Kelly's Visit: Day 2 and 3

We decided to keep the next day pretty low-key since we had stayed up pretty late the night before and we were a little hungover.

My host mom, Paulina, wanted to have them over for lunch, so I went and got them at their hostel and we headed to my house to eat. Paulina made Cazuela a Chilean beef stew which is pretty good, and of course, a ton of lemony vegetable side dishes. It was a good, relaxing lunch after a hectic first day.

Cazuela

After lunch we headed to Concha y Toro, one of Chile's biggest and most well-known vineyards for a tour and tasting. I underestimated how long it would take us to get there, so we were a little late for our scheduled tour, but we just joined the next available one, so there weren't any problems! The grounds were beautiful and it was cool to learn a little about the process. I wish I could do a tour in the summer when the grapes are ripe and the vines are bigger. We got to taste two red wines, one of which was their famous Casillero del Diablo but unfortunately I found them both pretty nasty. They were very woody and smokey. The first one actually tasted like smoked ham, and the second like sawdust. I think I will stick to my sweet whites and roses for now...Towards the end of the tour some Brazilian ladies asked me to take their photo. I recognized that they were Brazilian since they were speaking Portuguese and I mentioned that I had just started learning Portuguese online. One of the ladies was very excited about this fact and started speaking at me in very fast Portuguese; to be honest, I don't think she spoke Spanish. Luckily I understood most of it, due to my few lessons and its similarities to Spanish and we had a pretty lengthy conversation in a combination of Portuguese and Spanish. We ended up swapping emails and she told me to email her with any questions I had about the language or if I ever wanted recommendations about where to eat or what to do in Brazil!

Administrative building at Concha y Toro. Used to be the owner's house.

So after the tour we headed back to the hostel to freshen up (such a weird saying) and we went to meet another girl from Kelly's program for dinner that had been in Santiago for the past week visiting. We went to a restaurant called Galindo which came highly recommended, especially for their pastel de choclo. Pastel de Choclo is another typical Chilean dish that is essentially a corn and beef pie (choclo means corn, pastel means cake or pie). Kelly and Nolan ended up getting that and I got some mini cheese empanadas and some fries. The pastel de choclo was a really interesting combination of sweet and salty, and they ended up loving it, though I'm not really sure I could have eaten an entire meal of it, maybe as a side dish.

Pastel de Choclo

We ended up calling it a night pretty early because we had a bus to catch for Valparaíso the next morning at 9:20am. We all got to the bus station fine and had a pleasant hour and a half journey over there. We went to Pablo Neruda's house there, bought a few souvenirs (I got presents for my dad and Gina), checked out the Naval buildings and statues, looked out over the port, rode several acensores up the cerros, visited the market, walked around the city admiring the graffiti and crazy buildings, drank wine, ate good food, and just generally had a pretty fun day. Feel free to check out my earlier post on my first visit to Valpo to get a little bit more detail.

Unfortunately the day kind of ended on a sour note when my purse was stolen in a park outside of the bus station while I was putting on my jacket. :( I lost my wallet ($20, all my ID's, and one of my credit cards), my iPod (biggest sad face), my camera (which I was borrowing from my parents), and some makeup (my MAC MSF Natural, my favorite NARS Orgasm Lipgloss, my MAC lipstick in Hue, and my Korres Lip Butter).

But we made it back in time for me to watch the latest Dexter episode online :)

Kelly's Visit: Day 1

Sorry for my lack of posts, but my camera was stolen last weekend, among other things, and I don't really like blogging without photos. But some of you *cough*Jodie*cough* have been complaining about my lack of updates, I decided I would just write about my adventures and maybe add some photos from google...anyways....

So Kelly came to visit me last weekend, which was a lot of fun! She got in really early Friday morning with two of her friends from her program, Gia and Nolan, and we met up at her hostel at 10:30am to start the day!

We decided to head over to Plaza de Armas which is one of the centers of the city and a great place to people watch. It also holds one of the largest and most impressive cathedrals in Santiago. Cathedrals have always held a special magic for me, maybe it is because I am Catholic (though not a very devout one) or maybe it is just due to my love of history, either way, this cathedral did not disapoint. It was filled with decorative murals, detailed stained glass windows, and ornate architectural detail. Lining the walkways through the church were several opened-up cubical type things where you could sit on the offered stool and confess your sins to a priest sitting behind the table. While not the most impressive cathedral I have ever been to (I have visited St. John's in London and Notre Dame in Paris) it did not fail to fill me with a sense of awe and wonder that something so magnificent had been built so long ago.

