Welcome to Santiago!

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been up to update my blog lately because I've been really busy with meetings and engineering tours at Chile. I apologize for all grammar and spelling errors. Hopefully I have a chance to update more often in the future. We all arrived at Chile on August 4 and I could probably sum up my first day with one, word. COLD! You know when you just get off the airplane and you have to go through a walkway to the terminal. While you walk through you could still feel the weather outside. The second I walked off the plane I felt the cold air from outside. However, in this case the cold air was everywhere in the airport. The airport's heating system was damaged by the 8.8 earthquake so it was super cold inside. It also didn't help that we arrived at 2:00 in the morning. Evidence of the earthquake is also evident with the lack of insulation and roofing materials in the airport. The seasons in Chile is flipped from the United States. Right now is winter and their summer is during our winter. Whenever I thought about South America I would imagine a really hot place and humidity. Chile actually gets really cold especially since it is right next to the Andes. You can see the snow on the mountains right next to the city of Santiago.

The city of Santiago itself is actually a really modern city. It looks like any other major city in the United States. There are a lot of tall towers and also some nice historic buildings. One thing that Santiago has that I wish more cities in California would have are pedestrian streets. There is a main street in the city that is dedicated just for pedestrians where a lot of the big stores are located. There is also a really good and cheap metro system in the city. It costs around 500 pesos (around 1 U.S dollar) depending on the time of day for entry wherever you want to go. As opposed to Bart where you have to pay depending on where you are going. The Metro takes you almost wherever you want to go within a block or so. The only problem though is that there are a lot of people and it could get crowded at times. However, a train is always coming in and out the station often ( I don't remember having to wait for a train longer than 2 min.). Most people use the metro because there is a cost to driving around the city and parking is really available. I have yet to see a parking structure in the city.

The food does not really compare to Peruvian food. The cuisine is heavily dependent on meat. One meal that a lot of people get is called a completo which is pretty much a hot dog covered with mayonnaise and avocado. There are all kinds of hot dogs such as Italianos and Mexicanos which just describes the topping they put on the hot dog. One night I got a hot dog that was a foot long covered in avocado and mayonaisse and hot sauce... It was only good for the first 4 inches haha.They also have something called the Chorillana which is pretty much their version of Carne Asada fries. It is french fries covered with eggs, assorted meat, onions and other cholesterol cloggers. In an attempt to eat a little healthier I just buy vegetables from the market and make a stir fry with oyster sauce. One of my friends even taught me how to cook arroz caldo which is just rice mush. To sum it all up, Chilean food is pretty much bread, rice or french fries with some sort of meat and onions all ranging from $6-$10 depending on what kind of meat you get. For all you drinkers out there a bottle of wine is as low 3 U.S dollars and a liter of beer is around 1.50 U.S dollars. Also, they have empanadas which costs around a dollar and I've been eating for breakfast or lunch. Empanadas here are really big and they are like sandwich replacements. I recommend an empanada de pino (chopped meat and onions).

That's pretty much Santiago, it's not as cultural as Peru is but it is very advanced in comparison. I've never been to Europe but a lot of people have told me Santiago has a European feel to it. A lot of people would probably have fun skiing in the Andes or walking around the hundreds of trendy shops that I saw. Chile is also supposedly really known for its wine so a lot of you might be interested in wine tasting. The next couple of posts will be dedicated to summing up my engineering meetings and tours. Its been pretty cool meeting with a lot of different professionals and going through earthquake sites.

Hope you are all doing well! Try to leave comments if you can.

-Jason

Day 4 to 7: Cuzco and Machu Picchu

Oh man where do I start with this blog. How about with the 22 hour bus ride trip from Lima to Cuzco. If you ever want to visit Machu Picchu I highly recommend buying a plane ticket from Lima to Cuzco because the the bus ride sucked. The road from Lima to Cuzco consists of a lot of twists and turns. Imagine being on a bus where the driver turned every other second. My friend said it best when he said he woke up in the middle of the night and said ¨I´m on a boat¨. The bus ride sucked so much that over half the bus threw up in the bathroom. But wait, there´s more, the bathroom somehow flooded with a mixture of water, toilet water, pee or all three. One time when I had to use the bathroom I almost fell trying to avoid the small lake in the bottom. But you get the point, don´t take the bus from Lima to Cuzco. Unfortunately, I will be taking the bus from Cuzco to Lima which I would imagine would suck just as much.


