Adventures in Chile

I thought I would have Britton do a guest post on my blog, but after being gone for two weeks it turns out he has a lot of catching up to do with his research and homework. So I'll just share some pictures from his trip quickly.
The workshop/institute was held at the Technical University of Federico Santa Maria which is right next to the harbor. Britton said you walk out the front door of the university to the beautiful view above.

The city of Valparaiso was very quaint with cobblestone streets. Britton said it had "character".
Here's a street vendor in Valparaiso where Britton bought me some earrings. He also brought home a book for Will that's written in Spanish. Will thinks Spanish sounds so silly.
Unfortunately, the food was pretty bland for the most part. Britton's favorite thing to eat there were the empanadas. Below is pictured a popular dish. It's french fries topped with chopped hot dogs, thinly sliced beef, and a fried egg. It's called chorillana, but Britton chose to call it heart attack on a plate. He and his friend Ankit also managed to find what they think is the only Indian restaurant in Chile. It was definitely the only Indian restaurant in Santiago. They served pretty decent food according to Ankit.
Britton and Ankit spent Sunday touring different sites in the capital, Santiago. Here's the Placa de Armas. Sorry, I can't really tell you much more about this, but it looks like a very beautiful, old building.

Here is Palacio de La Moneda that houses the government.
The guard in front of Palacio de La Moneda.
They were able to go see the LDS temple in Santiago. It was closed, there was no visitor center, and because of the gate there wasn't much to do there.
Here's a view of the city from the hotel they stayed at.
Sorry, these pictures are not in order. On Saturday Britton and Ankit skipped classes that day to hike a volcano in the Andes! They were the only two on the tour so the guide took them for a longer hike up the mountain for a view few tourists get to see.
They started their hike at a small village...settlement?...it was really small. Like two or three families lived there. One of the families had a goat farm, and the 12 year-old boy on the horse was herding the goats across the rocky terrain. Britton was impressed with his skills and confidence.
The hike was an all day event, and they only went to the base camp and back. The elevation for the San Jose volcano is 19,213 feet!
The terrain was very rocky and barren, but next to the streams bright green grass grew.
Britton really enjoyed the contrast between the bright green grass oasis, and the rest of the rocky landscape. They also saw a herd or horses grazing up there. That area is traditionally where people take their herds in the summer to fatten up. The hike had the opposite effect for Britton.
We were able to talk to Britton almost every night through Skype, but we still missed having him around for those two weeks!