Santiago to Valparaiso

The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart of... Santiago?

view from the balcony

So it's Chile this summer! After last summer in Ecuador, I felt I wouldn't enjoy another full summer in Cuenca, Ecuador. My friends and I had explored the idea of Chile in the past, but hadn't found anywhere to take classes that were new and or not for beginning students. Then one day, Mike stumbled upon la Universidad Pontifica de Valparaiso for classes. Valpo is where I really wanted go in the first place, so I'm excited(I had a student who stayed there in the past and highly recommended it, and a profe who visited as well). Mike also found us an awesome apartment to stay in while we're there, so thanks Migs!

Rachel will be here on Monday night, assuming all goes well. So we're taking a class on Chilean culture, Latin American cinema and literature, and I will add a third class on socio-politics of the 20th and 21st century Latin America. I need the hours, so I'll be busy, but that will keep me out of trouble. Hmm, maybe...

                                                                                                                                                                                           Thursday, we kept it low-key, I got to experience the Santiago subway, which is awesome by the way.

Fudge...

We could borrow some ideas from them as far as public transport, they've got that crap down...

Funicular/elevator

Santiago from Cerro(hill) Bellavista

We hit the a scenic overlook of Santiago, and grabbed some lunch in the Bellavista area of Santiago. It was very trendy, full of cool restaurants, shops, and bars - and reminded me of Palermo in Buenos Aires. I imagine it's gotta be hoppin' in the evenings and weekends.

So Friday, after a nice senior moment joyride from our taxi driver(who tried to take us to the airport instead of the bus station) and a bus ride, we got to Valparaiso, Chile. Nice drive, and wineries all over along the way. That's gonna have to be done. I heard they all serve "grape soda" for free or really cheap, or something like that. Valpo has beautiful colorful houses all over the hillsides, our place being one of them, rehabbed by the current owners, who live in a place in front of ours. What a view. Plus it's owned by a freaky-deaky Dutchman. Well, maybe not so freaky... that we know about. So sorry Santiago, you lose.

We grabbed some food at Tu Tucan, down from the house, and you can't tell me that this chorrillana dish was for one. Maybe 2, and still, it's a crap load of food.

chorrillana - meat, onions, fries, heartattack...

The music in this country is about as random selection of English language music as I could pull out my arse... We were serenaded at breakfast by Simply Red - Holding Back the Years, and Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor, and Bjork, and the theme song from An American Tale movie. It's been 7 hours and 15 days, and a couple decades, damn you Sinead for being in my head for the last 2 days. Now when I hear that Lisa Loeb and David Hasselhoff are coming live in concert, and the shows are sold out, I guess I won't be that surprised. Oh, I also heard ELO "It's a Living Thing" in a rockabilly version in the grocery store, followed by the Corrs. In their words, I'm speechless.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    So I heard Lisa Loeb today, no joke... and ELO again, they really like them... and the Christopher Cross song from Tootsie. I have nothing left to say. But it is refreshing knowing you'll never guess what will play next.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    We tried to get our bearings for Valpo, and walked down to the dock area and walked along the seawall area.

Puerto de Valparaiso(taken by Michael Princer)

Nice, smelled like fish, and there is a ton of freight that passes through here. I like watching the big ships roll in.







We grabbed lunch at Don Vittorio. Anthony Bourdain ate there, so we figured it couldn't be bad, and it was excellent! To warm up, we ordered the yellow mussels(macha al parmesano) in parmesan. Darn good eatin'.

machas(yellow mussels) al parmesano

Cangrio a lo pobre(left), pastel de jaiba(right)

I added a shrimp and cheese empanada, as I heard they were excellent, the cangrio(ling/kingflick fish)a lo pobre(with fries and eggs cooked with onion). It was the best fish I've had in a while. I also tried the pastel de jaiba(crab pie-ish), which was awesome. Darn good eatin', but I'm done for the day.

On the way back, by luck, we stumbled upon the yearly Inti Raymi celebration / Festival of the Sun, which is a celebration that is more well known in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador as they have a higher indigenous population.

Cabezudos!(taken by Michael Princer)

                                                                                                                                                       It always takes place around this time of year, the 20s of June. I've been to it in Cuzco as well, but this was a just a parade and dancing through the streets that did last for 3 hours or so, and I imagine on through the evening as well, but not as spiritually moving.Tomorrow it's off to figure out how to get to school and whatever is to the right of the apartment as we walk down...

Attack of the Chilean vampires

Big moon tonight!