Paul K. Goldberg

Gabriela Mistral museum  

Hola a Todos!                                                                                                                                                                                               Well it has been a great start to much anticipated year of ambassadorial work and study in Chile! I left the US on March 18^th with high expectations and hopes for a great experience.  The first week I traveled to La Serena (where I was living last year) to visit some friends from the University.  Before leaving I was easily convinced to participate in a triathlon that a friend was involved with (click on “triathlon” to see pictures).  Although I didn’t medal (not even close) I achieved my goal of finishing uninjured!  With a week left before school started I migrated back to Valparaiso to find a place to call home for the year.  I was fortunate enough to find a room in a house with nine Chileans, which paved way to an obvious nickname….”el Gringo”. 

Port entrance Valparaiso from my house                                                                                                                                 

The university I am attending (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso or PUCV)  welcomed all the international students with a week of orientation which included various tours and activities to get us acquainted with the cultural differences that international students often encounter in Chile.  Needless to say it was a great time and a wonderful opportunity to meet many Chileans and other students from all around the world.  There are about 300 international students attending the university, of which about 200 are from the US.  It sounded like a lot to me at first, but considering that there are about 15,000 students here we blend in more that I had expected.  I have found  two other Rotary ambassadorial scholars attending PUCV,  Hannah Kelly from Trenton, Michigan, and Susan Owen from Fresno, California.  I anticipate working with them throughout the year on various projects and visiting their host clubs here in Valparaiso. The University has 9 different campuses that are scattered throughout the city.  This week has been a mix of trying to acquire classes and getting to know the city and its diverse culture.  Although I am still waiting to hear back about a couple courses, I am already registered in a two linguistics classes and a literature class that I am expecting to be challenging.

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparíso

I snuck away for a quick three day visit to Argentina to meet up with my brother-in-law Jimmy who is training in Buenos Aires with his MLS team for two weeks.  We had a great time navigating the city, eating good food, and doing some sightseeing.Last week I met my Rotary host advisor Leonel Pérez, and at a night meeting on Tuesday I was very well received by the other fifteen members of the Bella Vista Rotary club.  After a short formal introduction they exhausted me with a lengthy informal question and answer session which covered everything from US culture, politics, and economy to more information about myself.  We had lots of laughs and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer group to work with this year.  This Friday I will be going to a Rotaract meeting with Susan and Hannah to meet the members of the local club.

I am glad I got to visit many of you before leaving, but if we missed each other, visitors are always welcome!!!

I will be posting some photos in the Gallery soon.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying spring!

Miss you all                                                                                                                                                                                           Abrazos                                                                                                                                                                                                           el Gringo       

Taquile island Lake Titicaca

Hola to all,

It has been awhile since my last update and I have lots to tell!

It seemed like the last month of my job at the university flew by. It was full of going away parties and traveling (and a bit of working too). I made it back to Santiago as a chaperon for a group of tourism students that were doing some research. I was under the impression that traveling with 20 college-aged students was going to be like a vacation but it ended up being quite difficult! I also made it to the nearby wine country and was able to visit some wineries and the Gabriela Mistral museum. After finishing my job I was left with two weeks free before returning to the US, so I decided to backpack northern Chile and southern Peru. I set out with minimal plans (at best) and ended up having quite the adventure. My first stop was San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world, where in many areas rainfall has never been recorded. I visited two desolate valleys on a bike tour and continued heading north.

After meeting a group of Argentineans who convinced me that I had to make time for Machu Picchu, I decided to head that way. Crossing into Peru I was almost immediately caught in a national strike involving public university employees and miners. It halted all bus traffic in southern Peru, and as a result I spent three nights on a bus in the middle of the desert as demonstrators ensured that traffic didn’t move. I finally arrived at Lake Titicaca and the city of Puno, and all the waiting, lack of sleep, and sore back was completely worth it. Shared between Bolivia and Peru, Lake Titicaca is one of the largest lakes in the world, and at over twelve thousand feet it is also the highest navigable lake. The air was amazingly clear and there was a certain unrivaled calmness (possibly induced by the altitude). Puno proved to be a major backpacker’s destination, mainly for the lake and all it has to offer. By far the main attraction is the “Uros“, a culture who lives on floating islands made exclusively from aquatic reeds. This culture started its floating existence hundreds of years ago in an effort to escape the Spanish conquest and now the only thing they need to escape are the swarms of tourists that they attract. I also took a long boat trip to the island of Taquile where a population of about two thousand people live completely isolated from the rest of Peru. They are a self-governing self-sustaining indigenous culture that is well known for their craftsmanship with textiles. Children as young as two start weaving and creating everything from colorful clothing that depicts islanders’ social and marital status to an abundance of souvenirs for visiting tourists.

After a few days on the lake I migrated towards Cusco, the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America and the heart of the Inca Empire. As a stopover leading to Machu Picchu, and quite possibly the apex of most South American vacations, there was also a good deal of tourism there. I found this city to be amazing, from its famous “plaza de armas” to the ancient Incan ruins strewn throughout the surrounding hills. A four hour train ride took me to Aguas Calientes, a small village at the foot of Machu Picchu. From there I hiked a couple of hours to the ruins. Words would fail to describe this place…pictures make a better attempt, but I am convinced that visiting is the only way to appreciate what this culture created. Ironically the national strike proved to work in my favor, since travel in Peru became quite difficult, Machu Picchu wasn’t crawling with photo crazed tourists as it usually is this time of year. My vacation ended with a scramble to get back to Chile to say some more goodbyes and get the rest of my bags. I made my way back to Buenos Aires for a quick visit before returning to the U.S. This has been an amazing chapter and it has been hard to leave this place!

I am looking forward to the warm weather (it is snowing in BA…first time in 30 something years) meeting my new niece Julia, and seeing the family and friends. I will be in the US for about 5 months until my next South American adventure begins.

I hope everyone is well and you are enjoying the summer