A roadtrip to Ecuador

This summer, my friends and I will travel to Ecuador. It's a trip we've wanted to do for a long time, and summer 2016 was the time we finally decided to do it. 

We are a group of five: Eduardo, Claudia, Mono, Matías and I. We've been friends for many years and this won't be our first trip together. We're a good wolf pack of travelers. 

Our plan is to travel on bus, starting from Arica and with final destination to Montañita. It may sound like a long journey to be seated all the way up there, but we'll take our time. It's not just one trip: we want to travel through Perú and Ecuador making a lot of stops on different cities.

The schedule is not yet decided, but it should be something like: Arica - Tacna, Tacna - Lima. Staying in Lima for a few days, then go to Mancora. Staying in Mancora for some days, then go to Trujillo. From Trujillo, taking a bus to Ecuador, probably directly to Guayaquil. Then we haven't decided what to do, but we want to go to the Amazon, to Quito and to Montañita.

I'm not worried about the lack of plans, we like improvising - And I think we are very good at it.  The summer is long and we're full of energy and thirsty to have fun. I just want the vacations to start, there's a big adventure waiting for us!

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Sunny Christmas

Since I arrived to Santiago, I joined the Christmas celebrations of my father's family: dinner with my grandma, brother, aunts and uncles. That side of the family is very small, but close. We cook different stuff every year. Christmas is just and excuse for us to join and share, because none of us (except for my grandmother and her sister) celebrate the catholic rituals.

I guess it's also a reflection of what happens society-wide. Less people tend to celebrate the religious origin of Christmas, and more people just share with their families and exchange gifts. Lately, even the gifts have more importance that sharing which is - in my opinion - a big problem. 

Consumerism is, in many ways, consuming us. We transformed a religious holiday into a shopping season. Every year, there's more focus on what you want to get for Christmas, than what you are going to do for Christmas. I don't think that's okay, not because of the "religious christmas spirit", but for the matter that we are giving to material stuff over everything else.

I don't really care what kind of gifts I'm going to recieve. I do try to give to my beloved ones things that they need or that they really like. I don't like just givings gifts because you have to give something, I care for the gifts to be things that will be useful or that will give joy to the ones that recieve them. I think that's the meaning of a gift, not just giving something, but giving something that matters. 

True Detective & other crime TV series

Watching TV has never been my favorite thing to do, but I have to admit there's a TV series genre I've always liked: crime dramas. 

Because of my grandmother, who used to watch it before bed, I started watching CSI when I was about 10 years old. After that, CSI and Criminal Minds kept me awake for many nights. But I have to say the TV series that really caught me was True Detective.

True Detective is a crime drama TV series written and directed by Nick Pizzolatto, and produced by HBO. The first season tells the story of a couple of crime detectives from Louisiana PD, who investigate a sequence of related murders that happened in a 17-year period. Mixed with a lot of mistiscism and symbolism, the pursue of the killer takes them to very unexpected places and it's very hard for the viewer to guess what's going to happen next. It's a season filled with surprises and unexpected turns that keeps you focused all the time.

A TV series I havent seen but that I's like to, It's Game of Thrones. I'm a big fan of the books of A Song of Fire and Ice, written by George R.R. Martin, who also co-wrote the script for the HBO's TV series. That makes the series very promising for two reasons: first, with the book's writer cooperation, I know the world will be faithful to the one he imagined while writing. Second, HBO has made great productions along the years, recieving tons of awards and recognitions for their series. I want to watch GOT on vacations, when I'll have enought time to just sit and enjoy.