Chocolate and celery?

Yesterday we had a program tour which involved eating chocolate! We went to a small chocolate factory in Curacaví, which is a little town in the foothills, and we met the founder of the chocolate workshop, Félix Brunatto. He explained to us about how he uses unconventional—and very fresh—ingredients to make the chocolates, which are then shipped throughout the world in beautiful boxes, also handmade. We had chocolates with celery, cloves, oregano, lemon, grapes, cheese, hot pepper, and more. All of them were delicious! I actually think I liked the oregano one the best. They use ingrediants that the Aztecs, Mayans, and Tolmecs used, and also traditional Chilean recepies, and they grow all the herbs they use right there (there they are in front of me on the porch). Also they have a store in Manhattan so I'm totally going...

Then we went to Isla Negra, another one of Pablo Neruda’s houses. It’s not actaully an island, but it has a beautiful view of the ocean. He designed it himself and filled it with all his collected things, like figureheads from the front of the prows of ships, insects under glass, photographs of poets, ships in bottles, paintings, shells, books, and a giant wooden horse. There was also a steam engine out front. He really liked things—just things in general. I think it’s ridiculous that he three houses absolutely full of random stuff, but I love him for it, too.

I’m going to read his poem “Alturas de Machu Picchu” this week, because next week I’m going to Machu Picchu!! I’m really exicted and a little nervous; I’m going with just one friend and we’re taking the bus all the way up there. First we’re going to San Pedro de Atacama (leaving on the bus Thursday evening, arriving Friday evening…ugh), which is a desert in the north of Chile and one of the best places on Earth to see the stars. Also there are gysers and salt flats and the Valle de la Luna. It’s turned out to be a lot of work planning trips like this by ourselves, but it’s also fun and going to be worth it!

Tomorrow I have my Television Journalism class, which is going to be a huge challenge, I’ve found, because the idea is to learn not only how to use the cameras and write news stories but also how to—eek—announce the news, which I often can’t even understand. But hopefully it will be a good kind of challenge. The other thing I got myself into is English Opens Doors, so once a week I’ll be assisting in an English class with students at a school in Valparaíso. I don’t know what age yet or how it’s going to work exactly, but I think it will be difficult but fun.