Outside view of the cathedral.

After Plaza de Armas we headed to the mercado central, which is basically a fish market. I had thought that there were other things there too, but other than the occasional overpriced restaurant, we had no such luck. So, driven off by the overwhelming smell and the realization that it was lunch time, we headed to another part of town to find some food. We ended up stopping in a cheap okay-food type place in Santa Lucia. Kelly and I split a chorrillana which is a very typical chilean dish that consists of a pile of fries, sauteed onions, chunks of beef and sausage, and topped off with a few fried eggs. Definitely not healthy, but gluten-free and pretty delicious. Gia ordered an italiano which is a hot dog bun filled with mayonnaise, palta (avocado), and tomatoes, and apparently does not come with any type of meat...We found out later that it is called an italiano because the green, white, and red of the the avocado, mayo, and tomatoes resemble the colors of the Italian flag.

Chorrillana. I'm not a huge sunny-side up fan,
but you can usually get them to cook the eggs with the meat and onions,
so there isn't just a yolk staring at you.

Anyways, after lunch we headed a few blocks over to the Feria Santa Lucia to do some shopping. I ended up purchasing a necklace and a ring for myself and I was able to get presents for Jodie, Cailin, and Aileen, so it was a pretty successful trip.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Santiago. We saw the governmental buildings and the giant Chilean flag posted outside of them. We walked through a few picturesque parks and saw the giant satellite tower that gives cell service to just about everybody in Santiago. We ended up taking the metro to the bus station to get our tickets for Valpo on Sunday, and on the way back to the hostel we stopped at Estación Central which has a huge indoor and outdoor market with just about everything you can think of. From socks and shirts to earrings and postcards. There is even a carousel there! Before we left we bought some jugo natural which consists of your fruit or fruits of choice (sometimes they are frozen, sometimes they are fresh), water or milk, and a big spoonful of sugar. I ordered a raspberry-banana mix with water and it was really light and refreshing. I can't believe it took me so long to purchase one of these, but I am kind of obsessed now. :)

For dinner we went to a Peruvian restaurant close to the hostel that was pretty good. I ordered Chaufa con Pollo which is basically Peruvian chicken fried rice (though I am pretty sure they used beef and not chicken....) which was good and very filling. We headed back to the hostel after that and broke into the bottle of Pisco I brought by mixing it with raspberry juice and sprite and playing a very short game of Kings before leaving for the Santiago Pub Crawl.

Unfortunately, nobody could remember the address and the meetup was located on a very busy and confusing street. After a very tense 10 minutes, we finally located the meetup location and waited for everything to get started while trying to drink some very unappealing cerveza. The pub crawl hit up 3 bars, which all provided a free shot and discounted drinks, and ended the night in a club. It was actually a lot of fun, despite the fact that I ended up spending more than I intended to, and I fell on my leg while walking up the stairs in the club, an injury which still hurts over a week later :( We left the club around 3am, and took a cab home, dropping them off at their hostel first and then heading out to La Reina the area that I live in. The cab driver was a little weird, he asked me if I had a facebook and what my name was...but I got home in one piece and everything ended well. :)

So that is the end of Day 1 of my adventures with Kelly. I will try and post the next 3-4 days of our travels together up sometimes in the next week or so :)

Viña del Mar: Day 2

I woke up around 10am on Sunday, our second day in Valpo, and I was one of the early birds. Everybody was pretty tired/hungover, so most people didn't get up until around noon. After everybody had showered and eaten and beautified themselves, a group of us decided to head over to Viña del Mar, a neighboring city known for its beautiful gardens, sandy beaches, and picturesque surroundings. We walked down to the metro station and after several very confusing minutes at the ticket booth, we were on our way.

Sign at the metro station.

You can take a horse drawn carriage on a ride through the city.

Once we got there we immediately wanted to head for the beach, the only problem being that we had no clue where the beach was...But after about 20 minutes of walking in circles and asking random people of the street, we finally found it. There were several locations perfect for taking pictures among the rocks with the sea in the background.

A blocked off area where people aren't allowed to enter.

Water under the bridge ;)

Rocks, the ocean, and a far-off castle.

