Las Ruinas de Huanchaca

After visiting El Paranal, we went into the town of Antofagasta about 2 hours away to eat lunch and check out a museum and some ruins of an old silver mine right in the middle of town. It was called the Ruinas de Huanchaca. There we learned about some of the minerals found in the Chilean ground and how the mining industry has transformed throughout time.

 

El Paranal

The 11th and 12th grade classes in the school take a trip to a place called El Paranal (the European Southern Observatory) every year to learn about the sciences involved in astronomy. El Paranal is the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory. It's located just outside of Antofagasta, a town on the coast in the Atacama desert about 6 hours south. It is the perfect location because since the Atacama is the driest desert in the world, there aren't clouds or moisture to block the views. There also aren't people because there's no reason to live in a desert like that, so that means no light pollution. The astronomers and workers at the observatory live in an underground dome with a huge curtain to cover the windows of the dome at night to block any light that might come from inside. They sleep during the day and work all night. There are 4 huge telescopes with lenses about 9 meters in diameter that can work separately or together depending on the mission. The technology is amazing and they are planning on making an even larger telescope, with a lens about 40 meters across that will be capable of watching a person walk across the moon. That telescope will be able to observe different galaxies and the solar systems within them...possibly revealing other planets that support life. Amazing. Although we weren't there at night and didn't see any of the views of stars or employees working, it was still pretty cool to learn about the observatory and see something so unique.

 

The giant lens inside one of the telescopes

Arica Trail Run

Another race? Yep. But this time it was not along the flat beach in Iquique...we went out of town to participate. This was a trail race in the hills of Arica, a town about 4-5 hours north of Iquique, very close to the border with Peru. The types of trails I'm used to running on in the US are cake compared to what was waiting for me in Arica...and I never could have imagined what I would be running. I expected some gradual inclines and declines, maybe a steep one at the beginning and the end to get up to the top of the hill and run around that before coming down to finish. Man was I wrong. It was impossible to even walk up some of the hills, let alone run, and if you leaned back a little bit, you would tumble down the whole thing. There were times when I had to crawl up the hill and not look up or down because I would have freaked out and fallen backwards down it. The race was a 10k and took me at least twice as long to finish as it would have on flat ground. I bet I only ran half of it. And on top of all of the insane inclines, we were running in the desert, so it was super hot, windy and DRY. The water stops were out of water when I got there, so I just had to suck it up and keep going. It ended up being a competition of strength more than running or speed, and I ended up winning again (not hard to do when there's only about 6 women in the race). I felt pretty good afterwards during our team asado, but the next week was torture as I tried to walk up and down all the stairs at school. But it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The views on the top were spectacular, with the fresh wind air blowing in your face...you were on top of the world. Maybe next time I do the 23k? Oh man what am I saying? Chile's making me CRAZY.

The starting line. See that little white spot on the hill in the background? That's what we had to run up at the beginning...

There were beautiful blue skies and hills all around.

We had to run up the Coca-Cola hill too...among others...

 The start of the marathon.

Hey that doesn't look to bad...

Wait, what's that up ahead?

Oh my gosh we have to run up that sand dune?

Time to crawl.

Before the race...I had no idea what was coming.

 After...hey I won a trophy and some new spandex shorts and a water bottle so that's pretty cool.

 

 The team...dead tired after the race.

 Las chicas

 Some random dude wanted his picture with me...the famous gringa.

My favorite part...sharing a team barbeque with pisco sours after the race.

And I made a new friend...Remi don't be jealous!

Getting in my Groove

Things are finally falling into place for me as a third grade teacher. It was a tough transition trying to guess what my responsibilities were and stay on top of my duties, but now things are becoming clearer and I'm able to have fun as a teacher again. We are finally doing the fun activities that I like to use when I teach since I am actually able to plan and prepare for them. It's a win-win situation for me and my students!