Arriving in Arauco

We are now with our second host family and are now in the city of Arauco. Today after lunch, we left the city of Lota with hosts from the Rotary Club of Arauco and drove to Arauco. Upon arriving we were dropped off at the houses of our new hosts. Again we were all greeted with open arms.

After I introduced myself and learned about my new host, we drove down to the local beach. Below are some pictures. What I found strange is that all three of these pictures were taken in about 5 minutes of each other, but the sky was so different.

After visiting the local beach, we returned to my hosts house in order to get ready for dinner. My update tomorrow will include information about our dinner and presentation. I need to get to sleep. 

Friday April 8th 2011

I know that I owe this blog some more updates as to each days activities. I will update the missing days when I get a few moments of downtime. I promise. In any case, below is my entry for the morning and afternoon of April 8th.

Today we said our goodbyes to Concepción and hello to the Rotary Club of Arauco and like the Rotary Clubs of Concepcion, we were greeted with open arms. What a great feeling!

This morning we started our day with a tour through the the Mina de Lota "El Chifton del Diablo" and the famous park in the town of Lota. This was our last advanture with the great clubs of the city of Concepción. 

Photographs of the Mina de Lota "El Chifton del Diablo"

After the mine we went to the Park of Dona Isidora Goyeneche of Cousion. The was was built over a ten year period as a gift to his wife. The park has over 300 types of trees from around the world as well as a fabulous collection of flowers and other figures. Below I have included a few of the pictures that I hope can provide aone with an idea of just how beautiful a place it is. 

After we finished our tour of the park we all went for lunch and conversations with our hosts.

Thank you Miguel Elizalde Gonza'lez, Pedro Cisternas, Rossane Figueroa Acuna, and Silvia San Martin Inzunza. You created a very special day.

We just want to say thank you to all of the Rotary Clubs in the city of Concepción for all of your generosity and support over this last week. The experiences that each of you have shared with us will stay with us for the rest of our lives.  Your city and its people have touched our hearts deeply. Thank You All.

Wow- another great 2 days here in Chile! Yesterday we visited the Geodesy Center and the Biotechnology center at Universidad de Concepcion. The university is doing a lot of important research and, being a science nerd, I especially loved it! The goedetic center was able to detect with sub milimeter accuracy (very precise!) the movement of an indivdual point in Concepcion due to last years earthquake. In some areas there was 3 meters of horizontal movement and/or 1.5 meters of vertical movement. The biotechnology center is doing a lot of research in forest pathology and genetics, biodiesel production, and aquaculture.

Today we saw an amazing mural by a Mexican painter, Jorge Gonzalez Camarena, that was given to the Chilean people after the earthquake of 1960. We all had the opporunity to do some vocational time (I went to the Environmental Science dept. at the Univ. de Concepcion) and then we had lunch at a beautiful club within a 700-acre park. After an enormous lunch and mucho vino (lots of wine) 3 of us had the opportunity to go horseback riding!

We gave our 1st presentation tonight to 4 clubs (~60 people). It may not have been perfect, but we all learned a lot about each other and had a great time. The song, "Take me out to the ball game,"complete with inflatable bat and ball and Crackerjacks, was a huge hit!

Random pictures from the first three days -

Some random pictures of the group here in Chile.

Us at the beach.

The group at the Altanta airport waiting for our flight to

Santiago. We are ready to start this advanture.

 The whole group and our hosts on the beach in Pingueral.

Bob, Jim and Rossana at main Concepcion Firehouse

 

Bob and Jim at one of the Concepcion firehouses

"Labor Omnia Vinvit" or "El Trabajo todo Le Vence"

or

"The work defeats everything!"

 One of the buildings damaged during last years earthquake.

The area where the Tsunami occurred.

April 4th - First Vocational Day

Here we are in Concepcion. What a great city and what great people. Everywhere we go the people are so nice. Today I went to the University of Bio Bio and met with their Technology Department. It is funny that even if there is a language barrier when speaking tech everyone can understand each other!!!!

Here are some pictures of downtown Concepcion-

A building that was destroyed in last year’s earthquake.

A city dog sleeping.

Lindsay at the Essbio wastewater treatment plant.

 Central Plaza in Concepcion

View of the San Vincete Bay- industrial area of Concepcion