We spent a good portion of the day at the beach, lounging in the sun, recovering from the night before, and looking at some awesome sand sculptures. A few of us decided to eat lunch at a local Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita and I decided to order a Pisco Sour, which was delicious. I'm still not quite used to being allowed to purchase alcohol, but it's convenient. :) After lunch we went to an artesanía (a market type thing where they sell artisan crafts) and looked around before returning home.

Some of the rocks had bible verses written on them in white.
They were quite beautiful.

One of the sand sculptures of a gorilla.

Sitting on a boardwalk along the beach. Ana (from Colombia), Julia & Jacqueline (from Germany), Me, & Katerine (from France)

My day in Viña was much more laid back and realizing than my first day in Valpo, which was eactly what I needed, but I definitely plan on going back and exploring some more!

Valparaiso: Day 1

Last weekend was a 3-day weekend so I decided to visit Valparaiso with about 20 or so other exchange students. Valparaiso is a port town about an hour and a half away from Santiago, and many Chileans claim it is the heart of Chile. We left at 10am on Saturday and once we arrived we headed off to our hostel. One bus ride and a small trek later, we arrived at our brightly colored hostel and were divided into rooms; my room had 12 other people in it.

View of the port.

View of the houses on the hill.

After everybody had settled in, we all set off to visit La Sebastiana, one of Pablo Neruda' s homes. Now, in case you didn't know, Valpo is essentially built on a giant hill, and Pablo Neruda's home has one of the most amazing views of the city and water, which means we spent about 20 minutes walking up extremely steep hills. But the views of the city and the graffiti were amazing and, after what was probably one of the most horrifying hikes of my life, we finally arrived at the house. It's a very peculiar home, with 5 floors and peculiar rooms, but the views were indeed spectacular.

Some brightly colored houses and a brightly colored car :)

Street view.

La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house.

After the tour, we headed to the market to grab some lunch. Since we were at the top of Valpo and the market was at the bottom, everybody climbed onto a bus. Now, this might actually have been one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had. Buses in that area are basically glorified vans, so we had 32 people crammed into seats and about 20 people standing pretty much wherever there was floor space. As if that wasn't uncomfortable enough, we then had to start our descent through the steep and winding roads of the city. This driver was taking hairpin turns at what felt like 60 mph and people are literally flying around the bus. I actually had to shut my eyes some of the time because I didn't want to see the 100ft drop-offs at the side of the road. However we did make it safely to the bottom of the hill and it was certainly better than walking!

View of the market.

A group of guys that starting playing in the middle of lunch.
What the heck is that piano like instrument?
It has a tube that you blow into...

When everybody had finished eating, we walked around a bit and saw the sites. We visited this giant statue/monument to the Chilean military which was really cool and saw a lot of murals and graffiti work. We even got to ride up one of Valpo's famous ascensores, which technically means elevator. But in Valparaiso it refers to these large outdoor elevator-like contraptions that take you up giant hills. Kind of like a ski lift, but on the ground. They are a little scary, but a quick and cheap way to get to the top of a hill. (It cost around 20 cents.)

Me standing in front of the military monument.

Graffiti

View of the ascensor from the bottom.

Once we returned to our hostel (after walking down several flights of very sketchy looking stairs in dark alleys) we had an asado or barbeque. And waited to head out the club. In Chile, nobody goes out the clubs until at least midnight, and even that is a little early, but people start drinking around 10pm, which is exactly what everybody did. Lucky for us, there was a liquor store right across the street. One thing I have to say, is that liquor can be super cheap here. I bought basically a fifth of this Mango Pisco mixed drink and a quart of pineapple juice for $7. The Mango Pisco would have cost $15 alone back home, but I am certainly not complaining! So after 2 hours of drinking Mango Pisco, wine, sangria, and of course straight shots of Pisco, everybody was ready to head out to the club and do some dancing. The club was named Huevo and had 5 floors for dancing, all with different types of music. We got a free drink with our ticket so I got a Piscola which is just Pisco and coke. Even though I'm not a huge fan of dancing, it was a lot of fun and a group of us ended up leaving around 3:30am, which is actually a bit early, but we had had a long day!

Me, Katerine, & Mike hanging out in the hostel before going out.
I think Katerine was a little prendida (colombian slang for tipsy)... :)

Club Huevo (which means egg...)

A group of us inside the club.

And so ended my first day in Valparaiso. :)