Saturday, August 25, 2012

Santiago, Valparaíso, y Viña del Mar

Title translation: Santiago, Valparaíso, and Viña del Mar (Cities in the mid-section of Chile)

Hola! ¿Cómo estai? <----(Pronounced: ko-mo uh-st-i...how the Chileans sometimes say how are you instead of ¿cómo estás?)

I hope this blog post finds you all doing well and enjoying the first week back to classes. Okay, I left you off at Erin and I taking a flight to Santiago...so that's where I will begin.

July 31st...Erin and I woke up around 3:30 am in order to get ready and catch our flight from Arica to Santiago. The airport in Arica is about a half hour away from where we live, so we had to wake up extremely early! It was kind of miserable because I was batteling a cold at the time (not fun when you know you are going to be in even colder weather soon in Santiago). As we were going through security, the secuirty man took my bag and put it through the security scanner a second time. He then asked me if I had anything dangerous at all in my backpack. I looked at him like he was crazy. I definitely did not have anything dangerous in there! He put it through the scanner ANOTHER time, and when it came back he started digging in it, and pulled out a...wait for it...pocket knife?! Oops! I had bought one not that long ago, and I completely forgot that I had kept it in my backpack. So I had to say bye-bye to that! The flight went well overall and we took a taxi from the airport to my friend Rafael's house (he is from Santiago but I met him at the Univeristy of Northern Iowa when he was studying there this past semester).

I was hoping to see the mountains right away when we arrived; however, we weren't so lucky. There was a lot of smog that day, so we couldn't see them. But there were plenty of other things to look at. I absolutely fell in love with Santiago from the start (yes, even though it was smoggy). It was like a mix of all of my favorite places in one place: mountains like in the west of the U.S., palm trees like in Arica, "normal" trees like from back home, buildings and streets that resembled Europe, gringo stores and fast food restaurants that reminded me of home, and amazing Chileans that live there that speak the language I love. I don't know how you can find a place much better than that! (I'm guessing you like to look at pictures a little more, so I'm going to let my photos do the talking...)

 Our first night in Santiago we watched Rafael play some fútbol (a.k.a. soccer) with his friends. It was cold, but a lot of fun! They get together on certain nights and always play. It's kind of like a league.

 Erin and I trying to be artsy with the really beautiful mirror at Rafael's home.

 These trees exist in the same place! Unbelievable. I don't know how the palm trees survive in the cold down there during winter.

 Erin and I at the plaza de armas (main plaza) in downtown Santiago with a pretty fountain behind us.

 A cool shot from the plaza de armas. Palm trees, church, and tall city buildings. Oh! and sometimes when I watch the Chile news here, the reporters are often at the Plaza de Armas...you can see one of the tv vans (the white one) in this photo! Cool! I almost made it on tv during the trip. They were trying to interview people on the street, and I walked behind the lady they were interviewing, and I waved...I don't think they were quite filming yet though. Darn. :)

 This is inside of the church you can see in the photo above. I opened the huge doors, and my jaw just dropped. It was absoutely gorgeous!

 Erin & I with some crazy looking statue in the Plaza de Armas. There were sooo many art and crafty things. I was thinking about you, Heather (my sister-in-law), A LOT while I was in Santiago. I think you and Greg would love to visit there someday...maybe if I move down there someday ;)

 Our tour guides and I for the day (from the left: Rafael, me, and Rafael's friend Lucho) in front of La Moneda, which is the Chilean President's seat. It used to be a colonial mint way back in the day.


 Erin & I on the opposite side of La Moneda with the guards and horses. You can see the horse kind of liked me :)

The friendly horse that started trying to chew on my scarf.

Erin & I with our new boots that we bought during one of our stops at one of the many malls we went to.

 At the Central Market. Fish, fish, and more fish!!
 Erin, me, and crazy guy in the background...at La Piojera (translation: The Lice). They call it this because there are so many people that come here from all around the world. It's a really fun atmosphere (check out the video below). 

The guy started singing my favorite Portugues song right to me, "ai se eu te pego" by Michel Telo, right after he sang this song, but I didn't get it on film. Oh well...

