us a Christmas box full of things to celebrate Christmas and New Year. I tried to take pictures, but Gin was too curious and wouldn't let me XD

I spent the Christmas Eve at the home of one of my sisters and I could celebrate with my two sisters, their mother, Titín and my nephews. The dinner was a delicious barbecue with many salads. The celebration was very fun:D! A curious fact about Chile is that almost all celebrations are with barbecues, it is a kind of a habit of the country.

Loooootttttssss of gifts!

The men preparing the barbecue

The beautiful table prepared by my sister

Cute table decorations

Selfie with the tree XD

The house owners and organizers of the dinner, my sister Ximena and Titín

Finally came the new year celebration. I celebrated with a group of friends at Pilar's house. She made a very nice dinner and I prepared the Jelly Shots I showed you in the last post.

Waiting, hungry XD

The Dinner: The ever present Duchess potatoes

The Dinner: Duchess potatoes and stuffed Chicken

It was a very entertaining celebration. It was a great way to start 2015!

Well, that's the summary of November and December. I hope this year will come good for you!

At Friday I should post the summary of the second part of my vacations of 2014! It's about Huilo Huilo, a really beautiful place. So stay tuned ;)

Hugs for everyone!

PS: Some of these photos were taken using my cell and edited using the Beautiful Mess app or PicMonkey. Others were taken with my camera.

Shots, Shots, Shots!!

2014-12-31T06:17:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

This is a mini post to share with you the Jelly Shots recipe I made to celebrate the new year: D

Recipe Jelly Shots

To make Jelly Shots you need a sachet of jelly powder, of the flavor you like. In my case, I used a jelly sachet of 160 gr, which for the preparation needed 2 cups hot water and 3 cups cold water.

Looking several recipes on the internet, I came to the conclusion that to replace the water by some kind of alcohol , you need to follow the ratio 1: 3, for example if 3 cups of water are needed in the normal preparation, you need to replace 1 with alcohol.

Also, you need disposable cups. In my case, I used 1/2 oz cups that would be the equivalent of 15 ml.

Thus the recipe became this:

This recipe makes enough for about 70 cups of 1/2 oz (15 ml).

- 160 gr gelatin, flavor of your choice

- 2 cups of hot water

- 1 1/2 cups of cold water

- 1 1/2 cups of alcohol of your choice, chilled

I prepared two mixtures, which I liked a lot. On one hand, I made raspberry jelly with Rosé Champagne or Sparkling wine. On the other hand, I made the traditional vodka with orange, this one has a much stronger flavour than the one with Rosé Champagne.

You should leave the cups with the mixture in the refrigerator, the necessary time according to package directions. In my case, I left them overnight and in the morning they were ready ;)

And if you want something more extreme, you can fill glasses with the mixture, so you have one jelly shot for all the night.

That would be :P

Hope you have a great New Year celebration and that you have an spectacular next year!

Hugs to everyone!

Depression: The Black Dog and The Spoon Theory

2014-12-19T03:42:00.000-08:00

Illustrated by Matthew Johnstone

Well, it's not something I like to comment, but since the death of my father I've been dealing with this complex disease.

One of the most frustrating things of having this disease is not knowing how to explain it to my friends and family. As a mental illness, for most people it is very difficult to understand why you feel tired, without energy and discouraged. Constantly, they think depression is a state in which "you want to be" or "you are not doing enough to leave it behind". In addition, Chile is a country where there is not much knowledge of mental illnesses; so many people just stigmatize you and they think you're exaggerating your situation.

One of the first resources I used to explain this disease was the following video which made an analogy between depression and living with a big black dog that obstructs your life. The original idea came from Matthew Jhonstone and you can read more about his works in his page.

Video by Alemar Psicologos

And a couple of days ago, surfing in Internet, I found a document written by Christine Miserandino on her blog. This document explained how is living with Lupus, but I think it also helps to understand, in a certain way, what happens when you have depression.

In this document, Christine wrote how she managed to explain to a friend of her how she felt living with Lupus. Facing not knowing how to explain to her the feelings and sensations, she grabbed every spoon on the table and also those of the surrounding tables; she handed the spoons to her friend and said, "Here, you have lupus". And so was born the "Spoon Theory".

