Who´s hungry?
The view from my hostel in Plaza de Armes
Sea Lions love to chill out in the Valparaiso harbor
Buenos Tardes Amigos! Que Tal!
Let me tell you about a week in Chile, a place famous for Pisco Sours (a very tasty egg-based alcoholic drink).
Chile is like Los Angeles, much of its a desert, everything is in Spanish, and its about 2500 miles long!
Firstly, we must understand how the people in Chile call themselves, maybe its just me, but I´ve always thought they are Chi-lay-ans, but apparently its Chile-ans.
What kind of music do they listen to in Chile... Well, surprisingly, Heavy Metal! I´m not joking you will see Megadeath, Metallica, and Iron Maiden t-shirts EVERYWHERE! Along with many of the bars playing the latest music from the 80´s and 90´s by the above bands. Now I must admit something, which isn´t a surprise for our St. Louis readers.... When I was 13, I loved these bands and listened religiously to Motley Crue, Metallica and Poison. So for me it was a bit of nostalgia from my youth. I must say it was pretty funny!
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Chileans are big partyers and they are very social and friendly. Seeing you are a foreigner, they will quickly strike up a conversation and invite you to hangout with them. They have certainly been the most hospitable in South America so far on this trip.
Just a piece of advice if you indeed decide to travel to this elongated country. Beware of the Gargantuan! No its not a mythical beast which lives in the mountains and weaves wicker baskets, its a humongous sandwich. Along with a small order of fries, this thing could feed the entire US Army in Afghanistan or maybe just that guy who is the hot dog eating champion! They love their sauces. On anything you order, hot dog (yes, they eat these things everywhere), chicken, beef sandwich, etc, you will possibly get gobs of guacamole, sour cream, amongst other things.
So what have I been up to; Santiago > Vina del Mar > Valparaiso > Santiago
Saturday - Pub Crawl #1: If you ever need a way to quickly meet people in a new city, do a pub crawl! Not only do you meet the fun people in your hostel by recruiting them to a pub crawl, but the people there are a great time. On top of that, we learned about the best places to go in Santiago. Bellavista is an excellent area for bars, restaurants and is ground zero for fun! This is where I learned about the dangerous Pisco Sour... They have this alcohol called Pisco and mix it with raw egg whites and a few other things, but its VERY good. Definitely a good way to start off the night.
Sunday - Parque Arauco: The gorgeous area of Los Condes has a beautiful mall, yes a mall. I know, what am I doing at a mall. Well its kind of a cool thing for Chileans to do on the weekend. Certainly worth checking out if your in town. Live Jazz outside. St. Louisins, think Party in the Plaza!
Monday - The beach: Vina del Mar is the place where Chileans go for their vacations. Despite the Humbolt current which brings freezing cold waters to Chile, they brave the temperatures and swam. Although I was a bit of a wimp and didn´t even go on the beach.
Tuesday - The Gargantuan: This was my chill day in Vina. Having been out quite a bit lately I watched Arsenal football and had my Gargantuan sandwich which pretty much put me out for the night.
Wednesday - Valparaiso´s elevators: Just a 15 minute bus ride from Vina is the town of Valaraiso. This place is built on a very steep hill, think San Francisco times 10! You can walk them, but instead, they build about 50 lifts which are now a world heritage site. With a few fellow backpackers we went out that night and to our surprise all the cities electricity went out for about 2 hours. Thankfully we were not in an elevator. With local stray dogs, mainly Fluffy, protecting us by walking us around, and barking at any stranger we managed very well. Also, finding a very funny underground party, being kindly welcomed by locals claiming to be in the mafia, although possibly just joking around with the gringos..
Thursday - Pub Crawl #2: Back in Santiago, I had one night to go before getting back to Mendoza, Argentina. What else is there to do, but a pub crawl! Besides, no I knew the people that ran it and they were a lot of fun! Bar > Bar > Bar > Bar > Bar > Floor.... Not, really, that last one is Hotel... :D
Friday - Yet another broken down bus: I was hoping to get back to Mendoza in time for us to go out and hit the town, but disaster happened. Well, not really, but the 4 hour wait was a bit annoying and killed Friday night. Thankfully I was back by 1:30am and Marina and I hung out with a fun Irish couple until later...
So now that I´m in Argentina, I´ll end the blog and start a new one when I have some cool stuff to tell you. On Monday we are heading to Salta in the north and will hit one of their most famous wine towns - Cafayate.
Hasta Luego Amigos!
Dan and Marina
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