Chile Day 9

Hola from Valparaiso! Happy New Years Eve!

One and a half days to recap. Oh boy! Here goes:

So we got the hostel around 11 yesterday morning, after finagling this private van to take us from the airport to the hostel. Checkin wasn't until 3, so we decided to do the unthinkable: laundry. Our stuff smelled like nasty Camp Italiano, and you know there's nothing worse than smelling like the combination funniest/worst night of your life. The hostel receptionist pointed us in the direction of two kindly old ladies who would do our laundry for us before 10 pm - perfecto. 

The hostel, Bellavista, is in a pretty trendy part of town: bars and restaurants are all over the street, and we were across from some Coke themed movie theatre. The hostel itself is probably the best one we've been in so far (there's been 5), although El Calafate hostel might give it a run for its money. Bellavista has two floors, 2 kitchens, nice bathrooms, and a huge rooftop lounge/game room.

What's more, the trendy part of town is nearby to all the other cool places in Santiago, so after dropping the clothes off, we scurried down the street to find food. We ended up at a little restaurant in an interesting walking mall type area, with outdoor seating and a nice brunch menu, so we sat for a while, basking in the sun and drinking juice out of precious little pitchers. 

The hostel advertised heaps of free activities, and one of them was a 3pm walking tour. There was a bit of time between lunch and this, so we went to an art gallery and took sophisticated pix with Ron's camera. 

I loved the walking tour. We met outside the art gallery and about 40 people showed up. We got divided into a English speaking group and a Spanish speaking group, and off we went. Our group got Bernadita as a guide. She was roughly 22, originally from Chile but spent 16 years in Mexico, then moved back to Chile for school. She looks a little like Tanya, a girl in my sorority. Here's a picture. 

(The guides were called Wally, an homage to Waldo)

So, I discovered Chile has a lot going for it. A lot of history. A lot of terrible history, might I add. A lot of people died in the period of time when they elected a socialist leader, Salvador Arrende. I'll spare you the not fun facts. 

Things we learned about Chile:

-There is a huge gap between rich and poor. No surprise there, Brazil is the same way, but Chile is actively trying to do something about it. They're trying to create a middle class. It's succeeding, but also, being middle class has a lot of downfalls. If you're poor, you get free housing, free food, free healthcare. Middle class gets nothing, and sometimes the divide isn't very apparent as to who's who. 

-Chilean food is hard to find. Remember when I asked this in my last post?!? What is Chilean food?? Apparently, Chileans don't even know. "You can find 7 times as many Peruvian restaurants here as you can Chilean," Bernadita told us. Seven seems awfully random but I'll take her word for it. 

-However, Chileans love hot dogs. They call them Completos and cover them in toppings. The most famous is called the Italiano, and features salsa, mayo, and avocado, aka red, white and green, aka the Italian flag. 

-Chileans are tea drinkers. Coffee was never a thing until the 70s, when a group of guys decided they wanted to get into it. What's the fastest way to sell anything? Sex, of course, and so they created all these strip club/coffee shops all over Chile. They're only open during business hours and they only serve coffee, but they had naked women as waitresses. Nowadays, you can still find them everywhere, but a majority of the waitresses just dress more like Hooters girls and less like they are just butt naked in heels. Weird right? Innovative I guess. Sounds like something from Nathan For You. 

-I mentioned in my last post the amount of stray dogs that run the streets. Bernadita brought this up, too. She said in the 70s, as Santiago was still kinda small, people just let their dogs run the streets, knowing they'd come back at night. Well, in the 80s, the city grew. And it grew and grew, and the amount of dogs being brought in from the country grew too, meaning the amount of mating going down was astronomical. At one point, there were about 1 billion strays running about. There were movements to catch the dogs and put them down, but when people saw these Animal Control vans roaming, riots would break out. So, they stopped trying to control the dogs, and began to accept them. If you look around, no one is at all bothered by them. In fact, people will often buy a little extra food at markets and whatnot and feed them to whatever dogs they come across. Most of the strays know where to go to find food, as many many people are welcoming of them. Not in their homes, but they'll take care of them. In the winter, you can often see them wearing sweaters and raincoats that people make for them. Chileans also believe that the dogs know evil. If a dog starts growling at someone in particular, that person is most likely bad and others know to be wary. If you're ever walking alone at night, too, you might turn around and find a dog following you, because they supposedly are keeping you safe. 