Photo by http://fibromialgiamelilla.files.wordpress.com/

Below, there are a couple of excerpts of this document (the full text can be seen in this link):

"I asked her to list off the tasks of her day, including the most simple. As, she rattled off daily chores, or just fun things to do; I explained how each one would cost her a spoon. When she jumped right into getting ready for work as her first task of the morning, I cut her off and took away a spoon. I practically jumped down her throat. I said ” No! You don’t just get up. You have to crack open your eyes, and then realize you are late. You didn’t sleep well the night before. You have to crawl out of bed, and then you have to make your self something to eat before you can do anything else, because if you don’t, you can’t take your medicine, and if you don’t take your medicine you might as well give up all your spoons for today and tomorrow too”

“We went through the rest of the day, and she slowly learned that skipping lunch would cost her a spoon, as well as standing on a train, or even typing at her computer too long. She was forced to make choices and think about things differently. Hypothetically, she had to choose not to run errands, so that she could eat dinner that night”

When you have depression, one of the most common symptoms is fatigue. You start the day with a limited amount of energy or "spoons" either by discouragement, drugs, secondary symptoms of them, etc. Some days discouragement wins, resulting in few spoons to spend in the day and other days you have a burst of energy, so you have more spoons to spend.

Because of this, every daily life activity consumes spoons and one becomes aware of it. Working, cooking, having fun, errands, even getting up in the bad days, become very stressful activities. Many times, to carry them out, you have to prepare mentally and convince you to do it.

You start to think things like "I do the bank paperwork or go out with my friends?". A healthy person simply does both things, but someone with this type of disease does not have enough "spoons" to spend on both.

I perfectly remember one day when I was looking forward to get home and work on my scrapbook album, but also I had to go to the market. Go to the market was obligatory, because I hadn't enough things for the rest of the week, so the idea of scrapbook was set aside and this frustrated me in a big way. While I was buying angrily at the market I thought "I will try to work on my album anyway". But as I anticipated, I was too tired and I just went to sleep, leaving the scrapbook for another day, though it frustrated me.

When someone with depression says "sorry, I can not go, I'm too tired" or "I have no energy to do X activity" is something real, not an excuse. These people spent all their "spoons" in doing things the entire day.

And where I'm going with all this? The idea of this post is that healthy people have better understanding of someone who goes through this type of disease and that people with depression or chronic diseases have a better way to explain how they feel.

Dealing with mental illnesses is very exhausting, for the patient and for the people around them. Both sides should try to communicate what they feel in the best way possible and foremost, they must have a lot of patience and love.

I have been in therapy with a psychiatrist for some time and I think I'm getting better, or at least now I realize the things that discourage and make me feel bad. I am working so the black dog leave me and to have more spoons in my life:)

Hugs for everyone!

In Photos: October 2014

2014-11-19T17:44:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Now is the turn of what I did in October :D

Some of these photos were taken using my phone and edited using the app "A Beautiful Mess" or "PicMonkey", some others were taken with my camera.

Beautiful sunsets from the balcony :)

Photo by Sebastián <3 p="">

Gin 'helping' me during a cleaning day at home. She hides in the nightstand when she hears the vacuum cleaner XD

I had a lot of work in the last weeks of the month. The image below is a map of a region of Chile, where we have to delimit different areas according to their properties. This type of work is fun, but it's very detailed and it gets me easily exhausted.

I've continued playing Destiny, and I reached level 20. Saddly I'm finishing the game :(
I'll have to figure out with which game I am going to replace it. Also I'm playing Dark Souls II, it took me some time to get used to the fighting style of it.

Also, I went to two concerts this month. The first one was Calenda Maia's. This is a band dedicated to play medieval music. It's really amazing the work they do because they not only play great music and have spectacular voices, but also, they perform scenes from medieval theater. Another interesting thing about Calenda Maia is that they made a detailed study of the costumes, poetry, songs, melodies, instruments and even medieval cuisine. Some of their instruments were made by themselves!

Part of the Calenda Maia's Concert

This group has made several tours in Latin America, European countries and in North America, they have even participated in medieval festivals like the Calendimaggio in Assisi.

Photo by http://www.ellalabella.cl/calendamaia

Photo by

http://www.eldiariopanguipulli.cl/notas/NOTAS%20DEL%202010/05%20MAYO/04/calenda%20maia.html

If you want to know more information about this group, you can see it at http://www.calendamaia.cl and I leave a video of one of their presentations.

Video by TribuArcana

The second concert was part of the "Festival internacional de innovación social" or FIIS. This event promotes innovation, social and environmental entrepreneurship. Every year, some speakers are invited to perform lectures, they are global and local leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, businessmen, representatives of various groups, students, etc. In fact, the event features a mix of music and speachs.

My friends :D!

Group Astro at FIIS

Apart from the music and speachs, there are stands of different organizations, food stalls, stands selling innovative products, etc. And all this is done in the Bicentenario park, where you can have a picnic and enjoy the day.

Finally, pics of Halloween! I was sick this year and I couldn't celebrate as I wanted :(

Halloween Cake Pops

Decoration of the office

Halloween Cupcakes

Halloween Outfit

Well, I hope I have entertained you with this post.

Hugs for everyone!

In Photos: September 2014

2014-09-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

Hello!

Here I show you a summary of what I did during September.