Once I got to Cuzco everything was better except for the fact that you´re 10,000 ft. up and so I got altitude sickness. Luckily they have altitude sickness pills which I bought and also cocoa tea for all you druggies out there (the same leaves they use to make cocaine) which I of course did not try. Walking up and down Cuzco was a struggle but the city itself is really nice. The day we arrived we arranged with to meet with a travel agent who got us a really good deal on our trip to Machu Picchu. I would not recommend this person to any of you for various reasons haha. Yes we did pay a lot less than an average person but there´s a reason for that. Before I talk more about Machu Picchu let me talk a little more about what happened in Cuzco. Just like every other city in Peru everything is negotiable so never settle with the first price anyone offers you. For example, when I was trying to buy a sweater the lady asked for 30 soles ( a little over $10). When I was about to leave she brought it down to 25 soles. I negotiated for 2 sweaters at 40 soles (dos por cuarenta soles) and she said cuarenta cinco. I said no but I´ll be back tomorrow determined to get two sweaters for 40 soles.


So this is where things get crazy. I couldn´t sleep the night before leaving for Machu Picchu because of altitude sickness so I ended up not sleeping and waking up everyone at 650 to leave for our trip. When our travel agent Vicky came she said she couldn´t get the train tickets we wanted so we had to get another route to Machu Picchu. We went in a big van that could fit around 20 people and picked up other tourists. The van ride took almost 7 hours to get to Iglerectico which was where we boarded a 1 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes which is the city at the base of Machu Picchu. The van ride consisted of bumpy roads, stops at shady towns, close calls driving near the edge of cliffs and funny people. Things got even crazier when we met our tour guide Juan Carlos who somehow managed to disappear and reappear at appropriate times. We stopped at a random town where dinner was provided and Juan Carlos took our passports and i.d and didn´t give it back until later that night (I recommended bringing a lot of copies of your passport to give). Oh I forgot to mention there was a road blockade because of a farmers strike so we were stuck in a random city ( this would happen twice more during the trip). Fortunately, the police came and told the strikers to move... and they did.


After the 7 hour van ride we got pretty close with the other people in the van (french girls, a chilean, peruvians, etc...) which was cool. The van dropped us off at a "train station" which was pretty much just where the tracks end. We waited around an hour for the train to leave and they put all the non peruvians in the last train car which was weird. During the train ride we played old maid with some of our new friends. When we arrived at Aguas Calientes (the base town of Machu Picchu) we met up with Juan Carlos and the rest of our group. This is where things get a little shady. First, the hostel he tried to put us in didn´t have enough beds so he had to walk us to another one. Then, the place we were supposed to eat dinner was packed so he randomly chose a different meeting place. Also, my friends noticed that the reason he would disappear and reappear is because he had another group he was taking care of.



The night before Machu Picchu I was able to practice my Spanish with a Brazilian guy and another guy from Honduras. It was cool because I know English really well and a little bit of Spanish, the Brazilian guy knew Portugese well and was pretty decent in Spanish and English, and the guy from Honduras only knew Spanish. We would help each other and translate for one another when we were confused. Hopefully with a lot of practice I will become fluent in Spanish. That night I only got a couple of hours of sleep before Macchu Picchu. My group planned to wake up at 2:30 to get a head start climbing the mountain. I´m still uncertain if I wanna blog about Machu Picchu because I don´t want to ruin it for anyone that wants to go. The feeling of not knowing what was ahead and the unknown is what made Machu Picchu so amazing that I want all of you to experience it the same way. Even if I do blog about it, I recommend not reading it. The purpose of the blog would be so I don´t forget what happened. In short, there is a reason why Machu Picchu is one of the seven wonders of the world and you should all go visit it!


God Bless all of you and try to leave a comment if you can.

Day 3: Planning for Cusco

Today was a pretty crazy day. Had the usual breakfast of bread and mystery juice. While we were eating, Lonnie and Theresa showed up which was pretty cool. Theresa was sick with Typhoid so she was telling us her story of being in the hospital and all that. In short, hospitals here are cheap but really crowded and a little sketchy. The important thing though is that she got the medicine she needed and she feels better. Today we met a German named Milan who seems pretty cool. He´s traveling the world by himself and will go to Cuba in a couple of weeks. He told us a story of how a random family treated him out to breakfast and introduced him to their neice or something.