-Santiagoans get free Wifi all over the city; you gotta have a city ID code to access it, though. 

-On NYE, if you wear yellow underwear, you will get love in the new year. I saw tons of stands selling them yesterday, in all sorts of styles! Also, if you carry around an empty suitcase before midnight, it's said you will have good luck with travel. 

-A popular Chilean drink is a Terremoto, or red wine, ice cream, and grenadine. 

-Chilean teens LOVE k-pop. LOVE IT. 

Li'l Sebastian and me

After the tour, Bernadita brought us all to a bar and we got free slushed wine. I sat next to an Irish-Kiwi couple that is planning on traveling the world for a full year, and they started a few days ago in Santiago. I love ballsy people like that. They're planning on moving towards, through Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador before flying to Europe and winding around there. We also had an older gentleman from DC on the tour, as well as a 30-something from Baltimore and a French couple. No one else came to the bar with us so I instantly forgot them. 

Walking for 3 hours, then drinking for an hour, made me famished. The rest of the gang too, I guess. We got recommendations from Bernie to hit up a burger bar near our hostel, called Loom. It was about as American a place as we could've picked. An IPA and a cheesy chicken burger hit the spot though. We rolled out of there into the beautiful Santiago nighttime, picked up our freshly washed clothes, grabbed some wine, and ended up chatting with hostel-goers on the roof. 

Dane and I got trapped talking with this British dude who just wouldn't SHUT UP! Lol! Everyone else got roped into a pretty motley crew as well; Dane mentioned that everyone was straight out of one those lists that are like "The 10 People You Meet At a Hostel". It was fun and interesting, though, people you meet at hostels all have such fascinating back stories. Some of my favorite nights in Brazil and SF were spent just drinking and talking with all the people I met there. 

I had to escape that British guy though, so after a glass of wine, it was time to hit the hay. We had an early morning, again, after all. 

Thursday morning

So, I booked this hostel for us because 1. It got great reviews on Hostelworld, and 2. The breakfast was just RAVED about. Seriously. I remember emailing everyone and saying we were gonna dine like kings. 

Well....I was wrong. Or else, something happened and the amazing breakfast lady left. Because the breakfast was nothing more than bread and butter and jam. And watery coffee. I hung my head as everyone kind of laughed at me. Whatever. At least they had food. I guess the best hostel breakfast we had was at Erratic Rock in Puerto Natales. Maybe that was one of the best hostels so far? Ay. But I hated Puerto Natales, so points off for that. 

We scheduled a van to take us to Valparaiso, a beach town about an hour west of Santiago, and he got us at 9. Little did we know that he would be an absolute asshat to us when we actually got the city: he claimed he couldn't take us farther than city center (our AirBnB is 5 minutes from there) and just basically yelled at Cristel for 15 full minutes. It got heated. He seemed like a jerk. He ended up caving and taking us, though. 

We're here in Valparaiso because Dane has friends from his Semester at Sea trip in town. Plus, I hear Valpo is THE place to be. The town shoots crazy amounts of fireworks over the bay at midnight. And whaddya know, our AirBnb has a wonderful view of the bay. 

It's a cute little place. Pretty bohemian. The family was here when we arrived: Maria, her partner (didn't catch his name) and their son Pascal, who is the rolly-pollyiest little toddler there ever was. He threw a little fit and squirted yogurt all over the floor - so so so cute. They also have a cat who won't friggin leave me alone. I have cat hair everywhere. It's cuddly though, so I don't mind. 

View of the bay from the AirBnB

In the living room

Selfie stick fun 

We went grocery shopping for dinner tonight (banh mi fixins) and then bopped around town. This black stray dog followed us, (to protect us, of course) and actually walked with us quite a distance. After about 30 minutes, we turned a corner and the dog disappeared. Was he ever really there? We may never know. 

Picking the perfect sandìa

Hello fruit and vegetable friends

All of the dogs

Now, we are napping and mentally preparing for the mayhem tonight. I'll post more tomorrow. 

This cat is just the best. But plz get off me. 

Happy New Year! It's been great, 2015. Truly something special. Time for even better times ahead.