"Benni" and other ridiculousness

This is a picture of Benni, the Italian who is famous here for his stand up routines which includ many Chilean grocerias (swears). I think most of the reason people love him is because for whatever reason it is funny hearing foreigners cuss. Benni is also known for his ridiculously provocative song "Enchufa" which means plug in, and you can guess where that inuendo is going.
Universidad del Bio Bio had the honor of having Benni perform for the closing party for the "Semana Mechona" (freshmen welcome week). Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately I did not understand all of Benni´s routine, but it was an experience to say the least. If you really want to see more of Benni (which I don´t recommend. You can visit his website.


This last week and a half since I returned from Pucon I have been starting to get in the school rhythm (as much as possible in Chile) It is not very uncommon for professors to cancel classes without any forewarning. I had my first test today in Topografia (surveying). I think I did alright (that is if I actually read the questions right). My teachers and classmates have been very helpful and very gracious with me.

The rain has started here in Concepcion, and unfortunately I think this will be pretty common until I leave.

My future travel plans probably include a weekend trip to Santiago next week, but other than that my larger travel plans will be put on hold until the school shuts down for protests. According to my friends, the protests happen here just about every year in May and usually result in the suspension of classes for a week or two. I thought the protests might be starting today when I saw two armored police trucks full of riot police parked outside our school this morning, but they must have been misinformed, because as of yet nothing has happened.

Well enough of my rambling. I look forward to see and especially to talk to all of you when I get back.

Chao

Volcano Villarica

Volcano Villarica.

View from the top

This is a picture of the view halfway up Volcano Villarica. Off in the distance you can see the two other snowcapped volcanoes in the area.

Climbing Down

Climbing down the volcano - a lot easier than climbing up.

Crater

Looking down into the crater of Volcano Villarica from the edge.

Volcano Villarica

This is me standing on the edge of the crater. You could see, and smell the smoke rising from the crater, and you could even hear the lava rumbling, but the crater was too deep to actually see the lava.

Pucon

For easter weekend I decided to pack up my backpack and head to Pucon for some outdoor adventure. Pucon is a small town about 5 hours south and east (towards the mountains) from Concepcion. It is famous for having just about every outdoor sport imaginable and a smoking, sometimes lava spewing volcano only miles away.

I arrived in Pucon on Thursday night and the next morning at breakfast I met another gringo, David and we decided to go rafting. David is a volunteer for the Peace Corp in Paraguay and he was on vacation with his family. We rafted on the Alto Rio Trancura and had a ton of fun, and I must say that the American raft beat out the Brasilian raft in the fact that none of us fell out.

I came to Pucon not knowing what I would do, with such options as rafting, hiking, mountain biking, climbing, and thermal baths. David had climbed the Volcano Villarica the day before I arrived, so I decided to follow suit and sign up for the Volcano climb.

I climbed Volcano Villarica on Saturday. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but we hiked half way up through cinder and the other half on top of snow/ice/glacier. We even had to use crampens and an ice pick!!

I had a ton of fun and actually met 2 other Americans that are also studying abroad in Concepcion but in a different University.

My weekend trip to Pucon was a great time, but unfortunately my Spanish suffered a little, since I pretty much only spoke English in Pucon, but it was definitely worth it.