Getting our whole trip to Machu Picchu organized was a little difficult but we eventually got it. Lonnie hooked us up with a travel person in Cusco to get a package to Machu Picchu for only $110. The people at Lima were asking for $200 so I´m really happy with what we got. The package we got includes a place to stay, a meal, the train ride to Machu Picchu from Cusco and a guide from the base of the mountain to Machu Picchu. Geo and Marie helped us get a bus ticket from Cusco to Lima on Cruz Del Sur which is supposed to be a really nice bus agency. In all, our whole trip in Peru is set which is exciting.

Thankfully I haven´t been sick from food yet and hopefully it will stay that way. Peruvian food is the best! Today I had Lomo soltado which is pretty much stir fry. There was also this fried banana which they have in the Philippines also. The others didn´t really like it but I did. Peruvian food is influenced by cuisines from Spain, China and other parts of South America which is probably why it´s so good. I can´t wait to try the other kinds of food over here. Also, people in Peru really like pollo. This is perfect for Ana because she has food allergies but she likes chicken a lot. Hopefully we can travel around together in the future!

We also visited Iglesia de San Francisco which was really cool. It was filled with a lot of artifacts and stuff from a long time ago. The church is still being used now and so there are still people that go in the chapel to pray and attend services. We got an english speaking tour and our guide looked and talked like dracula. He would talk really mysteriously and also look up it in a weird way haha. It was kind of creepy actually because the church has catacombs which is pretty much a mass grave underneath the church. The catacombs at San Francisco is supposed have buried almost 25,000 people. We saw a lot of bones that were stacked on top of each other and also skulls. The catacombs itself was really huge and there was a lot of bones everywhere. There were also paintings on the columns that show how some of the saints were murdered (crucified, beheaded by an axe, etc...). In the second floor there was a really cool old school library kind of like the one in Beauty and the Beast.

That´s it for now really. Lonnie is leaving tomorrow and the rest of us will be travelling to Cusco for a 1 9 hour bus ride. Pray that we arrive there safely and nobody gets sick. I also got to talk to Ana on aim for the first time during this trip which was awesome.

Leave a comment or note for me if you want!

-Jason

Day 2: Walking Around Lima

First day around the city!

Today we woke up around 10 am and had breakfast in our hostel. I had bread with butter, coffee cake and this really good mystery juice. Afterwards we took a taxi to a bus agency to buy tickets to Cusco. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people going to Cusco right now so buying a ticket took a while. Eventually we met Fernando who helped us get tickets to go to Cusco on July 27. The trip will take around 20 hours which sucks but hopefully I´ll find a way to sleep most of it. Afterwards we walked around Lima and looked at the shops. Lima is really close to the Pacific Ocean so it´s actually really cold over here. The outdoor mall we went to was really nice but the prices at the store seemed pretty expensive still. Everyone in Lima that we have met so far are really nice. We passed by a live band where a lot of old people were dancing in the middle of a park which was nice.

Geo and I were talking about how in America most old people just stay inside a house. For lunch we ate at a nice little hole in the wall Peruvian restaurant. The prices were really good and the place was reccommended to us by Fernando. I ordered Pollo Horan which was pretty much grilled chicken with mashed potatoes. While at the restaurant Geo was teaching Marie and I some Spanish. The food was really good and we´re probably going to go back there again. I´m really surprised by the city of Lima because it´s really nice and organized. There is also a good amount of police officers walking the city.

When we were back at the hostel we might a french guy named Patrick who is in his last days of travelling the world for 6 months. Out of of nowhere we heard an American voice say " I was hoping you guys would be here". It was Lonnie! She showed up unexpectedly to meet up with us which is pretty cool. That´s it for now. We plan on eating out for dinner and hopefully visiting Theresa at the hospital who is sick possibly with Typhoid.

Leave a comment or note for me if you want!

-Jason

Day 1: First Impressions

Hello from Peru!

