Santiago,
Chile
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
HOLA... okay, sorry I havent updated for a while. This past week has been a little overwhelming with classes and things like that. I have just returned from my short expedition out of the city. Yesterday we decided, me and 3 other gringas, that we wanted to leave, since today was a holiday. Vina del Mar is where we went, a resort city about 2 hours north of Santiago. It was spur of the moment which made it all better and luckily it was probably the easiest time I had traveling in a long time. The buses here are really easy to use and cheap. We brought the lonely planet guide and found a residencial to stay at for about 6 dollars a night on the bus ride there. Luckily the bus dropped us off at our residencial whose discription in the guidebook was merely "a blue victorian house". It was an experience... it was run by these too old ladys and smelled really bad. It was a cool house though and had a good view of the street. We all slept in the same room that had five beds. It kind of reminded us of a haunted mansion though... in a wonderful majestical way. It didnt matter though- we had a great time in the residencial, it really doenst matter where you sleep anyway. We spent our time in vina eating a lot and relaxing. It is supposed to be the place where rich santiagans go for vacation and you definately got an affulent vibe from many of the people there, one that I have yet to feel in Santiago. Honeslty, besides my mothers epanadas, it has been the best food I have had here. Chilean food, while interesting, lacks the flavor a lot of other foods have. We were extremely excited to find pepper on our table at this little cafe we ate at that was on the beach in vina. For a city Santiago also lacks a large array of ethnic food. I was told their are no middle eastern or indian restaurants here. They do have a lot of chinese food and my mother makes it too (with hotdogs though, I was confused). They eat a lot of hot dogs here with avacado and mayonaise... its interesting- something you have to get used to. In vina we walked along the beach and passed through a market. It is cold now but when it gets warm I am sure it is going to be really nice. We also found mexican food there which was quite good. I have noticed that food isnt really used for "entertainment" purpuses in Chile. There are not very many nice restaurants in Santiago. Most families here rarely go out to eat. The trip was an all around success in relaxing from Santiago.
It has started to get warmer here in Santiago- which is definately nice. The micros no longer scare me, in fact I would much rather take one than walk around alone at night. It is much more unsafe to walk around here at night than in the states. It is interesting to see how people are responding to politics here as well. Pinochet wife, last week, was taken in for involvement in a money scandal and that has sparked some contreversy. My family, who claims to be poltically apathetic- but a little to the right, thinks pinochet did some good things for the country. The point to the lack of crime that occured under his rule, I point to the crimes he commited by violating human rights. I guess we differ in opinion on that. Oh well, Chileans also are VERY eager to practice their spanish with anyone who is percieved to be gringo. It is quite obnoxious because they feel that just because your a foreigner they must speak better English than your Spanish, which is usually not true. People selling things and working in restaurants also seem to think that
Americans are more likely to buy or eat in their restaurant if they speak to you in English. It is indeed quite the opposite as I constantly feel partronized by those people. My aerobics instructer at my gym also feels the need to give my a special set of directions in English appart from everyone else. Its very frusterating cause I understand what he said the first time in Spanish.
I will write more later- much has happend since I updated this last. Picutres tommorrow... I have some nice ones from Vina. For now CHAO!
