Gringa Amiga

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!

After the hike  down we ate chorianna, which is like chili cheese fries but with way better toppings, and drank pisco sours, which is the name of Amy's cat. I did a little souvenir shopping, we toured Amy's school, and then it was time to leave.
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!