Luckily, we did some research and found out that we would probably be spared if we avoided the center of town, which luckily, turned out to be a place we would be avoiding at night anyway. Also, luckily, Natasha brought a can of mase with her from New York - god love those New Yorkers - so that if worse came to worst, we could stand up and fight! Haha that´s funny. Well, here I am writing this blog entry, so you know that everything turned out fine. It´s always a fun journey getting to the point where you can say "I´m fine," though.
For instance - we learned quickly that the two of us, in the words of my cousin Vinny, "stick out like a sore thumb around heah." Yeah, we don´t blend. I was used to blending with the cariocas and paulistas and portenos, brunette that I am, but now I am walking around with a gorgeous, tan, curvy, dirty blonde. Natasha somehow doesn´t look like she could be from anywhere in this world but...New York. And if there´s anything that attracts more attention on the street in South America than a chica, it´s two chicas. And if there´s anything that attracts more attention on the street in South America than two chicas, it´s two American chicas. We have found that the fact that we talk to each other as we are walking is a bad thing. We were walking down a crowded street at around midnight, with people hanging out and drinking at sidewalk tables, and it was like our conversation stopped all fifty others happening around us. American words are like magnets to the Latin man´s ear. It is completely ridiculous.
So yes, our night out in the Bellavista district of Santiago did attract some unwanted attention. This attention included a crazy drunk homeless man trying to steal Natasha´s bracelets in the middle of a crowd, at which point I screamed, at which point everyone around us started hysterically laughing. Hey, at least we are amusing the locals, right? It was also really fun. We found this awesome cafe that was packed with people sitting around little tables, drinking cerveza and listening to a middle aged guy wail his heart out on the guitar. The cafe had all of these cozy nooks and crannies, and the walls were covered with art, graffitti, and political statements - amnesty international posters, quotes, pictures of Che Guevara and the like. The entire cafe was singing along with the guy on the guitar, who must have been playing Chilean folks favorites that everyone had grown up with. He was singing their versions of "Sweet Caroline" and "American Pie," although the music contained some kind of tangible political fervor. We tried to hum along and walked that sweet line of marveling at and participating in the moment. I love the feeling when I cross over from marveling to participating, and I begin to feel and understand so much more than before.
The next day we walked to the top of a city hill called Santa Lucia. It is a green oasis in the middle of the city, like Central Park, only the park goes straight up. We wandered through gardens and past fountains and walked up and up until we reached what looked like a fortress. We climbed slippery stone steps to the top at soaked up the view of all of Santiago. In a word - bellavista! Imagine a sprawling, modern city, full of sky scraping apartment blocks...only the apartment blocks aren´t really scraping any sky. Instead, they are positioned in front of the looming, enormous Andes Mountains that tower much higher into the sky. It´s like the Andes are saying "nice try." They are just so so high. I still can´t believe that we rode over them in a double-decker bus a few days earlier. I am not even writing about that accomplishment because I was so freaked out and nauseous from the elevation that I closed the window curtain and barely watched!
After a fun dinner party with our new Chilean friend Fernanda, Peruvian friend Natalie, and a bunch of others, we got a good night´s sleep and took an afternoon bus to the city of Valparaiso. Valparaiso is about an hour and a half from Santiago, directly west. It sits in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There are beautiful beaches that cradle this port city to the north and south. Valparaiso has this melancholy air that makes you feel like it is haunted by the ghosts of sailors and sea captains. It is hilly - its aesthetic is a lot like San Francisco from afar and Berkeley up close. But its soul feels like the way that Venice, Italy has been described to me: romantic but tragic, nostalgic but timeless. There are a lot of quiet cafes, lazy cats, lonely churches, and humble houses in the shades of pink, baby blue, gray...the primary colors have faded away. However, there is a spirit of reincarnation; the streets actually burst with color, thanks to incredible street art and graffiti. Some of the murals are breathtaking. There is an artsy, bohemian vibe that gives the place a little bit of a cool-factor, but not really because it is completely undiscovered.
OK, not completely undiscovered. We were there during the off-season - autumn. Ah, the air was so crisp and brisk, and our walks were so pleasant. Our bed and breakfast, located in Cerro Bellavista (which is well named), was adorably charming. There were some fantastic restaurants to enjoy as well. The fish and seafood was incredible! (Chilean sea bass, anyone?) To get between neighborhoods, which are all perched on hills surrounding the bay, you usually have to go down to the center of town (El Plan) and then back up again. We wandered up and down narrow stairways, but also took advantage of a Valparaisan institution - the ascensores. The ascensores are old funicular lifts that were built - I don´t know, a long time ago - to move pedestrians from downtown up to the hills (cerros), and back down. The look like little wooden shacks that move diagonally, up and down the hills, on railroad tracks. There are 15 lifts operating in the city. Every time you ride one, you get to sit or stand next to a local person...carrying flowers, or fresh fish from the market. I have been completely charmed by this place.We hit the road again on Tuesday night and headed south for twelve hours into the Chilean lake district. We are staying in a town called Pucon, which is happily situated on Lake Villarrica at the base of the Villarrica Volcano. There are more lakes, and more volcanoes, and national parks, and rivers and waterfalls, and grazing pastures, and hot springs...literally surrounding us on all sides. The adorable town is filled with tour operators providing every kind of adventure excursion you can imagine. Yesterday, I climbed the closest volcano - Villarrica - that I can now quietly muse over from my bedroom window. The volcano is snowcapped and is essentially made out of ash and crumbling rock. There is a constant flow of smoke from the top, and I could actually hear the lava crackling from the edge of the crater. The view from the top is nothing short of breathtaking. I know that God is laughing: "Silly humans - you aren´t supposed to be at the top of active volcanoes! Your body is going to ache tomorrow. But I love your perseverance. Now you get to see what I see." The fact that I climbed this thing, and made it down in time to enjoy a cold beer before sunset, is no small feat. I am so proud and thankful that my body can do that. Seriously. I have so much to be thankful for.
More on trekking/hot springs/rafting/horseback riding adventures later. Three weeks to go. Loving every minute! Love you all. Katie
