I went to Chile for
the wine, and I ran into Amy Ketner!
(Amy, in case you
forgot, is the one who loves Juan Pablo).
Amy lives in
Santiago where she works in youth ministry and campus ministry for a Catholic
church and nearby Jesuit elementary, middle, and high schools. She lives with
three other volunteers and a pet cat named Pedro. She also speaks Spanish
really well and really fast, which was fun and confusing to listen to.
In Chile, last
Thursday was a holiday and schools had the day off. I think it was to
commemorate some battle, but I'm not sure. I landed in Santiago Thursday
morning and was met by this shining face and a lot of signs that I couldn't
read.
The first day, we
did a lot of activities. I met the roomies, ate a completo, drank Chilean
beer, walked up Santa Lucia hill, and ate dinner with the host family of one
of the roomies. The host family spoke little English, but they practiced some
for their upcoming trip to Orlando with phrases like "this is a
pencil" and obscenities not appropriate for this classy blog. I practiced
Spanish phrases like "no espanol." We ate pizza, it was great.
Friday was a
sandwich day, which means it was between a holiday and a weekend so it was
another day off school! We took a day trip to Valparasio (AKA Valpo) which was
so cool and is about an hour from Santiago by bus. Valpo is a port town and
became really prosperous because of all the ships that had to stop there on
their way around South America. Then the Panama Canal got built, and less
ships come to Valpo now. Valpo is still beautiful, though, full of brightly
colored homes built into hills that light up in the evening and twinkle off as
night gets darker. There is also a lot of street art, exhibits A & B:
Saturday was another adventuresome day, but this time we stayed in Santiago. After breakfasting at noon on homemade bagels, we headed out to the mercado central (I put that in italics because it is another language). This was a really cool space that seemed to go on forever with fresh fruits and veggies like a farmers' market but also stalls for buying cleaning supplies and toilet paper and dry goods. We drank juice-smoothie-things and then walked across a beautiful park to the Pablo Neruda house. It was quirky and interesting and had an original Diego Rivera painting, which I liked because the DIA makes me think Rivera is from Detroit. Neruda was a communist and a big supporter of Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile who the U.S.ofA. helped to overthrow and replace with a dictator when we were in that phase (still in that phase?) where we try to control the whole world. Pinochet (the dictator) was a real jerk, so that ended badly. The house was restored by Neruda's lover-turned-wife after he died, and it was one of my favorite touristy activities that we did.
Saturday night we
went out to a few bars Amy likes with her friend and I got to see Chilean
night life, which goes on far too late for my liking.
Sunday was our
relaxed day of hanging out on the porch and cooking together and sharing
music. We also went to Amy's host family's house, which is right around the
corner in the poblacion, which is what
they call the poorer neighborhoods in Santiago. The family was nice to me even
though I'm a dumb gringa and travel to Spanish speaking countries without
knowing any Spanish. After hanging out with them we went to mass, roasted
chesnuts over an open fire, and split a bottle of Chilean wine.
Monday was my last
day, so we made the most of it by going up another hill (by fernicular, which
is like an elavator/ski lift) and taking in the view of smog and mountains and
the biggest city I've ever seen. There was a big old Mary on top of the hill and
JP II said mass up there on his papal visit to Chile!
All-in-all,
TeenerAdvisor gives Santiago a 5/5 star rating, in particular the
accomadations at Amy's casa. And
although saying goodbye was sad, Amy will be back in the USA this December
(and will probably promptly leave to explore some other part of Latin
America).
Now on to the next
adventure: Uganda catch that plane!