At La Piojera with my Maremoto (seaquake). They also have a brown one similar to this that is called terremoto (earthquake). The Maremoto had a mint taste which helped my cold a little bit :)

 Erin & I made a little coffee shop study break at a café close to Rafael's family's house. It may have been the best cake and coffee I have ever had in my life. The waiter looked like Ashton Kutcher!!! That was one thing I forgot to mention; wherever we went, there was a Chilean that was a celebrity look-a-like...without trying to be! It was crazy! We saw look-a-likes of Ashton Kutcher, Jake Gyllenhall, Steve Carrell, and many more! I would just be walking down the street and all of a sudden there would be a Chilean that looked sooo much like a celebrity!

 Erin & I after our little coffee break on our walk back home :)

The beautiful Andes Mountains and me in Santiago near a neighborhood park.

 A mime in front of the museum Bellas Artes (Fine Arts).

 These two really should lighten up... ;) at the museum Bellas Artes

 Checking out the big statues at the museum. We were pretty excited that it was free to enter, and there was a lot of beautiufl art there. 

 Palm tree with the beautiful Santiago sky.

 Grass moustache!!! :) We gave in to our temptation of laying on the grass. We miss having grass in Arica, so we just couldn't resist...although we got a few odd stairs. I can't imagine why ;)

 The sunset view from the bridge near the museum.

Ok...so this photo was taken in the subway on our way back to the house. You must realize that it is extremely difficult to take this sign seriously...the pronunciation of Maipú in English would sound something close to "My Poo." We have a street in Arica with the same name. You can only imagine all of the funny sentences we gringos can come up with.

Erin & I then headed off to the coast near Santiago to the cities of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. You can see the view of Valparaíso in the background of this photo. The city had so much charm with all of its winding streets and hills. It really reminded me of what San Francisco must be like...

 Erin & I in front of one of the three homes of Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. This one is called La Sebastiana and is in Valparaíso. All of the homes resemble being inside a boat!
In this photo, you can see on the hill that there is a ramp looking thing of some sort. That is called an ascensor (a.k.a. elevator/lift).  I have a video of us going up, but for some reason it doesn't want to load. There are 15 ascensores in Valparaíso, but there are only three that still work...this was one of them :)  It was a bit scary, but I'm so glad we did it!


The view from the ascensor at the top of the hill :)

 Me spying on the city of Valparaíso ;)

 Erin & I at the welcome area of Viña del Mar where there is a flower clock...that actually functions!

 I'm right...there! Yep, Chile!

 The famous one finger pet...I figure that I won't get any dieseases if I pet them with just one finger, and they are just too cute not to pet. That's the Pacific Ocean behind me-on a beach in Viña del Mar.

 At Pablo Neruda's (Chilean poet) house called La Chascona in Santiago. The translaiton... well the guide tried to say it in the most polite way possible, but he tried to say the translation by comparing it to my hair...and then saying it means something like bad hair day...no offense. Haha. He felt kind of bad, but hey, I understood after that ;)

 Some grafitti art of Pablo Neruda and his fourth wife ;)

Erin, me, and crazy Rafael after taking the tour of Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago.

 The wonderful siblings of the Uribe family with whom we stayed with while we were in Santiago. They were great! We got to meet a lot of their friends, and they showed us all around Santiago. From the left: Gonzalo, Erin, Valeria, me, and Rafael.

Rafael's amazing and sweet parents with Erin and I. They were wonderful! We felt right at home during our stay with them :)

Well, I believe that is it for our trip to Santiago, Valparaíso, and Viña del Mar. It was a phenomenal trip, and I hope you realize that you should probably take a little trip there someday if you get the chance. I absolutely fell in love with the city, and I really hope to return someday. We also got to see one of our professors from UNI while we were there! She went to Chile this summer with her Chilean husband and daughter in order to teach based off of a Fullbright Scholarship. It was amazing to see her and meet her husband and daughter.

I need a tiny break...but then I will try to get you all the way up-to-date with my first week of classes and everything. Talk soon!

Con amor,

Katie :)



1 comment:

  1. Oh Katie, I really enjoyed touring Santiago and the other 2 cities with you through pictures!!! Wish I could have been there, especially after seeing how beautiful it is! I'm so sorry it didn't work out. Maybe someday I can go with you! :) I love the palm tree and the Santiago sunset, the horse that liked you, and just how beautiful it is there!! Thanks for letting us know what was going on with each picture. Thanks to Rafael's parents for letting you stay with them during your stay there - how nice of them! Skype soon! hugs and kisses - love, Dad and Mom

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