So today was a really long day. My flight from San Francisco left at 12am for Houston. I arrived at Houston and had a lay over for about 3 hours. Spent most of the time talking to Ana for the last time until I get back(I´ll miss you!). Then flew from Houston to Panama City where I had a 5 hour lay over. I met up with Geo and Marie over at Panama. Thank goodness for Geo who can speak Spanish because 3 years of high school Spanish for me did nothing. At Panama I bought a hot dog and chocolate and almost lost my pillow. I really wish I knew Spanish because I already got duped. Some worker gave me a peso instead of a quarter haha. The flight to Lima from Panama city was pretty cool and I watched some movie with Jennifer Aniston. Someone stole my window seat but I didn´t want to make a big deal about it so I just sat in the aisle which wasn´t bad. They served dinner on the flight which was salad, a dinner roll, vegetables, and some sort of mashed potato with meat. Overall the meal was pretty good and I finished everything.

When we were about to land to Peru the attendants started handing out papers to fill out. Unfortunately it was all in Spanish so I had to guess what some parts were asking for. When we landed I found an English version of the papers and used that instead. The drive to the hostel was pretty interesting and again I´m so glad Geo speaks Spanish. We were able to get a cab driver who seemed pretty nice. My first impressions of Peru and Lima is that it´s a pretty clean place. The roads are pretty wide and there is barely any pollution on the streets or air. I was expecting to see something like Manila where the streets are filled with dirt and the sky is polluted but I didn´t. During the cab ride I kept thinking to myself that if Geo didn´t speak Spanish I would´ve been scared because the drive was around 25 min. and we were going through all these dark places far away from the airport. Eventually we arrived at the hostel and we said bye to our cab driver.

The hostel itself is pretty nice. We were able to get a room to ourselves and there is free internet and breakfast. The room has 8 beds for all of us and one bathroom. I´m pretty excited for these next couple of weeks and blessed with this opportunity to see how God is working in the other parts of the world. Tomorrow we plan to meet up with the rest of the group and figure out transportation to Cusco. I´ll do my best to try and blog everyday if given the opportunity. Leave a comment or note for me if you want!

-Jason

Jason's Engineering Chile Trip Fundraiser!

Me and a group 10 other undergraduate structural engineering chosen were chosen to be part of a group that will go to Chile after the recent earthquake. While at Chile we will be doing both education and humanitarian work for 5 weeks from July 24 to September 12. The 8.8M earthquake that hit Chile this past February is one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. I feel truly blessed by God to be given this opportunity to use what I learned in school and help out a community in need. For a while now I've been praying to God to reveal to me how he wants me to use my engineering degree to further his Kingdom. This is a great chance for me to put both my faith and eduction to work and I want you to be a part of it! I pray that while I'm at South America I will be able to reach out to the people and show God's love through that.

http://podcast.uctv.tv/vod/18126.mp4
Two professors at UCSD recently made a trip there and this video talks about their findings on both building and foundation reponses. We are working with Dr. Jose Restrepo and Dr. Tara Hutchinson to plan our itinerary of sites to see and professionals to meet. Enjoy the video!

The trip will be around $1,700 which includes the plane ticket to and from South America, lodging for 5 weeks, transportation, food, etc... I am fund raising to help make this dream possible. Any amount is greatly appreciated. If you are unable to donate, prayers and letters of encouragement would be just as great!

TO DONATE: Click the PAYPAL link below.

Any amount counts. Whether you can donate $500, $100, $50, $10 or $1 I really appreciate it!

Thank you to the follow donors!

Mang and Pang Abedania: $150

Nanay, Lolo and Ninang: $100

Anna and Robb Jang: $50

Auntie Grace and Family: $100

Issa and Mon Teodoro: $100

Oscar Mauricio: $100

Flor and Emma Domingo: $100

Ray and Maritess Sarmiento: $100

Gerry and Malou Hernandez: $50

Agapito and Anniebel Heredia: $25

Rene and Sylvia Posadas: $100

Auntie Puring: $100

Archie and Juliet Almacen: $2oo

Jun and Gee Abedania: $90

Jimmy and Malou Abedania: $100

Conrad and Bing Hernandez: $100

Angelo Hernandez: $100

Total Amount Raised: $1565!

Thank you to everyone who donated and also those who gave me words of encouragement before the trip. God definitely answered my prayers with the amount of money I raised for this trip. I can´t wait for these next couple of weeks!

First Blog

Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

Machu Picchu,Peru

I started a blog because I have a lot planned for this summer and this will be the best way to share it to everyone. I'm going to be in Alabama from June 19 to Jul17 for AFROTC training. And then i will be spending the rest of my summer at Peru and Chile to do reconnaissance and humanitarian work for UCSD's Structural Engineering Department. I can't wait to see how God will reveal himself to me through these different events!