All these photos were taken using my phone and edited using the A Beautiful Mess app or PicMonkey.

Blossoming almond tree in my family house. First sign that spring began.

Resting with Gin.

Pins of the movie UP! I bought them because they remind me of my father, since he looked a lot like Carl.

Terrible photo but I love it! My friends screaming from the building, asking me to stay with them :) They tried to bribe me with a plush of a ghost XD

Coca Cola nails. Special Collection of OPI nail polish.

Detail of the nails.

Amusement ride at the National Stadium's Fonda

The best Amusement ride at the National Stadium's Fonda. This octopus was really angry! The fondas are temporary places that are mounted during the independence celebrations of Chile. There, typical food and drinks are sold and there are various shows and amusement rides.

My character in Destiny, the new game I'm addicted to. This game is really beautiful.

Franz Ferdinand's Concert.

One of the newest things I did this month was going to eat Korean barbecue. It is the first time I go to something like this and I found that the concept is very funny.

Chicken barbecue. That tube you see in the center is a smoke extractor.

Chicken barbecue.

Dessert. I loved the apple bunnies.

Playing with the smoke extractor XD

Well, I hope that this post have entertained you.

Hugs for everyone!

Cirque du Soleil - Corteo

2014-09-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to see the show Corteo of Cirque du Soleil. It is the second time I see one of these shows, because last year I had the opportunity to see Varekai. The main story of Corteo is about a funeral procession of a dead clown and Varekai is about a forest full of magic and fantastic creatures.

Photo of Corteo

Photo of Varekai

If you have never been to a Cirque du Soleil show, let me tell you that their shows mainly a mix of a fantastic stories with traditional circus shows like jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, etc.

Part of Corteo´s Show

One of the main features of these shows, are the characters who tell us the lead story. All the participants in the show, including the band and singers, are characters with specific roles within the show. This means that sometimes, especially in the acts with a lot of characters, you don't know where to look, since all the people on stage are playing their character.

Protagonist of Corteo - The Dead Clown

Character of Corteo - The Ringmaster

Protagonist of Varekai - Icarus

Protagonist of Varekai - Betrothed

The tickets to these shows are not cheap (at least in Chile), I must say that they worth it. The shows have an incredible mise-en-scene, from the stage to the costumes, with great music and amazing circus acts. Also, you have a good view from any location, even in the cheapest one, because the tent where the shows are presented has an ideal size, where you have a great view from anywhere.

Well, about Corteo´s show, the main story sounds a little bit sad, but the show does not lose the humor and many of the jokes are related to the country where the show is presented. I really liked it, because it has a stronger story than what I saw in Varekai (although Varekai is also spectacular) and I loved the staging, which achieves a gloomy atmosphere with the chandeliers, angels, the baroque curtains and the painting of the funeral procession.

Photo of Corteo´s Stage

Photo of Corteo´s Stage - Detail of the painting of the Funeral Procession

So I recommend going to any of the shows if you have the opportunity. For the people of Chile, the Corteo show will be performing until 5 October and there are still some tickets available ;)

That's all! Hugs for everyone!

Note: All photos belong to the website of Cirque du Soleil. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/

Vacations 2014 - Part I: Arica!

2014-08-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

I know is a little late to talk about my summer vacations (in Chile, summer vacations are in January and February), but I took some beautiful photos and I want to share it with you. ;)

During the vacations of this year we visited two completely opposite places of Chile: Arica and Huilo Huilo Park. These places have very different landscapes, because Arica is located in the northern part of my country, with a most likely desert climate and Huilo Huilo Park lies in the south, where the climate is much more humid. Well, as the title says, in this post I will tell about our visit to Arica and in the next post about Huilo Huilo.

Arica is one of the cities that lies northernmost of Chile, in fact is the place that serves as a point of departure to Peru and Bolivia.

The yellow circle is the area of the city of Arica and Azapa Valley. In the black circles there are other places that we visited: On the right you can see the area of Putre and Lake Chungará and above the city of Tacna, in Peru.

This city has a very pleasant climate, for this reason it is known as the "City of Eternal Spring", which makes it perfect for enjoying its beaches almost the entire year.

I must admit that I hardly ever swim at chilean beaches, because I consider that they are very cold (or I am very susceptible to cold XD), but in my opinion the water from the beaches of Arica is much warmer than the rest of Chile’s beaches. So I managed to swim on it.I think that the last time that I did it was about 15 years ago :)

With friends at the beach

Swimming :P

Sunset

One of the most visited places in Arica is the "Morro de Arica". El Morro is a hill that is almost in the middle of the city, close to the coast. This hill is very important in Chile’s history, because one of the major battles of the Pacific War took place in here. In fact, at the top of the hill there is a large historical and weaponry museum.

