Sesion 6: My favourite animal

This is reaally hard for me to decide, because I really love cats, dogs, horses, and many other living creatures, but I think this time I will talk about one of my latest love, the Chinchilla.

The Chinchilla is a rodent, endemic from Chile and Argentina, that is endangered in the wild, but 100 years ago started the breeding in captivity, and therefore, there's two kind of chinchilla: the wild one, that it's protected, and the captivity breeded, that it's the one you see on pet-shop and it is used for fur.

They are a bit smaller than a rabbit, and very fast creatures. They also have nocturnal habits and they are known for having the higher density of hair in the world, one of the reasons that led the near to extinction. Their natural color is grey, but along the years in captivity, there have been mutations and now exist different colors like black velvet, white, ebony and charcoal, and many others.

I actually have three chinchillas: Clementina, Tomasa and Ramon. Clementina is a grey and sweet chinchilla, who loves petting and corn. Ramón, also known as "Moncho" is my beautiful white chinchilla and the only male in the group. He scaped once and have a really hard time because of my dogs, but he's fine now. And last but not least is Tomasa, my black velvet chin that is the less sociable of all, but I love her anyway.

I think the chinchillas are a great pets, because they are lots of fun, specially when they take sand baths and run on their wheel. The chinchillas are very clean animals that doesn't smell bad (unless you never clean their cage), they don't bite and they are very sociable and perfect for people who live in flats and doesn't have much space to share.

The chinchillas can live 12 years and they never ever get sick so they don't need a vet, but I would really love to breed them as pets, never for fur!

Here, some picture of my chinchillas!

Sesion 5: Where to go/What to do in Santiago

I love Santiago, despite the polution, the traffic, the sometime angry people that travel in the subway, I think Santiago is a really good place, but not exactly the best place for a tour. Still, there's some great places that you MUST visit if you come here. Here is my personal choice (in no particular order):

1. La Piojera: because is the real, one and only place to drink an "earthquake", and also enjoy of something especial in the air, and I don't mean cigarrette or alcohol, but something of a traditional flavor, that comes from the typical and ancient life of Santiago.


2. The Metropolitan Park: Is the best place to walk, and gives you the chance to see Santiago in a panoramic view. You can also visit the zoo, watch the image of the virgin mary and take the cableway that is so much fun.

3. The Barrio Brasil: because of its unique, beautiful and classic architecture.


4. The Ahumada walk: If you like crowdy places, that's is the place to go, because it can lead you to fantastic places, because is in the center of the city, but I don't recommend it to stay there very longer, just pass by.


5. Fantasilandia: Is the best amusement park in Chile, by far, even tough it's not even close to others in the rest of the world, but I really like it, it's a great place to hang out for an entire day.

Sesion 4: Death penalty

I have to say I'm not agree with death penalty. It's is not hard to explain why I'm against it, the hard thing is trying to find an appropriate punishment for those who has commited a serious crimes, but I'm just going to give my humble opinion.
I'm against death penalty for several reasons, the first one is that I think that none have the right to take somebody's life, no matter the crimes this person committed, none deserve death. I think a person should live to experience life and its consequences, no matter if they are good or bad, the important it's to learn from it. If someone committed a crime, he or she must live to learn from the mistakes, that's my policy. Even though they could be a potential risk to the society, altough they spend millions of dollars on keep the criminal captive, death penalty is not the solution to me.

There's countries where they apply death penalty. That's their policy, and I said before, that's not mine, because it has been demostrated that even if there exist severe penalties, the criminal will commit the crime anyway, and this is something that has been proven!

This is a difficult subject of discussion, and I know that my oppinion could change if a was involve as a victim in a serious crime, or that a close relative was involve, but that's my opinion today.

Sesion 2 (late): Transantiago, before and after

I always had play the part of the transantiago's advocate, because I think there's a lot of good things about this transport system and I actually know what I'm saying because I experienced the older system, the new one and the transport system in province.
The transantiago is actually cheaper than the yellow buses, and also faster, because I remeber that in the past, I had to pay for two or three buses, and to go short distances I use to walk. Now because to take two, even three, buses it cost the same as one, you have more choices, and you can take buses just for a few blocks.
People always said that the frequency of transantiago is the worst, but the frequency of the yellow buses wasn't any better. Some others says that it depends on the commune, but I have taken buses in Vitacura, la Pintana, Maipu, Ñuñoa, las Condes, and there's really no difference among them.
It's true that when the transantiago started, it didn't do it properly. Changes have been made since then, but sometimes the people it's just used to complain, and the media doesn't help either.
I think I would deffinitly do something about the payment, but that subject is really complicated. I think the drivers also need better working conditions. But while the people is not educated in the use of this system, not much can be achieved.