View of the hilltop of El Morro, from the beach

View from the hilltop of El Morro

Some of the exhibits of the Historical and Weaponry Museum at El Morro

The hilltop of El Morro

We also visited the "Valle de Azapa", which is a valley located near to Arica well known for its fruits and vegetables, especially olives. Here is a very interesting museum where you can see archaeological remains and mummies.

Chinchorro’s mummies in the Archaeological and Anthropological Museum of San Miguel de Azapa. These mummies are from the period between 5000 and 2000 b.c.

And finally, we visited one of the "must" places in northern Chile, the Chungará Lake. This lake is one of the highest located in the world, at about 4500 m.a.s.l. The majority of the tours starts at Arica and they are quite long, lasting almost an entire day, but they really worth it. This is mainly because you have make stops often, so you can get used to the altitude and in this way don't suffer from altitude sickness or "Puna" as it’s call here. A good thing of this stops is that you can visit the towns that are in the way and by a lot of local handcrafted items

One of the first stops on the tour is to observe the Lluta geoglyphs, which can be seen in the following photos. Some of these figures represent people and other animals.

Here are some photos of the other stops that we made on the way to the lake:

Poconchile's Cemetery

View from Pucará's scenic view

Another view from Pucará's scenic view

And in one of the stops we could see closely these llamas. I love these animals!

After many stops and about 8 hours of travel, we arrived to Chungará Lake. Besides the beautiful lake and volcanoes, in this place you can see a lot of native wildlife, including llamas, ducks and flamingos.

Finally, in the return to Arica, we made a last stop in a town called "Putre". It's really beautiful and still remains with its buildings made of stone, such as they were in antiquity. The town's church is one of the national monuments of Chile and has had to be rebuilt several times due to the earthquakes it suffered.

Me in front of Putre's church

Belltower of Putre's Church

Well, that sums up much of what we did in Arica. One of the days of this trip, we went to Peru and visited the city of Tacna. There we bought a lot of stuff and we ate the delicious Peruvian cuisine, 100% recommended! Too bad I do not have many pictures of that part of the trip.

In front of Tacna's Cathedral (photo taken by Pilar :P )

That's all! Hugs for everyone!

Some extra photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52163012@N08/sets/72157646673208132/

The Very First Post!!

2014-07-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Well, first things first. The presentation!

Mi name is Andrea. I live in a long, thin country in South America, called Chile. My mother language is Spanish, so please forgive my bad english.

I am 28 years old and my profession is civil engineer in hydraulics. I’m a person with diverse tastes and because of this I decided to start this blog, so I could share the things that I love.

I will tell you some things about me, so that you can start knowing me better:

- I love animals, but especially cats. This year, my first cat “Coñiñi” left me. We were together a long time and I miss her so much.

Coñiñi – Photo by Diego Martin

Recently, a new member joined my little family. “Gin” is a very loving and naughty kitten that has won our hearts.

Beside Gin, there are others members of my family, they are 4 dogs: Oso, Chiqui, Kazan y Negro.

Oso and Negro

Chiqui

Oso and Kazan

Kazan’s tongue :p

- My favorite holiday is Halloween, even though isn't a very common celebration in my country (though is becoming more popular nowadays). So I love pumpkins, spiders, ghosts and everything related to this holiday.

- I love to cook every kind of things, but I prefer cooking sweet things. I have taken some courses about making cupcakes, cakes and cake pops, etc.

Ice cream Moshi

Accordion Potatoes – Recipe by A Beautiful Mess

- I love sewing, especially costumes. Recently I joined an international community of costumers. In this community they dedicate mainly to costumes of old periods and movies, so I hope I can make a new costume of this type soon.

- I really like taking photos. I try to take better photos each day because I think that is the better way to keep memories. For that reason, I will start an album of scrapbook, so I can show my photos.

- I have a very obsessive personality, so I could easily start a new collection of anything. Actually, I collect dolls, owls figures, old keys, plush toys called “caveys” and I think I’m about to start a new one of measuring spoons :P

Collection of Coney and Cavey

Parcial collection of Pullip dolls

- Very often I buy things outside of my country by internet, because many things here are sold in a very high price or are not sell at all. What I usually buy are clothes, accessories and things for my collections.

- My family is very small. My mother and father died, just as my grandparents. My most immediate relatives are my 3 siblings Ximena, Carola and Ignacio.

Actually I live with my boyfriend, in an apartment to which we moved in mid-June. It's a very big change for me because I left the house where I had lived all my life and also is the first time that I live in an apartment in the heart of Santiago!! (capital of Chile).

Soon I will show you more photos of the apartment and how we are decorating it.

Well, that sums up part of my life. I hope to share with you all these things that put together my life; my collections, photos, pets, recipes, travels and the evolution of our new apartment! Basically all my very many things! ;)

I hope that you enjoy my blog. A hug for everyone!